Comcast Expands Usage Caps, Again Despite massive public backlash Comcast continues to expand the company's broadband usage caps and overage fees. The latest market to be capped is Chicacgo, where Comcast customers this week received a notice informing them that the Comcast "Terabyte Internet Experience" is coming (as if that's a good thing).

According to the memo, the usage caps will take effect starting August 1 -- after which users will face a 1 terabyte cap, with users either forced to pay $10 per each 50 GB should they go over the fee -- or pay an additional $50 every month if they want to enjoy the unlimited broadband connections they used to have. "If you do exceed a terabyte of usage, we're offering you two courtesy months, so you will not be billed the first two times you exceed a terabyte while you are getting comfortable with the new data usage plan," states the notice. "If you have any questions about the new data usage plan, please see our FAQs." Said FAQ indicates that the caps are arriving not only in Chicago, but Central Illinois, Quincy and Rockford, Illinois. and portions of Northern Indiana and Southwest Michigan. Back in April, Comcast announced that the company would be raising its usage caps from 300 GB to 1 terabyte. While Comcast insists this was in response to consumer concerns, the company was in reality responding to signals from the FCC that the agency may begin treating usage caps as exactly what they are: a price hike on uncompetitive markets, and a potential tool for anti-competitive abuse of said lack of competition. "We have learned that our customers want the peace of mind to stream, surf, game, download, or do whatever they want online. So, we have created a new data plan that is so high that most of our customers will never have to think about how much data they use," Comcast said of the new, higher limits. Yet as we've noted repeatedly, Comcast's own leaked Yet as we've noted repeatedly, Comcast's own leaked documents and engineers have confirmed that caps are neither technically nor financially necessary. They're simply Comcast's way of protecting its legacy TV revenue from streaming video competition, disguised as a "trial" where consumer opinion actually matters.







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Most recommended from 72 comments



JimThePCGuy

Formerly known as schja01.

MVM

join:2000-04-27

Morton Grove, IL ZyXEL USG 50

Asus RT-AC66

ARRIS SB6183

43 recommendations JimThePCGuy MVM Since when is the price per item more the more you purchase At $10 per 50GB overage that's $200 per terabyte.



As an example lets say you are paying $100/month now for one terabyte.

You use two terabytes and have to pay $200 in overages.



Imagine if a grocery store charged $10 for ten cans of beans and wanted

$20 for an additional ten cans.



Welcome to Comcast Foods.



J

rchandra

Stargate Universe fan

Premium Member

join:2000-11-09

14225-2105 ARRIS ONT1000GJ4

EnGenius EAP1250

2 edits 13 recommendations rchandra Premium Member no time soon...or ever said by the Comcast notice : you will not be billed the first two times you exceed a terabyte while you are getting comfortable with the new data usage plan Their statement presupposes I will ever be comfortable with any UBB. As I've posted a few times before and I'll briefly recap, I am in control of most other things for which I pay on a usage basis: water, gas (methane), electricity (I can take measures to reduce usage and therefore billing). But with the Internet, short of not using the service at all by shutting off the equipment (then what's the point of being connected?), I cannot completely control what someone on the Internet might want to send me (e.g. flood ping).

SuperSpy

join:2012-06-15

Coldwater, MI 9 recommendations SuperSpy Member Just enough to keep regulation at bay... How much do you wanna bet this cap will drop back down after things cool down with the FCC and public opinion over caps...

battleop

join:2005-09-28

00000 6 recommendations battleop Member So I was right? I've said several times they would increase caps as usage goes up but many here said that will never happen. They are going to keep them high enough that 97% of their users will never hit them. Instead they are just going to take aim at that top percent of users who try to push as much traffic as they can pass over a residential connection.



The majority of Comcast users (if you are reading this you don't fit that profile) will never hit that 1TB cap.

buzz_4_20

join:2003-09-20

Biddeford, ME 2 recommendations buzz_4_20 Member Caps... Just like ads, they're going to creep their way into our lives, for the worse.