We often have news in November about Comcast and data caps. Most years, though, it’s a story about those caps expanding. So it’s unusual, to say the least, to suddenly find Comcast doing away with its data-cap plan for an entire state. The lucky subscribers? Folks up in Maine. [More]
data thresholds
Comcast Expands Data Caps To Another 23 Markets Starting Nov. 1
By 10.7.16
We’ve all been guessing it was going to happen for months, but that doesn’t make it any more fun when it actually does: data caps are marching across the nation, and coming for millions of Comcast customers from coast to coast. [More]
Comcast Charges Customer $1500 For Data They Didn’t Use, Insists Meter Is Perfect
By 9.6.16
A couple in their early 20s, living in Nashville, subscribed to Comcast home internet service. In their area, that came with a 300 GB data cap. All well and good for these two, since they don’t use much data… except Comcast claimed they did, and billed them for $1500 in overage in less than three months. [More]
Comcast Raising Data Caps To One Terabyte On June 1
By 4.27.16
Comcast has — deservedly so — been the subject of thousands of customer complaints since expanding its test of data caps in 2015. In an effort to establish a more realistic data cap, Comcast is more than tripling the monthly data threshold in these markets from 300 GB to a full terabyte. [More]
Sling TV: Data Caps Are Cable Industry Tool To “Sabotage” Streaming Video
By 4.22.16
Since Comcast began expanding its years-long “test” of data caps and overage fees, complaints to the FCC about these new limits have skyrocketed. And some streaming video companies say that data caps are causing customers to either limit their use or drop these services rather than risk paying a penalty for going over their monthly allotment. [More]
Comcast Customer’s Data Cap Meter Counts Gigabytes He Couldn’t Possibly Use
By 12.18.15
In just the few months since Comcast began expanding its cash-grab data cap program, which hits customers with overage charges for exceeding an arbitrary allotment of 300 gigabytes each month, thousands of customers have already complained to federal regulators. Some claim that the Comcast-supplied online “meter” intended to help keep track of users’ data simply doesn’t work. One customer, after being told that he was repeatedly going over the monthly limit, has shown just how broken Comcast’s system really is. [More]
Comcast’s Holiday Gift To Subscribers: Data Caps Coming To More Users December 1
By 11.4.15
Did you feel like paying more to Comcast next month to keep using the amount of data you’ve been using for years already? No? Well, if you’re in one of several markets in the southeast, tough cookies: Comcast’s data caps, and their fees, are coming to a cable modem near you this December. [More]
Don’t Want To Go Over Comcast’s Data Cap? That’ll Be Another $30
By 9.1.15
Comcast has been testing data caps — they adorably call them “data thresholds” — in a number of markets around the country since 2013. In those markets, if customers cross the threshold, they can be hit with overage fees. But if you live in the Miami area and want “unlimited” data, you can get it — for an additional $30. [More]
Report: Cleveland’s Cox Cable Customers Will Soon Be Subject To Data Caps
By 5.14.15
Cox cable customers are about to join many of the rest of us nationwide in a club that nobody particularly wants to be in: the not-so-illustrious crowd of those who have usage limits on their home broadband service, and have to cough up extra cash for any extra bits and bytes. [More]
Report: FCC May Look Into Comcast’s Don’t-Call-Them-Data-Caps If Implemented Nationwide
By 5.13.15
For more than two years, Comcast has been testing data caps — sorry, “data thresholds” — in various markets around the country. With the possibility of this usage-based pricing model being rolled out on a nationwide basis, a new report claims that the FCC could use its new authority to scrutinize the data limitations. [More]
Comcast Rep Lies, Tells Customer That Data Cap Is “Mandated By Law”
By 2.20.15
For nearly three years, Comcast has been trying out data caps — sorry, “data thresholds” — in certain markets around the country where customers who reach a certain monthly usage amount are given the option of buying additional data at an outrageous price. Aside from pure greed on the behalf of Internet service providers, there is no need for most data caps, but one Comcast rep is telling customers that they are required by law. [More]
Govt. Report Criticizes Cable Companies For Cashing In On Data Caps
By 12.2.14
A growing number of cable companies are implementing data caps (sorry — “data thresholds”), which put limits on how much data a subscriber could use before facing penalties ranging from warning messages to throttled speeds to overage fees. A new report from the federal Government Accountability Office says that lack of competition in the broadband market could result in these caps being implemented with no one benefiting other than cable companies’ bottom lines. [More]
Comcast-TWC Merger Could Bring Broadband Data Caps To Pretty Much Everyone
By 4.14.14
Mobile data caps might be almost universal, but home broadband data caps are much less so. Some providers have them, but many don’t. At the moment, Time Warner Cable is in that “doesn’t” category — but Comcast keeps trying to expand theirs. If the FCC grants the corporate union of the two its blessing, a whopping 78% of Americans could find themselves living under the new normal of limited home broadband. [More]
