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Anybody dealing with an internet data cap?

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I use to have a 40GB download limit but changed ISP for no cap but I live in an area with only ADSL so get 8 Meg down 🙁
 
I'm in one of Comcast's trial areas for their 300GB data cap, and well... it probably goes without saying that I'm not a huge fan. This past month, I received an e-mail telling me that I was at 90% usage on the 24th, which meant that I had to save 30GB for an entire weeks worth of usage. Apart from webpages loading quickly, it felt like being back on dial-up! I was watching YouTube videos in 360p and avoiding videos that I didn't feel very compelled to watch. The worst part of it all? I ended up hitting 300GB on the last day and going over by ~1GB (it was probably less, but they most likely round up). Now, they would normally charge me $10 for another 50GB, but apparently, I only hit 297GB in September, so I had one freebie left. Yes, they took one of my freebies for 1GB of data. :|

Honestly, it's hard to decide where to start on discussing the lunacy that is Comcast's usage rates. To be frank, they are not even in the realm of fair cost; they are penalty fees. What makes it even more egregious is if you consider that apart from using less per month, there's no way around it. Unless you live in one specific market (Arizona), you only have 300GB per month regardless of which plan you have (25Mbps through 105Mbps). At least with Verizon, I can tell them I want more data for a specific month and pay $10 per 2GB rather than the $15 per 1GB penalty fee. You know it's pretty bad when a mobile carrier is more fair than you.

One other thing that came to mind is that streaming is a pretty big use of bandwidth, and Comcast forced Netflix to pay them for an interconnect last year. So, if you stream a lot from Netflix, Netflix pays Comcast and you may end up paying Comcast more.

At this point, I think Title II is our only good solution. I don't know if I'm a huge fan of the idea in concept, but at this point, I absolutely do not trust ISPs as a business. It's absolutely true that a business's job is to make money, but these monolithic monopolies are doing it at the expense of their customers who they can push around and stretch thin simply because there are no other decent options.
 
I have unlimited from my ISP. I don't use much data though; last month was probably one of my largest months when I bought Dragon Age Origins, Dragon Age 2, Titanfall, and Dragon Age Inquisition through Origin which is probably over 200GB on their own. I expect I am typically under 40GB per month in data.

KT
 
where I live TWC has no cap. highest ive done in any 1 month is about a TB. lots of game re downloads, backups to "the cloud" and streaming. most months average ~400 GB

the have never said a word to me
 
Anubis said:
where I live TWC has no cap. highest ive done in any 1 month is about a TB. lots of game re downloads, backups to "the cloud" and streaming. most months average ~400 GB

the have never said a word to me
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So, when the buyout finalizes will you be on Comcast or Charter cable? TWC probably doesn't care about data usage at this point as they are about to be swallowed and cease to exist.
 
tential said:
Those 1 bd iso Rips of Linux are such bad quality though. They look terrible on my projector. Good for a pc/laptop user but for a big screen you need a minimum of 4gb (prefer 10+) when you're using a 70+ inch screen. For Linux, ahem, of course....
Click to expand...

42in/50in isn't a problem for me. A decent 480p/576p from a ahem private linux release site with decent encoding options is fine. For me anyway.
 
Got 350mbps down and a 750gb cap, going to change it to unlimited this month however (for free of course).
 
Comcast has a soft cap of 250GB on us, but it is not enforced or even emails sent. The best we can tell is because we have FIOS available in our area... I think I have broken that cap all but 2 months this past year, with several months hitting close to 1TB.
 
escrow4 said:
42in/50in isn't a problem for me. A decent 480p/576p from a ahem private linux release site with decent encoding options is fine. For me anyway.
Click to expand...

For me I used to do that on my 42 inch. When I upgraded to a 70 inch I still did. Didn't really care.
Then I got to 1080p High Quality Linux Release at around 10-15 GB and saw that on my 70 inch. Never went back.

Depends on how much of a movie buff you are though.

I just looked at my newly setup Ubuntu PC's data usage. 15TB over 102 days... I really need a new hobby.
 
Fallen Kell said:
Comcast has a soft cap of 250GB on us, but it is not enforced or even emails sent. The best we can tell is because we have FIOS available in our area... I think I have broken that cap all but 2 months this past year, with several months hitting close to 1TB.
Click to expand...

Comcast is only implementing the cap in certain areas. It's mostly in the south-east (Nashville, TN; Knoxville, TN; northern Alabama; Atlanta, GA; etc.) and Arizona.

It's being labeled as a trial right now, which is why I think I ought to try to collect my thoughts into something cohesive and meaningful (get some good stats on costs, etc.), and give Comcast a call. However, it seems like Comcast only listens when people go to the Internet, so maybe I would need to do something a bit more drastic. 😛

Anubis said:
no idea TBH
whats the word on that thing?
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If I remember correctly, you (and DrPizza) live a couple hours west of where I lived (and my family currently lives) in New York. At least from what I read, my mom will be on Comcast if the sale goes through. Amusingly enough, I'm on Comcast's spin-off ISP list, and I'm on the cap trials.
 
