Comcast 1TB Internet Cap Is Becoming A Reality

What are you doing that requires 300 GB a day? I think I only have done 30GB a day once or twice ever. The only thing I can think of that might legitimately use that much data would be lots of 4K streaming.
Multiple cameras streaming to cloud storage at 1080p 60FPS 24x7 for a home security system could use up a ton of bandwidth, as just a random example off the top of my head.
 
Just got Google Fiber here in Charlotte. I hope they never go that route!
 
and how will that happen? Most municipal fiber jobs end up getting killed off by companies like Comcast.
A TB? What the hell are you people downloading? The Mrs and I are HD streaming mofos and I don't think I hit 250GB. I mean unless I want to delete and re-download Titanfall 50 times a month just for fun?

Although... I guess a ton of 4K video might not help.

Actually, you could only download TitanFall about 16 times with a 1TB cap. So, for a family of four, a new game coming out in a month means 1/4 of your cap is gone. Then factor in Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, Youtube, backing up files via Google Drive/DropBox/iCloud/etc. a 1TB cap is bullshit.
 
This is an obvious attack on streaming services. You pay more to hit your data cap earlier that makes sense too bravo Comcast. Hope I never have to deal with this BS! A cap sucks but then screwing people more with insane overage fees! What the hell is the point of having the FCC if they can't protect people from companies like this?

Just a side note did a little math. 1080p Netflix consumes about 4.7GB/HR. At that rate 8 hours of 1080p Netflix a day will blow through that cap. Now that doesn't seem realistic for one person but for a family it seems totally possible. I think either Comcast has a bunch(millions) of internet subscribers who only check email and bring that average usage down so 97% of users don't exceed a TB or they are lying!
 
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A TB? What the hell are you people downloading? The Mrs and I are HD streaming mofos and I don't think I hit 250GB. I mean unless I want to delete and re-download Titanfall 50 times a month just for fun?

Although... I guess a ton of 4K video might not help.

According to Netflix's streaming calculator...

4 hours of netflix HD on 1 device 30 days > 360GB
8 hours of netflix HD on 1 device 30 days > 720GB
4 hours of 4K over 30 days on 1 device > 800GB
8 hours of 4K over 30 days on 1 device > 1.6TB

The real bandwith consuming service is VUDU UHD, which is also the highest quality streaming service available. (don't confuse quality with convenience)
UHD movies from VUDU consume up to 18GB per viewing hour!
8 hours of 4K (UHD) over 30 days on 1 device is > 4.2TB
 
They want to claim fairness.. But they only want to be fair when they want to fuck people out of money. It's not fair that, when paying for cable, I have to get and pay for all kinds of channels I don't watch or give a crap about.

I think it's time for government to seize all internet broadband, make it a hybrid taxpayer/lease funded utility, and have cable and internet companies lease it. And under this, upgrade it greatly, and forbid any monopolies. Then they'll all have to compete for customers instead of this monopolistic mass raping of customers.
 
I think they should just be a bit more blatant and only apply the 1TB cap to those that don't subscribe to their TV service.
 
They want to claim fairness.. But they only want to be fair when they want to fuck people out of money. It's not fair that, when paying for cable, I have to get and pay for all kinds of channels I don't watch or give a crap about.

I think it's time for government to seize all internet broadband, make it a hybrid taxpayer/lease funded utility, and have cable and internet companies lease it. And under this, upgrade it greatly, and forbid any monopolies. Then they'll all have to compete for customers instead of this monopolistic mass raping of customers.

They dont have to nationalize it as such. Just dictate a wholesale price for competitors to use it. But I do agree tho, its a social and economic interest to have cheap and fast internet.

We dont have caps here in Denmark besides on some cellphone subscriptions. But that is more of a technical reason. All cable, DSL, fiber etc is flatrate. And you can get 1Gbit lines for 45USD a month with 25% VAT. Or something that would equal around 36USD in a direct US compare. We also got more broadband companies I guess than the US, despite of having a population only a fraction. And we are considered expensive and slow when we look to our Swedish rivals!

