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Terabyte-Using Cable Customers Double, Increasing Risk of Data Cap Fees (arstechnica.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: U.S. cable Internet customers are using an average of 268.7GB per month, and 4.1 percent of households use at least 1TB, according to new research by the vendor OpenVault. Households that use at least 1TB a month are at risk of paying overage fees because of the 1TB data caps imposed by Comcast and other ISPs. Terabyte users nearly doubled year over year, as just 2.1 percent of households hit the 1TB mark last year, according to OpenVault. OpenVault found that households that face data caps use 8.5-percent less data than un-capped users, suggesting that cable customers limit their Internet usage when they face the prospect of overage fees. According to OpenVault, the caps can help cable companies avoid major network upgrades.

Specifically, "OpenVault's 2018 data also shows that average usage for households with flat-rate pricing was 282.1GB/HH, more than 9 percent higher than the 258.2GB/HH average usage for households on usage-based billing (UBB) plans," OpenVault wrote. Stated another way, customers facing caps and overage fees use 8.5-percent less data than un-capped customers. Un-capped customers are, naturally, more likely to exceed a terabyte. "The percentage of flat-rate (non-UBB) households exceeding 1TB of usage was 4.82 percent, a full percentage point higher than the 3.81 percent of UBB households who exceeded the 1TB threshold," OpenVault said.
The 268.7GB average household data used in December 2018 was "up from 226.4GB/HH [household] at the end of June 2018 and a 33.3 percent increase over the YE 2017 average of 201.6GB/HH," OpenVault said. Median usage was 145.2GB in December 2018, "up from 116.4GB/HH in June 2018 and a 40 percent increase over the YE 2017 median of 103.6GB/HH," the company also said.

1 of 117 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Background Video Streaming by bobstreo · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Yes, this true for me using a Roku. There is no power-off button/command and when you turn your TV off, you Roku continues streaming. For something like a Netflix movie at least it will stop after the movie ends. But some shows continue to next episode. You have to remember to stop streaming before you turn off your TV and tell your family members/guests to do the same

    I use a Harmony remote now (in three rooms) to send a 'Home' command during the power-off sequence. I hate source devices (Roku, Chromecast, Blu-ray players, etc.) who do not offer a direct power-off/standby command. I thought HDMI-CEC would solve the problem but it doesn't seem to and it creates a host of other problems as there are so many bad/incompatible implementations

    Haven't used Apple TV in a while but I think it behaves just like Roku.

    Back to the original article, yes, I have trouble staying below the 1 TB. Only two people in the house and using YouTubeTV as a service. I have to reduce video-resolution most of the time (not ideal). Cord-cutting is the reason.

    You could just plug these devices into a "smart" power strip, and have the strip disable devices it detects in standby mode.