Tony Werner, Comcast CTO says that his company will begin to manage heavy users during peak hours rather that protocols in this video interview with Cable Digitial News.

Obviously, if implemented, this will make a few who are most likely paying for higher level service tiers very unhappy. While efforts to more equitably manage existing capacity are understandable, they should not be done at the expense of creating more capacity. With new bandwidth intensive content and services coming daily the common user will consume more bits than last years heavy user very soon. Expanding capacity would be Comcast’s only option if we had real competition.

In what has to be the most galling of lies, Comcast has been caught again. But first lets set the stage for why. Comcast in a informational filing before the Commission made the statement that they only block P2P traffic when conditions warrant the necessity –

As described in detail below, Comcast manages the use of certain P2P protocols in a
minimally intrusive way, and only when necessary, based on purely objective criteria; these management techniques are not based on the content of the files users are sharing or the identity of the users who are doing the sharing. More specifically, Comcast’s network management practices (1) only affect the protocols that have a demonstrated history of generating excessive burdens on the network; (2) only manage those protocols during periods of heavy network traffic; (3) only manage uploads; (4) only manage uploads when the customer is not simultaneously downloading (i.e., when the customer’s computer is most likely unattended) (“unidirectional sessions” or “unidirectional uploads”); and (5) only delay those protocols until such time as usage drops below an established threshold of simultaneous unidirectional sessions. These network management practices are fully consistent with the Internet Policy Statement.

Comcast is asserting that they do this on an as needed basis. But hold on a moment. Germany’s equivalent of MIT, Max Planck Institute conducted a study in may that both Cox and Comcast blocked P2P traffic at all hours generally without let up. –

The Max Planck Institute collected data between March 18 and May 15 from 8,175 unique hosts that ran its BitTorrent tests. Participating hosts were in 90 countries, connected through 1,224 ISPs, and ran the ‘Glasnost’ testing tool.

The only locations where cable ISPs blocked BitTorrent traffic to a significant extent were in the United States (Comcast and Cox) and Singapore (Starhub).

Tests showed that Comcast blocked at least 30 per cent of BitTorrent upload attempts and, during most hours, Comcast blocked between 50 to 80 percent of BitTorrent traffic. Cox blocked at least 20 per cent of BitTorrent uploads (except for one period at 3 AM where one request wasn’t blocked) and, during most hours, Cox blocked between 50 to 100 per cent of all BitTorrent traffic.

Puts the lie to their Commission filing. Personally, if Comcast wants to manage traffic it would be fine with me provided there were alternatives for customers. Sadly in many locations that is not the case. You have Comcast for broadband or dialup. But what should not stand is the Commission doing nothing. Comcast committed the equivalent of perjury and in my view they ought to be slapped with a $10m fine because of their duplicity.

The twist on the old saw — “The omission was more costly than the crime.”, comes to mind.

Linky.

What’s this? After telling us the P2P traffic is the arch nemesis of all things good on their network, Comcast investing in a P2P video delivery network.

Seattle-based GridNetworks on Monday said that Comcast would make an unspecified investment in the company and collaborate on developing so-called peer-to-peer file-sharing techniques that are “friendly” to Internet service providers.

Comcast, the country’s second largest Internet service provider, hampers some file-sharing traffic by its subscribers in an attempt to keep the traffic from slowing down Web surfing by other subscribers. Complaints by consumer groups and legal scholars that the company is discriminating against particular software have led to an investigation by the Federal Communications Commission.

Comcast has said that it will stop targeting specific types of traffic by the end of the year. It has also reached out to file-sharing companies to try to develop mutually acceptable techniques. (Yahoo)

The more conspiracy minded may think Comcast is buying in to collect more useful data on new ways to meddle with P2P traffic. I think the scenario that is closer reality is someone in the tech dept has convinced the suits that P2P is likely to be the most efficient way to do IPTV for themselves. Perhaps they could be even more forward thinking to understand doing TVoIP to any network (not just their own) may be the real path to growth for any content provider. Naw, maybe they are not quite that smart. One thing for sure, mixed signals that continue to come out of this company show a real disconnect between technology and operations .

If you’re foolish enought to be holding Comcast stock, get ready to take a hit. If you’re a Comcast broadband customer, they have a message for you: They’ve already invested enough in taking care of you and are moving on to bigger and better things. Since many Comcast customers have no alternative, we send our condolences.

