# Comcast may roll out data caps for all customers within five years



## Athlon646464 (Feb 23, 2007)

*Comcast may roll out data caps for all customers within five years*

So much for Comcast's proposed merger with Time Warner Cable being good for your internet service. The cable giant's David Cohen tells investors that he expects "usage-based billing" (that is, data caps with overage fees) to reach all Comcast customers within five years....

Full Story Here









_Engadget_


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## Mark Holtz (Mar 23, 2002)

Hmmm... I think the whole data caps with the cable companies has less to do with capacity and more to do with limiting competion like Hulu, Amazon Prime, and Netflix.


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## dpeters11 (May 30, 2007)

Absolutely, particularly with Comcast's Streampix. 

It's going to get ugly. For a while, my parent's DSL provider, Frontier, had an acceptable use policy defining it as 5gb a month. Companies they partnered with were exempt. So if you used Carbonite for online backup, it didn't count, but Mozy did etc.


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## carlsbad_bolt_fan (May 18, 2004)

> "Five years ago I don't know that I would have heard of something called an iPad," he says.


David Cohen is a moron. I've got TWC's top internet offering of 56mb down/6mb up. If they impose caps on that tier of service, I'll find another way to get internet service.


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## harsh (Jun 15, 2003)

Mark Holtz said:


> Hmmm... I think the whole data caps with the cable companies has less to do with capacity and more to do with limiting competion like Hulu, Amazon Prime, and Netflix.


Pretty shrewed to charge Netflix for better access and charge customers a premium to watch it.


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## nmetro (Jul 11, 2006)

Fortunately, by the end of 2017, my city will be offering 1 gigabit up/down, for $50/month, over fiber. This will be city owned and operated by our city owned electric utility. Comcast and CenturyLink (formerly QWest) fought hard against Longmont, Colorado to run its own internet service. They went as far to getting a law passed making it illegal, fro municipal run internet, unless the voters of a city approved it, ballot. It took two elections, but this was approved in 2013. In an earlier election, they spent millions to block it The city, already has in place a fiber loop, which serves the city, local school district, county offices and a few large businesses. Called it victory against corporate greed.

It is is only recent (past two years) that Comcast and CenturyLink improved their speend. When i first move dto Longmont, all you could get dial up and it maximum speed was 11k (That is not a typo). In 2000 Qwest started to provide speedy internet 1 gigabit down/ 500k up over DSL. Comcast came later with 2 gigabit down and 1 gigabit up. So, city residents were fed up with the private model and voted for a public owned model.

By the way, 102 years ago Longmont set up their own electric utility, because corporate greed would have been much more expensive to run electric lines from Denver to Longmont. The result? Longmont has the lowest electric rates in Colorado and some of the lowest in the country. So, yes, so called "socialism" does work. Oh yeah, in the 16 years I have lived here, I can count in minutes the time the power has gone out; nor more 3 hours total.

So, I cannot wait for my internet service speed improve immensely, and be charged half of what Comcast charges for 10 megebit up/50 megabit down.


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## tonyd79 (Jul 24, 2006)

Was this wise to proclaim while they are trying to get approval for a merger?


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## SayWhat? (Jun 7, 2009)

Athlon646464 said:


> tells investors that he expects "usage-based billing"


In the words of Lou Rawls, 'Mean Dollar Green'.


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## gov (Jan 11, 2013)

Visa, Master Card

Ford, Chevy

Burger King, McDonalds

DirecTV, DISH


. . . . . . . . . . 



Why aren't there 2 completely separate internets ??


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## SayWhat? (Jun 7, 2009)

gov said:


> Visa, Master Card
> 
> Ford, Chevy
> 
> ...


For starters, none of your other examples are completely separate either.

Everything is tied together, one way or another, even if totally obscure to the outside viewer.


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## Athlon646464 (Feb 23, 2007)

*Update: **Comcast has 'no plans' for internet caps despite testing them*

Those statements that Comcast's David Cohen made about possible nationwide data caps within the next five years? He'd like you to forget them, please. As he explains in a follow-up statement, the company has "no plans to announce" such a policy. The company doesn't want to implement plans that hurt your internet experience, he says, arguing that reports took what he said "out of context." With that said, it's clear that Cohen has a narrow definition of what a data cap is....

Full Story Here









_Engadget_


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## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

> As he explains in a follow-up statement, the company has "no plans to announce" such a policy.


OK, so they are planning unannounced data caps. :lol:


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## harsh (Jun 15, 2003)

Athlon646464 said:


> As he explains in a follow-up statement, the company has "no plans to announce" such a policy. The company doesn't want to implement plans that hurt your internet experience, he says, arguing that reports took what he said "out of context."


There's a man who has had a his integrity stapled to prevent it from getting the in the way.


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## jerrylove56 (Jun 15, 2008)

Makes no sense. I have Comcast internet and have received a couple of emails warning me about data cap overage. The email states that our area is one of Comcast "test" areas. Specifically, customers are allowed 3-overages or 3-strikes and then Comcast will charge $10 extra for 50GB of extra data usage. Their cap ceiling is currently at 250GB. I still wonder how this ceiling was set.


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## SeaBeagle (May 7, 2006)

I never use near that amount.


