OT @home speed cap (off CUBE)
From: VidiVici Wednesday, Jun 30 1999 4:57PM ET
Reply # of 42506
AtHome Speed Cap Angers Subscribers
Deborah Solomon, Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, June 30, 1999
(C)1999 San Francisco Chronicle
ExciteAtHome, the Redwood City company that sells high-speed Internet access over cable TV lines, has been quietly imposing limits on how fast customers can send data over the Internet.
The company, which advertises speeds up to 100 times faster than a traditional modem, has begun imposing an ''upstream cap'' that affects the speed with which e-mail or files can be sent from a user's computer.
The limit is part of an ExciteAtHome internal strategy called ONadvantage, which caps ''upstream data'' at 128 kilobits per second. That's still more than twice as fast as 56.6K dial-up modem, but significantly slower than the 225 Kbps to 1-megabit-per-second speeds AtHome users pay for. For instance, a 1-megabyte file -- such as a 30-slide PowerPoint presentation -- would take four to eight seconds to transmit at speeds of 1 megabit. At 128 Kbps, that same file would take about 62.5 seconds.
Jonathan Rosenberg, vice president of marketing for ExciteAtHome, said the cap was implemented to stop a small number of customers who were hogging bandwidth and making it harder for other customers to get fast Internet access.
The cap, which was discovered when an internal AtHome memo was leaked to an AtHome Internet users group, has sparked an outcry from subscribers who say they feel cheated out of the lightning-fast speeds that AtHome promises. The memo also shows that AtHome instructed its customer service representatives to avoid telling customers about the cap.
''I don't think it's fair that they sold me something and now they're going to take it away,'' said Martin Blackstone, an AtHome subscriber in Orange County's Tustin Ranch.
An upstream cap of 128 Kbps was instituted in Fremont last December after bottleneck problems, but the cap now is going to be rolled out to all AtHome communities across the country, according to the memo.
Download speeds -- which affect how fast customers can access Web sites and receive information from the Internet -- are not affected by the cap.
According to the memo, ONadvantage -- which stands for Optimized Network Advantage -- was instituted to help ensure the speed of the overall AtHome network.
AtHome said it is trying to protect subscribers against ''certain customers'' who are ''abusing the network'' by running servers out of their homes, thus hogging bandwidth. By operating a server, a customer could host Web sites, something AtHome's subscriber policy forbids.
''Fewer than 1 percent of our customers do things that are precluded by our Acceptable Use Policy, like run servers,'' Rosenberg said. ''That takes up a disproportionate amount of upstream bandwidth and lowers the speeds for the average consumer.''
AtHome's speeds are affected by how many people use the service at a given time. Customers access the Internet by using a cable modem that sends and receives information via cable TV lines. AtHome contracts with various cable TV providers across the country to sell the service. In the Bay Area, it operates through TCI Cable.
Cable TV lines serve an entire neighborhood, however, so instead of a dedicated cable for each user, between 500 to 1,000 users can connect to AtHome's service via the same fiber-optic line. Customers split the bandwidth, so the more people using the service, the slower it goes.
The upstream cap is the latest attempt by AtHome to handle its growing volume of subscribers. In the three years since it was launched, AtHome has signed up more than 460,000 customers. While that amount is far less than the company originally anticipated it would have by now, AtHome has disclosed in financial filings that its network has had trouble accommodating large numbers of users at the same time.
To help keep the network running smoothly, the company previously placed a 10-minute limit on the TV-quality video its customers can download off the Internet.
AtHome's latest cap has rankled customers who say they enjoy the service but are upset with the company's decision to continually impose limits and hide it from subscribers.
The internal AtHome memo instructs customer service employees to avoid telling customers about the cap.
''The best ONadvantage explanation is to avoid talking about it to begin with -- if possible,'' the memo states. ''ONadvantage should be kept low-key in the eyes of the subscriber. Ideally, the customer will experience the advantages of ONadvantage program without ever knowing it existed.''
Rosenberg said the company never meant to conceal the cap and said all AtHome customers should have been alerted through an e-mail from their cable provider.
''The intent of the document was not to hide in any clandestine manner the activities which we're implementing,'' Rosenberg said. He added, ''Ninety-nine percent of our users will get better service after the upstream cap.''
But some customers are getting slower service, and several AtHome subscribers who contacted The Chronicle said the limit has interfered with their attempts to send certain files, such as PowerPoint presentations.
''I've certainly noticed a slowdown in upstream,'' said Dave Roznar, an AtHome customer in Portland, Ore. ''Plus, if you hit the upload cap, your download speed slows, too, so it can take forever to check e-mail or look at news.''
Roznar, who's been a subscriber for more than a year, said the company's handling of the situation is unacceptable. He said customers, who pay $40 a month for the service plus a $150 installation fee, should have been consulted before the cap was imposed.
''I'd rather that they didn't impose a cap at all because, quite frankly, all their talk of being up to 100 times faster than a traditional modem is not true and this just slows it down even more,'' Roznar said.
Gene Shklar, vice president of marketing for San Mateo's Keynote Systems, which tracks Internet performance, said that while 128 Kbps is below cable modem speed, most users who are just sending e-mail and surfing the Net probably won't notice the cap. Only those are trying to send large files or operate their own servers would bump up against it, he said.
''Most of the data flows downstream. In standard interactions with Web sites, there is very little flowing upstream,'' he said.
But some customers question the timing for the cap. AtHome has talked about rolling out a program called AtHome Professional, which would allow customers to pay extra for additional bandwidth so that they can transmit data at faster speeds.
Blackstone, who hasn't gotten the cap yet, but expects to see it soon, said he understands that AtHome is trying to protect the network's speed. However, he said, all customers shouldn't be punished just because a few people may be misusing the service.
''This isn't kindergarten. They are punishing people who have paid $150 to get this installed and have done nothing wrong,'' Blackstone said. He said he'd rather pay a little extra per month than have AtHome limit how fast he can send files.
''I would have been happier if they said, 'We messed up. We didn't plan our bandwidth appropriately, so we're going to charge $10 more per person and give you the same speeds,' '' Blackstone said. ''To do it this way is ridiculous. We're paying for speeds we're no longer getting.''
(C)1999 San Francisco Chronicle Page B1
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