It’s the end of the Internet as we know it. Back when I was in middle school, AOL was sending out free CDs for X number of minutes free on their dialup internet service. Quickly that gave way to all-you-can-eat world wide web buffet that we know and love today.

But (cue ominous drums) now this is extinct. On October 1st, a major supplier of high-speed broadband internet, Comcast, will start restricting it’s service. They aren’t restricting it as in the early days — by time — they are restricting it by bandwidth. According to the Washington Post, Comcast will be allowing 250GB of content to be transferred per month.

Granted, 250GB is a lot of bandwidth and you’re only likely to run up against that limit if you do things like download and watch movies online from Netflix, frequently use your Apple TV, maintain a website that has a lot of media content, play intense online games for hours on end, live on YouTube, or a variety of other tasks. Your basic idea of get online to check email, stocks, and news isn’t going to hit the limit.

Comcast, like a few other small cable companies, are implementing these restrictions because their network is shared. You share bandwidth with your neighbor. As such, when your neighbor watches Netflix, your internet connection goes to pot. Rather than upgrade their infrastructure — or subversively block P2P file sharing as they have in the past — this is Comcast’s solution.

My solution is to never use Comcast again and I suggest that you do the same. For those lucky enough to live in Verizon’s FiOS network area — switch to them. If you’re not, switch to DSL anyway. While 250GB is enough for most users now, this is a dangerous precedent. As more users come online and Comcast realizes that a 250GB cap is not reducing network usage significantly — that cap will come down. Eventually you will be paying a set amount per month, then $X.00 per gigabyte. Since Comcast is amending your Terms of Service, you should be able to get out of any early termination fees if you press hard enough.

In a similar article by news.com Comcast will “not [provide] any tools to help users monitor their current usage. An FAQ on Comcast’s support site simply suggests that customers do a ‘Web search’ for bandwidth metering software that will track this amount for them.”

So, what happens if you violate the (currently set at) 250GB cap? According to the Washington Post article first-time violators will be given a “warning call” from customer service. On the second offense, your Comcast account may be suspended for a calendar year.

To Comcast: I sincerely hope your subscribers do not agree with these new terms and as such take their business elsewhere if at all possible.