Obviously. But hasn’t Comcast guaranteed those users access to a set service? And if they’re paying for an 8 megabit-per-second connection, shouldn’t they be able to use it whenever and however they please? And shouldn’t that connection always test out at 8Mbps? Or at 12 Mbps when “heavy users” who’ve paid an additional free for Comcast’s PowerBoost upgrade are “downloading large files like videos and games”? After all, that’s what they’re paying upward of $42.95 per month for, isn’t it?

Really, wouldn’t Comcast be better off investing in its network rather than punishing its heaviest users? Wouldn’t it be wiser to accelerate the rollout of that “wideband” network that will reportedly offer speeds of up to 100Mbps over the next two years? Or at the very least, work on consistently providing subscribers with the 6Mbps to 8Mbps it has promised them?

Obviously. But hasn’t Comcast guaranteed those users access to a set service? And if they’re paying for an 8 megabit-per-second connection, shouldn’t they be able to use it whenever and however they please? And shouldn’t that connection always test out at 8Mbps? Or at 12 Mbps when “heavy users” who’ve paid an additional free for Comcast’s PowerBoost upgrade are “downloading large files like videos and games”? After all, that’s what they’re paying upward of $42.95 per month for, isn’t it?

Really, wouldn’t Comcast be better off investing in its network rather than punishing its heaviest users? Wouldn’t it be wiser to accelerate the rollout of that “wideband” network that will reportedly offer speeds of up to 100Mbps over the next two years? Or at the very least, work on consistently providing subscribers with the 6Mbps to 8Mbps it has promised them?

The FCC’s 67-page order (PDF) all but calls Comcast a liar, accusing it of using “verbal gymnastics” to justify its network-management practices, and “unpersuasive” ones, to boot. As expected, the FCC gives Comcast 30 days to explain those practices in detail and how the company plans to change them by year’s end.

And just how does Comcast plan to do that? By slowing Internet service for heavy users for 10 to 20 minutes, regardless of the programs they use, with a new system called “Fair Share.”

So instead of throttling applications, Comcast (CMCSA) will throttle subscribers.

“If, in fact, a person is generating enough packets that they’re the ones creating that situation, we will manage that consumer for the overall good of all of our consumers,” Mitch Bowling, Comcast’s senior vice president and general manager of online services, told Bloomberg. User-throttling would last for “roughly between, probably, 10 and 20 minutes,” Bowling said. After that, the heavy user’s speeds would return to normal–until the next transgression. Said Bowling, “If they continue that, we would have to manage them again.”