After four years of a gradually expanding “beta test” no customer wanted to be part of, Comcast’s never-ending data cap trial has increased data allowances for the first time since 2012.
Comcast customers in data cap trial areas tell Stop the Cap! their Comcast usage meter now reflects the new 1,024GB allowance Comcast promised back in April (some customers in Atlanta seem to have gotten a 2,048GB allowance for an unknown reason). It’s a major improvement over the old 300GB cap many customers endured with expensive overlimit fees that applied when they exceeded their allowance. Comcast will continue to bill those overlimit fees of $10 for each 50GB increment of excess usage over the allowance, but now plans to cap those overlimit fees at $200 a month.
“The new meter showed up June 1st in southern Florida, and it’s about time,” said our reader Javier from Miami. “But wouldn’t you know, Comcast screwed us out of one more month of paying their $30 extortion fee to keep unlimited.”
300GB was not enough for many Comcast customers.
Javier is referring to Comcast’s unlimited usage insurance plan. For $30-35 extra, the cable company removes your data cap and you face no overlimit fees. But since Comcast bills one month ahead, a customer enrolled in the insurance plan paid for an unlimited June on their May bill. Now that usage allowances have more than tripled, Javier wanted to cancel his insurance for this month because he doesn’t come close to Comcast’s new cap.
No dice, replied Comcast, who canceled his unlimited insurance plan effective July 1.
“Once you begin a new month, you cannot stop the charges until the following month,” Javier explained, even though he canceled the plan on the 1st of the month. “They told me it was too late.”
Javier is still glad he canceled the insurance.
“If I didn’t, they planned to auto-enroll me in their new unlimited option, which costs a ridiculous $50 a month,” said Javier.
Not all Comcast service areas are subject to data caps. Comcast issued broad clarifications about the usage cap trial changes on its website:
A terabyte still isn’t enough for some customers. (Image: NAM)
New Data Usage Trials
On June 1, 2016, we will be migrating all customers currently in usage trials to a new 1 Terabyte plan, and the following is an overview. For more details on this trial plan, see Questions & Answers About Our Data Usage Plan Trials. For a detailed list of trial locations, see Is my area part of the data usage plan trials? For trial start dates, see Where will these plans be launched?
In the markets of Huntsville, Mobile and Tuscaloosa, Alabama; Tucson, Arizona; Little Rock, Arkansas;Fort Lauderdale, the Keys, and Miami, Florida; Atlanta, Augusta and Savannah, Georgia; Central Kentucky; Houma, LaPlace, and Shreveport, Louisiana; Maine; Jackson and Tupelo, Mississippi;Chattanooga, Greeneville, Johnson City/Gray, Knoxville, Memphis and Nashville, Tennessee;Charleston, South Carolina; and Galax, Virginia, we will increase our monthly data usage plan for all XFINITY Internet tiers to 1 terabyte (1,024 GB) per month and will offer additional gigabytes in increments/blocks ($10 per 50 GB, up to $200 each month). You will also be able to choose to enroll in an Unlimited Data Option for an additional recurring flat fee of $50 per month. Under this option, the 1 Terabyte data usage plan will not be enforced on your account. For more information on the Unlimited Data Option, see What is the Unlimited Data Option?
If you are an XFINITY Internet Economy Plus or Performance Starter customer, you can instead choose to enroll in the Flexible Data Option to receive a $5 credit on your monthly bill if you reduce your data usage plan to 5 GB. If you choose this option and use 6 GB of data or more in any given month, you will not receive the $5 credit and will be charged an additional $1 for each gigabyte of data used over the 5 GB included in the Flexible Data Option. For more information on the Flexible Data Option, see What is the Flexible Data Option?
