For typical cable broadband subscribers, it takes a ton of Internet surfing to exceed their monthly data allowance -- something akin to streaming high-definition video for 12 hours per day.

But as cable companies have offered faster Internet speeds, a few of their customers are bumping up against monthly data caps.

And now some cable firms are beginning to charge for going over.

Cox Communications plans to notify San Diego customers this week that it will implement an overage charge for those who exceed their monthly allowance of one terabyte of data use.


In the past, Cox and other cable providers have not charged customers for exceeding data limits.

“Operators have tried a lot of different ways of going about this, and in almost all cases, it has been sort of a light touch because they recognize this is an important area for them and they don’t really benefit from alienating higher end customers,” said Ian Olgeirson, senior analyst with industry research firm SNL Kagan.

Cox, San Diego County’s largest cable provider, plans to tack on $10 for each additional 50 gigabytes of data used beyond a terabyte beginning in December.

Cox isn’t alone. Comcast and a few other Internet providers nationwide also have begun charging for exceeding data caps.


For most cable Internet users, data allowances are so large that subscribers don’t come close to going over.

But with the emergence of Netflix and other video streaming services, exceeding the cap is no longer a virtual impossibility.

Just under 2 percent of Cox Communications’ subscribers in San Diego blow past their one-terabyte data cap each month, said Spokeswoman Ceanne Guerra.

A terabyte is more than 1 million megabytes. To gobble up that much data, subscribers have to watch 140 high definition movies, 100 half-hour TV shows and 1,500 three-minute videos -- as well as listen to 500 hours of streaming music and surf the web for 2,000 hours -- each month.


Cox doesn’t monitor how customers use the Internet, so it doesn’t know exactly why certain subscribers are surpassing the data cap. Some may be running in-home businesses. Others may see a spike during holidays when relatives and friends tap into their home Wi-Fi router to avoid burning their cellular data plans.

“Some people are just heavy users for whatever reason,” said Guerra. “But there are some customers, we think, who have in-home Wi-Fi and maybe they have not secured it with a password. So it may be open and other people might be tapping into it.”

Today, the average home has about eight devices connected to the Internet. By the year 2021, American households are expected to have more than 13 devices connected to the Internet, according to network equipment maker Cisco.

Cisco also estimates that per capita Internet data use in the United States was just under 100 gigabits a month last year. It’s expected to rise to nearly 240 gigabits per person each month by 2021.


“That’s not just home use, it is mobile as well, but for a three or four person family, you can see how it can amount to a fairly significant amount of data usage,” said Olgeirson, the SNL Kagan analyst.

Faster Internet speeds also enable subscribers to consume more data.

“As the operators have moved from 25 megabits per second to 100 megabits per second, 500 megabits or even gigabit speeds, they’ve opened themselves up to these high-end users who will absorb whatever capacity there is with peering services or filing sharing services -- things like that,” said Olgeirson.

Cox offers tools to help customers track and manage Internet use, including a data meter at Cox.com and on the Cox Connect mobile app. The company plans to send email alerts to customers who have used 85 percent or more of their monthly data allowance.


The company won’t charge for exceeding data cap until December, said Guerra, to give customer time to figure out how much data they’re using.

“We want to let everybody know that they do have this data usage meter available,” she said. “They can check it every day. So they have some time to determine their usage and make changes over the next 60 days.”


Business

mike.freeman@sduniontribune.com;

Twitter:@TechDiego


760-529-4973