NNSquad - Network Neutrality Squad
[ NNSquad ] Re: Comcast's FCC Filing Today
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No surprise that I have a
basic problem with the very idea that Comcast is engineering my connectivity
with a subset of applications in mind (http://www.frankston.com/?name=IPNeutralPurpose)
among others. One question is whether the
cap will apply to local connectivity as well as distance. Is there a limit to
how long I can watch a broadcasts of local city hall meetings? I presume the
answer is “yes” and that it is a policy question. Is there any technical reason
why local traffic can’t escape the cap? Clearly the cap doesn’t
apply to traffic with my house (except when I need to bridge from my Verizon
connected devices to my Comcast devices). -----Original Message----- Hi Ted - My replies are inline below. Jason -----Original Message----- From: Ted Koppel [mailto:tkoppel@comcast.net] Sent: Fri 9/19/2008 10:03 PM To: Livingood, Jason; nnsquad@nnsquad.org Subject: Re: [ NNSquad ] Comcast's FCC Filing Today Jason, I'm a residential high speed customer with Comcast, as
well as a long-term NNSquad reader. Earlier this week I
received the official e-mail from Comcast notifying me of the 250gb limits and
assuring me that only a small percentage of customers would be
affected. Wonderful. As a customer, a reasonably heavy user of bandwidth for
VOIP and file transfer (for work, not P2P or entertainment) and a
reasonably savvy person on these issues, I see two big omissions in the
announcement and the policy. I would appreciate it if you could
address them publicly. 1) How will Comcast make it possible for me to know what
my usage is on an ongoing basis during the month, so that (if
necesssary) I can adjust my usage to remain under the limit each month.
Telling me afterwards (on my bill) is too late. How will Comcast
provide me close-to-real-time usage numbers? (If Comcast can't
or won't, then we have a classic fox-watching-the-henhouse
situation. How do I know whether to believe the bill?) [JL] Today, usage statistics are gathered in one
particular technical method. As we transition to the new congestion
management technique, we are deploying some "statistics collection"
servers which gather the stats using a different method. Technically
those are IP Detail Record (IPDR) collectors. As we deploy those servers
into the network, the system used to calculate monthly usage will start to draw
stats from these new servers. One result, other than providing stats for
the congestion management system, is that this will make possible a nifty
little web-based usage meter that can then be displayed to a customer.
The idea would be that you can check it at any time and it'd be reasonably up
to date (though not necessarily up to the minute). As I am sure you might
imagine, this could also enable you to receive notices as you approach a
specific limit. 2) If I do exceed the 250gb limit, what are the
consequences? Is my connection disabled? Is my hand
slapped? When? How fast is the feedback when the limit is reached. [JL] I'm in engineering, and not really in the 'policy
enforcement' side of things for the 250GB limit - which is handled by Customer
Security Assurance. My understanding is that that group would call you on
the phone to discuss it. Often, this is due to some kind of a technical
problem, like a user have an open WiFi access point that someone is hopping
onto, or a computer on the network that has been compromised or has some
technical fault. Anyway, they go over what may have caused it to help
determine if it was intended traffic or some other problem, and that's
that. If there is some sort of security or technical problem, they help
customers solve those things. If you are contacted again within 6 months,
they I believe the policy is something like you could be subject to
termination. I don't quarrel with the need for limits, but as a
customer and a reasonaly fair person, I think they should be implemented
with transparency and honesty so that users can get a clear
picture of use and santions. [JL] Yup - I agree. Ted Koppel tkoppel@comcast.net Livingood, Jason wrote: > > A short time ago, we filed our response
electronically with the FCC. > Those documents will be made available to the public
shortly (I'm > guessing within 2 hours) on our Network Management
website at > > _http://www.comcast.net/networkmanagement/_. News
outlets are starting > to report on the story now, including ArsTechnica
here at >
_http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080919-comcast-loses-p2p-religion-goes-agnostic-on-throttling.html_.
> > > I hope you will agree that we've shared a great deal
of information > with the FCC in an effort to be fully transparent
anasisd share lots > of technical details. As an engineering leader who
has been playing a > key role in the trials of our new congestion
management technique, and > the transition to our new technique, I'm happy to
answer technical > questions the best I can. :-) ((As a regular
reader and occasional > poster to the NNSquad list, I'll be watching the
list over the weekend > and into next week if anyone has technical questions
that I can try to > answer.)) > > Regards, > > Jason Livingood > Comcast > National Engineering & Technical Operations > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > > No virus found in this incoming message. > Checked by AVG - http://www.avg.com > Version: 8.0.169 / Virus Database: 270.7.0/1679 -
Release Date: 9/18/2008 5:03 PM > > |