Netflix CEO Applauds Comcast's Higher Usage Caps Add Netflix CEO Reed Hastings to the folks that are happy to see Comcast finally raise the company's usage caps. As we noted yesterday, Comcast has announced that the company will be bumping the usage caps on all of its tiers from 300 GB per month, to one terabyte per month. Users who exceed that amount will still pay $10 for each 50 GB of additional data consumed, though they have the option of paying $50 per month extra if they want to avoid usage caps entirely (the company previously charged $30 to $35 extra for this option).

Among the people happy to see Comcast finally raise the cap after three years of very vocal consumer complaints was Netflix CEO Reed Hastings. "Huge for me as a Comcast customer," Hastings said on Twitter. "Now I'll never be able to watch enough to hit my cap." Maybe, maybe not. As Netflix pushes harder into 4K, ultra-HD and HDR content, VR takes off, and other uses for gigabit lines expand, a household of users could still potentially run into the limit. Netflix recommends connections of at least 25 Mbps to stream 4K content. Comcast says less than one percent of the company's existing customers consume more than a terabyte each month. Netflix has consistently been a critic of fixed-line usage caps, saying it's an "unnsuccessful business model" and warning regulators that caps can be (and are) used to protect legacy TV revenues from Internet video competition. In 2011 Hastings complained that while the telecom industry paints caps as necessary to manage heavy users, the limits are really just glorified rate hikes. "It's an effective way to drive the bill up, that tends to be why caps are used," Hastings said in 2011. "Internet traffic is extremely cheap and the problem is there's not much competition in this market and that's why you get these big prices." And while the higher allotments are certainly welcome, that doesn't change the fact that many don't believe the caps should exist in the first place. The cost of providing broadband is fixed or dropping, and heavy users could easily be pushed to business-class tiers without imposing a new, punitive pricing paradigm onto all of the company's customers. Still, Hastings joins a large number of Comcast customers that are happy to have the extra breathing room all the same. »twitter.com/reedhastings ··· 45683712









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Most recommended from 23 comments

shmerl

join:2013-10-21 20 recommendations shmerl Member Don't fall for the bait Don't applaud caps. Caps aren't needed, period.

somms

join:2003-07-28

Centerville, UT 1 edit 5 recommendations somms Member CEO of Comcast suffers using Comcast!? Ain't he the CEO of Netflix!?



Homey obviously not watching much of his own 4k content I suppose...sux to think he has to suffer with Comcast! "Huge for me as a Comcast customer," Hastings said on Twitter. "Now I'll never be able to watch enough to hit my cap."Homey obviously not watching much of his own 4k content I suppose...sux to think he has to suffer with Comcast!

Flyonthwall

@teksavvy.com 3 recommendations Flyonthwall Anon Good thing you can set Netflix to deliver the quality you want Even if one day I do get a 4k TV (years away), I still won't be streaming in 4K. So Kudos to Netflix for allowing customers to set their quality and therefore indirectly their usage. HiDesert

join:2008-08-17 3 recommendations HiDesert Member Guess there were no capacity issues after all Like many have noted before, the caps were never about capacity.