Comcast wrote about this, “If you enroll in the Unlimited Data Option, you will be charged the current additional fee of $30-$35, depending on area, for every month or part of the month the option is in effect”. “If Comcast decides it’s working, other markets where the 300 GB data cap is in place could start seeing similar offers, and it’s not insane to think the plan might someday roll out nationwide”, said the Washington Post’s Brian Fung.
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The new service add-on will remove the 300 GB data cap per month to its subscribers who are residing in Atlanta. More devices are going online, and a recent study showed that teens are consuming up to 9 hours a day of media, which includes web, streaming music and video. Its official line is that the caps are about “fairness”, and that by placing limits on those who use inordinate amounts of data, the firm claims it will be able to provide better service to those who use far less.
Comcast is adding the data caps as a growing number of its customers drop Comcast cable TV services and switch their television viewing to the Internet.
It’s not just the caps themselves that are angering customers, though. People who exceed that cap will be charged $10 for each additional 50 GB increment; or customers can opt to pay an additional $35 ($30 in a few areas) to keep unlimited data. “We’re still at the very early learning curve”, Comcast said of its experiments.
Cities and towns in Comcast’s “Data Usage Plan Trials” already included Huntsville, Mobile, and Tuscaloosa, Alabama; Tucson, Arizona; Fort Lauderdale, the Keys, and Miami, Florida; Atlanta, Augusta, and Savannah, Georgia; Central Kentucky; Maine; Jackson and Tupelo, Mississippi; Knoxville, Memphis, and Nashville, Tennessee; and Charleston, South Carolina.
Comcast broke this news in a message sent to users, which tries to smooth things over by saying that the average household uses only 40GB a month, which may be news to data-hungry cord-cutters.
Comcast, the nation’s largest cable and broadband provider, has been willing to impose data limits in areas where it does face robust competition. The downside here is that users will have to make sure to use up more than 300 GB worth of bandwidth to get the most out of their Internet plans.
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In the meantime, Comcast is trying to re-assure affected customers that the trials are no big deal.
