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Comcast Rolls Out Nationwide 1TB Data Cap (theverge.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Verge: Comcast's home internet data caps are going live for a majority of customers starting November 1st, the company announced today. Called the "Xfinity Terabyte Internet Data Usage Plan," the cap restricts the amount of data you consume in your home to 1TB per month regardless of the speed of your plan. Comcast claims 99 percent of customers use less than 1TB per month, but it does now offer an unlimited option for $50 more per month. Back in April, Comcast bumped its data cap from 300GB to 1TB after consumer backlash and renewed regulatory concern from the FCC. And until today, the plan has been active in select markets for 16 states. But starting November 1st, the list will add 18 new markets, bringing the total number of states with the terabyte data cap to around 30. Notable exceptions include New York and nearly the entire northeast. For a full list of included markets, check Comcast's online FAQ.
No cap for me, I'm using the neighbor's open xfinitywifi for free. Thanks, Comcast is fuckin awesome!
The chocolate ration has gone up to 20 grams a week!
I use about half that now every month. I use Netflix and MLB.tv daily, among other things. I see this as future-proofing for when 4K becomes the standard.
1TB/Mo. is much more reasonable than .3. The real question is will this rise with average speed, stay static, or be reduced in time (the slow squeeze)?
How much congestion can these people be causing if it only costs at extra $50 to "fix" it?
Courage
...movies per month. That's assuming that each 4K movie is compressed to around 100GB each on average. So on top of paying for your movies, you'll also have to pay a $50 per month surcharge.
Unfortunately it is true, Comcast is the only ISP in my area with speed over 25Mbps i get 75Mbps + basic cable for around $90 a month US through comcast.
Now i have to worry about Data caps???
At my fucking house???
THAT WAS THE WHOLE POINT OF PAYING FOR THE FUCKING CABLE!
I have 5 people in the house who all use Youtube/Netflix/Hulu/Steam/Origin/Xbox/Playstation/Wii/+ 5 cell phones and 5 desktops 1 laptop 1 tablet 2 smart TV's ect...
Plus i contribute to a open source project that requires me to regularly perform large git-pull's.
And my flight simulator that downloads world scenery on the fly.
So WTF! Comcast.
We already know for a fact that there is no point beyond Greed and $ for you to implement Data caps on your network.
Fuck you Comcast.
Sincerely, a pissed off customer.
Where I live, it's Comcast or bust. There's no other alternative!!! WTF?! Comcast and CenturyLink have divided up the area such that they're not competing.
Comcast SUCKS at Latency. It's absolutely horrible. And.... TPUT is completely inconsistent.....
Mostly red states. Wonder if there's any sinister logic there.
This is just another way to ensure they get money for those cord cutters. They see the end coming of people paying $100 per month for TV service when Netflix/Hulu/Over the Air etc are dirt cheap. Right now Comcast is my only option for anything above 20Mbps in my area. Without competition, Comcast will continue to play these games with their customers.
Perhaps your usage is in that top percentile of users that will go over 1tb. If you are really in the top 1% of users, I think paying another $50 a month is justified. (Also, doesn't git have some kind of rsync type capability?)
Sign up for business Internet.
The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
As the enterprise ver is like $8-10k mo for the same thing?
What will they do to stop some places from hosting big time at home for $300 vs even about 1k mo for an Dia fiber 100/100 plan
I wonder if, in markets where they are a monopoly that they helped create and maintain, they can be sued for diminished property value? Becauae there's no way in hell I'd buy a house or a business or anything else in an area served only by a provider with any kind of wired data cap.
So Comcast already gets tax money, already gets a captive market without competition, what the hell do they need to put caps in for? They can ONLY put caps in because there is 0 competition. The ENTIRE rest of the developed world has better internet that is faster and cheaper with the notable except of Canada. FFS this is extortion at this point.
I got an email that said my data usage has been 639 GB average over the last three months, and my new cap was 1TB. I'm a little worried about this, as that's 639 GB average over the three months that I've been deployed (USAF) and my family is the one getting me there. I wonder where I'll be sitting on usage when I get home!
Since I don't have any caps currently, guess it's in my best interest to download all the shit I want now.
Be seeing you...
Terabit or TeraByte
Fortunately the area I live in has Charter
If 99% of the users use less than 1TB per month, then why have a cap at all?
I am now blocking ALL ads.
Your adverts now cost me money.
I am also going back to ripping BluRays and storing them on a NAS. Screw Netflix and other services if I am now being punished for using it by the ISP.
Comcast is forcing me to do all this, so if Anyone is angry, please call 1-800-COMCAST and complain.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
They don't test them for being fair like gas ones also bill for overhead, control data, resents, poor lines leading
1/2 linux Iso. 1/4 of a DVD.
but that would require our gov't stepping in, and nobody likes doing that.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
Then I noticed it's a data cap; of course, I thought, such high speeds would be only available in South Korea or Japan.
