Comcast data caps are coming in January all over the place

  • Thread starter Deleted member 89018
  • Start date
D

Deleted member 89018

Guest
Friend with Comcast just got a letter about this change. Of course he doesn’t have another option for an ISP in his area, and of course he’s working from home and his kids are schooling from home, and of course new consoles with digital downloads for the games just launched.


Starting in March 2021, customers not on an unlimited data plan who exceed 1.2 TB in a month will have a one-time courtesy month credit under the plan applied to their accounts, and will be responsible for any data overage changes after that. Blocks of 50 GB will automatically be added to customers' accounts for an additional fee of $10 each plus tax. Charges will not exceed $100 each month, no matter how much data a customer uses. *Includes the states of CT, DE, MA, MD, ME, NH, NJ, parts of NC, NY, parts of OH, PA, VA, VT, WV, and the District of Columbia.

So basically, if you’re using a lot of internet, expect up to an extra $100/month on your bill.

a few choice entries from their q&a:


Will unused data be applied to a future month?
Unused data will not be applied to a future month.

Of course it won’t.


If I upgrade my speed, will I get more data?
No.

Naturally.

Now I realize 1.2tb is “a lot” of data to most average users, but for my friend, working from home with 3 kids schooling from home frequently, he has exceeded that the last 3 months in a row. His letter included an option to remove the cap by paying an extra $30/month, which I can’t find on their website. Might require that you’re logged in to your account to see that, but I don’t have Comcast so I can’t check.

My opinion? This is just an obvious cash grab. It’s unlikely they’re going to be adding new customers very often at this point since so many people already have internet, so they’re just trying to find a way to make more off of what they have. Not letting people “roll over” unused data from month to month is expected because they’re on an “unlimited” plan, but putting a cap on an “unlimited” plan doesn’t make it unlimited, imo.

I would rather they just get classified as proper utilities and accept that. Spin their ISP division off to a separate company and charge some kind of rate based on whatever statistics some impartial regulators can determine. Comcast’s own numbers say less than 95% of their customers use 1.2tb of data in a month, so I propose we start at, say, $5/100gb and go from there.
 
Switched from Comcast to WOW because I got gigabit cheaper and with no data cap. Also no "add this and that". Just want pure internet.

We'll see how long that lasts.
 
vegeta535 said:
Don't think Verizon doesn't have the same idea. Only takes one company to pull the trigger and the rest will follow.
Click to expand...
comcast has had caps for probably a decade at this point. As far as I know verizon never has. Comcast literally has a problem on their hands that if their customers all used that much data and then some, the copper wire wouldn't be able to sustain the speeds of their plans. Fios doesn't have that problem with fiber.
 
mnewxcv said:
comcast has had caps for probably a decade at this point. As far as I know verizon never has. Comcast literally has a problem on their hands that if their customers all used that much data and then some, the copper wire wouldn't be able to sustain the speeds of their plans. Fios doesn't have that problem with fiber.
Click to expand...
Doesn't stop them from doing caps still. Comcast might have had caps for a while but it was only enforced in certain areas. Most weren't strictly enforced.
 
vegeta535 said:
Doesn't stop them from doing caps still. Comcast might have had caps for a while but it was only enforced in certain areas. Most weren't strictly enforced.
Click to expand...
of course, but they likely understand that people's data need is going to go up as time goes on, as more people stream 4k to 4k tvs, and stream games on their new xbox/ps5. And working remotely/video conferencing. 1.2tb is not going to go far. 40GB a day. Comcast in many locations has the luxury of being the only provider in town with broadband. Verizon doesn't have that luxury, so they need to be 'better' in some way than the competition they face, comcast, cox etc, to obtain and retain customers that would otherwise use competitor ISPs. So they either have to be cheaper or better. Not have a data cap keeps them in the better category, all else equal.
 
