Comcast Sets Threshold for `Excessive' Internet Use (Update1)

Aug. 28 (Bloomberg) -- Comcast Corp., the largest U.S. cable operator, said subscribers whose use of the Internet exceeds 250 gigabytes of data a month may get a warning call and could lose their service.

Customers who breach the threshold -- enough to send 50 million e-mails or 125 standard-definition movies -- may be asked to reduce their use, the Philadelphia-based company said today in a Web posting. Those whose ``excessive use'' continues may be cut off for a year, Comcast said.

Comcast's procedures are unchanged except for establishing the threshold so consumers know where they stand, Comcast spokeswoman Jennifer Khoury said in an interview. The limit officially becomes part of Comcast's acceptable use policy Oct. 1, Khoury said. The company reported 14.3 million high-speed Internet customers at the end of the second quarter.

Cable operators are wrestling with how to keep high-speed Internet services operating smoothly as demand soars for features such as streaming video that place heavy demands on networks.

Federal regulators on Aug. 1 found Comcast had improperly blocked peer-to-peer programs such as BitTorrent that are used to share videos and other files. The company said on Aug. 19 it plans to slow the top Internet speed for its heaviest users, rather than target specific programs.

``It remains unclear how the cap announced today helps solve Comcast's supposed congestion problems -- or how the cap will work with other usage limits Comcast has been considering,'' S. Derek Turner, research director for Free Press, said in an e-mailed statement.

Customer Usage

The Washington-based non-profit group filed the complaint about Comcast that led to the FCC's action.

``The monthly data usage threshold will have absolutely no impact on 99 percent of our customers because their usage is well below'' 250 gigabytes, Khoury said. Residential customers' median consumption is two to three gigabytes monthly, she said.

Khoury declined to say how many customers Comcast contacts for heavy Internet use, or how many it cuts off.

Comcast rose 38 cents to $21.66 at 4:30 p.m. in Nasdaq Stock Market trading. It has gained 19 percent this year.

To contact the reporter on this story: Todd Shields in Washington at tshields3@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jennifer Sondag at jsondag@bloomberg.net.