This is the USA... what was I thinking? duh...
Good thing Google will complete their fiber installation in my home on the 13. All I can consume for the same low cost of $70.
When it's available, Comcast gets cut.
That'll be about 18-24 months unless I'm lucky.
that AT&T recently increased the data cap for all Uverse services to 1 TB. Which is good because my bottom-fisher plan (6 megabit, which runs more like 2 during the day and early evening) still allowed the family to break the former cap (300 GB) on occasion. Without 4K downloads, thank you.
That, plus FCC poking around at various aspects of the ISP business which left the PR types a little nervous.
Did the cap go up first in places with Uverse competition?
Comcast Rolls Out Nationwide 1TB Data Cap
...bringing the total number of states with the terabyte data cap to around 30. Notable exceptions include New York and nearly the entire northeast
That's hardly nationwide...
What is happening is they will use the data caps, to keep you from using the Internet, to access content not from Comcast/NBC Universal. Then they will let you watch their content without it counting against your data cap. Support net neutrality.
and if you get TV U-verse or DTV then no cap.
You just suckered me in to a 2 year contract a couple months ago. You can't change the terms on me now.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
How much more does it cost than the home plans, out of curiosity? At like-for-like speeds and data caps, obviously.
Perhaps your usage is in that top percentile of users that will go over 1tb. If you are really in the top 1% of users, I think paying another $50 a month is justified.
The truth is that the marginal cost of a 1TB of data is on the order of a few dollars. In which case $50 is massive overkill considering that the average bandwidth usage is just 190GB/month.
Here's what wholesale bandwidth costs today:
Bulk IP transit costs:
10Gbps: $0.85 -- $1.10 Mbps
20Gbps: $0.75 -- $0.95 Mbps
40Gbps: $0.62 -- $0.80 Mbps
75Gbps: $0.55 -- $0.70 Mbps
100Gbps: $0.45 -- $0.60 Mbps
1mbps, running flat-out 24 hours per day for 30 days is just a tad under 1TB.
So multiply by 10 to more than compensate for peak usage and all other overhead.
That works out to $6/TB or less at the kind of wholesale prices that big ISPs pay.
Lets say your internet bill is roughly $60/month. Even with all the fixed overhead for hardware and support staff, that leaves a ton of margin since most customers are only doing 190GB/month.
Data caps are nothing more than abuse of monopoly status.
The argument to make H.265 mainstream just got a lot stronger.
Nice upgrade from 300GB/month. 1 TB is much more reasonable. I wonder if the cap will still be hidden deeply in the ToS.
Quite an experience to live in fear, isn't it? That's what it is to be a slave.
1TB by default! THAT IS GENEROUS!
Welcome to what us Australian's have been suffering ever since we first got internet sometime back in 2010.
Just remember, vote with your wallets & someone always has it worse than you do.
I just don't understand it. That extra traffic is like having maybe another few percent more regular customers. They won't see much overall reduction on the network by restricting them.
Not only is my market far from any Comcast territory, they don't do any caps.
That, and having Business Class as an insurance policy is kind of nice too.
Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
That's assuming transit costs too, big ISPs will have local caching for many things as well as various peering links, not to mention the fact that a lot of p2p traffic will remain internal to the ISP.
http://spamdecoy.net - free throwaway anonymous email - avoid spam!
I am opposed to caps but 1 TB is plenty for me. I don't see this being a obstacle for most people. Most probably will never know they even have a cap. I do hope they implement a warning system for those who bump against the cap. You should be informed when your approaching that cap.
Even now, after adding most of the USA to this data cap -- they've avoided the entire Washington DC metro area (Northern Virginia and Maryland included). I'm very thankful for that as a MD resident stuck using Comcast for broadband .... but am I the only one who suspects this is on purpose? Comcast probably figures they won't get push-back from angry legislators as long as they make sure all of THOSE folks aren't affected by the changes.
The downside is that you cannot use your own router... and if you using your own modem (ie. no monthly lease) they will not give you a static IP
I think you're latching on to the wrong correlation. To me it looks more like Comcast is avoiding data caps in states that are reasonably covered by a competitive high speed provider such as FIOS.
I know the first thing I thought of was that I could switch to FIOS for less than an extra $50 per month.
Just got a virus on Windows. Happens all the time now. Can't get updates from Microsoft without being spied upon. Or forced-upgraded! Definitely should have installed adblock on Chrome. Anyway, I have a good (somewhat older) win7 copy to restore from thanks to Linux & ntfsclone. Most of my games are on Steam. And a couple MMORPGs.
