Like a mythical sea creature, Comcast’s broadband meter — a Web-based bit clock that will let the cable operator ostensibly move away from all-you-can-eat broadband pricing — was sighted in a couple of locales today.
DSL Reports has the meter showing up in the Boston area, while a Light Reading report has Seattle up as well and a few other locations expected to come on board soon.
At least initially, the meter is designed to support Comcast’s 250 Gig monthly bandwidth cap, a level that it believes few subscribers are expected to reach.
While video streaming applications are certainly on the rise, the popularity of sites like Hulu and others also means that mainstream users are less like to use protocols like BitTorrent to download uncompressed mega-video files.
Comcast has said the aim of the meter is not to charge customers for excess bandwidth, although repeated offenders will be asked to be moved onto other services or risk losing their service.
The meter moves come as the company launches its campaign to rebrand its broadband services under the new name, Xfinity.