Where’s the beef? (Between the cable isp’s and their customers.)

If you subscribe to Comcast or Time-Warner Cable services for your Internet connection, you’re about to be screwed.  Here’s the background and story…

Comcast, as you’ve probably heard, recently got their asses hands slapped by Congress, because they (Comcast) were illegally throttling back their service to their customers that used peer to peer connections (also known as bit-torrent).  Bit-torrent was a method used by many folks that illegally (according to copyright law as interpreted by music and movie company attorneys) downloaded or otherwise shared music and video files where ownership or the right to transfer ownership was or might be in question…  Okay, it was a common method used by folks (kids young people, mostly) to rip music from a single CD and share it with gazillions of other kids young people without having to buy the CD.  Well, that is a pretty smart way to get to listen to music you like without having the ability to buy it, like most kids young people.  (In my day, we just went to the library and checked out the album, taped it, then took it back…  How is that different?)

However, the music and movie industry didn’t think it was too smart of them, because they thought they were losing gazillions of dollars in revenue from the purchases that these kids young people would otherwise have had to make.  (Well, don’t tell anyone, but most of these kids young people didn’t have the money to buy the CDs in the first place, or they wouldn’t have used bit-torrent to download copies of music they didn’t own.)  Nonetheless, there have been many expensive legal cases brought against some rather unsuspecting mothers, college students, kids young people, and websites producing ridiculously enormous judgments for the music and movie industry, against the people that couldn’t afford to buy the damn durn CD in the first place…  much less hire the legal eagles to properly defend themselves.

I’m not trying to make a judgment here (yeah… right…), however, it was really stupid on the part of the kids young people to illegally copy the music, and really, really, really stupid on the part of the music and movie industry to go after the kids young people.  If they really want to get some revenue from recovering their stolen material, go after the Chinese CD forgers that press millions of hard copy CDs and sell them throughout the world.  Anyway, I digress…

So, back to the current issue.  Comcast was recently found to have been throttling back the connection speeds on those customers they found were using peer to peer connections (bit-torrent).  Now, pay close attention here… Comcast customers buy a connection service for a particular price, expecting a particular transfer rate for their Internet connection (call it “speed”).  This is not unusual, all cable customers purchase their Internet service under similar, if not identical conditions.  If you’ve noticed, all cable companies will allow you to purchase a faster “speed” for more money.  (If you don’t understand any of this, call your cable company and ask them to explain it to you.)  You’ll also find that your download “speed” and your upload “speed” is quite different from each other.  I have no issue with this, as it’s plainly described in the advertising/marketing materials from all cable companies.  What they don’t tell you…

The physical cable and equipment that is used to pump TV, HD-TV, music, Internet phone service, and Internet service to your house, has a maximum capacity. Normally, that capacity would not be a problem, if 80% of the subscribers used their computers and their Internet connections in the manner that was anticipated when the cable companies strung cables and fed their signal through them (oh, about 20 years ago).  But, times change and so do our computing habits…  Now, we stream radio, TV, You-tube, massive games (Yea, World of Warcraft), and other Internet uses that are not intermittent demands on the Internet connection.  So, while you may be paying for a set “speed”, so are all your neighbors.  What’s wrong with that?  Well, when the cable was strung, no one (not even you) was streaming data over the cable.  Now everyone is doing it.  And here’s the problem…

Since no one was streaming data when the cable system was designed, it was designed with as many intermittent connections as it could comfortably handle.  Well… by streaming data, we put considerably more traffic on the system then it was designed for.  Now, no one is going to lose a connection, but if you live in a neighborhood where a lot of folks are using their computers as telephones, or play Internet games, or stream radio, or You-tube videos, you’re going to see a slow down in your connection speed.  Because the cable companies didn’t couldn’t foresee the huge increases in Internet traffic, they inadvertently ended up advertising, marketing, and selling you a particular connection speed at a particular price, and now they find they can’t produce!

So, being the greedy pigs they are, Comcast went after the folks that used peer to peer connections… incorrectly putting the blame for slower connection speeds on the backs of the kids young people that used to illegally download CD music.  They (Comcast) started to throttle back the connection speeds of their customers using peer to peer connections, without telling those customers!  That’s why Congress slapped their asses hands.

While they may be pigs, Comcast is also smart.  They have devised a way to monitor the Internet traffic and they are going to throttle back the connection speeds of “neighborhood Internet hogs”… who’s calling whom, a pig?  And it seemed like such a good idea in the isp barnyard, that Time-Warner has announced that they would also become a pig and follow the example set by the barnyard chief pig, Comcast.

If you have Internet service provided by Comcast or Time-Warner, then go google this issue, get smart, and start talking to the folks that regulate your cable service.  That’s usually some sort of group related to your city government… which probably won’t help you at all, because a lot of cable companies get exclusive rights to “serve you” with a service they can no longer provide, by providing that same service throughout your local government buildings and offices for free!!  So, I’d recommend forgetting about your local government and going straight to the local TV stations…  Oh, wait.  They’re owned by each other.  Forget that.  Go to your national representatives… Anyone forget this is an election year?  They’d be happy to jump on your bandwagon.  Send emails, make phone calls, and write letters (quick before the postage goes up again) to your national representatives and let them know you’re not happy with the greedy pigs that aren’t providing the connection speeds and service you thought you purchased.

By the way, I’m not a customer of either Comcast, or Time-Warner, but their piggish greed just pisses me off upsets me to no end.  And if they get away with it, well, it won’t be long before my Internet provider does the same thing.

Cheers!