After Expanding Caps, Cox Promises More Expensive Unlimited Plan Earlier this week we were the first to report that Cox Communications has started to ramp up deployment of unnecessary and confusing new usage caps and overage fees. But worry not! The company now says that it will allow you to avoid these artificial, arbitrary and unnecessary penalties by signing up for a new, more expensive unlimited data plan the company tells Multichannel News it plans to launch later this year. In other words: Cox is implementing entirely unnecessary restrictions and price hikes you will soon be able to avoid -- by paying the ISP significantly more money for the same service you had before.

Cox didn't tell the news outlet how much consumers will have to pay to avoid the company's usage overage scheme. In capped Comcast territories (which at this point includes pretty much the company's entire footprint outside of the more competitive east coast), the company lets users pay $50 more for month if they want to avoid usage caps. Like Comcast, Cox is implementing a one terabyte cap -- then charging users $10 for each additional 50 GB of data consumed each month. And while it's easy to fall into a debate over whether "one terabyte is perfectly reasonable for most people" -- that completely misses the point. Usage caps and overage fees are arbitrary and unnecessary price hikes on consumers, only made possible by the lack of competition. They do not help manage congestion, and flat-rate pricing is perfectly profitable. And if the small number of excessive users were really a problem, Cox could shove those users toward business-class tiers -- without having to impose confusing new penalties on all of its subscribers. No, these usage caps and overage fees are solely about charging you more money for the same product, while simultaneously penalizing and cashing in on customer usage of streaming video alternatives. Of course companies like Cox can't admit this, so you'll notice in this week's No, these usage caps and overage fees are solely about charging you more money for the same product, while simultaneously penalizing and cashing in on customer usage of streaming video alternatives. Of course companies like Cox, so you'll notice in this week's e-mail to subscribers they don't even bother to provide any sensible justification for the plan whatsoever.







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Most recommended from 54 comments

Tchaika

join:2017-03-20

New Orleans, LA 21 recommendations Tchaika Member Bad Deal $50/mo more on top of their already expensive residential rates will see you paying more than business class service, service that includes immediate access to Tier 3 Tech Support, QoS priority on congested nodes, static IPv4 assignment, and a 36 month contract that negates the residential "privledge" of fighting with retention every 12 months for a good rate.



In my market they're doing 50/10 for $89.99 and 100/20 for $119.99. I pay $60 for 150/10 residential service and that's a retention rate. Add $50 to that and the 50/10 business class service is cheaper. Add $50 to the published 150/10 rate ($87.99) and the 100/20 business class service is cheaper.



Don't see this getting many takers unless they're gonna jack the business class rates or preclude individuals from signing up for it....

AZ_OGM

join:2007-01-12

Phoenix, AZ 18 recommendations AZ_OGM Member To paraphrase Ernestine the phone operator We're the cable company, we don't care, we don't have to.

Anone94dd

@cox.net 8 recommendations Anone94dd Anon wow... All I have to say is wow.. Greedy to the max I see.

I noticed they changed the tiers also.

Starter at 5/1, essential at 15/5, and then it jumps to Preferred 100, 100/25 now so you'll have no middle ground pricing choices.



Add in all the caps and extra gouging, yearly price increases and alot of people are going to start reconsidering internet at all.



Business service here is insane so it's not a option, the lowest tier of 25 is 144.00 after the 3 month introductory rate, the 100 is 268.00 and 3 year contract o.O

GlennLouEarl

3 brothers, 1 gone

Premium Member

join:2002-11-17

Richmond, VA 4 recommendations GlennLouEarl Premium Member Cox... a real bunch of prix. xrobertcmx

Premium Member

join:2001-06-18

White Plains, MD 4 recommendations xrobertcmx Premium Member This is interesting In the Fairfax market they compete with Verizon FIOS which has no cap, offers symmetrical 100Mbps for around $80 stand alone or $72 with a custom TV package. I hear we can get the quasi gigabit package for a bit more, but haven't bothered.

I have friends over there I have to ask them what Cox is telling them these days.

Economist

The economy, stupid

Premium Member

join:2015-07-10

united state 3 recommendations Economist Premium Member And this is after stealing 1TB from Ultimate users In addition to new overage fees, Ultimate users saw their 2TB cap cut in half to 1TB to ensure more of them get gouged. Nucleartx

join:2016-09-08

Belton, TX 2 recommendations Nucleartx Member Kinda odd My cell phone plan is unlimited but they say hardwired needs a cap?