Frontier Communications has introduced fiber to the home service limited to certain new housing developments in the suburbs around Rochester, N.Y., offering 30/30Mbps broadband for $19.99 a month.

Stop the Cap! reader Craig sent along word Frontier was using lawn signs to promote fiber broadband outside of the nearly complete Bella Estates — a development in the town of Ogden.

This is not the first project of this type for Frontier, which installs optical fiber in most new housing developments as they are built. Customers are typically offered fiber-fed broadband service at the same download speeds offered to Frontier’s DSL customers. With Frontier committed to providing basic telephone service throughout its operating service areas, stringing new optical fiber costs only a little more than using traditional copper wiring.

However, Frontier’s attitude about scrapping customers’ existing copper wiring in favor of fiber optics is very different. Frontier is among the last major independent phone companies not building its own significant fiber to the neighborhood or fiber-to-the-home service in its legacy service areas. Instead, it has adopted networks acquired from AT&T (U-verse in Connecticut) and Verizon (FiOS in Indiana and the Pacific Northwest, and possibly Florida, Texas and California as well).

“Once again, Frontier is only expanding where it feels like it,” writes Craig.

Comcast today quietly announced its broadband customers in Fort Lauderdale, the Keys and Miami, Fla., will find a broadband usage cap of 300GB per month imposed on their Internet access starting Oct. 1, 2015, along with the option of buying a new $30 insurance plan to protect against overlimit fees and restore unlimited access.

Stop the Cap! reader Jose from Hialeah informed us Comcast formally began notifying affected customers in e-mail earlier today and updated their website (thanks to DSL Reports):

***An important update about your XFINITY Internet service:

We’re writing to let you know that we will be trialing a new XFINITY Internet data plan in your area. Starting October 1, 2015, your monthly data plan will include 300GB. We’ll also trial a new “Unlimited Data” option that will give you the choice to purchase unlimited data for $30 per month in addition to your monthly Internet service fee.

The majority of XFINITY customers use less than 300GB of data in a month, and therefore will not be affected by these changes. If you are not sure of your monthly data usage, please refer to the Track and Manage Your Usage section below.

Here are the details of the plan:

You’ll get 300GB of data each month. If for any reason you exceed the 300GB included in your plan in a month, we will automatically add blocks of 50GB to your account for an additional fee of $10 each. We’re also implementing a three-month courtesy program. That means you will not be billed for the first three times you exceed the 300GB included in the monthly data plan.

Here are the details of the Unlimited Data option:

If you don’t want a 300GB data plan, the new Unlimited Data option is an alternative that provides additional choice and flexibility, especially for customers who use lots of data. You can choose to enroll in the Unlimited Data option at any time for an additional $30 a month, regardless of how much data you use. Enrollment in this option goes into effect on the first day of the subsequent calendar month.

Notifications:

If you are on the 300 GB plan, we will send you a courtesy “in-browser” notice and an email letting you know when you reach 90%, 100%, 110%, and 125% of your monthly data usage plan amount. You can also elect to receive notifications at additional thresholds as well as set up mobile text notifications. Notices will not be sent to customers who enroll in the unlimited data option.

What is remarkable about the introduction of Comcast’s latest usage cap trial is the naked monetization scheme that accompanies it. Comcast’s old arguments that usage caps provide an even usage experience and fairness for all customers has been replaced with a new $30 insurance plan that effectively restores the unlimited usage plan customers had until this month… for $30 more a month than they used to pay. Once Comcast collects your $30, the sky is the limit as far as usage is concerned.

Customers are howling about the changes on Comcast’s social media platforms and customer support forums. Stop the Cap! strongly urges Comcast customers to also complain to the Federal Communications Commission using this online complaint form. The more Americans that complain about capped Internet, the more likely the FCC will act on the issue.

“Comcast can just do whatever they want without asking or giving notice,” writes Jason. “So basically we all just got a $30 a month increase in our Comcast bill, such BS! I’ve been a Comcast customer over 20 years. I am done. This was the last straw.”

“Kiss my business goodbye,” wrote another customer. “I have had nothing but trouble with Comcast since I’ve had it.  Weekly outages, incompetent techs on the phone, etc. AT&T U-verse may not have speeds that are as fast as Comcast, but the service was reliable, and they didn’t try to stab us in the back with ridiculous fees. Hasta la vista, Comcast!”

For now, the Unlimited Data Option is only available to customers in Florida. All other Comcast customers living under the company’s usage caps will continue to face overlimit fees of $10 for each 50GB of usage they run up past their 300GB usage allowance.