Expired Data Usage Plans
Important Note: These data usage plans, which Comcast previously had in place, expired on June 1, 2016, and have been replaced with the new plans described above
In the markets of Huntsville, Mobile and Tuscaloosa, Alabama; Little Rock, Arkansas; Fort Lauderdale,the Keys, and Miami, Florida; Atlanta, Augusta and Savannah, Georgia; Houma, LaPlace, andShreveport, Louisiana; Jackson and Tupelo, Mississippi; Chattanooga, Greeneville, Johnson City/Gray,Knoxville, Memphis and Nashville, Tennessee; Charleston, South Carolina; and Galax, Virginia, we have increased our monthly data usage plan for all XFINITY Internet tiers to 300 GB per month and will offer additional gigabytes in increments/blocks ($10 per 50 GB). In this trial, you can also choose to enroll in an Unlimited Data Option for an additional recurring flat fee (e.g., $30-$35 per month). Under this option, the 300 GB data usage plan will not be enforced on your account. If you subscribe to Economy Plus or Performance Starter XFINITY Internet, you can instead choose to enroll in the Flexible Data Option to receive a $5 credit on your monthly bill if you reduce your data usage plan to 5 GB. If you choose this option and use 6 GB of data or more in any given month, you will not receive the $5 credit and will be charged an additional $1 for each gigabyte of data used over the 5 GB included in the Flexible Data Option.
In the markets of Central Kentucky and Maine, we have increased our data usage plan for XFINITY Internet tiers to 300 GB per month, offering additional gigabytes in increments/blocks ($10 per 50 GB). In this trial, XFINITY Internet Economy Plus customers can instead choose to enroll in the Flexible Data Option to receive a $5 credit on their monthly bill if they reduce their data usage plan to 5 GB. If you choose this option and use 6 GB of data or more in any given month, you will not receive the $5 credit and will be charged an additional $1 for each gigabyte of data used over the 5 GB included in the Flexible Data Option. Currently, the Unlimited Data Option is not available in these markets.
In the Tucson, Arizona, market, we have increased our monthly data usage plan for Economy Plus through Performance XFINITY Internet tiers to 300 GB. Those customers subscribed to the Performance Pro and Blast! Internet tiers receive 350 GB in their data usage plan; Blast! Pro customers receive 450 GB in their data usage plan; and Extreme customers receive 600 GB in their data usage plan. As in our other trial market areas, we offer additional gigabytes in increments/blocks of 50 GB for $10 each in the event the customer exceeds their included data amount. Currently, the Unlimited Data Option and the Flexible Data Option are not available in this market.
In Fresno, California, Economy Plus customers have the option of enrolling in the Flexible Data Option.
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“Cap the over limit fees at $200. Gee, how generous to only have 20 $10 penalties a month. That’s mighty white of them. This needs to be a utility. Data are more than just internet connections, these lines are modern day telephone lines, it’s our tv lines, and it’s our post office. It’s just too important to let these morons have control over it. We need to stop this “stop the cap” thing and focus on utilitization.
So I get a letter from Comcast they’re increasing my limit from 300GB to 1TB. Okay, good I’m already on unlimited plan since I use > 300GB and under 500GB per month. I call customer service they look at my usage history, consistently less 500GB per month, no issues they say, cancel my unlimited plan, I’m well within limits. Today I look at my router, it shows I’ve used 77GB (yes I use a router at the ingress/egress points to track my usage). When I open Comcast usage meter and it says I’ve used 125GB!! That’s a 100% difference between… Read more »
After checking the Comcast ‘usage meter” (ha!) and seeing an unbelievable 987Gb for July, 853 August,, 822 September, and 750 October, I am wondering if they include their VoIP phone plan and the formerly-uncontrollable Xfinity hotspot in their calculations.
If there is any good news, it is that it now appears that the hotspot can be shut off if you desire it (just like their Business Internet service permits). I am going to make use of it, but has anyone had similar experience with their IMPOSSIBLY HIGH usage calculations?!
Yikes…yeah, that sounds plausible that they’re counting one or the other or both…
Of course if they don’t count it, it’s really unfair competition.
They need to just pull the caps, or make them much much higher.
I’m in Illinois, and until now have had no caps with Comcast.
Just got an email that they’re starting caps next month, and not only that, it costs $50/month for unlimited.
I don’t want my house drilled into to switch service providers, but I’m not wanting to pay almost $70/month more than another local provider charges for the same thing…
I just got the letter about this, coming to my area here is what I have been telling everyone. Comcast joins the screw the customer generation If you have not heard Comcast announced they plan to put a data cap on our internet usage starting August 1st, 2016. If you use too much data they will slap you with a $200.00 overage limit. Still want to get unlimited? Just add 50 more buck per month to your already overpriced bill. This has nothing to do with the speed of your internet but all about how MUCH data you use. X… Read more »
In my case at least, the “average” they claimed for me was incorrect, much lower than my actual average.
