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After gracing Cleveland, Ohio with the dubious honor of being the first Cox service area in the country to be treated to compulsory data caps and overlimit fees, Cox Communications has announced it is expanding its internet overcharging scheme to customers in Florida and Georgia starting Nov. 21.
Stop the Cap! readers in both states shared Cox’s service change notification introducing hard caps in both states next month.
“Cox High Speed Internet packages include 1 TB (1,024 GB) of data,” Cox explains. “Approximately 99% of Cox customers are currently on a data plan that more than adequately meets their monthly household needs.”
That begs the question: if 99% of customers are unaffected by a data cap, then why have a data cap at all?
Cox “Data Plans”
Note: Unused data does not carry over to the next month.
| Package | Monthly Data Plan | Speeds Download / Upload |
|---|---|---|
| Starter | 1 TB (1,024 GB) | 5 Mbps / 1 Mbps |
| Essential | 1 TB (1,024 GB) | 15 Mbps / 2 Mbps |
| Preferred | 1 TB (1,024 GB) | 50 Mbps / 5 Mbps |
| Premier | 1 TB (1,024 GB) | 100 Mbps / 10 Mbps Note: 150 Mbps / 20 Mbps in select areas |
| Ultimate | 1 TB (1,024 GB) | 200 Mbps / 20 Mbps Note: 300 Mbps / 30 Mbps in select areas |
| Gigablast (Where Available) | 2 TB (2,048 GB) | 1 Gbps / 1 Gbps |
Content managed by Cox included in Cox-provided services do not count toward data usage:
- TV and On Demand content accessed in the Contour app while connected to Cox in-home Wi-Fi
- Cox Digital Telephone
- Cox Homelife
Note: Third party content and content identified as internet services on receivers or TVGO in the Contour app may count toward data usage.
Customers in these areas who exceed their allowance will be billed $10 for each 50GB of excess usage. Customers will get a two-month grace period to become accustomed to internet rationing before the overlimit fees are added to customers’ bills.
Cox has not said if or when it will expand the data caps to other markets.
Customers can send Cox a message by calling the company and threatening to take your business to another provider specifically because of data caps and overlimit fees. Affected customers should also file a complaint with the FCC asking the federal agency to ban data caps as unnecessary and discriminatory against competing online video services.
Let the FCC know data caps are a major concern and are unnecessary considering the steep decline in internet provisioning and transit costs and the extremely high price (and profitability) providers already get from offering unlimited broadband service.
I have Cox am in California Just found out they have raised my limit from 250 GB to 1 TB, but it is not free because my rates when up over 4 dollars a month – add that to 4 dollar raise we got just a few months ago and that is about a 20% increase in less than a year. What burns me, is I never go over the 250 GBs, so am now paying for something I did not ask for and will unlikely ever use. But with out a doubt, it will help their bottom line and… Read more »
Think cox is bad. Suddenlink in their uncompetitive area’s are even worse, Like in states like WV. The lowest speed in the state is 50/5 so what they did was put a cap on their two lowest speeds, On the 50/5 its 250 gig and on the 75/7.5 the cap is 350 gig. But they put a restriction on it that to pay extra to get unlimited you have to have at least 100/7.5 in your area. If don’t have 100/7.5 but its offered in your area you can pay if $20 more dollars to move up from 50/5 to… Read more »
Not sure what is worse, being forced to pay for something you do not want or over charging for services. Both are sneaky ways of stealing money from customers and I agree it has got to stop. It should be like any other utility you pay for what you use.
Armstrong Cable in WV, OH, PA, and others is even worse than Suddenlink. 50 Mbps has a 200 GB data cap, and their 100Mbps has a 300 GB data cap. There’s no option for unlimited for any of their speeds, not even their business accounts. Only their employees have unlimited data.