http://www.idkfa.com/v3 idkfa: syndicated http://www.idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=1081&msg_id=1084 DO I DETECT A CHALLENGE? No, no. You're right. They aren't stupid, they're just evil about their business, and either don't care about their public image or simply don't have to. If GCI were a little smarter, or cared what people thought about them, they might do the following: Do like they did by warning customers of the oncoming change (they did so back in May). Only when they tell the people about it, also tell them "You have used X many gigabytes. Your new plan will be Y gigabytes." That way people can be cognizant of their usage before the overages go into affect. Agree to inform people via email, that is, direct communication, when they are about to reach overage charges, when they've reached them, and repeatedly after they're being charge them. Don't just stand up a website nobody will want to check (I could never remember my password when I was a customer. I have memorized at least 15 for personal and work reasons. It's more that I didn't care to, less than I forgot my password completely). Optionally give them options for shutdown once they've reached their bandwidth cap. Some people would be comfortable with this, or even welcome the shutdown in the interest of maintaining a budget. I can give a company like AT&T some leeway for their similar actions on their cell network. They stopped selling "unlimited" bandwidth plans on their phones (though they weren't really unlimited to begin with) because the network on which they were working wasn't originally designed for such use. They agreed to put multiple billions of dollars into infrastructure, and offer cheap, easy ways to get information about your data usage ("an app for that"). You're definitely right. GCI is seeing this as killing two birds with one stone (solving their bandwidth issues and their hard-to-scale unlimited bandwidth plans), but they're going to make it kaiden@idkfa.com (kaiden) Indiscernible from Magic Wed, 20 Oct 2010 22:59:00 -0800 http://idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=1081&msg_id=1084 http://www.idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=1081&msg_id=1083 I was browsing adn.com today and I saw this article as well. Telecom companies are the worst. I'm really glad that there's a technical reason why their claim of a few customers hogging all the bandwidth is a lot of bs. Thanks for clarifying Josh. I'll challenge you Josh, the reason GCI is doing this is not because they misunderstand what you posted. A bunch of suits at GCI decided that the easiest way to increase their profits was to figure out a way to profit off of as many of their customers as they possibly can with overage charges. I love private business and everything, but this is what happens when you have an effective monopoly. A company can do or charge whatever they want. Simple as that. As bad as it is, at least the internet works up there though...same cannot be said for my Charter Cable internet about 20% of the time... Locked@idkfa.com (Locked) Indiscernible from Magic Wed, 20 Oct 2010 21:46:32 -0800 http://idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=1081&msg_id=1083 http://www.idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=1081&msg_id=1081 GCI moves to end unlimited Internet usage plans http://www.adn.com/2010/10/19/1509841/gci-moves-to-end-unlimited-internet.html I hold no love for GCI, on a personal or professional level. They are, however, the most reasonably priced high-end, low-latency residential Internet service in Anchorage. As their customers know well, their bundling is cruel. Previously, in order to get unlimited bandwidth (such that the company can't charge you if you end up downloading large quantities over a given time period), you have to pay at least $150 a month, and be forced to buy cable TV service and a phone line on top of your Internet service. I believe GCI's previously unlimited plan started at 6Mb/sec (laughable in the lower 48). According to this article, GCI is now moving to "limited only" service plans. This means that no matter which plan you have, or how much you are paying, or paying for, you will have an upper limit to the amount of data you can transfer before you start paying overages. This means that, depending on your plan, if you end up transferring (note that "transfer" includes both upload and download, as well as all networking overhead requisite to the TCP/IP protocol), if you exceed your 50GB or 125GB, GCI will start charging you extra. As a consolation, GCI is also "upgrading Internet speed for its customers this year at no extra cost." This is not great. This is bad. And will not solve the problem GCI is trying to solve (the saturation of their network as a result of a handful of users). Here's a few reasons why: Cable modems, up until they get onto GCI's network, are not "switched." If you've had a cable modem in an apartment complex or a neighborhood, you'll notice that your traffic conflicts directly with your neighbors, because all cable modems on the same "junction" all transmit on effectively the same wire. The reason it isn't immediately apparent kaiden@idkfa.com (kaiden) Indiscernible from Magic Wed, 20 Oct 2010 20:20:06 -0800 http://idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=1081&msg_id=1081