Internet users in the United States might be used to slow broadband speeds, especially after the FCC revealed that around 34 million Americans were getting benchmark speed of 25Mbps for downloads, 3Mbps for uploads – a number well below what some internet service providers advertise.
One Internet user, Redditor AlekseyP, decided enough was enough and Comcast had to be made aware of how horrible their internet service was. To make Comcast aware, AlekseyP set up a program on his Raspberry Pi to publicly Tweet at Comcast, showing them his download speeds against the speed he pays for.
"I pay for 150Mbps down and 10Mbps up," said AlekseyP over the weekend. "The Raspberry Pi runs a series of speed tests every hour and stores the data. Whenever the down[load] speed is below 50Mbps the Pi uses a Twitter API to send an automatic tweet to Comcast listing the speeds. I know some people might say I should not be complaining about 50Mbps down, but when they advertise 150 and I get 10-30 I am unsatisfied."
Hey @Comcast why is my internet speed 31down9up when I pay for 150down10up in Washington DC? @ComcastCares @xfinity #comcast #speedtest
— AComcast User (@A_Comcast_User) February 1, 2016
The worst part is, the lowest drops weren't while AlekseyP was downloading something — they came in the dead of night. "Plenty of the drops were during hours when we were not home or everyone was asleep," he wrote.
Anyone that has paid for internet and didn't receive the download speed they had played for knows exactly how annoying this is. AlekseyP is living the dream by calling Comcast out, unfortunately… This hasn't fixed his internet.
"All their customers deserve the speeds they advertise, not just the ones who are able to call them out on their BS."
