Comcast puts data caps on unlimited plans

[cpr3584]

Wednesday, Oct 7

Comcast, the largest cable company in America, is not at all happy about people that are throwing out the pay TV and just streaming content from others, according to Channel 2 Consumer Advisor Clark Howard.
He says that’s why Comcast is experimenting with data caps, meaning your unlimited internet is no longer unlimited under this experiment.
What happens is you will get a notice from Comcast saying you're using too much Internet. The notice will tell you that if you keep doing it they’re going to bill you for overages.
Comcast has created a data calculator that you can use to calculate the estimated amount you use each month.
The experiment is happening in Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Maine, Mississippi, Tennessee and South Carolina.

[MaCruz]

Data cap usage has been suspened in my area from what I remember was during the summer Olympics back in 2012.

Before that, the threshold was 250 GB a month. We were told back then in 2011 that if we went over I3 billing periods if I recall. That they would suspend our internet for a year. That was back then though and now instead of of cutting off internet usage, they will just charge households overage fees.

I really dislike Comcast even more because of a situation we had during installation during the summer when we moved which we finally resolved with them a few weeks back, but it's the best most reliable internet here in my area

[Bodyslide]

The Trial has ended...So once Google Fiber gets here in 2 years I'm gone...

[dubious]

Atlanta market has been on the 300GB cap since Dec. 2013. It was uncapped briefly for about a year prior to that, and the previous cap prior to 2012 had been 250GB.

[Bodyslide]

The cap needs to be based on what service you have. For the Lower tiers 300 GB, might be enough. But for the 105 above tiers it needs to go up to atleast 600 GB. Just my two Cents. If Fiber doesn't get here in 2017 when my current deal is up, I might switch over to Business Class.

[GuyIncognito]

This is exactly what I have been expecting for years and is the reason why I don't like to "purchase" digital content. You never truly own it if you have to pay monthly to access it later.

[steve_dave]

Originally Posted by GuyIncognito

This is exactly what I have been expecting for years and is the reason why I don't like to "purchase" digital content. You never truly own it if you have to pay monthly to access it later.

Huh? You aren't being charged for your digital movies every month. This is worse as it is the dark side of net neutrality. Comcast is joining AT&T, HughesNet, and other providers in capping your data usage for the home.

Most cel providers already do that but home internet pretty much stayed unlimited. Then someone, somewhere had the genius idea to put a limit on it. After that, more someones, somewhere higher said "Good idea! Do it."

Regardless of whether it's a digital music stream, digital music download, digital movie stream, digital movie download, game streaming, game downloading, or just emails: it ALL counts against that cap.

I have a 250gb cap so I can stream music and video quite a bit. But I have PS+ and if they give me a console game, that's anywhere from 4gbs to 50gbs of data. And that doesn't include the requisite game updates. I plan to get an XBox One with Live and well, Tomb Raider: Definitive is free this month and over 30gbs. So it's the data cap is going to hurt gamers first.

Folks streaming 4K video or even downloading it will be secondary casualties. And good luck to those audiophiles downloading High Resolution lossless music.

[kidkash]

My limit is 300 right now. I didn't know for the first few months cause they waved the fees, then boom $10 bucks for 50 extra gbs. It blows HARD!

[Zu Nim]

Originally Posted by steve_dave

This is worse as it is the dark side of net neutrality. Comcast is joining AT&T, HughesNet, and other providers in capping your data usage for the home.

It's a lack of competition and and has nothing to do with net neutrality. We can thank our legislators for that.

[steve_dave]

Originally Posted by Zu Nim

It's a lack of competition and and has nothing to do with net neutrality. We can thank our legislators for that.

I was referring to the "all data is the same data" part of net neutrality. T-Mobile is being accused of going against net neutrality by allowing data used for specific apps to be excused from their high-speed data allotment.

I have T-Mobile so when I stream from Google Play, it doesn't take away from my 2.5gb 3G/4G allowance. But if I listen to MixMusic then it does use data from that bucket.