Comcast, the Philadelphia-based cable giant, has finally announced that it’s buying Plaxo, a Mountain View, Calif.-based social networking & connected address book company, for an undisclosed amount of money. Plaxo, whose co-founders include Sean Parker, has raised $23 million since 2002 from VC firms including Sequoia Capital, Globespan Capital Partners and DAG Ventures.

This has been the worst-kept secret, with people speculating about the price of this acquisition. Plaxo and Comcast officials declined to comment on the price when I had a conference call with them earlier today. Even today the price range is being pegged between $100 million and $170 million. I have on authority that the price is $170 million including earnouts. This is yet another megamillion-dollar bet by the cable firm in its ongoing transformation into a web-based company with an eye on advertising dollars. (Gigaom)

Even in a non competitive environment, any company that constantly rations, raises prices and has adversarial customer service for a commodity product is doomed. An agressive competitor will eventually find a way to work around the last mile. When that happens, owning Plaxo will be irrelevant. The missed opportunity of growing and nurturing the core business will be gone. So will most of the shareholder’s equity.

Comcast, never the sauvest of companies in the customer service department has come up with a new scheme to tick off customers. Fat green utility cans sitting in your front yard. You know those suckers that look about the size of a dorm refrigerator.

“I came home to find Comcast had put a green utility box smack-dab in the middle of my lawn,” said Cheryl Davison, who lives in northwest Santa Rosa. “You couldn’t miss it. My stomach just turned.”

The plastic boxes, about the size of air conditioners, are appearing across Santa Rosa as Comcast upgrades its cable network.

The upgrade has caused sporadic service outages across the city, irking customers and leaving some without Internet or cable for more than a week.

Davison, an assistant lab director at Kaiser Permanente Hospital in Santa Rosa, spent three weeks trying to get the box removed. It was far more obtrusive than the old Comcast equipment, which had been buried in her yard and covered with a plastic lid that was flush with her grass.

it would be interesting to know what is so sensitive with the new equipment. Considering that most cable plant is passive I certainly would like to know. You know, sheer curiosity. For the homeowners they may on may not have a leg to stand on. It depends on the easement rules associated with their property.

Linky.

We always knew that Comcast’s suits were pining for one of our coveted foil hat awards. Well after many failed attempts they’ve finally earned one . They are accusing AT&T if causing intereference by intermingling wiring inside of residences. The only way that this could happen is using an existing coax run from an AT&T STB to a television. If Comcast also has a signal on the same line, it’s extremely doubtful either would work. My guess would be the reported incidents are a result of the customer doing a little rewiring after the install. Sorry guys, but you can’t hang that one on AT&T.

The situation arises when customers mix and match Comcast and AT&T U-Verse services, like Comcast High-Speed Internet and U-Verse TV. Outside of the home, the data travels over different wiring: copper coax for Comcast and twisted pair for AT&T’s U-Verse. Inside the house, both services use the same coaxial wiring, which causes problems in some cases. (Ars Technica)

Note to readers! If you are a Comcast customer and are having a problem, blog on Twitter. It might get you resolution to the problem. Your Mileage May Vary of course but what can it hurt? –

The company has to “materially and significantly” improve, he said, noting it could take several years. “We’re playing catch-up.”

On Twitter, where users write blurbs on what they’re doing or thinking at the moment, a passing complaint can be an early warning signal to Comcast. The site, said Biz Stone, a Twitter cofounder, is the sort of forum that Comcast should monitor.

“If Comcast can get to those influencers, the complaints will not grow to a full blog post,” he said. Eliason has posted about 600 messages, or “tweets,” on Twitter.

Comcast is “waking up to the fact that a bad rap in the social-networking space could spread like crazy,” said Shel Holtz, a public-relations consultant in the San Francisco area. “If consumers are talking to each other about your brand, you should participate in that conversation and have a good story to tell.”

The story in this case is more like a horror flick on Comcast’s FEARnet channel. Comcast has had a public-relations nightmare with Comcastmustdie.com, launched in October by Advertising Age columnist Bob Garfield.

First of all kudos for Comcast recognizing that this was an avenue of woe for them. At least they recognize the issue.

But on a much more sour note, this guys is only a stop gap measure. If Comcast wishes to climb out of the hole they are in they need to revamp their first contact methodology. Instead of running thru a script that make the customer nearly disassemble their internal network why not start from the drop outward? I was your customer for 4 years. In all hat time it was NEVER my internal network. When the track record for a customer indicates is not their problem then the company needs to start doing root cause analysis of their network outages.

