Quote Originally Posted by Downdrop View Post
Comcast won't lose business over it. Square Enix will. This isn't a problem localized to just Comcast. It's a problem with Level3 which multiple ISP's use to route their traffic. Even if those who have the option of multiple providers switch to a new one, the chances are given that their geographical location has not changed, their internet routes will still use the same backbones.

Essentially that means the only two true ways to tackle this problem as a Square Enix customer is to move to an entirely different city, somewhere that bypasses the Level3 nodes causing issues, or to pay separate fees for a VPN which also I'm not going to do. If I have to pay for a VPN to use a service I'm already paying for, that's when I call it quits. Obviously the VPN is a much cheaper more viable solution but one that a subscription fee based service should not be forcing on their customers because of their poor choice of datacenter locale.
Level 3 is indeed the Problem, and maybe SE's CSP. At this point however decent VPNs are actually pretty cheap and I think using them is a good alternative. Level 3 bases their contracts with the ISPs off of the amount of traffic they carry. Access to a VPN, atm, can be less than 10 bucks a month. That's like 2 lattes. It is also one less person using Level 3 nodes. The more people who use them the more Level 3 looses, the less money they can ask for in the next contract... so they are essentially forced to upgrade their nodes. It's how Capitalism works... Competition and right now the only competition with level 3 are VPNs, for the most part. Also SE isn't the only one with this issue... Trion has had it as well thanks to Level 3.