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[trikster40]

I just got an alert on my phone that I’ve used 90% of my monthly data usage (Xfinity user here). Its crazy, and if I go over, they charge a buttload per 50gb (like it’s actually costing them something if I go over my limit).

Here’s my last few months:

October: 241 Gb
November: 395 Gb
December: 847 Gb
January: 962 Gb!

First, I subscribed to Disney+ and I’ve got 1 kid at home all day and the other is home 2 days of the week, and that’s all we use. So much easier than swapping out discs, but it’s more than doubled my monthly usage!

Seconds, I got a 4K TV in December, so not only am I streaming Disney+ all day, but most of its 4K!

And yet we have a dozen different streaming services vying for all dollars, from Disney to Netflix to WB to NBC, not to mention PSNow and Stadia and soon to be XCloud.

I know that there are providers out there with no data caps, but until every provider lifts the cap, streaming can never really take off as the all in one solution to our entertainment needs.

I know I’m beating a dead horse, but just had to vent.

 

[bucyou]

I couldn't imagine having to adhere to a data cap

 

[Hoho for breakfast]

Yeah I have a 1TB cap and come real close usually. It's going to be a big issue in the next year or two with next gen consoles releasing and such. A single game download taking up 20% of your monthly data cap isn't going to fly. Hopefully the Overlords at least raise the caps. I imagine they'll be pressured to do so, if not get rid of them outright.

 

[Sota4077]

I use Midco internet here in Minnesota. When I signed up for them I called up the main office in my area and asked if there was a data cap. The lady literally said "a what?" I repeated. We went back and forth. The concept of a data cap was like foreign to this lady. I then asked to speak to her manager to make certain i was not going to have one. The lady I spoke to next like spoke to me for probably a half hour about data caps and how they're nonesense. She ended the phone call laughing saying effectively "No data cap doesn't mean we wont give you a call if you are downloading things you shouldn't be" We both laughed and that was the end of it.

 

[Phunkydiabetic]

I couldn't imagine having to adhere to a data cap

I know, it seems so archaic. Pilgrim style.

 

[poppabk]

Well even better from Xfinity - got an email recently saying they will throttle their by the gig mobile data after 20 gig. Ie you pay for every gig of data you use and they will still throttle you. Not that I would ever hit 20 gig, but still.

 

[trikster40]

I just read where I can pay an extra $50 for no data cap, or they can charge $10 for every 50Gb over my cap.

Comcast:

 

[Elektro Demon]

I can't imagine living with a data cap.
I pay about 35 bucks for unlimited data, speed is about 30/5.
Not the best speeds but it gets the job done.

 

[newtypepilot]

and Google wonders why Stadia is failing...

 

[davepoobond]

Time to Pay for a second internet connection

 

[dispensergoinup]

It's why I went back to my old provider that had 100/100 unlimited over the 400/10 with a 1TB cap that Comcast provided.

My roommate and my self buy and download/re-download games frequently in addition to streaming all sorts of services (Netflix, Prime, Hulu, Spotify, PLEX, and now D+) so after about 7 months of constantly flirting with the data cap I decided enough was enough.

Ended up paying off the rest of the termination fee and signed back up to my old internet services albeit at lower download speeds.

It was also a 65/month vs Comcast's 85/month service. Not willing to pay their extra 50 bucks just to have unlimited. Screw that.

I knew your pain OP but if you can switch to unlimited with another service do it ASAP, you'll worry a lot less.

 

[Quasicat]

When Spectrum spun out of Time Warner Cable in my area, they were given the stipulation that there are to be no data caps until 2023. It’s the only reason why I am not on the other option here, AT&T, where they cap their data.
No data caps have become a big part of Spectrum’s marketing campaign around here. Of course, if they start charging for it, where else am I going to go?

 

[bati]

I feel bad for our American friends, your internet providers are fucking shit. I'm paying 10€ for unlimited 800/400 where I live.

 

[Caffeine]

my last few months downloading a couple games and watching streams/youtube have all been just under a terabyte and 2 months were slightly over, but i had unused credit to cover overages. this month right now im already at 450GBs used with 16 days left.

the isps have no idea of real world usage. with these low caps, there should be no caps or at least 2.5-3TB currently.

