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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.
I suck it all day long and love it. I'll suck your dick too if you would let me.
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.
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.
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
Smith only serve would you like to and help Us! playing s0 it's cans can become
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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/
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 $50/month.
So, I, for one, thank our dark ComCast overlords.
Because they have legit competition in the form of Verizon, Cablevision, RCN, TWC and some wireless providers. They are only likley doing this in areas they have strong monopolies in. Hopefully Google gets WebPass 1Gbs WiFi service to various areas like this.
The future is coming.
That's the unique thing about patents among the disparate areas of law sometimes referred to as "intellectual property": the future is always 2 decades away.
Good luck explaining that to opinionated commenters who insist on being technically correct ("the best kind of correct"). See this thread where John Willkie maintains that the legal definition of "extortion" is the only one that matters, and anyone bringing a colloquial definition into the discussion "sound[s] very immature".
You appear to have been sidetracked by the analogy, as the implied workarounds don't apply so well to Internet access.
What would they substitute for (1) driving
What alternative to driving were you considering, and what would its Internet counterpart be?
(2) alone
What's the Internet counterpart to carpooling? Visiting a public library that offers Wi-Fi access to patrons and uses aggressive caching proxy to aggregate cookieless retrievals of the same resource?
the only single lane road from place a to place b
(3) on that particular road
The stipulation in this analogy was that no other practical road exists.
(4) during rush hour when the congestion toll is highest?
Comcast does not vary the factor at which data transfer affects your quota based on time of day. As far as I'm aware, only satellite ISPs such as Exede do that.
Something "driving adoption and demand" solely among mass copyright infringers may lack the "substantial noninfringing use" needed for a defense to contributory copyright infringement.
I only became a Comcast sub in March and at the time they never mentioned ANY Cap incoming...... F@#$%!!
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..