Comcast will put a cap on all customers’ internet usage on October 1st, 2008. Customers will have a 250 GB data monthly cap. 250 GB is a lot of data transfer considering the average customer uses 2 to 3 GB per Month.

The move, reported first by DSL Reports, was confirmed by Comcast today (Techmeme). On its site, Comcast posted its amended user policy:

We’ve listened to feedback from our customers who asked that we provide a specific threshold for data usage and this would help them understand the amount of usage that would qualify as excessive. Today, we’re announcing that beginning on October 1, 2008, we will amend our Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) available at http://www.comcast.net/terms/use/ and establish a specific monthly data usage threshold of 250 GB/month per account for all residential customers.

250 GB/month is an extremely large amount of data, much more than a typical residential customer uses on a monthly basis. Currently, the median monthly data usage by our residential customers is approximately 2 – 3 GB. To put 250 GB of monthly usage in perspective, a customer would have to do any one of the following:

1. Send 50 million emails (at 0.05 KB/email)
2. Download 62,500 songs (at 4 MB/song)
3. Download 125 standard-definition movies (at 2 GB/movie)
4. Upload 25,000 hi-resolution digital photos (at 10 MB/photo)

I am not a fan of Comcast as they have been trying to force customers who have no other choice to man up.

After getting in hot water over the BitTorrent allegation – Comcast’s new form of network management will kick in when it identifies a single user “disproportionately” consuming network resources and will move to throttle their connection for a short while.

“If in fact a person is generating enough packets that they’re the ones creating that situation, we will manage that consumer for the overall good of all of our consumers,”’ said Comcast senior vice president and general manager of online services Matt Bowling.

Comcast says its new “fair share” system of throttling troublesome customers has so far proven to be fairly effective, particularly when the throttling stays in effect for about 10 to 20 minutes.

Once the time limit elapses, speeds revert to normal.

It doesn’t mean a throttled internet experience will be undesirable, however, as Bowling says that users experiencing limited bandwidth will still have an experience on par with “really good” DSL service.

But if a user continues a high level of consumption, “we would have to manage them again.”

It appears that Comcast customers will still enjoy an essentially unlimited bandwidth allotment; however the company says it is mulling over the possibility of charging subscribers a higher price for heavier internet use – but, it “[hasn’t] made any decisions” yet.

FIOS to the rescue! Bye-Bye Comcast!