Data caps have come to Cox New England

[dfuze]

LOL, "Essentials Package".

Yeah, their naming conventions are horrible, need better marketing teams

I'm guessing putting a cap on is their way to get people to upgrade to their more expensive tiers since their current way of saying gamers need the 50Mbps tier hasn't worked.

 

[Brovane]

Looks like they finally decided to roll out data caps to us over here in CT. Kind of surprised it took so long for them to do it, considering how much money they can make from overages. According to my email, it says my Essentials package (3Mbps down) gets me 50GB a month which isn't as bad as I thought it would be when I started reading it.

Excerpt from email:

You have a lower data plan with Cox. I would be suprised to see how much data you actually D/L in a month. Most users overstate how much data they think they D/L in a month. You can get a high level package like Preferred and get 200GB D/L. Realistically some types of limits need to be enforced.

 

[Dulanic]

Comcast doesn't appear to have a cap here in IL, but I think I may have been throttled.

I used to get 2.5 MB/sec on Steam downloads, now I don't seem to get any higher than 500 kb/sec.

I never got any notice though. I have been downloading a lot and watching a ton of HD Netflix.

Comcast everywhere is 250. Log into my account on the website, then click user & settings and look on the top right.

58GB of 250GB
23%
As of 9/20/2011*
View details

 

[Via]

I'l check that sometime; I don't even remember my login info and I don't feel like finding it now.

 

[dfuze]

You have a lower data plan with Cox. I would be suprised to see how much data you actually D/L in a month. Most users overstate how much data they think they D/L in a month. You can get a high level package like Preferred and get 200GB D/L. Realistically some types of limits need to be enforced.

I'm currently at 17GB for the month, but I also dropped netflix at the end of last month (of which it streamed just fine on this connection speed) and haven't had much time for gaming lately so I wonder what it would be at my normal usage.

 

[Saint Nick]

Anyone know where on Cox Online Bill Pay you can view usage stats?

 

[AstroManLuca]

50 GB? Ridiculous. 250 GB seems like a reasonable starting point to me.

 

[Brovane]

I'm currently at 17GB for the month, but I also dropped netflix at the end of last month (of which it streamed just fine on this connection speed) and haven't had much time for gaming lately so I wonder what it would be at my normal usage.

I have Cox out in CA. I have the preffered package which should give me 200GB a month. However currently in Cox CA they have no tool that will tell me my overall data usage. I can monitor my computer data usage. However I do streaming from both Netflix and Amazon Prime so I would be interested to see what my total streaming is. Streaming video is what really eats up bandwidth.

 

[Brovane]

50 GB? Ridiculous. 250 GB seems like a reasonable starting point to me.

He has a lower tier package. So 50GB is not that unreasonable.

 

[AstroManLuca]

He has a lower tier package. So 50GB is not that unreasonable.

It all depends on the cost of the plan. Right now I'm paying $45/mo for Qwest (now CenturyLink) DSL, which apparently has a 250 GB cap. My other option would be Comcast, which would be $60/mo (no cable TV service) and carries the same 250 GB cap, albeit with faster speeds than DSL.

If the 50 GB package is significantly cheaper, then fine. Give people who don't use as much the option of paying less. If not, fuck that, quit trying to sell me less service for more money. I'd be really pissed if CenturyLink all of a sudden decided that my $45/mo was only good for a 50 GB cap at some point in the future.

 

[dfuze]

Anyone know where on Cox Online Bill Pay you can view usage stats?

When I'm logged in looking at my email, use the Internet Tools on the left side of the screen, then look for a link for the data meter in the middle of the screen.

 

[Brovane]

It all depends on the cost of the plan. Right now I'm paying $45/mo for Qwest (now CenturyLink) DSL, which apparently has a 250 GB cap. My other option would be Comcast, which would be $60/mo (no cable TV service) and carries the same 250 GB cap, albeit with faster speeds than DSL.

If the 50 GB package is significantly cheaper, then fine. Give people who don't use as much the option of paying less. If not, fuck that, quit trying to sell me less service for more money. I'd be really pissed if CenturyLink all of a sudden decided that my $45/mo was only good for a 50 GB cap at some point in the future.

