PSA - Comcast users - Data Cap

[ch33zw1z]

Here's Comcast's website about it:

Data Usage and Unlimited Data - Xfinity

Learn about Xfinity Internet Data Plans, how to track your data usage and upgrade to unlimited data to download or stream anything you want!

www.xfinity.com

 

[Paratus]

Well it’s a good thing Comcast has data limits as they come close to running out of bits at the end of each month.

 

[VirtualLarry]

But more seriously there is some sort of malware that runs crypto currency bs in the background. May want to check that out.

That doesn't really eat that much bandwidth, unless they also have an RDP session open to your box (!).

 

[Viper1j]

Here's Comcast's website about it:

Data Usage and Unlimited Data - Xfinity

Learn about Xfinity Internet Data Plans, how to track your data usage and upgrade to unlimited data to download or stream anything you want!

www.xfinity.com

I just got off the phone with them. Apparently since I'm "Internet only" I'm not affected by any of the increases. Rental fees would be going up in my area, so it's a good thing that I own my own modem and router.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

As I’ve said here is what really pisses me off. I worked in wireless industry when they did similar pricing games. New customers get good rates, existing customers get shit rates. Customers hated these policies. Why we tolerate it with internet is beyond me. I have two high speed options where I live.

I received an email “increase your speed see specials here”
Not too special to me, especially the pay $25 more per month for 3/4th the speed.
**$40 base price that will increase to $55 in February**


Or sign up as a new customer and get

 

[ch33zw1z]

I just got off the phone with them. Apparently since I'm "Internet only" I'm not affected by any of the increases. Rental fees would be going up in my area, so it's a good thing that I own my own modem and router.

But were still included in the data cap ( we, being internet only customers)

 

[ch33zw1z]

MA officials speak out

Comcast data cap blasted by lawmakers as it expands into 12 more states

Data cap harms poor people and isn’t needed to manage network, Mass. reps say.

arstechnica.com

 

[snoopy7548]

MA officials speak out

Comcast data cap blasted by lawmakers as it expands into 12 more states

Data cap harms poor people and isn’t needed to manage network, Mass. reps say.

arstechnica.com

Cool. Now pass legislation prohibiting data caps.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

Cool. Now pass legislation prohibiting data caps.

It could happen, MA gets shit done.
However I suspect that would just re-adjust the rates. Some rates go up $5 or $10 others stay flat and all get unlimited data.

 

[snoopy7548]

It could happen, MA gets shit done.
However I suspect that would just re-adjust the rates. Some rates go up $5 or $10 others stay flat and all get unlimited data.

Looks like Baker is set on rewarding the monopolies...

Governor Baker announces new funding for internet service to smaller communities in Massachusetts

Governor Baker provided a live announcement in Springfield Tuesday morning regarding internet connectivity and economic recovery during the coronavirus pandemic.

www.wwlp.com

An initiative called ‘Mass Internet Connect’ will bring and improve broadband internet to communities that don’t have reliable access.

It’s a $9 million initiative Governor Charlie Baker and Lt. Governor Karyn Polito spoke about Tuesday morning in Springfield. The program partners with service providers like Verizon, Comcast and Charter Spectrum.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

Looks like Baker is set on rewarding the monopolies...

Governor Baker announces new funding for internet service to smaller communities in Massachusetts

Governor Baker provided a live announcement in Springfield Tuesday morning regarding internet connectivity and economic recovery during the coronavirus pandemic.

www.wwlp.com

This appears to be more of a job search thing. Bring internet to those who don’t have it or have slow/low bandwidth.

Locations | Mass.gov

www.mass.gov

Doesn’t seem like a bad thing to me.

 

[ch33zw1z]

I helped a family member setup Internet essentials here in town, and it was a shit show. Internet essentials (IE) is a separate entity from Comcast, in their views, so the regular comcast stores can't help, and the phone numbers are different.

Family member lives in public housing, so they have some bulk cable plan included. This really threw Comcast / IE for a loop. In the end, after 6 weeks I gave up, told family member to just get a neighbors wifi password and toss them $5 month. But a couple weeks later it started working. Yea, took IE 2 months to get it turned on.

 

[snoopy7548]

Now that the caps are officially here, how is everyone doing? I'm way under for this month:

 

[ultimatebob]

I'm still nowhere near hitting the cap, which is surprising considering that I've been working from home:

 

[ch33zw1z]

Making changes, January looks like I'll stay under, 1 week left. But, I moved my work laptop to the provided hot spot full time, which is a good deal of usage on it.

 

[Thump553]

Three person household, two retirees, cut cable roughly 18 months ago. No 4k TVs, my son is a heavy internet user and the TV is on a lot. According to Comcast we went from 75% of our data cap to 100% in the last week-when we all deliberately cut back.

Comcast just raised the rates for our 100Mbps service in Dec. No competition available, not even DSL-and we literally live 20 miles from the CT state capitol.

Comcast says we are in the 5% power user category, which I find absurd. Just spent $400 replacing my router (old one was getting flaky) and going to mesh network last fall, perfectly happy with it. I'm torn between paying them another $30/mo for unlimited with my equipment or using their equipment for $25/mo.
Any suggestions, other that drop pants and bend over as Comcast wants?