In this case, home providers are being net neutral by saying any data use is going to count against your cap. Be it 50,000,000 emails or 50,000,000,000 social posts.

[Zu Nim]

Originally Posted by steve_dave

I was referring to the "all data is the same data" part of net neutrality. T-Mobile is being accused of going against net neutrality by allowing data used for specific apps to be excused from their high-speed data allotment.

I have T-Mobile so when I stream from Google Play, it doesn't take away from my 2.5gb 3G/4G allowance. But if I listen to MixMusic then it does use data from that bucket.

In this case, home providers are being net neutral by saying any data use is going to count against your cap. Be it 50,000,000 emails or 50,000,000,000 social posts.

Yes, what you are describing is not a dark side to net neutrality. All traffic should be equal and subject to the same terms with some exceptions for technical or emergency reasons.

The problem is the bandwidth cap and that's due to a lack of competition. Wireline facilities are not like wireless ones. Data is not a resource that requires metering like electricity or water. Metering serves the companies' interests because the customer base has limited choices.

[steve_dave]

Originally Posted by Zu Nim

The problem is the bandwidth cap and that's due to a lack of competition. Wireline facilities are not like wireless ones. Data is not a resource that requires metering like electricity or water. Metering serves the companies' interests because the customer base has limited choices.

That is all true but money is the great decider. And that is both good.and bad.

[mike568]

Charter has a 250 GB cap but I don't think they enforce it or legally can since they don't tell you how much data you have used.

[GuyIncognito]

Originally Posted by steve_dave

Huh? You aren't being charged for your digital movies every month. This is worse as it is the dark side of net neutrality. Comcast is joining AT&T, HughesNet, and other providers in capping your data usage for the home.

Most cel providers already do that but home internet pretty much stayed unlimited. Then someone, somewhere had the genius idea to put a limit on it. After that, more someones, somewhere higher said "Good idea! Do it."

Regardless of whether it's a digital music stream, digital music download, digital movie stream, digital movie download, game streaming, game downloading, or just emails: it ALL counts against that cap.

I have a 250gb cap so I can stream music and video quite a bit. But I have PS+ and if they give me a console game, that's anywhere from 4gbs to 50gbs of data. And that doesn't include the requisite game updates. I plan to get an XBox One with Live and well, Tomb Raider: Definitive is free this month and over 30gbs. So it's the data cap is going to hurt gamers first.

Folks streaming 4K video or even downloading it will be secondary casualties. And good luck to those audiophiles downloading High Resolution lossless music.

I know Vudu, iTunes, etc doesn't charge me but I have to pay for Internet monthly in order to access my library which is my point. Internet prices can increase and/or bandwidth be limited which means you may not be able to view your "purchase" whenever you want.

The reason it was put into place is because Internet providers are already upset at services like Netflix and Hulu for causing a strain on their infrastructure. They are wanting those companies to compensate for having to upgrade their network but Netflix is telling them no.

It really comes down to ISPs not wanting to live up to what they advertise that they can provide. They sell us 100mbps service but know that the only way they can actually provide it is if people don't use it all at once. When Netflix popped up, more and more people started streaming at the same times (after work and such) which meant people were realizing that they were not getting what they were being sold. So ISPs have to upgrade their system and they are blaming streaming services. Streaming services are saying they aren't going to pay for other people using ISP service to access their own service. They are already getting money from the customer in order to access their ISP. Their only recourse is to put a cap on people and throttle bandwidth.

[schan1269]

Getting ready to get MediaCom cable internet...

100/10 with a 999g cap...

$80/month.

[BlakkMajik3000]

Not sure about everywhere else, but here Cox has bandwidth limits that correspond to the level of service. They recently upped their limits to what I consider very generous thresholds:

Starter 150 GB
Essential 250 GB
Preferred 350 GB
Premier 700 GB
Ultimate 2TB
Gigablast (Not available where I am) 2TB

I was on Ultimate back when the limit was 400GB, and they upped the limit shortly after I added TV back to my account and downgraded my internet to Preferred. I am considering going back to a higher tier if/when I embrace 4K.