Comcast’s New data cap is here to help you by helping itself to more of your money claiming ‘fairness’
Addicted to the internet? Comcast is about to get you in a twelve step program.
Can’t get any work done for watching Netflix six hours a day? The nation’s largest internet provider is about to free you up to get shit done.
Do you find yourself friendless because you’ve replaced your physical social life with a bunch of online buddies whom you don’t really like or know? You should have plenty of time for face-to-face friends once you start paying extra every month for your broadband service.
Yes, Comcast is ramping up their assault on unlimited internet by introducing new fees for customers who go over one terabyte of data in a calendar month. This is not a good thing on the surface for most of us. But for the tiny portion of people who do spend too much time online, this could be seen as a good thing.
Hey, I’m just trying to find the silver lining in all this. Clearly, it sucks to have our internet clamped down, even if most of us will get by just fine, as the average user will never need 1 TB in a month.
That’s Comcast’s stat, not mine.
The cable giant is trying to make it seem as though this new policy will only affect a tiny portion of their customer base. They make a few claims in layman terms as to just how much you can do with 1 TB of data.
Still, we’re not sure you can watch every full-length porno from the top ten pornstars of the 2000’s and stay under Comcast’s new cap.
And it’s doubtful you can stream every single cat video on Youtube twice, and never worry about paying $10 for every 50 gigabytes you go over the cap.
As for listeners of The Joe Rogan Experience, you may have to use some of that cellular data to get the three-hour show on a regular basis. Especially if you’re also using Pandora around the house.
Comcast is making unlimited data available for an extra $50 per month for those who wish to stay trapped in the online world. I can see the number of folks signing up for that privilege being near zero.
Hell, that would make my monthly bill jump to $250 for phone, internet, and cable.
We have been considering cutting the cord and going with Sling TV for a while. But we were part of Comcast’s testing market that saw data caps at just 300 GB. We went over every month nearly! So I figured there was no way we could stay under that number if we swapped all our TV watching over to streaming only.
With one terabyte, I’m still not sure. But the even bigger problem is that I didn’t even know that Comcast had raised the 300GB testing limit after the FCC took notice. I’m too busy to check on such things.
Why? I work a lot and any investigation into such issues could result in me on the phone with one of Comcast’s customer service reps, which has sent many a consumer to the ER after their blood pressure went through the roof.
According to my “usage meter” on my account page with Comcast, I average about 350 gigabytes per month. So I shouldn’t worry about anything, right?
Wrong. If I change over to all streaming TV, then that number would jump quite a bit. Probably double. And who knows what other services are coming down the pipeline that would eat up more data. Virtual Reality and 4K Ultra Hi-Def video are just two examples that are here already.
Comcast knows what’s coming. People are simply not going to revert back to paying attention to the physical world around them. Their attention is on the internet world.
I can surely make an argument that data caps are a good thing. We all waste too much time on Facebook and Youtube.
But any limitations on our internet consumption should be self-imposed, not rained down on us by Comcast. We get enough downtime from the internet during each year with service outages that are repaired when it’s convenient for the unconcerned mega-corp.
Our family survived such an outage last year from a single line being knocked down by a small tree. Eleven days, we went with no internet or cable TV. We persevered and came out the other side a stronger family.
I’m just not sure how we would have coped with such an outage five years into the future. By that time, we will be even more wrapped up in the online world. Our family members could turn on each other in that scenario down the line.
And that’s probably what will happen with Comcast’s new data limits. Family members will be pitted against each other as they fight over precious gigabytes.
It’s not like American families can take the fight to the internet providers in a pissed off threat to find another company. Nearly all these big providers suck, so going over to another company won’t solve anything. And most small communities like mine, have one option for broadband.
Comcast is acting as if this new data cap will affect nearly no one. I’ll give them the benefit of that doubt, for today. Yet, in a year or two, one terabyte may seem like a drop in the bucket.
If you’ve not received that e-mail from Comcast Xfinity yet, here’s what you can expect. Ours tried to claim that we’d already been going over the 1TB limit, but when we checked our usage, it never went over 300GB in the past year, so good ole scammer Comcast Xfinity is lying again. Also, all you customers pay attention to your bill because we keep catching Comcast Xfinity adding in these little extra things and when we call them on it, they claim a ‘mistake.’ The same mistake has been happening over 13 months now so
We’re writing to let you know that we will be activating a new XFINITY Internet Data Usage Plan in your area. Effective November 1, 2016, your XFINITY Internet service will include one terabyte (that’s 1,024 GB) of data usage per month. With a terabyte of data, you can stream between 600 and 700 hours of HD video, play more than 12,000 hours of games online, or download 60,000 high-res photos in a month.
For the past three months, your average data usage was 1017 GB. The vast majority of our customers would consider one terabyte to be a massive amount of data – in fact, less than 1% of our customers use that amount in a month. However, it may not be enough for everyone, so we want to make sure you understand your options and choose the Data Usage Plan that works best for you. Our data plans are based on a principle of fairness. Those who use more Internet data, pay more. And those who use less Internet data, pay less. If you believe you will need more than one terabyte of data, we offer an Unlimited Data option.
One Terabyte Plan and Unlimited Data option:
One Terabyte (TB) included/month: If one TB is exceeded, $10 is charged for each additional data block of up to 50 GB/month.
$200 overage charge limit – no matter how much data is used
And of course, they have a special plan to charge you with:
Additional $50/month: No overage charges — no matter how much data is used each month
The same mistake has been happening over 13 months now so Comcast Xfinity customer, always be wary of this company. The timing couldn’t be better as many customers won’t check their usage and just assume they are being honest and just sign up for the extra $50 per month feel.
What better way for Comcast Xfinity to boost it’s fourth-quarter earning as subscribers have been leaving the cable giant for better deals.