I think the essentials is about $15/month less than the next tier up for Cox.

 

[Brovane]

When I'm logged in looking at my email, use the Internet Tools on the left side of the screen, then look for a link for the data meter in the middle of the screen.

Not every site has this. I went around with Cox a couple of months ago. The documentation online indicated I had a data usage meter. However after going around with tech support they discovered it wasn't enabled for Cox in CA.

 

[dfuze]

I think the essentials is about $15/month less than the next tier up for Cox.

$15 isn't that much of a difference, I just didn't see paying them more money for speed that I generally didn't need

 

[Brovane]

$15 isn't that much of a difference, I just didn't see paying them more money for speed that I generally didn't need

I agree. I have thought about having my Mom Downgrade to a lower tier since she doesn't do much on the Internet.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Sucks that most ISPs are capping now. If they don't have the bandwidth to support their customers then provide what they are paying for by upgrading the backbone equipment. Once the fiber is laid, it's just the thing of adding equipment at both ends. We are paying them a reoccuring amount, they only have to buy the equipment once. We are living in the dark ages with all these caps.

 

[Jaepheth]

In capitalist America, Cox fuck you!

 

[mnewsham]

Sucks that most ISPs are capping now. If they don't have the bandwidth to support their customers then provide what they are paying for by upgrading the backbone equipment. Once the fiber is laid, it's just the thing of adding equipment at both ends. We are paying them a reoccuring amount, they only have to buy the equipment once. We are living in the dark ages with all these caps.

Hasnt verizon said they are not laying anymore fiber? :hmm:

Who else in the country is doing Fiber?

 

[xanis]

Hasnt verizon said they are not laying anymore fiber? :hmm:

Who else in the country is doing Fiber?

Google? Oh wait....

 

[spidey07]

Sucks that most ISPs are capping now. If they don't have the bandwidth to support their customers then provide what they are paying for by upgrading the backbone equipment. Once the fiber is laid, it's just the thing of adding equipment at both ends. We are paying them a reoccuring amount, they only have to buy the equipment once. We are living in the dark ages with all these caps.

LOL! It's the cost of that equipment that is so expensive along with depreciation. You can't just replace cards or gear that is 2-3 years old, it's still on the books. Their operating expense is a recurring amount, to upgrade gear adds to that recurring expense in capex.

The days of all you can eat are over and you certainly aren't paying for a full bandwidth all the time connection, if you were the cost would be MUCH higher.

 

[Eli]

The fiancee and I burn through 20gb a month and we don't stream nearly as much as we could. 50gb/mo seems incredibly low.

 

[mmntech]

Welcome to the rest of the world. When I first got cable internet in 2003, the cap was 60gb/mo. Skip ahead 8 years, the cap is now 60gb/mo. Wow, progress. We pay about $50 for that too. My cable company only gives up to 125gb, if you fork over $100 each month. It's pretty disgusting that service hasn't kept up with technology. Back when my hard drive was only 40gb, that sixty seemed massive and unreachable. Now Steam, Youtube, even just my daily post-work f--- around eats up a lot of bandwidth.

Tin foil hat time. I think the caps exist because unlimited internet renders the cable company's other services obsolete. If you've got your Hulu, Netflix and Skype, then you don't need to buy television, premium movies, pay-per-view, and phone service.

 

[ch33zw1z]

Tin foil hat time. I think the caps exist because unlimited internet renders the cable company's other services obsolete. If you've got your Hulu, Netflix and Skype, then you don't need to buy television, premium movies, pay-per-view, and phone service.

I'll wear that hat too.

I have cable internet and basic cable because it's cheaper to do both. I pay about half what I would if cable tv was in the picture. We watch everything online or DVD's that we own. The library get to see us once a week or so as well.

We've been using roughly 150GB/month for the last few months.

 

[Ms. DICKINSON]

Time to pull out that hacked/modded modem. 50GB is not bad if you have that senior citizen plan where you just do emails and pay bills.

 

[djnsmith7]

Damn, 50 gigs is nothing. I'd go through that in a week.