In Japan and Korea you can get 2.5Gbit lines for cheap. China is also very cheap.
 
I've been dealing with 300gb and before that a 250gb cap from comcast for many( 6?) years now. Just recently raised to 1tb.

I have little sympathy for all of the people who told me it wasn't a problem until it might impact them. And now you see that it's bullshit. Have fun assholes.
 
Well, I'm glad to say I'm done with Comcast as of next week.
I'm outta of this city and moving to the country. This area has a Telephone co-op that provides fiber to the house. I'm looking at 100mb/s up and down. But I will try to save and see if I can get 50mb/s both ways.
 
My condolences to Comcast subscribers. The company believes that those who use more Internet data should “pay more” and is implementing a data cap that will begin for many in November.

Comcast has begun the commercial rollout of a usage-based data policy that limits usage to 1 Terabyte (1024 Gigabytes) a month before customers are charged $10 for each additional bucket of 50 Gigabytes. Per the current policy, those overage charges will not exceed $200 each month no matter how much data a residential customer uses. Comcast, which is also giving customers two courtesy months before data overage fees would be applied, stressed that about 99% of its customers don’t use more than 1 TB in a month (with median usage of 75 megabytes).

This is clearly a strike against the rapidly accelerating cord cutting movement. With the dearth of quality TV offerings and the antiquated must "buy this, to get that" tier system; rather than innovate, Comcast has chosen to suppress(as they have in the past). Infuriating, when considering this: I, Cringely . The Pulpit . The $200 Billion Rip-Off | PBS AND THIS WAS IN 2007!!!
 
With more and more 4k content available to stream, I can see this really being a problem for me. I'm already at 258GB's for October, and they say I average 702GB's a month. I have a 65" 4k TV and It's only natural to want to stream 4k content from Netflix or YouTube or Vudu when it's available. This data cap worries me, but I'm not about to pay an extra $50 a month for unlimited data usage, just in case I go over the cap.

We're at 300 GB / month average, but it is just the wife and I so no kids to gobble down stupid ass youtube videos all day.
 
In this thread, People defending extremely anti competitive, anti consumer practices just because it doesn't affect them "Yet". Some of you need a serious reality check.
 
Just a thought, I just did the math and by their justification I can only use my Internet at 100% utilization for 2.4 hours a day max. That is with my sorry ass 30meg connection. So others with faster connections can use much less. I figured max throughput at the theoretical maximum to be about 10 Tb in 30 days. Doesn't make sensemble that I can only use my service 10% of the time.
 
I'd almost welcome this at my humble abode. With Cable One 1Tb/s service, we have a 500GB/month cap. If you go over for any three months out of six, instead of charging you for an extra bucket of bandwidth, they just automatically move you up to the next tier of service. Since 1Tb/s and 500 GB is the max, I guess that would mean charging commercial rates, which are just brutal.
 
This is so stupid.. like we just signed up for Comcast because its the best service where we live. In the first couple months we used like 2.2tb total between the months. What is shit too is the fact my roommate works for support.com which is being outsourced by comcast right now. You would think they would not cap someone that works for them..
 
i'm sorry. it's all my fault. :(

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My my, that's a lot of Linux!
 
*shrug* My firewall says I've used 200.96 GiB in the last 28 days of uptime. Should be fine.


Haa......that's kinda low....I can easily hit double that....I think my usage is around 400-500gb a month depending on a few things. You gotta remember that if its more than 1 person streaming....which for families who like their own shows and want to watch them seperately through a stream...you can easily rack up a good couple hundred gigs just for TV. Throw gaming into the mix and there's close to 500gb right there.......and then.....there's the porn....and pffffffttttt....there goes 1TB. LMAO....
 
How are you people watching so much tv at home via streaming?! Does everyone here work at home and home school their kids?
 
There needs to be a user selectable option:
1) roll into the next 50GB at full speed for $10
2) throttle down to 384 kbps up/dn for no cost for remainder of month

I was surprised how low my usage was when AT&T rolled out the (now) 1TB cap.
 
