Exclusive: Cox Planning to Impose Usage Overage Fees DSLReports has received information confirming that Cox Communications will be testing overage fees this summer ahead of a potential nationwide deployment. A Cox insider familiar with the cable operator's network management practices says that customers in the company's Cleveland, Ohio market will be informed on May 19 that they'll soon be facing overage fees of $10 for every 50 GB over their usage cap they travel.

From June to September, Cox customers in Cleveland will have their "overage" usage tallied on their bills, but users initially won't be charged. Instead, they'll see the estimated overage fee and an accompanying credit. They'll face the real charges starting in October, according to the insider. A draft customer support script obtained exclusively by DSLReports states that this lead-in period will "give customers the opportunity to familiarize themselves with their typical data usage and take action, such as secure their WiFi network or change service plans, if they exceed their limit." The script also notes that customers will be notified via e-mail and a browser popup when they've reached 85% and 100% of their monthly data allotments. Cox services like Cox TV Connect, Cox Digital Telephone and Cox Home Security will not count toward the usage cap, a Cox insider claims. As we noted last week, Cox just got done dramatically increasing the usage allotments on all of the company's tiers. As it stands now, these are the allotment limitations the company's users face: • Starter: 150 GB/month • Essential 250 GB/month • Preferred 350 GB/month (the most popular plan) • Premier 700 GB/month • Ultimate 2 TB/month "Data usage plans promote fairness by asking the high capacity Internet users to pay a greater share of network costs."

-Cox internal customer support script Given the dropping cost of bandwidth and the soaring costs of services, broadband operators in the States have had a hard time justifying caps and overages. Given the dropping cost of bandwidth and the soaring costs of services, broadband operators in the States have had a hard time justifying caps and overages. Time Warner Cable, you'll recall, faced a severe customer backlash back in 2009 when it tried to impose usage caps and overages across the company's footprint. The company backtracked after public and political pressure, ultimately settling on making caps and overages a voluntary offering. Cox's support script repeatedly tries to downplay the usage charges by claiming that only around 5% of the company's users will be impacted. One portion of the script goes so far as to try and suggest that usage limits will help the poor by allowing Cox to provide lower-cost services. The script also trots out some very familiar justifications for imposing caps and overages in the age of HD (and soon 4K) Internet video: quote: "Data usage plans promote fairness by asking the high capacity Internet users to pay a greater share of network costs. Some critics of data usage plans push a flat fee pricing model, meaning that users would pay a flat fee whether they simply use the Internet to surf the web and check email or if they are a “super user” and consume copious amounts of bandwidth. Data usage plans are a far more fair approach, giving consumers a choice based on their personal needs rather than forcing all customers to absorb the network costs incurred by the 5% of customers who exceed their allowance. In contrast, critics of usage caps and overages often counter that American consumers already pay some of the highest prices for broadband services in the developed world (OECD In contrast, critics of usage caps and overages often counter that American consumers already pay some of the highest prices for broadband services in the developed world (OECD data ), and usage overages aren't about "fairness," they're about protecting TV revenues from the inevitable rise of Internet video. Similarly, consumer advocates have argued that if just "5%" of users are causing problems, why not push those users to business-class tiers, instead of imposing surcharges on your entire userbase?Insiders say Cox is planning to move forward with usage charges for all of the company's markets depending on the success of (read: customer response to) this initial trial. I've reached out to Cox with request for comment and will update this post accordingly.







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Most recommended from 66 comments



humanfilth

join:2013-02-14

cyber gutter 2 recommendations humanfilth Member Notifications The script also notes that customers will be notified via e-mail and a browser popup when they've reached 85% and 100% of their monthly data allotments.



ISP Rogers(via PerfTech) has done message injection as well. »



CMA Communications with ad injection(via R66T). »



Telus implemented their data caps and so far, they decided to just simply use emails to the end user for notifications(an open pipe ISP, except for the cache.google servers). Before the implementation, they notified by mail, all users that they should have a recent/legitimate email address on file so they don't miss out. Firewalls at the ready to block the IP address of the man in the middle attack. Browser injection is disgusting and should never be tolerated. Some of these ISP crooks have been known to replace ads on webpages with their own ads.ISP Rogers(via PerfTech) has done message injection as well. » arstechnica.com/uncatego ··· b-pages/ CMA Communications with ad injection(via R66T). » zmhenkel.blogspot.com/20 ··· cma.html Telus implemented their data caps and so far, they decided to just simply use emails to the end user for notifications(an open pipe ISP, except for the cache.google servers). Before the implementation, they notified by mail, all users that they should have a recent/legitimate email address on file so they don't miss out. chrismitt

join:2012-07-09

Orange, CA 2 recommendations chrismitt Member cash cow now this is what i call a cash cow and a major cash grab and with d 3.1 on the horizon their is no real need for caps and this is just typical America isp's just trying to charge as much as they can get away with it anyone with cox needs to backlash like twc customers did a few years ago when they tried to implement gay caps because i don't see Asia or euro isp's charging for data usage i can agree (somewhat) with caps on mobile because of it being mobile etc but really on wireline their is NO EXCUSES

jchambers28

Premium Member

join:2007-05-12

Alma, AR 2 recommendations jchambers28 Premium Member FCC and FTC complaint Just filed a complaint with the FTC and the FCC over this you should too.

sraz

join:2013-10-28

Tucson, AZ 2 recommendations sraz Member Usage Based Billing Yet another cable company pushing caps with overage fees, big surprise there. I find it hard to believe this isn't better alternatives to capping and billing. If you truly wanted to implement a usage based billing model you would charge an amount that more accurately reflected your costs of providing additional bandwidth. It seems to be an additional 50GB of bandwidth would likely cost them very little, so asking customers $10 is more along the lines of punishment or highway robbery than a reflection of actual costs or expenses. The cost of building out the network and making upgrades should already be built into their service model.



This isn't like wireless service where they only have so much spectrum/tower density/antenna's that can only accommodate so many users where a few heavy users cause problem. If capacity gets tight on coax, they just do a node split. They might complain about the cost of this, but it's already in their roadmap to continue driving fiber closer to their customers, it should be budgeted more along the lines of network maintenance and upgrades than blaming it on those few heavy users that actually make use of the connection you're selling them.



Just because a customer uses a lot of bandwidth does not mean they are consuming massive throughput which might cause congestion problems, they might just be watching lots of streaming video or using an IPTV solution. In those cases their usage is unlikely to even affect their neighbors as each node should already have the capacity for each customer to stream HD video with no problem, it just means that by the end of the month they will have transferred more data.



I will give credit for Cox raising their data caps, but I suspect that is only so they can try to push people onto more expensive tiers when their usage gets higher, as it only naturally will as more internet based options become available. Punishing your customers only works as long as the market fails and there is no competitor, then they wonder why the people hammer at the FCC's door asking them to regulate internet service...