Cox Cable called attention to new usage cap allowances in Broadband Reports’ Cox Cable forum.
Cox more than doubled its usage cap allowances for several of their broadband tiers. Cox offers different speeds in different markets for their broadband tiers, depending on how much competition they face.
Most Cox Cable customers don’t even realize there are usage limits on broadband service, because the company rarely enforces them. No measurement tool is provided by Cox to allow customers to see what they are consuming on a monthly basis. Instead, the company currently only contacts customers who create a significant negative impact on their network, and then point the customer to the terms and conditions which include their usage cap limits. One Cox customer posted their usage showing they consistently exceeded Cox’s old caps by several times over and was never contacted by the company.
Their new caps are more comparable with Comcast than some other providers who have tried usage caps designed to play “gotcha” with customers, and then charge them overlimit fees and penalties when they exceed them. Cox does not charge overlimit fees or penalties.
Cox also specifically exempted its own Voice Over IP “digital phone” service from usage caps, which gives them a competitive advantage should Cox begin tighter enforcement of their usage cap allowances: “Cox Digital Telephone is a separate service for which you pay and does not count toward your Monthly Bandwidth Allowance.”
Customers have expressed appreciation for the more generous usage caps, but are even more pleased that Cox has never strongly enforced any of them.
Still, Stop the Cap! calls on Cox to forget about usage caps. It’s apparent the vast majority of your customers do not present an enforcement issue anyway, so why inconvenience customers with confusing bandwidth allowances. Those that do create a major problem on the network can be dealt with within the scope of the existing Acceptable Use Policy. That’s simpler broadband service every consumer can understand, and enhances customer goodwill for Cox’s broadband products.
Economy/Lite/Basic Package
|
Feature |
Maximum Limit |
| 1. |
Maximum download speed |
512 or 768 kilobits per second
|
| 2. |
Maximum upload speed |
256 kilobits per second |
| 3. |
Monthly bandwidth allowance |
30 gigabytes combined download and upload |
Starter Package
|
Feature |
Maximum Limit |
| 1. |
Maximum download speed |
1 megabits per second |
| 2. |
Maximum upload speed |
256 kilobits per second |
| 3. |
Monthly bandwidth allowance |
30 gigabytes combined download and upload |
Essential Package
|
Feature |
Maximum Limit |
| 1. |
Maximum download speed |
3.0 megabits per second |
| 2. |
Maximum upload speed |
384 or 768 kilobits per second |
| 3. |
Monthly bandwidth allowance |
50 gigabytes combined download and upload |
Value Package
|
Feature |
Maximum Limit |
| 1. |
Maximum download speed |
1.5 megabits per second |
| 2. |
Maximum upload speed |
256 or 384 kilobits per second |
| 3. |
Monthly bandwidth allowance |
50 gigabytes combined download and upload |
Preferred Package
|
Feature |
Maximum Limit |
| 1. |
Maximum download speed |
9, 10, 12 or 15 megabits per second |
|
Maximum download speed with PowerBoost |
12, 13, 16 or 20 megabits per second |
| 2. |
Maximum upload speed |
768 kilobits or 2 megabits per second |
|
Maximum upload speed with PowerBoost |
1 or 2.5 megabits per second |
| 3. |
Monthly bandwidth allowance |
200 gigabytes combined download and upload |
Premier Package
|
Feature |
Maximum Limit |
| 1. |
Maximum download speed |
15, 18, 20 or 25 megabits per second |
|
Maximum download speed with PowerBoost® |
20, 22 , 25 or 30 megabits per second |
| 2. |
Maximum upload speed |
1.5, 2 or 3 megabits per second |
|
Maximum upload speed with PowerBoost |
2, 2.5 or 3.5 megabits per second |
| 3. |
Monthly bandwidth allowance |
250 gigabytes combined download and upload |
Premier Plus Package (requires a DOCSIS 3 Modem)
|
Feature |
Maximum Limit |
| 1. |
Maximum download speed |
25 megabits per second |
|
Maximum download speed with PowerBoost® |
28 megabits per second |
| 2. |
Maximum upload speed |
2 megabits per second |
|
Maximum upload speed with PowerBoost |
2.5 megabits per second |
| 3. |
Monthly bandwidth allowance |
400 gigabytes combined download and upload |
Ultimate Package (requires a DOCSIS 3 Modem)
|
Feature |
Maximum Limit |
| 1. |
Maximum download speed |
50 megabits per second |
| 2. |
Maximum upload speed |
5 megabits per second |
| 3. |
Monthly bandwidth allowance |
400 gigabytes combined download and upload |
Related
Subscribe
While that’s great they upped the cap, that’s a pretty blatant slap in the face to net neutrality. Their voip is immune from future overcharging but no one else is. If I were Vonage (or other voip providers) I’d be screaming bloody murder about that.
Beemer
Yuppers. It’s a point I definitely noticed and have tucked away. I am not in a position to go fight for Vonage, et al., at the moment, but it’s absolutely an issue to be considered under Net Neutrality policies.
I disagree. The company I work at uses VOIP instead of a traditional PBX. So, our phones are special (though look generally like desk phones), they connect using an ethernet cable. We have a server that all the phones connect to. This is easier than running phone lines throughout the office, and the software to do it is free. The server that the phones connect to is connected to the phone system, this means the calls never actually go through the internet. Digital Phone basically works the same way, the call is not going through the internet, only through the… Read more »
Well, What you describe is called PBX (Private Business Exchange) Server. Yes if you call someone in your office the traffic remains inside your building and should not be counted against your internet cap. But as soon you call a number out-side your dial-plan the VoIP traffic will go over your Internet connection or regular FXO (Foreign Exchange Office) line from your PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network). Based on that fact your argument is not exactly correct. Cox can exclude without violating Net Neutrality only the VoIP traffic between their own customers or so called in network calls. All other… Read more »
In our case it goes out directly over the FXO line from the local server. I see no reason why Cox would set it up any differently. I suppose they might centralize connections to reduce the number of FXONetwork servers they have, but in that case they’re probably better off laying their own fiber than connecting through the internet.