 

[Nester99]

The two biggest options in western Canada are Shaw and TELUS are both without data caps .

with streaming and 4K you need to move your business to a firm that alines with your updates needs

 

[trikster40]

my last few months downloading a couple games and watching streams/youtube have all been just under a terabyte and 2 months were slightly over, but i had unused credit to cover overages. this month right now im already at 450GBs used with 16 days left.

the isps have no idea of real world usage. with these low caps, there should be no caps or at least 2.5-3TB currently.

Ugh, I wish I had rollover data each month. I’d have tons.
Anyone have any idea what the data difference is between steaming 720P/ 1080p vs 4K? I’ve never really looked at the file sizes

 

[Qwell]

I'm in the same boat, I basically have to plan out my internet usage month to month, in terms of what games or movies I want to download / watch. My friends wanted to play Destiny 2 in December and I had to literally bring up the calendar and try to plot out if I could afford to 100GB of bandwidth it would use.

The past few months with my 1TB cap I have ended the month at

976 GB
1773 GB (had built a new computer so burned 1 of 2 free months)
1009 GB
976 GB
951 GB

What really sucks is I have dark fiber literally a stone throw from my house, but no provider in the local area has tapped into it yet to bring it down the street to service the houses. So my options are comcast, or centurylink at only 80MB connection, and both have a 1TB cap. Meanwhile a surrounding city tapped into that dark fiber ring to offer a municipal gig service with unlimited bandwidth for about $75 bucks, but so far my city hasn't

 

[TaySan]

I have a 1tb cap and it fucking sucks.
Games are so large nowadays 1 game takes up a tenth of my cap. I have to share it with 5 other people so 1tb isn't very much in the grand scheme of things. Canceled Disney plus for that reason.

 

[lingpanda]

See if Comcast Gigabit service is available in your area. They usually remove the data cap with this plan.

 

[Contica]

You could try not letting your kids watch TV all day.

 

[Caffeine]

Ugh, I wish I had rollover data each month. I’d have tons.
Anyone have any idea what the data difference is between steaming 720P/ 1080p vs 4K? I’ve never really looked at the file sizes

depends on the platforms compression but its somewhere in the ballpark of ~900MB for 720p an hour, some 1080p ive seen at about 1.4GB and 4k is somewhere in the ballpark of 7GBs

I have a 1tb cap and it fucking sucks.
Games are so large nowadays 1 game takes up a tenth of my cap. I have to share it with 5 other people so 1tb isn't very much in the grand scheme of things. Canceled Disney plus for that reason.

ye i know that feel i just downloaded modern warfare due to a hdd crash and it was like 160GBs only to then have a 48GB patch come out the day after.

 

[trikster40]

depends on the platforms compression but its somewhere in the ballpark of ~900MB for 720p an hour, some 1080p ive seen at about 1.4GB and 4k is somewhere in the ballpark of 7GBs

Yikes this explains my data usage. 7gb per hour for like 5-6 hours per day

 

[Lrnex]

Holy hell I had no idea that ISPs actually implemented data caps on home data plans still. Growing up my family had some shit satellite-based high speed that was capped (it was the only decent option at the time). Those were dark days.

 

[Slayer-33]

F data caps!

 

[EverydayBeast]

Video game streaming is the next big thing

 

[trikster40]

Holy hell I had no idea that ISPs actually implemented data caps on home data plans still. Growing up my family had some shit satellite-based high speed that was capped (it was the only decent option at the time). Those were dark days.

Yup Xfinity is capped at 1Tb, even lower in smaller markets. That goes fast with digital games, streaming movies, etc.

 

[quickwhips]

I run a plex community for about 16 people. I cant imagine having data caps.

 

[n0razi]

Spectrum Home Internet and T-Mobile user here... no caps! Vote with your wallet instead of supporting crappy companies.

 

[Manus]

I pay $80 for 75/10 and unlimited which I don't think it to awful.

 

[Labolas]

Yeah you may be not pay as much if you have a package deal with them. But as someone who has a deal with Comcast for unlimited data cap, I say it isn't worth it. The bill is too damn high to justify it. But they have the best internet in my area.

 

[M1chl]

Where are you all living? I pay 29EUR (well 750CZK) for unlimited fiber 1Gbps. And that's post-communist country.