 

[BarkingGhostar]

Relocate?

 

[ch33zw1z]

Relocate?

 

[brycejones]

Three person household, two retirees, cut cable roughly 18 months ago. No 4k TVs, my son is a heavy internet user and the TV is on a lot. According to Comcast we went from 75% of our data cap to 100% in the last week-when we all deliberately cut back.

Comcast just raised the rates for our 100Mbps service in Dec. No competition available, not even DSL-and we literally live 20 miles from the CT state capitol.

Comcast says we are in the 5% power user category, which I find absurd. Just spent $400 replacing my router (old one was getting flaky) and going to mesh network last fall, perfectly happy with it. I'm torn between paying them another $30/mo for unlimited with my equipment or using their equipment for $25/mo.
Any suggestions, other that drop pants and bend over as Comcast wants?

Vote against anyone who prevents real competition including municipal broadband in your area. Comcast is exploiting its monopoly position.

 

[kitkat22]

I feel lucky to have a little competition. I initially had comcast then switched to centurylink. I got sick and tired of the contract stuff with comcast. Yes, they are faster and in some cases may be cheaper, but i dont have to put up with the headaches. I am at 120mbps with no data caps and no contract. The speed is fine just to not have to deal with the crap from comcast.

We are going to be even better off, hopefully soon. TDS is placing fiber locally and i am told my line should be placed this year. Comcast, TDS and centurylink all competing against each other would be sweet🥳

 

[Hail The Brain Slug]

I feel lucky to have a little competition. I initially had comcast then switched to centurylink. I got sick and tired of the contract stuff with comcast. Yes, they are faster and in some cases may be cheaper, but i dont have to put up with the headaches. I am at 120mbps with no data caps and no contract. The speed is fine just to not have to deal with the crap from comcast.

We are going to be even better off, hopefully soon. TDS is placing fiber locally and i am told my line should be placed this year. Comcast, TDS and centurylink all competing against each other would be sweet🥳

Last place I lived was a choice between uncapped symmetrical gigabit fiber from Centurylink for $65 or the typical capped low upload speed gigabit cable from Comcast for $110.

Guess what I chose?

 

[darkswordsman17]

Three person household, two retirees, cut cable roughly 18 months ago. No 4k TVs, my son is a heavy internet user and the TV is on a lot. According to Comcast we went from 75% of our data cap to 100% in the last week-when we all deliberately cut back.

Comcast just raised the rates for our 100Mbps service in Dec. No competition available, not even DSL-and we literally live 20 miles from the CT state capitol.

Comcast says we are in the 5% power user category, which I find absurd. Just spent $400 replacing my router (old one was getting flaky) and going to mesh network last fall, perfectly happy with it. I'm torn between paying them another $30/mo for unlimited with my equipment or using their equipment for $25/mo.
Any suggestions, other that drop pants and bend over as Comcast wants?

Check what's using how much bandwidth and find ways to mitigate that. I've seen reports from some people that their Rokus use a ridiculous amount of data for some reason. If the son streams a lot of the same stuff (music for instance) see about purchasing or downloading (quite a few services including Netflix and Hulu offer this) where they can download it once vs streaming it multiple times.

Probably turn off autoplay next on streaming services. Or alter resolution settings where possible. Last resort would be some manner of per device limits (like max bandwidth which should impact any auto-resolution/bitrate services that might be doing higher quality and thus bandwidth than desired).

Maybe look into a traffic filter of some sort (that limits incoming ads for instance - which might not save a ton of data but I bet you might be surprised).

 

[ch33zw1z]

Check what's using how much bandwidth and find ways to mitigate that. I've seen reports from some people that their Rokus use a ridiculous amount of data for some reason. If the son streams a lot of the same stuff (music for instance) see about purchasing or downloading (quite a few services including Netflix and Hulu offer this) where they can download it once vs streaming it multiple times.

Probably turn off autoplay next on streaming services. Or alter resolution settings where possible. Last resort would be some manner of per device limits (like max bandwidth which should impact any auto-resolution/bitrate services that might be doing higher quality and thus bandwidth than desired).

Maybe look into a traffic filter of some sort (that limits incoming ads for instance - which might not save a ton of data but I bet you might be surprised).

One of the things I did was purchase a spotify membership. Premium allows you do download music and not stream it. I tested this by disabling wifi and mobile data, playlist still played.

That's like a pebble tho, it's the video that really eats up the data

 

[Thump553]

I suspect it is the TVs-we use Amazon firesticks. Plus a lot of facetime calls over the phone. But I don't think our usage changed substantially since the pre-Covid days and never heard from Comcast about overages then.

Decided to go the extra $30 per month internet only, keep my equipment. First five months are free (so nice of Comcast).

 

[ch33zw1z]

I suspect it is the TVs-we use Amazon firesticks. Plus a lot of facetime calls over the phone. But I don't think our usage changed substantially since the pre-Covid days and never heard from Comcast about overages then.

Decided to go the extra $30 per month internet only, keep my equipment. First five months are free (so nice of Comcast).

Pre covid, comcast only enforced a data cap in some areas. My account still said "250 GB data limit", but it wasn't enforced in MA