Comcast: Charging $30 to Avoid Usage Caps is Us Being 'Fair' As we were the first to report yesterday, Comcast has expanded its usage cap "trials" into Miami, the Florida Keys, and Fort Lauderdale. But those new trial markets also got a new option: to pay Comcast $30 extra to avoid the company's 300 GB cap, and instead get unlimited broadband. It's an option Comcast's FAQ insists brings greater "choice and flexibility" to these customers.

It's extremely unlikely these users agree. On Monday they had no usage caps, and by Tuesday they were informed they now had to pay $30 more just to have the exact same service they had on Monday. It's pretty hard to spin that. Yet after our story broke Comcast began making the rounds trying to justify the decision, using some fairly familiar rhetoric if you've followed the US usage cap debate. "Our data plan trials are part of our ongoing effort to create a fair, technologically-sound policy in which customers who use more data pay more, and customers who use less pay less," Comcast Florida spokesperson Mindy Kramer tells the Miami Herald. Except that's not what's happening here. US broadband customers already pay some of the highest prices for broadband in the developed world, and extreme gluttons can easily be pushed to business-class tiers. Comcast's usage caps are effectively a price hike, and price hikes are only easily deployed in a market that lacks serious competition. In short, Comcast's taking advantage of a lack of competition to jack up prices and protect its TV revenues from Internet video. Our data plan trials are part of our ongoing effort to create a fair, technologically-sound policy

-Comcast If caps and overages were truly about being "fair," carriers would offer the nation's grandmothers a $5-$15 a month tier that accurately reflected her twice weekly, several megabyte browsing of the Weather Channel website. Instead, what we most often see are low caps and high overages layered on top of already high existing flat rate pricing, raising rates for all users. If caps and overages were truly about being "fair," carriers would offer the nation's grandmothers a $5-$15 a month tier that accurately reflected her twice weekly, several megabyte browsing of the Weather Channel website. Instead, what we most often see are low caps and high overages layeredof already high existing flat rate pricing, raising rates for all users. You'll note that the cable industry has given up on trying to argue that caps are necessary due to congestion, given that in the age of intelligent network hardware, caps are a ham-fisted and ineffective way of managing network load. But the cable industry still clings desperately to the argument that caps are purely motivated by a deep-rooted sense of fairness. “To put things in perspective, 300 GB is an extremely large amount of data to use," Kramer continues. "The medium data use for our customers is 40 GB per month; about 70 percent of our customers use less than 100 GB per month. ... About 92 percent of our customers will see absolutely no impact on their monthly bills," Kramer said. Except in the age of 4K video and 50 GB game downloads, 300 GB is no longer an "extremely large" amount of data for a household to use. And just because the usage caps don't impact the majority of Comcast customers today, doesn't mean they won't tomorrow, as every IOT device in the home begins pulling firmware updates. That caps are fair because some users won't hit them is flimsy logic, used to obfuscate the fact that customers just got hit with another ugly rate hike for bandwidth that (at least in the States) is getting cheaper to provide. Meanwhile, it's curious that Comcast wants to push its luck with such an aggressive rate hike in the middle of a PR storm for having what's arguably the any company in the nation. Gosh, it's almost as if Comcast executives realize most of their customers live in captive, uncompetitive broadband markets, allowing the company to do whatever the hell it wants. As for those users, here's a reminder that they can Meanwhile, it's curious that Comcast wants to push its luck with such an aggressive rate hike in the middle of a PR storm for having what's arguably the worst customer service and customer reputation ofcompany in the nation. Gosh, it's almost as if Comcast executives realize most of their customers live in captive, uncompetitive broadband markets, allowing the company to do whatever the hell it wants. As for those users, here's a reminder that they can at least complain to the FCC about Comcast's latest act of fairness.







News Jump Charter Relaunches Free 60-day Internet And Wi-Fi Offer; NCTA: FCC Should Stick With 25/3 Speed Threshold; + more news Comcast Shuts Off Internet for Subs Who Were Sold Service Illegally; AT&T, Verizon Team To Stop T-Mobile 5G; + more news California Defends Its Net Neutrality Law; AT&T's Traffic Up 20% Despite Data Traffic Actually Being Down; + more news Are The Comcast-Charter X1 Talks Dead In The Water?; AT&T May Offer Phone Plans With Ads For Discounts; + more news Europe's Top Court: Net Neutrality Rules Bar Zero Rating; ViacomCBS To Rebrand CBS All Access As Paramount+; + more news Verizon To Buy Reseller TracFone For $7B; 5G Not The Competitive Threat To Cable Many Thought It Would Be; + more news MS.Wants Records From AT&T On $300M Project; Google Fiber Outages In Austin, Houston, Other Texan Cities; + more news States With The Biggest Decreases In Speed; AT&T Hopes You'll Forget Its Fight Against Accurate Maps; + more news AT&T's CEO Has A Familiar $olution To US Broadband Woes; EarthLink Files Suit Against Charter; + more news 5G Doesn't Live Up To Hype, AT&T's 5G Slower Than Its 4G; Cord-Cutting Now In 37% of Broadband Households; + more news ---------------------- this week last week most discussed

