Cox slows internet speeds...

[kadee79]

Cox Communications is lowering Internet upload speeds in entire neighborhoods to stop what it considers "excessive usage," in a decision that punishes both heavy Internet users and their neighbors.

Cox, a cable company with about 5.2 million broadband customers in the United States, has been sending notices to some heavy Internet users warning them to use less data and notifying them of neighborhood-wide speed decreases. In the case we will describe in this article, a gigabit customer who was paying $50 extra per month for unlimited data was flagged by Cox because he was using 8TB to 12TB a month.

Cox responded by lowering the upload speeds on the gigabit-download plan from 35Mbps to 10Mbps for the customer's whole neighborhood. Cox confirmed to Ars that it has imposed neighborhood-wide slowdowns in multiple neighborhoods in cases like this one but didn't say how many excessive users are enough to trigger a speed decrease.

Mike, a Cox customer from Gainesville, Florida, pays $150 a month, including $100 for 1Gbps download speeds and 35Mbps upload speeds, and another $50 for "unlimited data" so that he can go over Cox's 1TB data cap. Mike told Ars via email that most of his 8TB+ monthly use consists of scheduled device backups and "data sharing via various (encrypted) information-sharing protocols," such as peer-to-peer networks, between 1am and 8am. (We agreed to publish Mike's first name only but reviewed his bills and confirmed the basic details of his account with Cox.)

arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2020/06/cox-slows-internet-speeds-in-entire-neighborhoods-to-punish-any-heavy-users/

[grumpyhermit]

There decision to do a blanket cap is suspect. They surely have ways to target this individual directly. That is a crazy amount of data for a "home" user, and I'm sure somewhere in the fine print, they reserve the right to do exactly what they are now doing. Which is why they lobby the FCC so hard.

It does sound like this guy is essentially running a business, so getting a business tier package may make more sense. If there is one thing about big telecom that you can count on is that they will find a way to close any loopholes that may (temporarily) benefit the end user.

With that amount of data, he would be better served on a dedicated connection or fiber (though I know that is far from widely available in most places). If he was actually getting 35 up that's pretty great. I have a mid-tier package from Xfinity, and my up is closer to 5-6. That said, almost all of my usage is down, and that's what I pay the bargain price of $100 a month for.

[Tiny]

Isn't this some of the fall out of the repeal of Net Neutrality in 2018?    MAGA!!!!

[Deleted]

I would have an issue with my service being downgraded because of a neighbor’s usage. What my neighbor does has nothing to do with me. Do the other neighbors‘ bills reflect a decrease in the amount due, to reflect the downgrade in service?

[billisonboard]

Jun 9, 2020 14:03:03 GMT -5 Tiny said:

Isn't this some of the fall out of the repeal of Net Neutrality in 2018?    MAGA!!!!

My unsophisticated understanding leads me to think it doesn't. The reduction is content neutral.

[grumpyhermit]

Jun 9, 2020 14:28:22 GMT -5 billisonboard said:

Jun 9, 2020 14:03:03 GMT -5 Tiny said:

Isn't this some of the fall out of the repeal of Net Neutrality in 2018?    MAGA!!!!

My unsophisticated understanding leads me to think it doesn't. The reduction is content neutral.

Right. I'm pretty sure they have always retained the right to cap and price different "tiers" of access differently. I know I pay a lot more for my 75MBps service than I would a 10 MBps service. The net neutrality stuff was more to put the squeeze on companies like Netflix by decreasing streaming speeds for only certain content providers.