Of the many blogs that I read, several consistently attract my attention. One of these is Consumerist.

Of the many stories that they’ve been following, one has peaked piqued my interest as I consider the future of Joost and IPTV: that of “unlimited Internet.” According to the outlet, it seems as though Comcast’s unlimited Internet access is limited to under 300 GBs.

“Comcast accused Frank of downloading 305GB in November and 297GB in December. It’s Comcast’s policy to suspend any account that exceeds usage limits twice in any year. Doesn’t Comcast advertise unlimited use? What are the usage caps? Comcast representatives would only say ‘I’m sorry but I cannot divulge that information.’”

Frank has been banned from Comcast for a full year.

Now, I know what you’re wondering: “But who would ever use 300 GBs of data in a month?”

According to my calculations, if you happen to use Joost, a little iTunes here and there, and maybe some legal BitTorrent, you could be in danger of hitting this 300 GB cap as well.

Joost’s website makes the following claim:

“The software downloads about 320MB per hour (as a maximum) and uploads up to 105 MB per hour.”

The downloading occurs whether you are either actively or passively using the service. So, whether you’re watching or not, as long as you have the application open, you’re using this bandwidth.

So, say you have Joost open for 10 hours a day — perhaps hacked on your Apple TV. Congrats: You’re 1/3 of the way towards being kicked off of Comcast for a year. Add some BitTorrent. Add video podcasts. Add iTunes movie downloads at a gig apiece. Throw YouTube into the mix. Then multiple that by the number of computers in your household. Problems? I’d say.

Now, imagine how many users have the potential to be banned for a year based on this policy. The limit on this bandwidth usage can seriously bring the future of IPTV into doubt.

Is Comcast likely to lighten up? Make business deals with Joost? Hardly. Remember — they’re trying to protect a business model here. So, why would they be likely to concede their turf to IPTV?

Yet, thinking about the demands for IPTV, it’s mainly because the current cable offerings are horrible. In my Comcast experiences, DVR is generally awful an unreliable, programming menus are outdated, On Demand menus freeze constantly, and the user interface is always terrible. It’s the lack of competition that is stifling the innovation of traditional television.

So, my prediction: an ensuing battle between Joost/IPTV and cable providers such as Comcast. However, should cable providers begin to punish their subscribers for choosing alternatives, someone’s going to look like a real jerk. Instead, they need to wise up, understand the cause for the future IPTV craze, and encorporate those demands in their future offerings.

And by the way, how’s that TiVo/Comcast deal coming? Been waiting for that for the last…oh, two years, ever since I had to return my TiVo because my Comcast cable box’s “auto-shut-off” power-save mode (with no option to turn this off) made my TiVo record nothing but a black screen. That was fun.

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