[MikeCapone]

As a Canadian who went through the debate here, I can say that caps and rate hikes aren't the same thing. The psychological impact on the average internet user is very different, and so online behaviour will be impacted in a different way.

Paying 40$ a month instead of 30$ for an unlimited or very high amount of data means you'll grumble a bit, but you'll still do whatever you did before.

Going from a very high cap or unlimited to a very low cap + expensive additional data means you'll very probably try to restrict your data transfers and do whatever you can not to exceed your cap.

You don't have a sunken cost like with a normal rate hike..

[baddox]

What's surprising to me is that, at least with Comcast, there's simply no way to get the cap-free service I had before. I don't have the option to pay more to remove the cap (other than paying per gigabyte over the cap, which is silly).

[wmf]

Business service?

[e40]

Yes, but it's expensive. I pay $89 + $10 for static IPs per month. The data rates I get: 50+Mbps/6Mbps. I torrent tv shows and I've never noticed any problems seeding. My downloads usually start out at 3-5MB/s, and drop down to 2MB/s. Clearly they are throttling the downstream, but I can live with that rate.

EDIT: I don't know what the advertised rates were, but they were less (20/5?).

[ComputerGuru]

e40, what's the name of your plan? I can't seem to find rates like that on their site, the 50/20 plan is for 280 dollars.

[e40]

On my bill it says: 16m Business Class HSI Preferred, for $89.95. The 5 static IPs are $9.95.

I don't remember there being a specific name for it.

I would not be surprised if they don't offer the exact thing anymore.

My advice, get some relatively low speed (16Mbps) and hope it's much higher, like I got.

[pasbesoin]

There was some discussion around this recently (e.g. my recent history for a link into it). My Comcast residential rate is approaching that level. Installation fee and lengthy commitment aside, it would make sense for me to switch to their low end business plan.

[baddox]

You might be onto something. Whenever I go through the available plans on Comcast's website, I'm sure it's only showing residential plans. I've never looked into business plans. My guess is they would be very expensive, and offer unneeded features like a static IP.

[jvanenk]

business service isn't that much more expensive than their 20Mbit service. i've been paying $75/month or so and the upgrade to business in my area is $15 more/month or so.