Aikouka said:
Comcast is only implementing the cap in certain areas. It's mostly in the south-east (Nashville, TN; Knoxville, TN; northern Alabama; Atlanta, GA; etc.) and Arizona.

It's being labeled as a trial right now, which is why I think I ought to try to collect my thoughts into something cohesive and meaningful (get some good stats on costs, etc.), and give Comcast a call. However, it seems like Comcast only listens when people go to the Internet, so maybe I would need to do something a bit more drastic. 😛



If I remember correctly, you (and DrPizza) live a couple hours west of where I lived (and my family currently lives) in New York. At least from what I read, my mom will be on Comcast if the sale goes through. Amusingly enough, I'm on Comcast's spin-off ISP list, and I'm on the cap trials.
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yea im south of Rochester and Doc P is over by Alfred
 
I just ran a bandwidth estimator and it estimated ~ 160GB/month - vast majority is youtube and netflix.

The last 4 months of my usage runs from 150-200GB/month.

300GB seems too low. What if I'm sick bedridden and watch netflix? What if TV is in heavier use due to guests/vistors? There are many use cases that can skyrocket my bandwidth usage.

I think 10X typical usage (reassessed yearly to align with higher usage) is probably a safer bet. Back in 2000 I used less than 1Gig/Month...now that is a single hour episode on Netflix.

IMO I don't want govt regulation of the internet. Open and free with minimal regulation is desired.
My issue is that many places only have a single provider (TWC here) when these systems were built heavily relying on taxpayer money, and seem to result in a perpetual monopoly on the area. Just like the Console Market finds that exclusive are usually 'time limited'...why is it any different here? Should it not be open to 3-4 different players? If there was more competition, and no collusion or price fixing, I wouldn't mind caps because I (along with most others) will move to the service with the highest caps. Then the cable providers will have to fight for our business and that will further drive caps higher.
 
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magomago said:
I just ran a bandwidth estimator and it estimated ~ 160GB/month - vast majority is youtube and netflix.

The last 4 months of my usage runs from 150-200GB/month.

300GB seems too low. What if I'm sick bedridden and watch netflix? What if TV is in heavier use due to guests/vistors? There are many use cases that can skyrocket my bandwidth usage.

I think 10X typical usage (reassessed yearly to align with higher usage) is probably a safer bet. Back in 2000 I used less than 1Gig/Month...now that is a single hour episode on Netflix.

IMO I don't want govt regulation of the internet. Open and free with minimal regulation is desired.
My issue is that many places only have a single provider (TWC here) when these systems were built heavily relying on taxpayer money, and seem to result in a perpetual monopoly on the area. Just like the Console Market finds that exclusive are usually 'time limited'...why is it any different here? Should it not be open to 3-4 different players? If there was more competition, and no collusion or price fixing, I wouldn't mind caps because I (along with most others) will move to the service with the highest caps. Then the cable providers will have to fight for our business and that will further drive caps higher.
Click to expand...

The problem is the cost to get into the business of being a regional ISP is just too expensive for 95% of startups. You are either buying infrastructure from an established player (comcast, time warner, charter, etc) which ties you to their service only you're a bigger fish instead of an individual, or you are building your own infrastructure which takes years to roll out and requires huge amounts of financing.

These limitations essentially mean the established players get to do whatever they want, and because they know almost no one else can get into the industry (besides google) they can talk amongst themselves to decide on price, caps, coverage area, etc. There is no incentive to get rid of this system as it makes the ISPs the most money with the least amount of hassle.


The only way to fix this is to regulate the hell out of them so they can't do this, OR heavily subsidize building infrastructure to the point where new players can enter the market easier.


at least that's my limited $0.02 on the issue.
 
Luckily I'm in a Comcast trial market and have used my 3 free passes within a 12 months period. Was the 29th of December and had 10GB left and it was either conserve heavily or just blow past it. The cap seems to be a pretty big issue with a lot of family friends that have kids streaming media, especially over holiday breaks.

 
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We go over all the time. We pretty much do all streaming and with two kids, they can watch a bit of netflix/hulu/whatever and rack up the data. No torrents or anything, this is probably 80-90% streaming data use. Goes up in the winter, less outside time and tails off when it's nice out.
 
DaTT said:
Cogeco?
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they are just the worst.

they lied to me about the speeds that they could offer.

we didn't have the "ultimate" 30 package for years in my area.

but as soon as i switched isps to a 3rd party that uses their lines i suddenly got 30mbps.

and their then 80gb cap was a joke.
 
Distributel is my ISP. 35 MBPS with unlimited usage for ~$75 CDN/mo, no contract. Includes a rental modem.

Monthly fee is a bit high but wife's company pays $50 a month for it so really its not bad for us. Also, compared to the alternatives in our area (where Bell doesn't have anything higher than 5 MBps and Rogers is a cancer upon society) we are laughing!
 
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