Comcast Drops the Hammer

I just got an interesting call on the phone. It seems that my account was "flagged" for excess bandwidth. Sure, I know I use a lot of bandwidth... That's no surprise. What surprised me though was the fact that according to the errand boy that called me, I'm supposed to "cut back drastically" (his words) to avoid another flag. If I am flagged again, my account will be automatically terminated for 12 months. As much as I pressed him for more details, or a concrete number, or even another person's phone number he just kept repeating himself.

WTF?

The problem here is one of judgment. Nowhere does their Acceptable Use Policy actually give a number to use as an "excessive use" limit. I pressed and pressed and he could not come up with any sort of number either. What that means is, even if I think I've cut back enough in the certain time frame, they may not. Poof. According to junior, my bandwidth usage was 281 gigabytes last month. Okay, sure... That's a lot. but even if I halve it, it's still a lot. Would that be enough? Who knows.

Here's the applicable part of their Acceptable Use Policy:

Network, Bandwidth, Data Storage and Other Limitations

Comcast may provide versions of the Service with different speeds and bandwidth usage limitations, among other characteristics, subject to applicable Service plans. You shall ensure that your use of the Service does not restrict, inhibit, interfere with, or degrade any other user's use of the Service, nor represent (in the sole judgment of Comcast) an overly large burden on the network. In addition, you shall ensure that your use of the Service does not restrict, inhibit, interfere with, disrupt, degrade, or impede Comcast's ability to deliver and provide the Service and monitor the Service, backbone, network nodes, and/or other network services.

You further agree to comply with all Comcast network, bandwidth, and data storage and usage limitations. You shall ensure that your bandwidth consumption using the Service does not exceed the limitations that are now in effect or may be established in the future. If your use of the Service results in the consumption of bandwidth in excess of the applicable limitations, that is a violation of this Policy. In such cases, Comcast may, in its sole discretion, terminate or suspend your Service account or request that you subscribe to a version of the Service with higher bandwidth usage limitations if you wish to continue to use the Service at higher bandwidth consumption levels.

I know... It's my own fault, but dammit, I've been doing this sort of thing literally for years. Why now? If it happens, I guess I'll get to find out how good or bad DSL is.

Big brother is out there...