1.2TB isn't "low" but it isn't exceedingly generous, either. When someone, maybe T-Mobile started slowing people's data down after some huge number to basically stop people from turning their $30/month phone plan in to a massive torrent seedbox, it made sense to me.

But this? Go fuck yourselves.
At my old place Comcast was cheaper and slightly faster than the local guys. Then after the introductory rate the price skyrocketed, like twice the price. It included all this crap I never used like cable and phone BS and something good like 75Mbps. They didn't even offer a cheaper internet-only plan except for one that was like $10/month cheaper for 5Mbps or something.

Called the other guys up -- they stopped providing in that apartment complex. Wonder if Comcast's bait-and-switch price undercutting had anything to do with that.

When we moved the same thing happened and I said f no. Never again. Business gonna business but ffs, you own the whole grid, if you're going to fleece the nation at least give us a bone too.
 
mnewxcv said:
comcast has had caps for probably a decade at this point. As far as I know verizon never has. Comcast literally has a problem on their hands that if their customers all used that much data and then some, the copper wire wouldn't be able to sustain the speeds of their plans. Fios doesn't have that problem with fiber.
Click to expand...
And there’s the problem - keep selling higher speed plans to push that stock price up just a bit further all in the name of physically unsustainable “growth”.

Comcast should’ve spent that extra money on upgrading infrastructure and researching network topologies. But no, instead let’s charge customers who have no other options (since btw we spent all that extra money on lobbying yolololol).
 
schoolslave said:
And there’s the problem - keep selling higher speed plans to push that stock price up just a bit further all in the name of physically unsustainable “growth”.

Comcast should’ve spent that extra money on upgrading infrastructure and researching network topologies. But no, instead let’s charge customers who have no other options (since btw we spent all that extra money on lobbying yolololol).
Click to expand...
the data cap overage charge is the toll to fund the greater infrastructure. Just, once it's complete, you will still forever pay the toll.
 
It use to be $50 for unlimited prior to the pandemic, so the pricing has gotten a little better. I am kind of screwed as I can get CenturyLink 12Mb service for $50 unlimited, or I can get 300Mb from Comcast/Xfinity for $100 unlimited ($70 for service and $30 for unlimited).
 
deruberhanyok said:
My opinion? This is just an obvious cash grab. It’s unlikely they’re going to be adding new customers very often at this point since so many people already have internet, so they’re just trying to find a way to make more off of what they have. Not letting people “roll over” unused data from month to month is expected because they’re on an “unlimited” plan, but putting a cap on an “unlimited” plan doesn’t make it unlimited, imo.
Click to expand...
I'll play devil's advocate here, mainly with the idea of data caps. Comcast is not a Tier 1 provider, being that they have to pay someone else for the Internet access they provide to end users. Comcast is a middle-man per se, between their customers and AT&T, Verizon, Lumen, etc. The more data that Comcast's customers use, the more it costs Comcast to provide that data to them. It's perfectly reasonable then for Comcast to charge tiered rates based on what their cost is - supply and demand at work. Comcast needs to purchase more data access to keep up with the demand from their customers.

Now, I do believe the way they are going about it is bad, they are Concast after all, one of the most despised companies in the USA.
 
ChadD said:
Wow US internet blows. I have been using probably a terrabyte a month for a decade at least. Sucks for people who have zero other options.
Click to expand...

It all depends on where you live. If you live somewhere that has competition, you are mostly immune to these problems.

This tends to be wealthier areas in or around large cities.

In most other areas you are pretty much SoL. You have one Internet provider, and their take is more or less "if you don't like it, go somewhere else".

This is another area that could use some serious regulation.
 
Zarathustra[H] said:
It all depends on where you live. If you live somewhere that has competition, you are mostly immune to these problems.

This tends to be wealthier areas in or around large cities.

In most other areas you are pretty much SoL. You have one Internet provider, and their take is more or less "if you don't like it, go somewhere else".

This is another area that could use some serious regulation.
Click to expand...
Many small towns will sign exclusive deals for an ISP. So you have no competition, and won't ever have any until that contract is up.
 
