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Cox slows Internet speeds in entire neighborhoods to punish any heavy users

Cox warns customers to lower usage, imposes 10Mbps upload limit on "gigabit" plan.

A pair of scissors cutting an Ethernet cable.

Cox Communications is lowering Net upload speeds in entire neighborhoods to terminate what it considers "excessive usage," in a decision that punishes both heavy Internet users and their neighbors.

Cox, a cable company with about 5.2 million broadband customers in the United states, has been sending notices to some heavy Internet users alert them to use less data and notifying them of neighborhood-wide speed decreases. In the case we will describe in this article, a gigabit client who was paying $50 extra per calendar month for unlimited data was flagged past Cox considering he was using 8TB to 12TB a calendar month.

Cox responded by lowering the upload speeds on the gigabit-download program from 35Mbps to 10Mbps for the client's whole neighborhood. Cox confirmed to Ars that it has imposed neighborhood-wide slowdowns in multiple neighborhoods in cases similar this one just didn't say how many excessive users are enough to trigger a speed subtract.

Mike, a Cox customer from Gainesville, Florida, pays $150 a month, including $100 for 1Gbps download speeds and 35Mbps upload speeds, and another $50 for "unlimited data" so that he tin go over Cox's 1TB data cap. Mike told Ars via e-mail that most of his 8TB+ monthly use consists of scheduled device backups and "data sharing via various (encrypted) data-sharing protocols," such as peer-to-peer networks, between 1am and 8am. (We agreed to publish Mike'south offset name only only reviewed his bills and confirmed the basic details of his business relationship with Cox.)

Generally speaking, data usage for nearly households declines significantly during those 1am-8am overnight hours, so a robustly built broadband network should exist able to handle the traffic. In whatsoever instance, Mike couldn't use more than 35Mbps for uploads at whatever given fourth dimension because that's the limit Cox always imposed on its gigabit-download cable plan. Mike said his household's daytime and evening use is more than similar a typical Internet user's, with work-from-domicile activities during the mean solar day and streaming video in high-definition during the evening.

Mike also said his level of Internet usage has been roughly the same for the past four years that he's been using Cox—only it was simply in mid-May that the company flagged him for excessive use. This may suggest that Cox is struggling to handle pandemic-level broadband traffic, but Cox says that the vast majority of its network is "performing very well."

Cox provided a little more item after this story published, maxim that the neighborhood-wide slowdowns and disconnection threats sent to private customers "are two separate initiatives that could cross over in some cases."

(Clarification: Mike's nightly uploads solitary couldn't have accounted for more than one-half of his monthly 8TB+ usage if his upload speeds were capped at 35Mbps; seven hours of nightly uploads at that rate would amount to about 3.3TB per month. The nightly uploads may have deemed for almost of his upload usage, nevertheless, as his monthly usage of 8TB to 12TB includes both downloads and uploads. Assuming Mike was also downloading heavily during those 1-8am hours, then the overnight usage including both downloads and uploads would account for nigh of his overall data usage.)

"Scheduled for termination"

First, Mike got three calls from Cox including 1 that left a voicemail saying, "we need to speak with you regarding your Cyberspace usage. Your home is using an extraordinarily high amount of Net information and adjustments need to be made immediately." The voicemail warned that your "Internet will be scheduled for termination" unless usage reductions are "made within five days," according to Mike.

Mike explained how he responded:

Since I work from home, I naturally was very concerned they would pull the plug on me and I'd exist unable to work. Immediately calling the number [provided in the voicemail], I was funneled direct to a department for "questions well-nigh your contempo Internet speed changes," and spoke with a representative there. He went on to explain that their network is overburdened and since I was an above-average user, I was beingness targeted to lower my usage or else take my business relationship terminated... I tried to explain that my usage is not out of the ordinary for me. My 24-hour interval-time bandwidth usage is paltry (most of my bandwidth consumption is scheduled from 1am-8am), and that Cox should have been upgrading their infrastructure instead of oversubscribing nodes and pocketing the record revenue. I was told if I did non make a substantial decrease in my upload information usage, my service would be terminated.

