Users Still Complaining About Inaccurate Comcast Usage Meters Can Comcast's usage meter be trusted? Last year we pointed out how Comcast had managed to somehow swap a user's MAC address in their records and bill them for other customers usage. When Comcast's meters expanded to Florida users complained that the company's meter tracked usage that never happened. The FCC has received 13,000 complaints about Comcast's usage caps this year, many of them also complaining that the company's meter doesn't match their router statistics.

Comcast, for what it's worth, has long stated it pays a company by the name of NetForecast to confirm their meter's accuracy. Those reports suggest that Comcast's meters are reliable within 1% accuracy over a month. But complaints about Comcast meter accuracy continue all the same. Ars Technica this week tells the tale of several users that were charged hundreds of extra dollars for bandwidth they claim was never consumed. Comcast consistently told one user that it simply wasn't possible for Comcast's consumption meter to make mistakes, and Comcast was only willing to investigate the problem (as is often the case) once the media became involved. Ultimately Comcast tries to blame one user's Apple TV device for downloading screensavers on its own, something ultimately disproven by the user and even Apple itself. The entire, bizarrely long story is worth a read, but the core question it asks remains one we've asked for years: quote: The months of testing, without any firm conclusions, raise one question with no straightforward answer. If Comcast, the nation's largest Internet provider, can't determine what's pushing its subscribers over their data caps, why should customers be expected to figure it out on their own? Again, for much of the The entire, bizarrely long story is worth a read, but the core question it asks remains one we've asked for years:Again, for much of the last decade we've noted how many ISPs are charging consumers for usage while they aren't home, the modem was disconnected or the power was out. And for just as many years regulators have turned a blind eye to the problem that no objective third party ensures that you're actually consuming the amount of bandwidth you're paying for. But accuracy is only a part of the problem, given that usage caps on fixed-line networks aren't necessary in the first place , and are simply ISPs taking full advantage of the lack of last mile competition in the broadband market.







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Most recommended from 53 comments



Tomek

Premium Member

join:2002-01-30

Valley Stream, NY 20 recommendations Tomek Premium Member Need for Regulation Just like a gas pump, there should be third party oversight for calibration and accuracy.

Since they are charging per byte. There should be metric of what is considered valid data, insufficient quality of connection or unwanted should not count towards cap



maartena

Elmo

Premium Member

join:2002-05-10

Orange, CA 8 recommendations maartena Premium Member Needs to be regulated. - If you weigh your fruit at the produce store, the scale has a sticker on it that it has been certified accurate.

- Your electricity meter has been tested to be accurate before it is installed.

- Your gas meter has been tested to be accurate before it is installed.

- If you pump gas at the local gas station it has been certified by a state or county measurer.

- Products that say they have a certain weight or volume in it are tested on a regular basis to ensure accuracy.



Everywhere you go these things are tested to ensure one thing: That the customer isn't cheated. And if you, the customer feel that you ARE cheated, there is a county or state entity where you can file a complaint, which in turn will investigate. Some of the items mentioned above are spot checked, electricity meters are tested at the factory, out of every 1,000 produced they randomly pick 5 and test them. If one of them fails the accuracy test, the entire batch is pulled and tested.



Internet meters should be the same. If you want to ensure accuracy the meters should be on-site at the user end, they should have been tested for accuracy, and there should be a regulated entity to which you can file complaint such is the case with water, gas, electricity and retail weighing and measuring equipment.



It should be at the client side because clients should not have to pay for packets that were lost, only for packets that were actually received. Or sent and acknowledged by the other side. The big elephant in the room however is unwanted traffic. Who is paying for spam I did not ask for? Who is paying for some random hacker trying to DDoS my IP (or likely the whole range I am on because someone else pissed someone off online), and who is paying when I started downloading a 1 GB file from a site that does not support resuming, and the internet fails when it reaches 800 MB?

Costa

proud PIE-RATE

join:2007-07-06

Selden, NY 5 recommendations Costa Member AGAIN..... »www.youtube.com/watch?v= ··· ny_pixDw

tshirt

Premium Member

join:2004-07-11

Snohomish, WA 4 recommendations tshirt Premium Member Stories need fact checkers... ...Brad's father claims Brad was billed $500 a month in overages, but Comcast usage plan FAQ* says "$10 per 50 GB, up to a maximum of $200 each month"

so something else must be largely to blame for the $500+ bill, and $1500 plus balance.

I think some details may be missing.



*https://customer.xfinity.com/help-and-support/internet/data-usage-what-are-the-different-plans-launching/ is the current one, I thought the old one had a max $300 limit, but the Ars Technica story doesn't document that, or even show the details of the "additional services" used neufuse

join:2006-12-06

James Creek, PA 951.6 36.1

3 recommendations neufuse Member not my usage? The thing that still bugs me about capping the internet to this day is that a 3rd party can force my usage on me externally... aka ping flooding me, sending packets at me, etc....... something that I can't stop as it is being counted at the CMTS not at my firewall......



it's nothing like a utility in this sense because if you have a car someone doesn't take your car to the gas pump and fill it up without you knowing, the water company doesn't force water out your faucets, the natural gas providers don't burn gas for you then charge you.......