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Telemarketing: Comcast’s Traffic Shaping Feature

32 Responses (Add) | Saturday, February 23rd, 2008 at 12:58am

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So this telemarketer from Comcast called me the other night. He attempted to sell me their Triple Play package. He kept letting me know how much I needed their services… even though I already have them. Once it became apparent that the guy had no clue what their services actually ARE and what they DO… I decided to have fun with him.

You’ll hear me tease the guy, and ask him if I can get the Traffic Shaping “feature” with my order. He, of course, had no idea what that even was. I was astounded. For anyone else who may not know, let’s see what Wikipedia has to say:

Traffic shaping (also known as “packet shaping”) is an attempt to control computer network traffic in order to optimize or guarantee performance, low latency, and/or bandwidth by delaying packets. More specifically, traffic shaping is any action on a set of packets (often called a stream or a flow) which imposes additional delay on those packets such that they conform to some predetermined constraint (a contract or traffic profile). Traffic shaping provides a means to control the volume of traffic being sent into a network in a specified period (bandwidth throttling), or the maximum rate at which the traffic is sent (rate limiting), or more complex criteria such as GCRA. This control can be accomplished in many ways and for many reasons; however traffic shaping is always achieved by delaying packets. Traffic shaping is commonly applied at the network edges to control traffic entering the network, but can also be applied by the traffic source (for example, computer or network card) or by an element in the network. Traffic policing is the distinct but related practice of packet dropping and packet marking.

Accusations of Comcast shaping traffic has been widely publicized lately. On Monday, there will actually be a special meeting of the FCC to discuss this exact claim. The main discussion will be focused on “network neutrality and traffic shaping”. It will be interesting to see what affect this meeting could end up having on the way traffic shaping is applied.

This past Friday, another Class Action Lawsuit was filed against Comcast. While Comcast insisting their brand of network management is “reasonable” might thwart the FCC’s investigation into the practice, the courts may see things differently. According to a statement from the law firm involved, Comcast is misleading customers by saying they offer the “fastest Internet connection,” because the ISP “intentionally blocks or impedes its customer’s access to peer-to-peer file sharing.”

Of course, Comcast is defending its practices. While the company finally admits that its doing some traffic shaping, it’s clearly gearing up to fight any allegation that it was wrong in its actions. As Broadband Reports notes, the company uses the word “reasonable” over 40 times. That’s no surprise, since the FCC has said that it would allow “reasonable” network practices. It also uses some questionable metaphors for its actions suggesting that forging packets (oops, sorry, “resets”) are perfectly normal activity, comparing it to a fax machine getting a busy signal.

So… what do you think? Should the FCC be cracking down on this? Or is Comcast just possibly in the right? Leave me a follow-up comment, or send me an email to chris@pirillo.com, and share your thoughts.

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32 Comments

_tings i see

February 24th, 2008
at 3:59am

SXSW 2008 Music Torrent – 764 artists, 3.5 GB Social slowdown hitting Piczo hard (Greg Sandoval/CNET… DIY Laser range finder Jack Thompson Served With Order to Show Cause Compulsory DNA database ruled out Bell Broadband StallsTelemarketing: Comcast’s Traffic Shaping Feature? Proust Was a Neuroscientist by Jonah Lehrer Gmail Art Ad (Video) The art of science and engineering First 10 Teams in $30M Google Lunar X Prize Announced Nanotechnology-Powered Wiper-less Windshield

daylighter

February 23rd, 2008
at 5:29am

I watched this one live, made me fall out of my chair!

This is the way to mess with a telemarketer without biting the poor fellow’s head off or even letting them know they’re being messed with, which I find noble since it isn’t their fault they’re calling you.

wired_wrong

February 23rd, 2008
at 9:45am

Comcast Employees have in their contract a thirty min. Nap Time…
Is there anyone out there that takes pride in their job on them self’s anymore?
I’m stuck with Comcast and I’ve had my share of problems with them… Chris keep up the great work you do for all of us…

gary

February 23rd, 2008
at 11:02am

Chris I just finished watching your video with that poor telemarketer guy. He must have had to take advil after his phone call with you. You maxed him out on his question cards and he just could not respond after that. This has to be the funniest thing I have seen in a while thank you for the laughs today..

Bubba

David AKA Arcane

February 24th, 2008
at 7:52pm

ROFL this is hilarious, I do the same thing when telemarketers call me. He doesn’t know what traffic shaping is? lmao they get anyone to read off cards for these. They have no brains!

rozbot86

February 25th, 2008
at 3:52am

The guy that called you is an employee for a third party telemarketing company that is hired by Comcast and several other cable companies. He’s probably still in high school. The only thing that he knows about the product is what shows up in the script on his computer screen.

Mikel4321

February 25th, 2008
at 5:43am

Poor guy, he was only doing his job lol.

AustNaio

February 25th, 2008
at 6:04am

Lmfao, this is great.

jax1492

February 25th, 2008
at 10:06am

lol he owned that comcast guy

Christph Dollis

February 25th, 2008
at 3:06am

I’m amazed at how poorly trained that young, and enthusiastic friendly, telesalesperson is. Shame on his management!

yndygo

February 25th, 2008
at 3:36pm

Aww… mean to the poor little phone spammer… but Brilliant!!
Perhaps now that guy will go get a job with GeekSquad instead ;)

seasurfs

February 25th, 2008
at 6:31pm

Is this guy from wealth affiliates?

Curran

February 25th, 2008
at 8:29pm

That had to have been the funniest thing I’ve ever seen!
•Traffic shaping
•Conversation shaping
•Channel shaping
^^lol

Anyway, that was a funny way to make light of such a crappy ISP.

computernerdbf

February 26th, 2008
at 9:22am

Hey!! I saw me (computernerd) at the end!!

aznbutteredtoast

February 26th, 2008
at 10:56am

poor guy. had no clue what chris was talkin about

nickjuly004

February 27th, 2008
at 12:19pm

lol, I’m hoping to upgrade my Road Runner Cable ISP with the traffic shaping feature when they come out ith it soon too! XD LOL

phabi0

February 28th, 2008
at 9:25pm

death to telemarketing

Domreis7337

March 2nd, 2008
at 10:00am

LMAFO… Chris… this is great! I just started ustream and the traffic shaping feature sucks…

I love it when you ask “Did the stream freeze” Gotta love comcast…

The minute AT&T comes to I-Town i am switching!!!

dkoch2

March 7th, 2008
at 3:17pm

lol
Telemarketer: According to my records, you currently have Comcast Service, is this
correct?

Man: Unfortunately, yes

Telemarketer: That’s great to hear

TGseason10

April 26th, 2008
at 10:42am

Both sides of the line record it :P

dkinnibu

June 2nd, 2008
at 2:56pm

Awesome! Hee hee hee

Richard Blank

October 23rd, 2008
at 6:38pm

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