Linky.

This is comic relief at it’s best. The suits at Comcast have worked up a new clown suit to put around a new batch of network management policies that sound both ambiguous and theatening at the same time.

“We’re going to formally create a DCIA working group and it will be open to any peer-to-peer technology provider, any ISP, and any content owner or representative,” Pando CEO Robert Levitan told us. “And at some point, we’re all going to sit down and say ‘OK. What can we agree are good principles for peer-to-peer applications?’ And companies will be able to stand up and say ‘We adhere to these.’

“You don’t want peer-to-peer technology providers who aren’t playing nicely with consumers. And that goes for content owners and ISPs too,” he continued. “We want to ask questions like: Does an ISP block peer-to-peer just because its peer-to-peer? Or are there ISPs who are willing to say ‘We’re not going to block P2P if we know it’s good P2P’?”

Levitan and Lafferty also plan to include longtime P2P opponents like the Motion Picture Association of American (MPAA) and the Recording Industry Ass. of America (RIAA). According to Lafferty, the MPAA has already approached him about the project and will be represented at Monday’s meeting.

And to balance things out, the DCIA may invite public advocates like Free Press, one of the organizations that encouraged the FCC to probe Comcast’s BitTorrent busting. “We want to get the voice of the consumer in this as well,” Lafferty said. “After all, we’re couching this a bill of rights and responsibilities, and the end user is really critical.”(The Register)

It’s kind of like saying: “Dear customer, we’ve formed a committee to determine if the P2P file you want download or share is acceptable. The committee will be comprised of all interested parties other than yourself. We will decide what is good for you and what you will be allowed to do. We realize that this policy may prevent you from accessing intellectual property that you have a right to download or share. As always you are welcome to try to obtain service elsewhere. We realize that many of you have no other option and that’s just fine with us. You see that’s why we can get away with doing this”.

We really need an open Third Pipe so these guys can go blissfully out of business.

One of the least discussed properties of DOCSIS or cable broadband is that the more popular it is in you neighborhood, the less you can expect from it. With DOCSIS 3, this property is magnified. In comparison to a direct fiber connection it will only deliver consistently good performance if the take rate is low or if subscriber usage is limited.

Comcast is only bonding two channels down, one channel up for this service right now, which means they can offer 80 Mbps down and 30 up. But it’s not like that’s per-subscriber. That’s per neighborhood – to be shared among potentially 400 people (although at $150 a month, expect uptake to be substantially less than 100%).

But compare that to Verizon’s Fios, in which a maximum of 32 people share 622 Mbps downstream and 155 upstream. So when Comcast says their new offering is comparable to Fios in speed and price, that’s really bullhockey. On the upside stream we’re talking about hundreds of people sharing 30 Mbps up, compared to 32 people sharing 155. (ZDnet)

Cable has a dirty little secret. The faster speeds they are selling are a large scale shared resource. The sum of bandwidth as sold is exponentially larger than the amount of shared bandwidth available on their infrastructure. This is probably why most cable guys will attempt to throttle their customers sustained usage, and blame poor performance on “over usage” by “bandwidth hogs”. The cable guy needs to come clean. DOCSIS was designed to deliver stunning performance in an era of static content. If that is how the cable guy expects his customers will use his service then he should spell in out. If we had real competition, DOCSIS would soon find its proper place in the museum.

Is Comcast Bipolar? While working furiously to limit some traffic, they are also offering 50MBPS service in limited markets. The offering is made possible by DOCSIS 3.0, a technology standard that uses multiple connections to the nearest node to delivery higher speeds.

The new premium service was launched in the Twin Cities area of Minneapolis-St. Paul, and marks a leap in connection speeds for Comcast. The new service offers speeds starting at 50 megabits per second, compared with the previous fastest connection speeds of 16 mb per second.

Comcast said the new service is aimed at residential and business customers. But at $149.95 a month, compared with about $50 a month for its usual service, it is likely to attract businesses or very heavy residential users, such as video game players or movie download fans. (Reuters)

I think I get it. If you want unfettered access, you need to move to a neighborhood where Comcasts DOCSIS 3 is available, be sure you move to premises where the DOCSIS 3 limits have not been reached and then pay more than the average triple play customer for internet service alone.