But 1 TB a month? I'd be over that just from NetFlix. Even before my great Steam reinstall!
What's the point of having these hyper-fast gigabit internet connections if you exhaust your capacity in a matter of hours?
Yet another reason not to buy Comcast. They're just gouging us!
1TB for the whole nation? How many nationwide customers have they to share this 1 TB nationwide cap?
One thing Comcast's plan doesn't cover is that based on current internet usage and popular applications (Netflix, Pandora, etc.) their research suggests 1TB is a reasonable cap for 99% of customers. But what happens when more rich applications come out, video resolution goes up and don't forget that new fangled Internet of Things (IoT). Are they going to adjust the caps based on what "reasonable" is on an ongoing basis? I bet not. That in and of itself is not reasonable. Comcast's PR firm has gone to great lengths to present this in agreeable terms on the basis of reasonableness and they did somewhat of a good job but it still looks like there is an opportunity for an unethical cash grab it's just it will be in the future not in the present.
Fortunately, we have a system that deals with this called free market competition. On that note, Google Fiber/Verizon FioS where you at? I'm ready to switch if you want to become a competitive force in this market space. Get your game on.
We'll make great pets
In all honesty I punted on CC years ago - went to Fios and the first month I sent 1TB of data up and pulled it down again - did it 3 times to be sure no one would yell... Blissful silence... I would NEVER go back to Comcast... I recommend others follow suit if Fios is an option... You will LOVE it... As one of the guys that came over to fix an issue said, "You pay for 100Mbs up/down, we expect you to USE it."
And do they actually face any extra costs from the %1 this affects?
What does mobile data pricing have to do with residential wired
The fact that when forced to make the choice in order to make ends meet, people are canceling the latter and relying on the former.
and how is your response relevant to my OP?
It's a guess, extrapolating the rate of change over time of monthly data usage allowance of cable Internet based on the historic rate of change over time of monthly data usage allowance of cellular Internet.
Except almost nobody is actually using H.265 for two reasons. One is devices without hardware acceleration for H.265 decoding. The other is the larger royalty associated with H.265 payable to multiple patent pools.
Imposing a monthly data transfer allowance does not meet the legal definition of extortion because subscribers are not coerced to purchase service from Comcast. They still retain the legal right to cancel Comcast service and either subscribe to a competing service or subscribe to no service at all. Saying this is extortion is like saying file sharing is larceny.
If 99% of customers won't hit that data cap, then Comcast is basically admitting that that's no technical or practical need for caps other than profit.
big ISPs will have local caching for many things
Not if the ISP overcharges the "local caching" company. Netflix offered to colo its Open Connect Appliance at Comcast to alleviate Comcast's transit burden, but Comcast refused it on grounds that it could make more money by leasing 4U of space, power, and cooling to another colo customer.
Why people use residential service, I'll never know. Comcast Business is awesome.
Comcast Business Internet cannot be combined in a bundle with Xfinity (home) TV service. I've read that Comcast Business TV service is more expensive than Xfinity TV service and lacks on demand, both presumably due to public performance licensing.
I'm fine with this. As long as Comcast does not advertise their speed as any faster than 1terrabyte/30days = 385kB/s.
Will be interesting to see what they do in markets with actual competition, like Chattanooga, TN, which has fiber service: http://chattanoogagig.com/
Yes you can. I've been using my own router on a business connection for almost 6 years now. For the first year or 2 they forced me to rent the modem from them though, but eventually I got them to let me activate my own modem and return the rented one.
However, I do believe they still require you to use their modem/router combo if you're getting a static IP for some reason... I have a dynamic IP, and at least it doesn't change very often (i use namecheap's DDNS service to keep it updated). With my home connection with Fios, the IP changes literally every time I reboot the router.
Legal definitions and common usage often differ. That's why lawyers have specialist dictionaries of legal terms.
I am bothered by this recent change. I got the email telling me that I has been capped. I had to go look at my usage (per Xfinity) and immediately discovered that the email was telling me a big fat lie. Technically, it was accurate, but it was a lie. Why? They told me that my data usage average was 158GB a month. Ok. But when I checked it based on a COMPLETE month, it was actually 188GB a month. They had taken my usage for all months, including the current one, and averaged it. This presents a false assumption.
I have another issue in that I have NO other provider in my area. That also angers me. I think that's tied to my HOA and yes, I'll be addressing that in the next meeting. However, using the free market to counter this move by Comcast does not work in my case. It also makes me wonder how many other people have the misfortune of not being able to choose another provider.
My wife and I chose to cut the cable/satellite cord completely. We stream everything now. When I had unlimited data, this was fine. Now, not so much.