There needs to be a user selectable option:
1) roll into the next 50GB at full speed for $10
2) throttle down to 384 kbps up/dn for no cost for remainder of month

I've made this same recommendation as well.

I've also suggested Three tiers of data. 200GB, 1TB and unlimited.

You can layer speed on top of consumption as well.

But give low data user's a discount.
Set the rate for mainstream users
Give an unlimited option.

Hell... I'd take a 10% rollover limit as well, if they'd let me.
 
I wish I could get away with charging people an arbitrary amount of money for an unlimited "resource". Every time someone reads one of my manuals, I should get paid a fixed amount per photon that creates the visual image in the reader's brain! If you go over your monthly photon allotment, the fee is $217.39 per additional block of 50M photons.
 
How would mileage caps on public roads work? It makes just as much sense as data caps.
 
How would mileage caps on public roads work? It makes just as much sense as data caps.

Not exactly a correct analogy.

If myself and 10 neighbors all have 100Mbps connectivity. You're saying that the carrier MUST have 1Gbps of capacity.

That's not sustainable. They will also over subscribe. Most Companies are for profit ventures.

As a service provider you can either:
A. only offer connectivity that you can sustain in an unlimited fashion ( like top speeds of 5-20Mbit/s) "Control consumption by access speed"
B. oversubscribe and layer a data cap "Control consumption by bucket" aka data cap on a timetable.
C. let user's eat the pipe, and suffer intermittent congestion, while your peering partners degrade their links because your ingress traffic far exceeds your egress. Peering agreements often ends up being biased based on the direction of the majority and rate of the traffic flow.


I prefer to have a data cap, and data cap options.
I prefer to have transparency and consistency in how my data will be treated.
I prefer to have a choice of what occurs when I run out of my data allocation.



In my perfect world. I'd like 50/10Mbps, 1TB data cap, $39.99 a month, 384Kbps after the cap runs out until the end of the cycle. If unlimited data consumption is +$50, that'd be fine.

I'd also like to see the data cap go up, as the speed goes higher.
 
Not exactly a correct analogy.

If myself and 10 neighbors all have 100Mbps connectivity. You're saying that the carrier MUST have 1Gbps of capacity.

That's not sustainable. They will also over subscribe. Most Companies are for profit ventures.

As a service provider you can either:
A. only offer connectivity that you can sustain in an unlimited fashion ( like top speeds of 5-20Mbit/s) "Control consumption by access speed"
B. oversubscribe and layer a data cap "Control consumption by bucket" aka data cap on a timetable.
C. let user's eat the pipe, and suffer intermittent congestion, while your peering partners degrade their links because your ingress traffic far exceeds your egress. Peering agreements often ends up being biased based on the direction of the majority and rate of the traffic flow.


I prefer to have a data cap, and data cap options.
I prefer to have transparency and consistency in how my data will be treated.
I prefer to have a choice of what occurs when I run out of my data allocation.



In my perfect world. I'd like 50/10Mbps, 1TB data cap, $39.99 a month, 384Kbps after the cap runs out until the end of the cycle. If unlimited data consumption is +$50, that'd be fine.

I'd also like to see the data cap go up, as the speed goes higher.

You're reading too much into it... for ex. so the state has to provide a roadway system that supports everyone driving on it at the same time? WHAT?
 
Hasn't started in my state but I'm sure that will happen at some point. Luckily I never plan on streaming 4k even when I have a TV set or PJ to handle it. I'll stick with physical media for an uncompromised experience on my PJ. Perhaps a TV show on occasion but with only a 55" TV sitting 12' away I'd never notice the difference anyway.

Still its BS but they are the only Option here so I'll have to suck it like everyone else.
 
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The big problem is they put a ton of their cards into cable service, then streaming came around, which caused a ton of people not to need cable anymore...They can't handle that, they have to have a piece of the action, so time to passive-aggressively set limits on streaming services!
 
So we should pay for minutes watched on the tv too? WTF, where you going with this?