Comments in a Reddit thread last month confirm that Mike isn't the just Cox customer beingness warned to cut upload speeds in order to avoid beingness kicked off the network. Cox didn't tell Mike exactly how much data he'd have to shave off his monthly usage. There was "no magic number or threshold, just an arbitrary amount of subtract, a Cox-accounted 'good endeavor,'" or his service would exist cutting off, he said.

Soon after that phone call, Mike received an email from Cox with the subject line, "Alert: Action required to continue your Internet service." Mike provided Ars with a re-create of the e-mail.

"We've recently tried getting in bear upon with you lot about your service—your account has been identified every bit using an extremely loftier level of bandwidth, which is causing a negative impact on our network and our other customers across your neighborhood," the email said. Mike'southward "extraordinarily high" upload usage "is negatively impacting Internet service of other customers, which is a violation of our Acceptable Use Policy, the electronic mail said. The policy contains a broad prohibition on transmitting amounts of data large plenty to disrupt the network, but it doesn't specify an amount.

The real kicker is that Cox'southward email to Mike said that everyone in his neighborhood will get lower upload speeds until July 15:

During these unprecedented times, many people are working and schooling from home, and maintaining connectivity is of import. We are working to provide a positive Net feel for everyone, so we've adapted our Gigablast upload speeds in your neighborhood from 35Mbps to 10Mbps, now through July xv, 2020. Your download speeds accept non changed.

Cox's email doesn't specifically land that Mike's usage spurred the decision to impose a neighborhood-wide slowdown, but this is apparently only happening in a small per centum of neighborhoods where Cox has seen heavier use than elsewhere in its network.

Questions for Cox

This raises several questions that nosotros asked Cox. We asked the cablevision company why its network is "unable to handle Mike's uploads in the center of the night" and whether information technology has "considered adding capacity to its network instead of forcing unlimited-data customers to use less data." Nosotros asked Cox how much data, specifically, customers who pay for unlimited information are really allowed to use, and "Why isn't Mike immune to utilize unlimited information when he is paying for the highest speeds and paying extra for unlimited data?"

We also asked why Cox is imposing slowdowns throughout unabridged neighborhoods instead of simply on the people allegedly violating the Acceptable Use Policy and whether the slowdowns are imposed even when but a single customer in a neighborhood is flagged for excessive usage. We as well asked how many people in Mike's neighborhood are affected by the upload-speed decrease and whether they will become discounts to reverberate their reduced service.

Cox didn't provide as much detail as nosotros were looking for, but information technology confirmed the neighborhood-wide speed decreases, saying it has "identified a small-scale number of neighborhoods where operation can be improved for all customers in the neighborhood past temporarily increasing or maintaining download speeds and changing upload speeds for some of our service tiers."

Cox defended the temporary 10Mbps upload speed for its gigabit-download plan, maxim that "10Mbps is plenty of speed for the vast bulk of customers to continue their regular activity and have a positive experience." Of form, customers paying extra for Cox'south fastest program and unlimited data are more likely to be outliers who do need high upstream bandwidth. Unlike fiber-to-the-dwelling house service, in which ISPs offer symmetrical upstream and downstream speeds, cable service mostly has much lower uploads than downloads. Cox offers symmetrical gigabit speeds in some areas where it has deployed fiber directly to homes but provides slower upload speeds on its cable network. Cablevision users may eventually get symmetrical upload and download speeds from an upgrade to DOCSIS, the Data Over Cablevision Service Interface Specification.

A Cox webpage that was updated on Apr 30 says that the gigabit plan'due south upload speeds are at present "10Mbps in limited areas to support consistent service across customers during periods of sustained increased Internet usage."

