• by Wendy Davis , Staff Writer @wendyndavis, July 14, 2011

Earlier this week, blogger Andre Vrignaud posted an account of how he inadvertently exceeded Comcast's bandwidth cap by uploading his photos and music files to the cloud. After going over Comcast's limit on two occasions, the company disconnected him for one year.

What's more, he writes, even though Comcast says that people who need to consume more than 250 GB per month can sign up for its (more expensive) business service, the company isn't allowing him to do so. The reason? Having been disconnected for going over the cap, he is foreclosed from subscribing to Comcast for broadband for 12 months.

Vrignaud's experience shows why the Federal Communications Commission needs to investigate the data cap policies of Internet service providers, three advocacy groups say in a letter to FCC chairman Julius Genachowski.

"The case of Andre Vrignaud is a stunning illustration of how these data cap policies undercut the values espoused in the National Broadband Plan," the Future of Music Coalition, New America Foundation's Open Technology Initiative and Public Knowledge write. The groups add that Vrignaud's explanation -- uploading music files and photos -- "represents an entirely plausible and legitimate use of a residential broadband internet connection."

The groups add: "Strict data caps are an industry trend that works to undermine the benefits of broadband that this Commission so enthusiastically champions."

Public Knowledge and the other organizations add that broadband caps appear to be gaining in popularity. AT&T recently imposed caps on DSL users, and Verizon reportedly is considering caps for FiOS customers.

These advocacy groups rightly point out that these caps raise significant questions. The biggest is whether they are warranted at all. ISPs often talk about network congestion, but whether these bandwidth caps -- which certainly seem arbitrary -- really address any legitimate problems is far from clear.