ChadD said:
Wow US internet blows. I have been using probably a terrabyte a month for a decade at least. Sucks for people who have zero other options.
Click to expand...

Welcome to broadband in the USofA

"Two large providers — Comcast and Charter — control more than half of American cable broadband connections. And, since they operate in separate regions and do not compete against each other, the majority of Americans have no choice of cable broadband provider"

Competition Policy and Antitrust Law | Public Knowledge : Public Knowledge
 
Verge said:
Many small towns will sign exclusive deals for an ISP. So you have no competition, and won't ever have any until that contract is up.
Click to expand...

Yeah, it's a tough nut to crack.

Many towns are concerned that they either won't get served at all, or only their wealthier neighborhoods will get served, so they sign monopoly agreements in exchange for the ISP promising that they will serve the entire town.

Monopolies are usually never a good idea, but they are made worse by the fact that the local officials entering into these agreements are rarely tech savvy enough to know to add things like "no data cap" clauses and the like...
 
Last edited:
ChadD said:
Wow US internet blows. I have been using probably a terrabyte a month for a decade at least. Sucks for people who have zero other options.
Click to expand...

There is a company called "US Internet" and they were the first in the world to offer consumer 10 gigabit fiber and they are awesome.

It really depends where you are in the United States, some places have great options, and some places suck.
My parents live in a poor small town and have had fiber for 15 years. They also have had options for good cable and many DSL providers. Because their town allows any ISP to run lines and doesn't "make deals" giving any ISPs monopolies like most of the places that have problems have done.
I purposely moved to an area where I have gigabit fiber with no caps or anything stupid like that.

Comcast usually isn't that bad in most areas beyond their prices. Charging extra for data is just a cash grab, the bandwidth limitations Comcast claims are 99% BS. If they really did have bandwidth limitations they would do what ISPs that actually have bandwidth limitations do. Satellite providers give full bandwidth priority to people who haven't used their cap and just throttle you if you go over your cap during peak hours when other people need the bandwidth. During the middle of the night you can download full speed and it doesn't count toward your cap. There are plenty of things Comcast could do if they had a real bandwidth problem, but they just want more money.

Despite the problems when you look at actual stats for internet speeds in other countries the US is pretty good.
 
These caps have been in place in my area for a long time. 1.2TB is actually an upgrade from the 1TB it was prior.

I believe you can pay more for a business account to remove the caps if it's an issue. I have only ever hit it when when downloading 600+GB of "Linux ISOs" for my new "Linux Emulator" PC.
 
Kardonxt said:
These caps have been in place in my area for a long time. 1.2TB is actually an upgrade from the 1TB it was prior.

I believe you can pay more for a business account to remove the caps if it's an issue. I have only ever hit it when when downloading 600+GB of "Linux ISOs" for my new "Linux Emulator" PC.
Click to expand...
IMHO it's business or go home.

You also can get a static ip or block, both IPv4 & IPV6! My friends son has 'gigabit' comcast and his connection has no consistency at all with latency and/or downoad speeds. Sometimes it's 5-6x as fast as my 150Mbit/s. Other times he gets 20Mbit/s. I'll take consistency, thanks.
 
All we have available is Cox.
In the past they used to have 2TB caps for the highest tier but they lowered it to 1TB and raised the tier we had (300Mbps) from 700 to 1TB.
I think it was earlier this year that they upped at least the 300 and 1Gbps tiers to 1.2TB.

Looks like we are using over 3TB per month. oh, cost is $131/mo with the Modem/router rental.

Cox-Data-11-2020.jpg
 
I'd gladly pay that... I have a 10GB cap... And you guys cry about 1.2Tb. lol, sorry, not feeling bad for you that you have to pay $100 (current cost + $30) for unlimited. I pay $80 for 10GB... And average around 1mbps. Sadly this is the best option in my area. Starlink can't come soon enough.
 
