Comcast replaces broadband caps with overage fees

[hclarkjr]

In a case of "good news, bad news", Comcast, the largest residential Internet broadband provider in the US, has announced that it has decided to eliminate the 250 GB monthly broadband data caps for users of its Internet service. In a post on its official blog, Comcast said:

... we've decided to change our approach and replace our static 250 GB usage threshold with more flexible data usage management approaches that benefit consumers and support innovation and that will continue to ensure that all of our customers enjoy the best possible Internet experience over our high-speed data service.
​

That's the good news. The bad news is that starting in the next few months, Comcast will begin trials on two different Internet data usage polices. Both of them will include overage fees that will add $10 per 50 GB to a customer's monthly bill.
One trial version will simply extend all Internet subscribers to a 300 GB per month limit before the data overages are charged. The other plan will allow people to pay extra per month for the Blast and Extreme subscriber tiers which will increase the data limit.
For those Comcast users who won't be picked to serve as trial subjects, Comcast does has some good news:

In markets where we are not trialing a new data usage management approach, we will suspend enforcement of our current usage cap as we transition to a new data usage management approach, although we will continue to contact the very small number of excessive users about their usage.
​

In other words, start your downloads. There's no word if Comcast will be changing any of its Internet subscriber prices.


http://www.neowin.net/news/comcast-replaces-broadband-caps-with-overage-fees

 

[SillyOReilly]

250 GB should be good enough for anyone.

 

[alent1234]

the couch potatoes are jumping with rage
finally gave them a reason to get off the couch and do something other than watch TV

 

[vshah]

i have hit >400gb legit traffic in a month before.

 

[rivan]

In a case of "good news, bad news", Comcast, the largest residential Internet broadband provider in the US, has announced that it has decided to eliminate the 250 GB monthly broadband data caps for users of its Internet service.

It's not eliminating it at all. It's just changing how it deals with people who go over.

640kb should be good enough for anyone.

I recall someone else saying that once.

 

[QuantumPion]

Totally for this move. Bandwidth caps = lame. $10 per 50 GB over 250 is reasonable.

 

[AznAnarchy99]

Ever since I started using my phone as my home internet, I found that I rarely hit over 100gb at all and that's including on the road. Although when its game downloading time or patch time, that number spikes.

 

[thegimp03]

I haven't seen the usage meter in my account in quite some time. Back when I lived with two other roommates, staying under 250 GB was sometimes difficult to do. Now that it's just me and my wife it's pretty easy.

 

[rivan]

i have hit >400gb legit traffic in a month before.

Orly?

Call me a skeptic, but HOW? If you're not serving files, I don't see how a person could do that. That's 13GB per day, EVERY DAY.

Frankly, I think that people that use that heavily should be on a separate service tier.

 

[JeffreyLebowski]

Orly?

Call me a skeptic, but HOW? If you're not serving files, I don't see how a person could do that. That's 13GB per day, EVERY DAY.

Frankly, I think that people that use that heavily should be on a separate service tier.

If you watch a lot of HD content online it adds up fast.

 

[hclarkjr]

found out more on DSLreports, they have a little bit different spin on story -
Comcast to Raise Caps, Start Charging Overage Fees
Starting Trial of Two Different new Cap & Overage Systems
by Karl Bode 62 minutes ago tags: business · cable · caps · Comcast

After years of complaints from users who claimed they were being booted from the Comcast network for excessive use (without Comcast saying what they deemed "excessive") Comcast in 2008 implemented a 250 gigabyte usage cap for all of the company's residential service tiers. Comcast today posted a statement to the company's Comcast Voices blog stating that the company will be eliminating their universal 250 GB usage cap, instead replacing it with "improved data management approaches." What are those changes going to be? Overage fees.

Comcast says they're exploring two options:The first new approach will offer multi-tier usage allowances that incrementally increase usage allotments for each tier of high-speed data service from the current threshold. Thus, we'd start with a 300 GB usage allotment for our Internet Essentials, Economy, and Performance Tiers, and then we would have increasing data allotments for each successive tier of high speed data service (e.g., Blast and Extreme). The very few customers who use more data at each tier can buy additional gigabytes in increments/blocks (e.g., $10 for 50 GB).