Once it’s on the PSTN, it isn’t IP anymore, and it isn’t on the internet, so deducting from usage caps would be senseless.
If I understand you correctly your setup is: IP-Phone -> VoIP server (local) -> FXO interface -> PSTN. In this case you never going to have Internet traffic from your VoIP system. It is closed system. But that is not how works at COX and other VoIP providers. Their setup is something like: Customers Phone -> ATA (Analog Telephone Adapter) -> Customer Internet connection -> Local SIP server. This is the pipe line to establish the call and to map the phone numbers and the IP addresses. Often is refers as Dial-plan. As soon the customer makes a call the… Read more »
It seems I may have misunderstood something. I suppose I had not considered that when I make a phone call using a “normal” phone, it is oging over an internet connection at some point. If that’s the case, then a phone company offering DSL service ought to be forced to cap their phone service based on bytes used. If, however the PSTN isn’t using an internet connection, then there’s no reason that Cox would have to either (they can act like a phone company and connect the same way), in which case they don’t have to. Vonage, on the other… Read more »
Yes, It is very complex system of networks. I have simplify and abstract otherwise it will become a book on communications. In order to get better view on the whole thing you have to work in this area for some time and to know the history how the networks were build. I will try to give you some view, but at this point you should use it as reference only and most likely it will be incorrect in details. Here is the short history how the phone networks become what they are today: 1. First everything was analog lines. First… Read more »
Thanks for the explanation. I am a software engineer, but I did not know that calls went over the internet. Nevertheless, it seems that only long-distance calls go over the internet, perhaps even less than that. To be clear, by go over the internet, I mean by the service provider’s definition, that it doesn’t leave their network, and thus is a much lower cost. Long distance calls are limited with home phone plans too, unless you have a premium plan. If I were to call a long distance service in order to connect a call (on the modern phone system,… Read more »
I’m not sure that’s how it works. At your work, you control the connection and it’s a closed system making a direct connection to the phone company. In the cable voip scenario, the home doesn’t directly connect to the phone company – they go to the cable company, then the traffic is shunted over the phone network. Should they be monitoring bandwidth, they would be monitoring what enters/exits the network at the customer end, not what actually makes it out to the internet. If they were to monitor at some other point, I would think that would be too complex… Read more »
Andrew, you are assuming to much in your comment disagreeing about how VOIP works. What if they have a 3rd party VOIP service? Some of these services also have HQ voice signals which use quite a bit of bandwidth. Also, what about Cox backup service, does that count? And HBO-GO service? Both of these are arguably Cox related services that now count against your data. Or are they? Not to mention a Netflix HQ HD movies could consume up to 10 gig for a 2 hour movie!!!! Cox is not trying to make more money by charging, they are trying… Read more »
I used to be COX customer for many years. Their overcharging tactics are different. They have to types of services: Residential and Business. They are blocking incoming connections on most of popular ports if you have residential service. You can not have self-hosted web, e-mail, VPN or VoIP server. They don’t allow to have static IP address also. If you want this you have to pay almost 3-4 times more by moving to Business service. I understand that business customer require different level of support and this kind of support cost more, but it is unacceptable to cripple the Residential… Read more »
A perfect example of how Net Neutrality will be abused if Metered broadband is allowed.
Once again digital phone is exempt and the contradiction will be memory holed by the next “brown outs!” pimp in the media
Devil’s advocate/annoyed person here: Cable VoIP runs over a diffferent channel than internet communications. You can have VoCable (the technology used) without internet, just like you can have TV without internet. So no, it would be absolutely stupid to include something that uses a different technology under the data cap. To use a very fitting analogy, my cell phone is digital. It uses the SMV voice codec to transmit voice to the tower, which then connects to Sprint’s backbone network etc. Do I want them to count my voice traffic in kilobytes just because it’s digital? Nope, thank you very… Read more »
Dear Ian L, From reading your post I understand that I am the one who annoyed you. Sorry for that. If you happy with COX, keep them as your ISP. I had constant stream of problems with them and now they are my ex-ISP. But you step over the line with your comments about how I should use my internet connection so I will respond on that. 1. About VoCable. If you don’t know how works don’t speak or ask question first. VoCable is in fact VoIP. Here is the white paper from IEC to read: http://www.iec.org/online/tutorials/vocable/index.asp . Also VoIP… Read more »
I suppose I misunderstood some of your comments. My argument versus cellular voice stands. I don’t need a data plan to get cellular voice service, yet it transmits its signal digitally. If I had an ISDN phone line (digital) things would be the same way; internet is billed as a seperate item, works over a mostly seperate infrastructure and can be used for a lot more than a specialized voice–only channel on equipment, which tends to be more efficient than “indie VoIP” technologies. Again, digital voice on cable runs over a seperate (probably DOCSIS) channel that terminates 100% of the… Read more »
Dear Ian, Reading you comments it appears that you are very intelligent person and you know many things, but at the same time for unknown for me reason you are making some technically incorrect arguments. Is it because you don’t have good understanding of the network technology or you trying to make political argument that fits your personal agenda? From your comment I understand you believe that there are two types of Internet (business class and residential class). All of your arguments are in-line to defend your believe. Other thing I notice that you, like me, believe that property owners… Read more »