Last month, I discovered how a web host could come close to shutting you down because your site uses more server resources than it is supposed to. In fact, that wasn’t my doing–it was a combination of hotlinkers, image search engines, and spammers all hitting my site at once. But at least the web host contacted me with specific guidelines about what was going on, what levels of use were acceptable, and general guidelines as to how to achieve those goals.

It seems that in the U.S., the Telecoms are starting to crack down on users for using their Internet connections “too much.” The punch line: they won’t tell customers how much “too much” is.

Comcast has punished some transgressors by cutting off their Internet service, arguing that excessive downloaders hog Internet capacity and slow down the network for other customers. The company declines to reveal its download limits.

“You have no way of knowing how much is too much,” said Sandra Spalletta of Rockville, whose Internet service was suspended in March after Comcast sent her a letter warning that she and her teenage son were using too much bandwidth. They cut back on downloads but were still disconnected. She said the company would not tell her how to monitor their bandwidth use in order to comply with the limits.

“You want to think you can rely on your home Internet service and not wake up one morning to find it turned off,” said Spalletta, who filed a complaint with the Montgomery County Office of Cable and Communication Services. “I thought it was unlimited service.”

It looks like we’re talking about Internet over cable TV lines, where bandwidth is shared between many homes in a neighborhood. A few users could potentially be using huge amounts of bandwidth and spoiling things for their neighbors.

However, the real crock here is that Comcast is refusing to specify what the bandwidth limits are. The article does not state what Comcast advertises when it sells the product, or what is specified in contracts about bandwidth use. But they do note:

Companies have argued that if strict limits were disclosed, customers would use as much capacity as possible without tipping the scale, causing networks to slow to a crawl.

Frankly, I find that hard to believe. Companies almost always advertise a certain speed for their service, and cable companies are well-known for advertising limits far beyond what can reasonably be accessed–you sign up for a service touted to be 10 Mbps, but find you’re not able to get better than 1 Mbps.

But not specifying the cutoff point, where you could lose your service entirely? Imagine that the electric company calls you and tells you, “you’re using too much electricity; stop that or we’ll shut your power off.” And when you ask how much you should cut or how to do it, they say they can’t tell you. What are you supposed to do? The only way to be safe is to almost stop using power except for the bare essentials.

I am not a computer engineer, but I imagine that it would not be very difficult or expensive to install a bandwidth choker in homes that abused bandwidth limits. After all, there are Ethernet hubs which cut off at 10 Mbps, and they can probably be produced for very cheap–less than $10, I imagine. There must be even simpler ways of restricting bandwidth–the 10BASE-T Ethernet hub is simply an example that it can be done. So why doesn’t Comcast do this instead of cutting people off?

Probably because it’s easier, and because they can.

Not to mention that some years back, Comcast and the others promised everyone high-speed, fiber-optic networks in exchange for raising their rates. We said yes, they raised their rates… and now they not only don’t have those promised networks, but they are actually cutting off customers’ service for using more than an unspecified amount of bandwidth.

These are the people we’re supposed to “trust” by abolishing Net Neutrality and giving them complete control over our Internet experience. Yeah, good idea.