I'm going nowhere with it, it was a horrible analogy to start with! I guess my point was less than clear.

if you guys would just stop complaining about comcast charging you for services and equipment that you didn't ask for, then they wouldn't have to put caps on your internet usage in the first place. :eek:

Comcast hit with FCC's biggest cable fine ever

"Yeah your internet connection was spewing out all over the place, so we had to place a cap on it for now, that'll be $19.99/mo for the capping service ..."
 
Comcast sent me an email about this. I have to say that I was actually fairly surprised my bandwidth has increased ALOT in the last year or so. Our habits have not changed much but the bandwidth associated with them has gone way up. We are using 450 GB / month.

First there is cloud synchronization. I am sure this is stacking up. Since office 365 has a 1 tb cap we are just allowing a lot more folders to sync

Second is photos and videos, just keep getting bigger. Phones taking bigger pictures and synchronizing them to the cloud.

Movies is probably the biggest offender, bit rate, resolutions etc... it just keeps improving. And that is a silent killer since typically we don't micromanage how youtube or Netflix play.
 
Ripping this off from ReadingTheAir on another forum:

Comcast's data cap policy is a flawed consumer control measure against those who would go without cable and a direct action against companies that have actually innovated over the past decade rather than sit pretty on a monopoly.

Why this is flawed:

There is no guarantee of accuracy or transparency:

Regardless of your stance on the matter there should be no argument that internet usage amounts should be accurate and transparent to users affected by it. However that is not the case at all, there is no third party government agency in charge of regulating broadband metering. Comcast contracts out its metering to a third party vendor and its methods of measurement are internal and not open to the public at all. Just this year alone Comcast has received thirteen thousand complaints about their data caps and their terrible accuracy in measurement. Almost everyone who has to deal with this caps seems to have a story of their ISP charging them for data usage that would be impossible given their current bandwidth.

Discourages cord cutting and stifles competition:

Data caps exist solely as a consumer control measure to stifle competition and cause users to be biased against applications based on the data amount they use. For example Netflix which lists high quality HD as using 3 GB per hour and Ultra HD as using 7gb per hour is immediately affected by this. As Ultra HD becomes more common and using 7gb of data for an hour of video streaming becomes common place users affected by data caps will hit their limits more easily causing them to be charged overages. This will cause users to drop Netflix in favor of less data intensive services which Comcast will only be too happy to provide through cable. Families of five living in a home with heavy Netflix usage will already be pushing this current limit.

This isn't just for videos of course, people who use services like Steam will be hit just as hard especially as the size of games increases, data intensive services that would have otherwise been developed will languish on the vine as data caps cause consumers to be biased against them.

Users have little choice in what ISP they must subscribe to:

The Internet is no longer a luxury that most can live without. For many it has become an essential utility much like electricity.

In any thread regarding complaints against Comcast or any ISP for that matter the main complaint of users is that they have no choice in their ISP ("Save us Google Fiber!"). Those lucky enough to live in major metropolitan areas may be fortunate enough to have the choice of maybe two or more ISPs but for many users the local ISP is the only choice they have which grants that business a monopoly in their area. In a happier world there would be dozens of ISPs each competing with each other and vying for market share so the poor behavior of one company only provides an opportunity for another to gain more customers. Sadly most Americans don't live in that kind of free economic environment.

What we need to do:

How do consumers collectively fight this when they have little recourse in their choice of ISP? The FCC is currently investigating data caps as a practice. If we as consumers just accept data caps the FCC will have less reason to crack down so it is imperative that the public puts pressure on the FCC. We're back to the Net Neutrality fight all over again as data caps are just a proxy issue that allows Comcast to achieve the same thing it wanted with its draconian net neutrality rules.

Some users may be currently exempt from data caps but this behavior will absolutely roll down hill to other ISPs once they realize that consumers will accept it. Then you'll have to deal with your own little small town version of Comcast with little recourse.

Much like the behavior of the last Net Neutrality fight calling the FCC directly has a huge impact.

FCC Complaint Line:1-888-225-5322

If you can't call directly you can file an online form to register your complaint.

Like before we need to raise public awareness of this issue and flood the FCC with our complaints and input so we don't have to deal with a stifled internet.
 
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