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[JORMBO]

I just got an email from Comcast saying for January I’ve used 75% of my “1.2TB data cap”. It says starting in March they will be enforcing a $10 charge per 50gb over. Why is this a thing and why is it capped so low? I leave stuff streaming on all day while I work and some of these games nowadays are huge downloads. I think I might just cancel cable TV and pay their unlimited cap $30 extortion fee with the money saved there.

 

[bender]

They've always had data caps. 1.2TB is actually an increase from the pre-COVID 1TB cap. 1.2TB was introduced after they did away with abandoning data caps all together during the first wave of the pandemic. They do give you one curtesy month per year to go over the cap at no charge (it resets 12 months after your overage) which is down from two curtesy months (no idea when this changed). They have a usage meter on your account so you can look at past months to see if you really need unlimited. The unlimited price has also dropped from $50.00 to $30.00. It sucks but there is no competition in my area.

 

[ArtemisClydeFrog]

Extortion fee? C'mon man they're a small indie company trying to make it through the pandemic like the rest of us.

 

[MayauMiao]

I just got an email from Comcast saying for January I’ve used 75% of my “1.2TB data cap”. It says starting in March they will be enforcing a $10 charge per 50gb over. Why is this a thing and why is it capped so low? I leave stuff streaming on all day while I work and some of these games nowadays are huge downloads. I think I might just cancel cable TV and pay their unlimited cap $30 extortion fee with the money saved there.

You could just download streaming stuff first then have it play repeatedly all day.

 

[JORMBO]

They've always had data caps. 1.2TB is actually an increase from the pre-COVID 1TB cap. 1.2TB was introduced after they did away with abandoning data caps all together during the first wave of the pandemic. They do give you one curtesy month per year to go over the cap at no charge (it resets 12 months after your overage) which is down from two curtesy months (no idea when this changed). They have a usage meter on your account so you can look at past months to see if you really need unlimited. The unlimited price has also dropped from $50.00 to $30.00. It sucks but there is no competition in my area.

Mines always had a 1TB meter but the cap has never been enforced in my state. They are saying starting March they are going to enforce it now and there will be penalties. Looks like this is new for a lot of northeast states in 2021.

1.2TB seems low. I’m just by myself and use around 800gb a month it looks like. This month I’m a bit higher from downloading a bunch of games. I’d imagine a family with a bunch of people working and going to school from home is stuck paying the extra $30.

 

[Virt McPolygon]

If you're gonna stream stuff all day when you're not even watching, maybe you can lower the quality. Otherwise, just switch to podcasts or audio books lol

 

[YCoCg]

Data Caps? What is this, 2006?

 

[The Pleasure]

I gave comcsdt the heave hoe when they raised my bill to 140 a month internet only. Att is giving me gigabit with no data cap at 60 a month. No loyalty to companies. Find a better deal if possible and use that as a negotiation. If you cant then walk out. Like a father going for smokes.

 

[AgentP]

It used to be 1TB, so at least it is better now...

 

[BadBurger]

Write to the FCC. It's Democrat controlled again so good things ahead. Tell them to make data caps a thing of the past as they should be.

 

[Frito_Pendejo]

They've always had data caps. 1.2TB is actually an increase from the pre-COVID 1TB cap. 1.2TB was introduced after they did away with abandoning data caps all together during the first wave of the pandemic. They do give you one curtesy month per year to go over the cap at no charge (it resets 12 months after your overage) which is down from two curtesy months (no idea when this changed). They have a usage meter on your account so you can look at past months to see if you really need unlimited. The unlimited price has also dropped from $50.00 to $30.00. It sucks but there is no competition in my area.

Well, I mean, this isn’t 100% accurate. I was in an area that didn’t have caps up until this January.

 

[Frito_Pendejo]

I just got an email from Comcast saying for January I’ve used 75% of my “1.2TB data cap”. It says starting in March they will be enforcing a $10 charge per 50gb over. Why is this a thing and why is it capped so low? I leave stuff streaming on all day while I work and some of these games nowadays are huge downloads. I think I might just cancel cable TV and pay their unlimited cap $30 extortion fee with the money saved there.

Yep, they fucked me too. I can’t stay under the 1.2 so I had to pay the $30 extra. It’s bullshit and I have no other option in the city where I live.

 

[JORMBO]

Yep, they fucked me too. I can’t stay under the 1.2 so I had to pay the $30 extra. It’s bullshit and I have no other option in the city where I live.

I found an option where I can go unlimited for $25 if I rent a modem from them. That includes the modem rental fee in the total. Since I already rent the modem for $14 the unlimited data is only $11 a month. Still bullshit, but what can I do. It’s also bullshit they charge people like you who (I’m assuming) own their own modem the full $30. The network had no issues when the pandemic began and everyone was at home so there’s no reason to charge for data now.

 

[Moogle11]

Yeah they’ve had caps in my state for years and announced a while back that they were going nationwide with them this year.

Sucks but they’re the only broadband option at our house so we have no choice. Just got on a new 2-year contract (have cable too due to watching a ton of sports and it’s cheaper than going with internet service only and then adding Hulu live or YouTube tv and those have dropped regional fox sports that have our local pro teams games) and added the unlimited data. Ended up $15 more than we were paying rather than the full $30 at least if we’d just added unlisted without a new commitment.