Sent from my iPad 4 128GB using DBSTalk mobile app


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## coolman302003 (Jun 2, 2008)

jerrylove56 said:


> Makes no sense. I have Comcast internet and have received a couple of emails warning me about data cap overage. The email states that our area is one of Comcast "test" areas. Specifically, customers are allowed 3-overages or 3-strikes and then Comcast will charge $10 extra for 50GB of extra data usage. *Their cap ceiling is currently at 250GB.* I still wonder how this ceiling was set.


Actually the test markets are a 300GB cap. http://customer.comcast.com/help-and-support/internet/data-usage-plans-expansion/


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## phrelin (Jan 18, 2007)

Time flies when you're having fun!

Apparently for many the "five years" has gone by so fast as according to this story *Comcast Is Putting a Monthly Data Cap on Home Internet*:



> Get ready for your home Internet to feel like your smartphone - bound by data caps, a large overage fee waiting to happen. Comcast gave some users the bad news Thursday. Consumers who exceed 300 GB in a month will have to pay for overages at $10 per 50 GB tier.
> 
> Not surprisingly, they have the option to pay an extra $30 to get the service they have currently, without caps.
> 
> On its FAQ page about the new usage fee, Comcast describes it as a trial, and says it impacts consumers in the following areas: Huntsville and Mobile, 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. Want to see if you are part of the experiment? Here's a page listing all the ZIP codes.


The link in the quote does work, and that page includes the following:



> The best method to determine whether your account is part of a current data usage plan trial is by your Comcast account number. Account numbers that begin with one of the following sequences are part of the trial:
> 
> 01108, 01701, 01732, 04418, 05628, 05705, 09512, 09544, 09577, 09586, 15552, 32007, 81555 (Flexible Data Option only), 8220, 8396, 84956, 849575, 84958, 87733


If you do a Google News search you'll find a myriad of stories and posts. If you go to your usage meter page this morning (which I have in the past and did this morning) apparently all you'll get is this:








And none of the links related to usage worked. I think that indicates a "high interest" in the subject.


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## joshjr (Aug 2, 2008)

Mark Holtz said:


> Hmmm... I think the whole data caps with the cable companies has less to do with capacity and more to do with limiting competion like Hulu, Amazon Prime, and Netflix.


I guess I feel differently. I think its a way for the Cable Companies to get back some of the money they are losing to cord cutters. In the end the Cable Co will win. I been expecting this for some time. It will get worse before it gets better. People think cord cutting is the answer. Like the Cable Companies will not do anything to gain from it. Wake up people. The business world is about making money. To think your Cable Company would be happy to lose your business on its tv product and not want to make that money up elsewhere would be a shallow way to think about it. I look for most if not all ISP's to have data caps within 5 years.

Internet is not a viable option for TV at least not for everyone. The more people trend in that direction the more Cable Companies will look for ways to earn money in other avenues. Truth is if you only use their internet to do what their TV service was doing for you, they are gonna want more money from you. Who wouldnt? Advantages dont stay advantages forever. Just until someone else finds a way to exploit it for their gain.


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## phrelin (Jan 18, 2007)

My understanding is that companies like Comcast would be better off shifting the huge bandwidth used for cable TV to internet service. In general, the heaviest business use of internet services is during the daytime and the heaviest home use of TV is at night. If that bandwidth were shared (meaning streaming TV), infrastructure investment costs could be kept down. However, Comcast has a huge investment in the cable TV business and it owns NBCU. All the competing financial issues for this one company boggles the mind.

I was able to get to my usage page










We have been streaming from Netflix, Amazon, and Acorn TV so those numbers are obviously higher than last fall:










Still, I don't see any problem with a data cap of 300 GB.


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## Wilf (Oct 15, 2008)

Capping broadband has an interesting side effect. Using _ad_ and _tracking blockers_ on your computer's internet browser saves 20 to 40% of your surfing bandwidth. That combined with the fact that much malware is commonly introduced into PC's via ads (malvertising), and the animated ads have gotten really annoying, has caused a big uptick in the use of ad/tracking blockers.

The reason ad/tracking blockers are so effective, is that many websites connect to 20 to 30 or more third-party servers for ad content and tracking purposes. Not only does this use bandwidth, it also increases webpage load time significantly.

This is going to cause problems for monetizing websites and keeping them free. Obviously, capping broadband and web advertising are in direct conflict and makes for an interesting saga to follow.


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## Nick (Apr 23, 2002)

In my view, this is a non-issue.

When are bandwidth caps not caps? When your ISP offers additional gigabits for additional charges.
It looks like Comcast is going to settle in at 300GB/m for most of their consumer plans, but with extra
charges for those who exceed 300GB in a month. Ten dollars per an extra 50GB seems reasonable
to me. I just don't want a hassle if I happen to go over 300G, which I will probably never do based on
the history of my typical monthly usage.


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## lparsons21 (Mar 4, 2006)

My ISP, Mediacom has had this going for quite awhile.

They have scaled data allowances starting at 250Gb and scaling up to 2Tb depending on which speed tier you are on. For instance, mine is the 100/10 tier and I have a 1Tb data allowance with a $10/50Gb overage charge. The next down 50/5 has a 350Gb data allowance. I hit over that a few months when I had that tier.

They offered a 1 year $5/tier bump so I jumped to the 100/10. Didn't care about the speed bump as nothing I do really benefits much from it, but the data allowance is well appreciated. My typical month these days is around the 500Gb useage. Combo of Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime and VOD from whichever cable/sat provider I'm using, and OS downloads as I play around with tech.


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