Wish someone would stop them…
Their whole system is flawed. And so is any kind data capping,regardless if its from an internet provider or a cell company. It doesnt save or cost Comcast, or ATT, or Verizon, or Sprint any more money if you only use 30GB, 300GB or 1TB of data. The equipment is always on and the data will still be going somewhere, regardless if its to you or not. Even better is the scam they are using to calculate usage. In the letter I got from them, it says that my 3 month average was 717GB. 2 weeks ago it was 867GB… Read more »
I don’t know if this is a coincidence, but on day 1 of the exciting caps, I just had the first ever bobble I’ve seen with Amazon’s video…took over a minute to “click” in to HD, where it would normally do so almost immediately (and on my former 6Mb/s DSL service too). Had Hulu do something similar too.
COULD just be coincidence, but the timing is suspicious….
Might be moving soon and on Fios now. Comcast is the only thing available in the new county. I don’t stream 4K video so I should be fine. The PS4 downloads could use a little adjusting now I bet. Good thing there isn’t anything coming out for at least 3 years at this point that I would be interested in playing.
For years I’ve seen this coming. Because now you can’t jog down to the local video store to rent a movie or game for an evening because the streaming media companies put them out of business, now the essence of their business is in jeopardy because the millennials found the convenience of streaming. Comcast is happy to let you watch your video on demand through their service. While we consumers will have to pay more to exceed the cap, my crystal ball says the alternate streaming businesses are facing a far more disastrous future. I’m glad I never let go… Read more »
No more video rental stores, but Netflix-by-mail is still running like always. And movie theatres are still in business for those last-minute entertainment needs.
My wifi has been crazy slow! We pay 60 a month for 150 MBPS! And even that is crap! But the only other provider in the area offers 25 MBPS for about 40 bucks a month. Right before I got that email form Comcast my internet had been going so slow I had to turn my wifi off on my phone just to view a webpage. Once again, Comcast is screwing its customers over.
25Mb/S for $40 would actually be a really good deal! I pay almost $70 for that from Comcast, and that’s excluding the $50 extra for unlimited.
Have you tested your speed when hooked up through Ethernet? There could be an issue with your router’s wifi specifically, or your neighborhood might be super saturated by wifi so it can’t run really fast?
Ideally you’d want as much as possible hooked up through Ethernet (or even other wired technologies) and just use wifi for tablets and phones and things like that.
You do realize that unless you are hardwired or running a dual band router that you will never see 150, right? It’s a flashy big number, but you need to have devices capable of seeing 5ghz networks.
So I just got the letter it’s says on average we use 978 a month yes I have 3 school aged kids plus our phone and there dvr box all come from the modem so all that gets counted what about there mobile hot spot others can use from your box am I paying for that too I pay $260 a month and that’s not enough there are no other providers in my area this can’t be legal then on top of that all 3 services never work right had no internet for 3 weeks waiting on a new box… Read more »
Geez, how “fun”.
I was going to say you can save a little, plus be safer, by doing your own cable box + router, except if you’re doing phone through them you might have to have their modem that has the phone support built in :-/
Hope they at least bothered crediting you for a 3 week outage :-O
My previous usage was nowhere near the limit but now, somehow we are magically going over or very close to the 1 terabyte. Our usage habits have not changed one bit, so I don’t understand this whatsoever. It is also putting us close to the 1 terabyte not even halfway through the billing cycle. Something is definitely off here. I think they are purposely showing the wrong figures so that they can get us to pay the extra $50 or wring overage charges from us. This is happening to a friend of mine as well.
WHY IS THIS LEGAL?!?!?!?! I don’t understand! Everyone knows this is only about getting more money, and they are doing something that I’m pretty sure is illegal. Where is the class action lawsuit?! They are deliberately lying about your usage & then charging you for it! They are going around the FTC’s net neutrality laws, too! THIS IS NOT OK! WHAT ARE PEOPLE LIKE ME, WHO LIVE SOMEWHERE THERE IS ONLY COMCAST, SUPPOSED TO DO?! It’s a utility! It’s time it be regulated & sold as one! I don’t see things getting any better with that orange jackass in the… Read more »