We were already dancing around the cap a lot and that got worse with getting a 4K tv and steaming higher resolution stuff and me downloading more games after getting an XSX and Gamepass.

 

[German Hops]

My educated guess is that 95% of the people don't use 1/10, or even 1/25 of what they are buying. That said, those that do should not be punished, threatened with turnoffs, pay overage or anything else.

The data caps are ridiculous. For 100 bucks a month I should be able to use more than 13.3 gigs a day if I want to. We don't need to sit here and get into any intellectual nonsense and bureaucratize the facts. Data caps are FAR too little for today's market, every cable company knows it. A whole lot of customers do now too, they keep getting these ridiculous scary warning emails. It's plain and obvious and doesn't need debate.

All that said, I'm pleased that Cox, at least, doesn't charge for overage.

 

[Reallink]

My educated guess is that 95% of the people don't use 1/10, or even 1/25 of what they are buying. That said, those that do should not be punished, threatened with turnoffs, pay overage or anything else.

The data caps are ridiculous. For 100 bucks a month I should be able to use more than 13.3 gigs a day if I want to. We don't need to sit here and get into any intellectual nonsense and bureaucratize the facts. Data caps are FAR too little for today's market, every cable company knows it. A whole lot of customers do now too, they keep getting these ridiculous scary warning emails. It's plain and obvious and doesn't need debate.

All that said, I'm pleased that Cox, at least, doesn't charge for overage.

That was true 3-5 years ago when the caps were originally conceived and soft rolled, but streaming and digital distribution has grown exponentially since then. These days an overwhelming majority of content consumption is streamed. Coupled with the fact that literally every household has multiple phones, multiple tablets, multiple laptops/computers, and multiple game consoles auto updating every app several times a week/month (never mind 200GB Call of Duty's) I strongly suspect 30-50%+ of households exceed 1TB fairly regularly while >80% exceed 500GB.

 

[oagboghi2]

Write to the FCC. It's Democrat controlled again so good things ahead. Tell them to make data caps a thing of the past as they should be.

We can throw this on the pile of juvenile dreams broken in 4 years

That was true 3-5 years ago when the caps were originally conceived and soft rolled, but streaming and digital distribution has grown exponentially since then. These days an overwhelming majority of content consumption is streamed. Coupled with the fact that literally every household has multiple phones, multiple tablets, multiple laptops/computers, and multiple game consoles auto updating every app several times a week/month (never mind 200GB Call of Duty's) I strongly suspect 30-50%+ of households exceed 1TB fairly regularly while >80% exceed 500GB.

The average American household uses 350 gbs a month. Most ISP's will raise their data caps to compensate, as we saw in 2016.

 

[dispensergoinup]

Moved recently but stuck with Comcast because they offered 85 a month for 1GB down 20mb up with unlimited data.

Household uses about 800GB a month but sometimes will go over if there are new games out.

Used to be 600down/10up but I guess they have deals going on right now.

 

[Irobot82]

I cut their TV and pay an extra $50 a month for unlimited. It sucks but it's all I got. I average between 1.5TB to 2.0TB a month.

 

[Moogle11]

I cut their TV and pay an extra $50 a month for unlimited. It sucks but it's all I got. I average between 1.5TB to 2.0TB a month.

If it’s been a while, you may want to call and check in pricing as they dropped down to $30 more for unlimited a while back.

 

[ScarletSpider]

I’ll fucken download a terabyte a day and Comcast can suck it ong!!!1

 

[DGrayson]

BRB downloading literally terabytes each month with no cap

 

[Irobot82]

If it’s been a while, you may want to call and check in pricing as they dropped down to $30 more for unlimited a while back.

I just check and you're correct it's $30.

 

[TheZink]

My family has had to pay the $30 for unlimited because of the caps since Covid. I’m getting my money’s worth. I download and watch whatever I want. Just leave videos streaming all the time just because I’m paying for it. Don’t even watch them.

 

[Susurrus]

I have Comcast and am in an area where there hasn't been a cap but with this roll out for nation wide that's some bullshit. Also promotions are ending in June so instead of paying $60 for 200MB, I'll be paying $95. I want to switch, but the other companies in my area (RCN, Fios) dont support my neighborhood and TMobile wireless internet will only give me like 3MB. With telework, online school, kid is off and on distance learning, not to mention normal use, kind of boned here. Luckily my history only has me at about 500-700 MB of usage a month despite all this + 4k streaming and game downloading so I'll be alright I guess.

 

[Boss Mog]

I don't miss living in the US. The internet is such garbage and they have the nerve to charge outrageous prices for that garbage too. They let these big cable companies split up territories which turns them into monopolies essentially. Shit should be illegal.

Now I'm paying about $60/month for 5Gbps internet with no data cap but here's the real kicker, that $60 also includes 200 channels of cable TV, a home phone line with unlimited calling anywhere in the world and a 4G cell line with unlimited text, talk and data.

 

[Dynomite]

I don't miss living in the US. The internet is such garbage and they have the nerve to charge outrageous prices for that garbage too. They let these big cable companies split up territories which turns them into monopolies essentially. Shit should be illegal.

Now I'm paying about $60/month for 5Gbps internet with no data cap but here's the real kicker, that $60 also includes 200 channels of cable TV, a home phone line with unlimited calling anywhere in the world and a 4G cell line with unlimited text, talk and data.

Where do you live?

 

[macfoshizzle]

Say thank you to Ajit Pai!