sfsuphysics
[H]F Junkie
- Joined
- Jan 14, 2007
- Messages
- 15,997
1.2 TB is a lot depending on your circumstance. In most cases, i.e. those without jobs that require absolutely MASSIVE amounts of data transfer which to be honest most people do not have, most data usage is going to be entertainment related. Kids/adults on zoom meetings for a good portion of the day aren't going to use terribly much data in the grand scheme of things. But if you have 3 kids (and adults) all streaming 4k videos because everyone has a TV and wants to watch something different then yeah it's going to chew through that data in no time when they're always home, downloading multiple massive games in a month yeah it'll eat it up pretty good. Now my kid streams way too much TV... but it's mostly cartoons that probably can be compressed quite a bit when colors are very uniform, and I'm ashamed to admit I watch way too many youtube videos, but only in 1080, and I'm not sure what my wife does on her phone most the day, but I'm sure it compresses the crap out of most of what she does, and we're hitting about 600GB/month over the past 4 months. So add a 4k household to that, more people viewing, then yeah you totally can hit it.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.
Is it a cash grab? Hasn't it always been that in some way? At least the argument for a relatively dense area like I live in is that they went cheap with the backbone, so can't have people sucking at that teet constantly or everyone suffers.
I currently pay $60/month for 600Mbps download through Xfinity, unfortunately their Gig speed still has the 1.2TB data limit here, also have the option of AT&T Gig speeds too, not sure how much it cost not too long ago (pre-covid) they had a fantastic deal for $40/month for gig (plus $10/month equipment rental that's mandatory I think), and they do give unlimited (last I checked) for that tier I think the price has gone up a bit, and luckily *knocks on wood*, that has kept Xfinity in check with rampant price hikes. The only real cling to Xfinity I have now is the fact my wife and I have cell service through them, that costs $12/month for as many phones as we want (ends up being about $23/month after all taxes and fees), however it's a 1GB shared usage plan, which isn't a problem because we tend to not do heavy data usage when away from wifi hot spots (home, work, or just about in general) which it automatically uses over cell service more than enough to look at whatever websites I want, I just don't watch videos when I'm out, now compare to before when we had ghetto MetroPCS it cost $70/month for 2 phones to have unlimited data that we never got close to using even a 1GB each, it really was a no brainer to ditch the expensive phone plan for a cheaper one. So ultimately my total "connectivity" cost is about $83/month, which is what I use when comparing different options, not just what does the internet cost me, it has to be internet + phone. I don't pay for TV because yeah fuck that shit, and all the local taxes and fees that get tacked onto that crap.