Ready4Dis said:
I'd gladly pay that... I have a 10GB cap... And you guys cry about 1.2Tb. lol, sorry, not feeling bad for you that you have to pay $100 (current cost + $30) for unlimited. I pay $80 for 10GB... And average around 1mbps. Sadly this is the best option in my area. Starlink can't come soon enough.
Click to expand...
Yes. If they can keep the latency low I’d switch off Comcast in a heartbeat.
 
Zepher said:
All we have available is Cox.
In the past they used to have 2TB caps for the highest tier but they lowered it to 1TB and raised the tier we had (300Mbps) from 700 to 1TB.
I think it was earlier this year that they upped at least the 300 and 1Gbps tiers to 1.2TB.

Looks like we are using over 3TB per month. oh, cost is $131/mo with the Modem/router rental.

View attachment 302162
Click to expand...

Cox screwed their Ulimate customers when lowering the previous cap from 2 TB to 1 TB. Now like you said it is 1.2 TB for all tiers.

I am so glad I don't have Cox High Speed Internet no more. Was paying $110 for 100/10 speeds with unlimited data addon.

Now $50 a month for 1 Gbps/1 Gbps.
 
jlbenedict said:
Welcome to broadband in the USofA

"Two large providers — Comcast and Charter — control more than half of American cable broadband connections. And, since they operate in separate regions and do not compete against each other, the majority of Americans have no choice of cable broadband provider"

Competition Policy and Antitrust Law | Public Knowledge : Public Knowledge
Click to expand...

Not to mention that towns that have tried to take matters into their own hands and provide community internet at cost for the benefit of their town, have found that industry lobbying groups using some incredible backwards logic have convinced state legislators to ban community internet in many states.

They have determined they make more money if they don't fight each other, so they have divvied up territory like some sort of crime syndicate.

The thing is, I don't know how you solve this. You can't exactly break them up, because of how networks work. You'd have two broken up companies sharing the same lines, which wouldn't work.

Fighting them with community internet town by town would do the trick, but there's the ban thing.

I'd like to see the federal government run backbone lines along every interstate, and sell bandwidth at cost to local ISP's for them to provide last mile service.

I'm normally a free market kind of guy, but the ISP's have just taken it too far. They need to be squashed.
 
Just think of how many next gen consoles will be sold with bluray drives because of something like this.

I think the bluray industry is the one pulling the strings.
 
Comcast has had data caps for a long time here in Northern California. I switched to Comcast Business about 10 years ago because Business Connections have no caps. They didn't offer an unlimited residential option back then, which is probably cheaper than what I was paying for the Business connection. Nice thing about a Business connection though, any time I had an issue I'd have a tech at my front door in less than 45 minutes. Comcast Residential, you'd be lucky if you spend less than 45 minutes on hold on the phone. Also, for some reason, they don't seem to forward DMCA notices to people who spend more on business connections... funny how that works.

But 1.2Tb is nothing. Even traditional DSL connections usually still have a 1TB monthly cap. I think I've used about 15 TB this month so far, and the month isn't even over.
 
doubletake said:
What part of this is news? Honest question, because this has already been in place in some areas for quite some time now, including here in Tx. Is it just that they've finally extended this to include the rest of the country?
Click to expand...

yes. Places it wasn’t happening before, now it’s happening. Seems like everywhere else they weren’t already doing it.

I expect these caps might not come into play in an area where there’s an alternative without a cap, but if Comcast gets away with it then I’d expect everyone to start doing it.
 
Wat said:
Just think of how many next gen consoles will be sold with bluray drives because of something like this.

I think the bluray industry is the one pulling the strings.
Click to expand...
0. A bluray movie cost $30, You're already better off just paying the extra $30 for no cap. Plus on any next gen console you're still going to have download the game or updates if you bought a disc anyways, potentially exceeding your cap no matter what.
 
Thats just what they want you to believe. They see everything.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top