The second new approach will increase our data usage thresholds for all tiers to 300 GB per month and also offer additional gigabytes in increments/blocks (e.g., $10 per 50 GB). In both approaches, we'll be increasing the initial data usage threshold for our customers from today's 250 GB per month to at least 300 GB per month. In markets where we are not trialing a new data usage management approach, we will suspend enforcement of our current usage cap as we transition to a new data usage management approach, although we will continue to contact the very small number of excessive users about their usage.

Though they've likely been itching to impose overages for some time, Comcast claims the company was influenced, in part, by the recent coverage exploring how the company's Xfinity content on the Xbox 360 doesn't count against the usage cap:"...For the last six months we have been analyzing the market and our process and think that now is the time to begin to move to a new plan. This conclusion was only reinforced when, in recent weeks, some of the conversation around our new product introductions focused on our data usage threshold, rather than on the exciting opportunities we are offering our customers.

So the good news is that your caps are going up, but the bad news is that the company is now joining the growing list of U.S. ISPs that are charging overages, despite the fact that just last December Comcast had expressed concerns that they didn't want to "nickel and dime customers" or "disrupt the consumer experience" by imposing usage fees

http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Comcast-to-Raise-Caps-Start-Charging-Overage-Fees-119581

 

[mugs]

Ever since I started using my phone as my home internet, I found that I rarely hit over 100gb at all and that's including on the road. Although when its game downloading time or patch time, that number spikes.

I can't imagine why cellular companies are getting rid of unlimited data plans.

 

[SillyOReilly]

i have hit >400gb legit traffic in a month before.

Someone needs to step out of the house occasionally.

 

[vshah]

Orly?

Call me a skeptic, but HOW? If you're not serving files, I don't see how a person could do that. That's 13GB per day, EVERY DAY.

Frankly, I think that people that use that heavily should be on a separate service tier.

netflix/hulu plus/xbox live movie rentals
+
syncing assets between 2 sites
+
online backup combined with a digitization project of several hundred family videos & several thousand pictures.

not saying i do it every month, just saying it is doable.

 

[GrumpyMan]

ATT, Verizon, Comcast....Guess I'll have to get rid of Netflix, Hulu, etc..

 

[frostedflakes]

300GB for the lowest tier seems pretty reasonable and so do the overage fees (for example, if the base plan is $50/mo for 300GB, you're paying about the same, $10 per 60GB of data; sometimes companies will really try to screw you on the overages). People love to complain about Comcast, but their usage limits have always been pretty fair IMO. This should only affect a very small minority of heavy users.

 

[DCal430]

Sounds like they are going to raise the lower tier service to 300 and Blast and Extreme to a higher amount. I have Extreme right now which also has a 250 GB cap, so I wonder what they will raise it too.

 

[ImpulsE69]

Not sure why it's hard to grasp people using so much data. EVERYTHING is online now. It adds up fast.

 

[AznAnarchy99]

I can't imagine why cellular companies are getting rid of unlimited data plans.

So what? I pay for my tethering.

 

[Kadarin]

I solved this problem by getting Comcast business class internet. It's more per month (around $80), but you get static ip addresses and no caps. Also has good upload speeds.

 

[Nintendesert]

It's not eliminating it at all. It's just changing how it deals with people who go over.



I recall someone else saying that once.

Nobody said that. Urban myth.

 

[nonameo]

Bellsouth's limit is 150gb a month. Usually we don't go over it, but the overage fee is still 10 dollars per 50gb, and it's not exactly hard to hit the limit. I have a feeling people in areas with less competition will start getting screwed as the ISPs start lowering the threshold at which fees are charged.

 

[her209]

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-05-17/comcast-to-test-charging-heavy-web-users-on-data-amount

In the City of Brotherly Love.

The median Comcast customer uses 8 gigabytes to 10 gigabytes, she said.

Riiiiiight.

 

[her209]

i have hit >400gb legit traffic in a month before.

Its easy to go over when you have a premium account to certain sites to download HD videos.

:sneaky:

 

[child of wonder]

My cousin and I both run labs at our houses running VMware and Hyper-V with our VMs on ZFS servers. It would be so cool to be able to replicate our environments but since I'm on Comcast there's no way we can do that.