Comcast 50Mbps broadband is a 500hp engine with a 3-cup gas tank.

Comcast has some aggressive plans for its "superfast" wideband connectivity in 2009. The cable giant hopes to roll out DOCSIS 3.0 to 65 percent of its reach before the end of this year, which amounts to some 30 million homes and businesses. –ars technica

Great news, I've been looking forward to Comcast's higher speed rollout for a year now. However, counter-intuitively, even the $150/month premium subscribers still get saddled with the 250GB/month download limit. Here's some math:

250GB/month × 1000MB/GB × 8Mb/MB = 2,000,000Mb(megabits)/month

At 50Mbps (megabits/second) the 2 million Mb limit is exhausted in 2,000,000/50 = 40,000sec =

approximately 11 hours.

So with your fancy new Comcast 50Mbps fat pipe, if you actually use your bandwidth you will reach the 250GB limit after only 11 hours of maximizing the line. Start a bunch of HD video downloads in the evening, and by the time you wake the next morning Comcast is already drafting a letter telling you to cease all internet use for the rest of the month.

If you are a continuous downloader who always has something transferring, as I am, to keep under the cap your need to keep your bandwidth under:

2,000,000Mb(megabits)/month ÷ 30 days ÷ 24 hours ÷ 60 min ÷ 60 sec =

0.77Mbps.

This is 1.5% of the 50Mbps bandwidth. In 2000 I had 1Mbps broadband from AT&T (later bought by Comcast), which means 9 years ago I had a higher per month bandwidth allowance than I do today.

To address the metaphor in the title, a powerful 500hp BMW 5-Series averages 15mpg. If the potential of this vehicle were limited like Comcast hogties it’s broadband, it would sport only 1.5% of a standard 12-gallon gas tank, which is 12 gallons × .015 = .18 gallons =

2.88 cups.

Even if we generously grant the BMW it’s average 15mpg at top speed, .18 gallons is about a fifth of a gallon, so the car can burn in all it’s 500hp ferocity for a stunning 3 miles before it’s empty.

Comcast’s response, that “less than 1% (currently it’s about one tenth of 1%) of Comcast customers today use an excessive amount of data. Excessive users consume so much data that the usage could negatively impact the online service for other customers,” is the same as saying only 1% of BMW drivers drive top speed and that their excessive fuel consumption could negatively impact fuel availability for moderate users, so the tiny gas tanks are employed to cripple full use of the car’s capabilities and ensure everyone only uses the monster machines in moderation as if they were  Volvo station wagons helmed by soccer moms . Sounds more retarded now, doesn’t it?

Comcast’s bandwidth cap limits their highest tier customers to a ridiculously small 1.5% of the service’s potential, and higher speeds in the future just become uselessly frustrating way of hitting the brick wall faster. I do love the broadband quality, but I’m broaching the “abusive” user class as it is with 6Mbps. It would take some serious restraint to keep under the limit if I had 50Mbps at my disposal, and as a premium customer at $150 a month I ought not to have to worry about it either.