I'd gladly switch to a new provider if one existed. I'd even pay a bit more just to ensure the connection is solid and limitless. Sure wish Google Fiber was in my area!
Here's my question to the /. community. What are practical solutions issues like mine? A lack of providers, Comcast being the ONLY one offered, the terrible service, the desire to drop cable and stream everything but having caps on our data? This is a remarkably intelligent community, how do we solve a problem like Comcast?
Whatever reasons Comcast says for the use of data caps, we will call bullshit upon it.
I'm an immature kid, you insensitive clod!
are useless for average home users. Netflix (and othe VOD providers) should charge a premium price for such features [that even use large amounts of internet bandwidth...] - problem solved.
Its bad for media streaming companies like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, etc. It's also horrible for us cord cutters out there and is basically just a 'cord cutter tax'. If you aren't going to pay for their awful/expensive cable TV service now they are just gonna bleed you for it. If I had an alternative in my neighborhood like Verizon FIOS or Google Fiber I'd switch immediately. Another aspect of this could encourage certain consumers to steal a neighbors WiFi to avoid usage charges.
My next-wall neighbour and I were always kidding around about sharing a subscription. (Because of the layout of his place, the placement of his router gives better signal in my living-room than in his.)
I just talked to him, and ... I closed my account and switched my main router to be a client to his router. I was on a lower tier than he, so now I am saving $$ and getting batter service for only $50/month.
So, I, for one, thank our dark ComCast overlords.
Because they have legit competition in the form of Verizon, Cablevision, RCN, TWC and some wireless providers. They are only likley doing this in areas they have strong monopolies in. Hopefully Google gets WebPass 1Gbs WiFi service to various areas like this.
The future is coming.
That's the unique thing about patents among the disparate areas of law sometimes referred to as "intellectual property": the future is always 2 decades away.
Good luck explaining that to opinionated commenters who insist on being technically correct ("the best kind of correct"). See this thread where John Willkie maintains that the legal definition of "extortion" is the only one that matters, and anyone bringing a colloquial definition into the discussion "sound[s] very immature".
We are nine in our home, and we have 5 users on Netflix, one user downloading Linux ISO's and others watching/listening to youtube stuff.
Yes we exceed 20 gigs, but not 1000 gigs. I think Comcast is being reasonable.
Leslie Satenstein Montreal Quebec Canada
You appear to have been sidetracked by the analogy, as the implied workarounds don't apply so well to Internet access.
What would they substitute for (1) driving
What alternative to driving were you considering, and what would its Internet counterpart be?
(2) alone
What's the Internet counterpart to carpooling? Visiting a public library that offers Wi-Fi access to patrons and uses aggressive caching proxy to aggregate cookieless retrievals of the same resource?
the only single lane road from place a to place b
(3) on that particular road
The stipulation in this analogy was that no other practical road exists.
(4) during rush hour when the congestion toll is highest?
Comcast does not vary the factor at which data transfer affects your quota based on time of day. As far as I'm aware, only satellite ISPs such as Exede do that.
I'm not supposed to laugh but I did...
And Australia. They also have lousy internet service. Both countries have relatively poor service for the same reason: low population density.
Something "driving adoption and demand" solely among mass copyright infringers may lack the "substantial noninfringing use" needed for a defense to contributory copyright infringement.
Marginal costs don't really matter though. It takes money and labor to build out an infrastructure to get to the point when you can even calculate a marginal cost. And that infrastructure has only so much capacity. There will come a point where more infrastructure is needed. Data caps and tiered pricing do two things to help solve that problem: encourage people to use only as much as they need, so that upgrade time takes a little longer to come; and to fund those improvements from the people who are causing the need to upgrade. Those 1% of users are using WAY more than 1% of the network's capacity, and their bills should be higher. We can argue about what that price is, but it is ridiculous that anyone should expect flat pricing.
I only became a Comcast sub in March and at the time they never mentioned ANY Cap incoming...... F@#$%!!
Fiber to the Home can't come fast enough for me, as my 'old' ISP offers it in select locations for $40 a month (http://www.sonic.net) but in my area (Silicon Valley) the only available option besides Comcast cable is 2mb-20mb ADSL (Thanks AT&T!...grrr)
This is obviously a ploy to make up revenue from 'cable cutters' who are not paying for Comcast Cable because they stream Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, Kodi, etc...
There is no TECHNICAL reason for the cap its just price gouging ...period!
ps- my avg is 800GB +/- with a few months going over 1TB when we stream a lot of 1080P vids , download game installs via Steam on multiple systems for example..
So put yours downstream of theirs. Problem solved. Very few people need a static address at home.
For FiOS, the difference is $10, but I can't speak for Comcast. That was for me to move 75/75 to a business line ($90/mo already, $100/mo as commercial).
APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?