Most recommended from 77 comments

dylking

join:2001-07-31

Saint Paul, MN 26 recommendations dylking Member A different word Isn't that called 'extortion'? jorcmg

join:2002-10-24

USA 21 recommendations jorcmg Member comcap Comcap is taking a page right out of the mafia playbook. Create the problem and then sell the solution.



Break some store front windows and then sell the protection service.



Create the cap...and then sell to turn it off. en103

join:2011-05-02 17 recommendations en103 Member It's because

Comcast doesn't give a f*ck about you »www.youtube.com/watch?v= ··· ny_pixDw

Packeteers

Premium Member

join:2005-06-18

Forest Hills, NY ·Verizon FiOS

·Charter

Asus RT-AC3100

(Software) Asuswrt-Merlin

15 recommendations Packeteers Premium Member fair if you don't buy cabletv if you don't stream or download video every month, then 300 gb is reasonable.

if you do, then you are competing with our cabletv subscriptions, so fair to comcast

is we either get your $30 while you stream over the isp, or watch content on our cabletv.

either way we got you by the ballz... that seems fair, right?

tarvey

@symantec.com 12 recommendations tarvey Anon ISPs are a utility, treat them as such ISPs are now in a position where they should be managed like electric and gas utilities - rates, fees and minimum service requirements set by state run utility boards. Particularly in areas where there is no effective competition.



I live in an area where I have a choice between a reasonably fast Comcast connection or a feeble CenturyLink connection (50mb/s vs 5mb/s). Effectively there is no competition. In a multi user home, a 5mb/s connection is not functional.



Sure there are arguments that an ISP isn't really a utility, but in this day and age, it is. Internet is quickly becoming a necessity. Arguments could also be made that there is structural competition unlike electric. But I'd argue that there is competition in electric utilities. I could always go solar and go off grid. But that isn't terrible effective competition because of the costs and variability involved. Similar to the way 5mb/s isn't competitive with 50mb/s.

camper

just visiting this planet

Premium Member

join:2010-03-21

Bethel, CT 10 recommendations camper Premium Member It's not about being "fair" ... It's not about being "fair", it is about extracting more money from customer checking accounts.

michaelp95

Premium Member

join:2001-08-23

Tucson, AZ 10 recommendations michaelp95 Premium Member The caps suck i live in Tucson we are charged $10 for every 50gb we go over. In July I went over 150gb, we were on vacation for 2 weeks of the month, how the hell did we use that much extra in 2 weeks. I want a physical meter like the water and electricity to show how much I'm actually using. I can unplug the modem for days and plug it back in and we've used 5-10gb.....WTF mikesco8

join:2006-02-17

Southwick, MA 1 edit 8 recommendations mikesco8 Member Even if this was neccessary... If Comcast was really interested in fairness they would instead only charge for example an extra $10 a month for every 100GB over the cap with a maximum charge of an extra $30. Instead you have to opt for an extra $30 a month and pay it even in months you don't use it. How is this about fairness Comcast? Rather Comcast your standard pricing is higher than your Cable counterparts such as Charter who don't impose CAPS. So you are simply a greedy evil company!

Gilitar

join:2012-02-01

Mobile, AL 5 recommendations Gilitar Member It's time to overhaul internet access in this country The current model for internet access in this country is broken. The free market does not work when there is no real competition. In most areas there is one or two providers which does not allow for any real competition. Google Fiber is just about the only exception to this that I can really think of. But unfortunately their build out is so limited that it really doesn't do the average american any good. Something has to change!!! Slyster

join:2015-01-08

Sugar Grove, VA 5 recommendations Slyster Member Confused Dont those that use more pay more already? Dont those users generally go for the higher speed plans which cost more? If I were consuming 1TB a month I wouldnt want to be on a 5mb or 10mb plan..



What about those that dont use much? If they are going down this road then they need to start refunding people for unused data from the 300gb cap. If I use 100gb of the 300gb then I should be refunded 2/3rds of my bill.



But of course we all know this about Comcast trying to get more money from losing cable TV subscribers and not about being " fair ".

C0deZer0

Oc'D To Rhythm And Police

Premium Member

join:2001-10-03

Tempe, AZ 4 recommendations C0deZer0 Premium Member Here comes the JD Power buy buys announces they "won" best ISP by JD Power awards. I give it a month before Comcastannounces they "won"by JD Power awards.