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Forums - General - Comcast Introduces New Data Caps, What do you think?

 

Comcast raises data cap from 250GB to 300GB + $10 for each 50GB over.

People who use more shoul... 8 14.81%
 
I'm happy they raised th... 1 1.85%
 
I'm happy they raised th... 2 3.70%
 
This is 2012, why should ... 25 46.30%
 
This is BS, Comcast is al... 7 12.96%
 
Meh. 1 1.85%
 
Screw Comcast, I'm switching. 2 3.70%
 
Comcast isn't in my area... 5 9.26%
 
Resultz. 3 5.56%
 
Total:54
WiiBox3 on 19 September 2012

From Media Post

Comcast is moving forward with a new pricing plan that could discourage subscribers from cutting the cord.

The company's new model imposes data caps that range from 300 GB to 600 GB, depending on the subscription package. Users who exceed the limits will be charged $10 per 50 GB. The broadband and cable provider has already started imposing the new caps in Nashville, Tenn., and intends to start rolling them out next month in Tuscon, Ariz.

In some ways, the plan marks an improvement from Comcast's prior practices. Until May, Comcast imposed a data cap of 250 GB per month for residential users, and suspended service to some users who exceeded their data caps. Currently, most users don't come close to the caps; median data use tends to range from 8 GB to 10 GB, the company said recently. But that's bound to change as more video becomes available online.

Although the new caps are higher and more flexible than the old system, the plan is still drawing plenty of criticism. Comcast hasn't said why it's imposing data caps at all, but consumer groups suspect that the company hopes to prevent cord-cutting by making it more difficult for people to watch unlimited video online. Public Knowledge's Michael Weinberg points out in a statement that the new caps are "still below the 648 GB per month required to replace cable television with Internet-delivered video." (That figure is based on the assumption that people would want to watch eight hours of high-definition video a day.)

Free Press adds that data caps aren't a good way to manage network congestion -- which is a lot rarer these days than several years ago, thanks to recent upgrades. Joel Kelsey, legislative director at Free Press, says that even if Comcast's networks occasionally got bogged down, the company could manage traffic in a more targeted fashion. "There's no reason that a grandmother in Indiana should be capped because they experience congestion in a Philadelphia suburb," he tells MediaPost.

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I have mixed emotions about this. I am happy that the data cap will be raised from 250GB to 300GB and I'm happy that if you go over the cap that you won't get kicked off of the service anymore. But I'm not happy that there is still a data cap and you have to pay more if you go over it.....

What do you think?



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superchunk on 19 September 2012

They always had data caps. They are just now advertising them and instead of having your data throttled without knowing, you will now have an associated fee, but with a higher cap by default.

Unless you watch 100% of your HD movies via online or spend every waking moment on a HD FPS game, you really should have no issue of ever reaching the cap.



WiiBox3 on 19 September 2012
superchunk said:
They always had data caps. They are just now advertising them and instead of having your data throttled without knowing, you will now have an associated fee, but with a higher cap by default.

Unless you watch 100% of your HD movies via online or spend every waking moment on a HD FPS game, you really should have no issue of ever reaching the cap.


Yeah the old cap was 250 GB even though they advertised unlimited. If you went over it twice they would cancel your service.

This will become more of an issue as more people download console games. With the Wii U offering first party games for download, the cap could be a problem for more people than before.

On a side note, I used 37GB last month alone on my HTC Evo Smart Phone on Sprint.



jlrx on 19 September 2012

What I see as a big problem is the fact that these companies receive franchises from cities and become the only "cable" choice in the area, therefore a monopoly of said city for all intents and purposes, data caps? Should not exist in any manner when you are at home, we are using more and more and more data every day, its essentially saying, hey, we want everything tied together, information flowing, media flowing, but your going to pay more and more and more. Proper competition would kill that, but there is zero proper competition against cable companies in terms of internet. DSL does not compare, and Fios is not available everywhere, its a joke.



Demensha on 19 September 2012

Working for Comcast for over 6 years 2 times have we (in my area southern fl) ever flagged an account for bandwidth issues. And even then 1 was found to be transferring illegal music and movies( which is a big reason for the cap ) the other I don't remember but that customer opted to upgrade to a business class subscriber; therefor eliminating any bandwidth cap.



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superchunk on 19 September 2012
WiiBox3 said:
superchunk said:
They always had data caps. They are just now advertising them and instead of having your data throttled without knowing, you will now have an associated fee, but with a higher cap by default.

Unless you watch 100% of your HD movies via online or spend every waking moment on a HD FPS game, you really should have no issue of ever reaching the cap.


Yeah the old cap was 250 GB even though they advertised unlimited. If you went over it twice they would cancel your service.

This will become more of an issue as more people download console games. With the Wii U offering first party games for download, the cap could be a problem for more people than before.

On a side note, I used 37GB last month alone on my HTC Evo Smart Phone on Sprint.

There is something wrong with you.



WiiBox3 on 19 September 2012
superchunk said:
WiiBox3 said:
superchunk said:
They always had data caps. They are just now advertising them and instead of having your data throttled without knowing, you will now have an associated fee, but with a higher cap by default.

Unless you watch 100% of your HD movies via online or spend every waking moment on a HD FPS game, you really should have no issue of ever reaching the cap.


Yeah the old cap was 250 GB even though they advertised unlimited. If you went over it twice they would cancel your service.

This will become more of an issue as more people download console games. With the Wii U offering first party games for download, the cap could be a problem for more people than before.

On a side note, I used 37GB last month alone on my HTC Evo Smart Phone on Sprint.

There is something wrong with you.

Lol. Good thing Sprint doesn't have a data cap. If I were on AT&T my bill would have been horendous. I was traveling a bunch last month, so my phone became a netflix device.



superchunk on 19 September 2012
WiiBox3 said:
superchunk said:
WiiBox3 said:

I used 37GB last month alone on my HTC Evo Smart Phone on Sprint.

There is something wrong with you.

Lol. Good thing Sprint doesn't have a data cap. If I were on AT&T my bill would have been horendous. I was traveling a bunch last month, so my phone became a netflix device.

oh so, that's not typical?



Zappykins on 19 September 2012

In the 'olden days' of the internet there were caps too. The internet was charged by the hour. It severely limited it's usefulness.

I remember when AOL came out with it's 'radical' unlimited data plans. I think it was in the mid 1990's for around $39.99 a month (something like around $60 ish today.) I hope some other companies, like maybe Google, start offering more unlimited high speed and this trend goes away. It will stifle growth and development.

The Average Speed for the internet in Hong Kong is something like an Average of 36 megabytes a second. You could use your data plan rather quickly.



 

Really not sure I see any point of Consol over PC's since Kinect, Wii and other alternative ways to play have been abandoned. 

Top 50 'most fun' game list coming soon!

 

Tell me a funny joke!
WiiBox3 on 19 September 2012
superchunk said:
WiiBox3 said:
superchunk said:
WiiBox3 said:

I used 37GB last month alone on my HTC Evo Smart Phone on Sprint.

There is something wrong with you.

Lol. Good thing Sprint doesn't have a data cap. If I were on AT&T my bill would have been horendous. I was traveling a bunch last month, so my phone became a netflix device.

oh so, that's not typical?

Only 16GB this month. :)