The at present-repealed net neutrality rules probable wouldn't have prevented this kind of data slowdown, as the slowdown would presumably fall nether an exception for "reasonable network management." But the Obama-era organization in which ISPs were regulated as common carriers gave more than rights to consumers to mutter about unreasonable rates and practices, perhaps giving actress impetus to ISPs to upgrade their networks instead of limiting their users. Cox is a private visitor and thus doesn't study network-upgrade spending publicly, simply major ISPs such as Comcast, AT&T, and Lease have reduced network spending since the FCC repealed its net neutrality rules and common-carrier regulation. (Update: Harold Feld, senior VP of consumer-advocacy grouping Public Noesis, says that "Cox's going after unspecified 'excess uploaders' would probably accept violated the enhanced disclosure rules under the 2015 net neutrality order.")

Cox told Ars that information technology "volition continue to piece of work with anyone who is violating our Acceptable Use Policy with excessive apply to help ensure everyone tin can have a positive Cyberspace experience."

Cox says network "performing very well"

Cox told Ars its "network is performing very well overall" during the pandemic, and that out of 28,000 neighborhood nodes across the US, 98 to 99 per centum "are performing with adequate capacity fifty-fifty with the tremendous level of increased peak usage." If Cox's v.2 million paying broadband customers are spread equally across nodes, each node would serve about 185 households.

Cox said that it always "keep[s] a close eye at the individual node level to make certain nosotros don't arroyo whatsoever congestion thresholds and need to make any adjustments. Like to our normal process, if we see the network reach or exceed utilization thresholds nosotros volition accelerate network upgrade plans in the impacted areas. This could include splitting nodes, pulling additional fiber, equipment swaps and/or core network changes, all of which add capacity to the surface area."

Just those measures plain aren't enough to handle users like Mike, Cox said:

In some instances a number of excessive users, like the customer yous referenced, are causing congestion problems in a minor number of neighborhoods by utilizing over 100-200 times more upstream bandwidth than the average household. This type of excessive usage is negatively impacting the service of other customers, which is a violation of our Acceptable Utilize Policy. It is not our want to stop anyone's service, simply we may need to address excessive usage out of fairness to the rest of our customers, especially during this time when households are even more than dependent on a good Internet feel...

In the case of the customer y'all mentioned, nosotros have communicated with him almost our concerns and it appears he has fabricated adjustments to his usage to operate within our Acceptable Utilise Policy.

Mike confirmed to Ars that he has lowered his use by limiting overnight upload speeds to 400kbps, "so that it is always throttled." His usage in the 2.5 weeks since May 22 is ii.1TB, putting him well beneath his usual monthly pace.

Pandemic spurs actress broadband use

Broadband networks have mostly held upwards well during the pandemic. Cablevision-lobby group NCTA, which represents Cox and other cable companies, says that "networks are engineered to provide superior performance throughout the solar day" and that "provider-backbone networks have significant capacity and bear witness no signs of congestion." Since March 1, NCTA says that top upstream traffic has risen 26.two percentage and peak download traffic has risen 9.1 percent.

Cox told u.s.a. that "a small percentage of nodes... were approaching congestion levels prior to" the pandemic, and that "the dramatically increased use in those neighborhoods has pushed [them] across the threshold where operation will be impacted. These speed adjustments are temporary while we effort to keep as many people as possible connected during the crunch."

Mike said he suspects Cox is limiting upload speeds "because their network can't handle the increase of residential live video conference streaming" that has happened during the pandemic. Recently, Mike said he has been seeing upload speeds of merely 4Mbps to 5Mbps.

Coming shortly: A cost increase

Mike'southward bill is currently lower than usual considering Cox, similar other ISPs, is providing unlimited data to all customers during the pandemic. The waiver of the $50 monthly unlimited-data charge temporarily knocked his beak down to $100, and Cox provided a further $20 discount on his latest bill. Mike's neb doesn't explain the reason for the $20 credit, but information technology could exist because of the new upload data limit.

But Cox is already signaling that Mike is in for a price increase in the nearly future. Today, Mike told Ars that "I just got an warning after logging in that my one-year introduction rate is now over, so I'll be paying $175 a month for 'unlimited' data once the current data-overage exceptions expire. Yay."

This article was updated after publication with boosted responses from Cox.