But I also got free liver transplant (well "free", 45EUR/month mandatory fee), so probably we are more more advanced country, than the West, I guess.

 

[Frito_Pendejo]

So far, I have no data cap with Xfinity. As soon as they try to implement it they can come get their shit out of my house.

 

[BadBurger]

I have Cox, which have implemented data caps in certain regions already. So far they haven't done so where I am at, but they've kind of been hinting at it.

They have an online tool to look at how much data they think you have downloaded any given month. It varies wildly because some months all I am doing is working, going on date night with the girl, and maybe watching the hot new show each night. Other months I might download a few Xbox or PS4 games and stream a ton of shows in 4K. The problem I see on the horizon is that those busy months will definitely cost me money with datacaps.

And here's the kicker. I work as a network engineer, essentially, at a large datacenter. Data is not something that should be charged to the consumer. The ISP knows damn well what their capacity is, and while they incur costs such as manpower and electricity, that's already passed down to the consumer. If a customer downloads a TB of data they will not notice - it's all already a cost they're aware of, and it is frighteningly minimal. Again, as an engineer in a datacenter, I would guesstimate 1TB of data probably costs us less than a dollar. I mean we're already replicating entire environments over to other sites and such, we're talking easily 10TB a night. And our ISP doesn't charge us anything extra. But they're planning on capping and charging home users that want to download a measly 1TB a month?

This is something we should be contacting our legislators over. It is probably the most obviously visible fleecing of consumers outside of pharmaceuticals.

 

[Flying Toaster]

As a Cox user with newly implemented data caps Disney plus destroyed my data usage over December. I watched a few shows to completion and left movies playing while doing family stuff. Cox charges $10 for every 50 block over that is madness and bullshit on so many levels.

 

[kingbean]

Welcome to Comcast hell. We break our limit every few months.

 

[ScarletSpider]

Oct - 1750gb
Nov - 1100gb
Dec - 950gb
Jan - 650gb

 

[JareBear: Remastered]

fucking xfinity

RIP my wallet next bill

spoiler'd pic for size, didnt realize it was so large on destop

Spoiler

 

[TheContact]

Just got this email today (east coast). I use about 2TB of data every month (they cap me at 1.2). My internet bill will be around $200 a month just for internet if this goes into effect (they say they'll start charging in March for overages). Fuck you Concast

 

[Frito_Pendejo]

Just got this email today (east coast). I use about 2TB of data every month (they cap me at 1.2). My internet bill will be around $200 a month just for internet if this goes into effect (they say they'll start charging in March for overages). Fuck you Concast

Same here. I have no idea how they came up with only 5% of people going over because everyone I know goes over the 1.2 threshold.

 

[DeceptiveAlarm]

I just got the same email. I was 800gb over last month. Good guy Comcast says they will only stack the $10 up to $100. What a steal. Looks like I have to pay 25 extra a month th here for unlimited to get back the same plan I had 15 days ago.

 

[I collect VHS tapes]

I’m happy with Spectrum.

200/10 for ~$50 with no data cap and no contract

 

[Frito_Pendejo]

I’m happy with Spectrum.

200/10 for ~$50 with no data cap and no contract

Id love to go with something else but there is nothing else where I live lol. It’s either you get Comcast or you get nothing. And this is a neighborhood. Not like an apartment complex that made a deal or some shit. It’s actually kinda crazy that there’s no completion for Comcast but there’s nothing I can do.

 

[TheZink]

Just got this email today (east coast). I use about 2TB of data every month (they cap me at 1.2). My internet bill will be around $200 a month just for internet if this goes into effect (they say they'll start charging in March for overages). Fuck you Concast

I just started paying the $30 extra for unlimited data. I was always within a 50gb of going over and went over twice in the past 4 months. Now I’m just going nuts with it. Burning data like no tomorrow.

 

[quickwhips]

I use about 1 tb a day.

 

[G-Bus]

man that's crazy. must be all the 4K streaming.

we don't have cable and stream all our media. even then we average about 400 GB a month. hell, i got stadia almost exactly a month ago and i still haven't cracked 500GB a month. although we both work fulltime and i dont watch much tv/movies.

i did go unlimited data when i got stadia. not entirely sure i need it but its only $10 more a month so what ever.