Comcast has also suddenly clarified exactly which customers are facing a life with usage caps by publishing a lengthy list of zip codes where unlucky customers will not be allowed to receive unlimited broadband. (Last week, Stop the Cap! shared with readers the story of Comcast customers in Georgia being misled about usage caps by Comcast employees. Woodstock’s two zip codes – 30188 and 30189 – appear on the below list.):

Alabama

35020, 35021, 35023, 35111, 35211, 35401, 35403, 35404, 35405, 35406, 35440, 35444, 35446, 35447, 35453, 35473, 35475, 35476, 35486, 35487, 35490, 35630, 35631, 35632, 35633, 35634, 35645, 35660, 35661, 35674, 35677, 35741, 35748, 35750, 35756, 35758, 35759, 35763, 35773, 35801, 35802, 35803, 35805, 35806, 35810, 35811, 35816, 35824, 35899, 35901, 35903, 35904, 35905, 35906, 35907, 35952, 35953, 35954, 35961, 35972, 35987, 36528, 36571, 36572, 36575, 36582, 36587, 36602, 36603, 36604, 36605, 36606, 36607, 36608, 36609, 36610, 36611, 36612, 36613, 36615, 36617, 36618, 36619, 36652, 36693, 36695

Arizona

85145, 85619, 85653, 85658, 85704, 85705, 85709, 85712, 85713, 85715, 85718, 85719, 85735, 85737, 85739, 85741, 85742, 85743, 85745, 85746, 85749, 85750, 85755, 85757

Arkansas

72301, 72303, 72331, 72364, 72373

Florida – New Area for 300GB Usage Cap; Unlimited Data Option available for $30 extra per month.

33001, 33004, 33009, 33010, 33012, 33013, 33014, 33015, 33016, 33018, 33019, 33020, 33021, 33023, 33024, 33025, 33026, 33027, 33028, 33029, 33030, 33031, 33032, 33033, 33034, 33035, 33036, 33037, 33040, 33042, 33043, 33044, 33045, 33050, 33051, 33054, 33055, 33056, 33060, 33062, 33063, 33064, 33065, 33066, 33067, 33068, 33069, 33070, 33071, 33073, 33076, 33109, 33122, 33125, 33126, 33127, 33128, 33129, 33130, 33131, 33132, 33133, 33134, 33135, 33136, 33137, 33138, 33139, 33140, 33141, 33142, 33143, 33144, 33145, 33146, 33147, 33149, 33150, 33155, 33156, 33157, 33158, 33160, 33161, 33162, 33165, 33166, 33167, 33168, 33169, 33170, 33172, 33173, 33174, 33175, 33176, 33177, 33178, 33179, 33180, 33181, 33182, 33183, 33184, 33185, 33186, 33187, 33189, 33190, 33193, 33194, 33196, 33199, 33233, 33242, 33301, 33304, 33305, 33306, 33308, 33309, 33310, 33311, 33312, 33313, 33314, 33315, 33316, 33317, 33319, 33321, 33322, 33323, 33324, 33325, 33326, 33327, 33328, 33330, 33331, 33332, 33334, 33337, 33351, 33355, 33388, 33394, 33434, 33441, 33442, 34142, 34974

Georgia

30002, 30004, 30005, 30008, 30009, 30011, 30012, 30013, 30014, 30016, 30017, 30018, 30019, 30021, 30022, 30024, 30025, 30028, 30030, 30032, 30033, 30034, 30035, 30038, 30039, 30040, 30041, 30043, 30044, 30045, 30046, 30047, 30052, 30054, 30055, 30056, 30058, 30060, 30062, 30064, 30066, 30067, 30068, 30069, 30071, 30072, 30075, 30076, 30078, 30079, 30080, 30082, 30083, 30084, 30087, 30088, 30090, 30092, 30093, 30094, 30096, 30097, 30098, 30101, 30102, 30103, 30104, 30105, 30106, 30107, 30108, 30109, 30110, 30111, 30114, 30115, 30116, 30117, 30120, 30121, 30122, 30123, 30125, 30126, 30127, 30132, 30134, 30135, 30137, 30139, 30141, 30142, 30144, 30145, 30146, 30147, 30149, 30150, 30152, 30153, 30157, 30161, 30165, 30168, 30171, 30172, 30173, 30176, 30178, 30179, 30180, 30182, 30183, 30184, 30185, 30187, 30188, 30189, 30205, 30213, 30214, 30215, 30220, 30223, 30224, 30228, 30230, 30236, 30238, 30248, 30250, 30252, 30253, 30257, 30260, 30263, 30265, 30266, 30268, 30269, 30272, 30273, 30274, 30276, 30277, 30281, 30288, 30290, 30291, 30292, 30294, 30296, 30297, 30303, 30304, 30305, 30306, 30307, 30308, 30309, 30310, 30311, 30312, 30313, 30314, 30315, 30316, 30317, 30318, 30319, 30320, 30322, 30324, 30326, 30327, 30328, 30329, 30330, 30331, 30332, 30334, 30336, 30337, 30338, 30339, 30340, 30341, 30342, 30344, 30345, 30346, 30349, 30350, 30354, 30358, 30359, 30360, 30361, 30363, 30369, 30410, 30411, 30413, 30414, 30417, 30423, 30427, 30428, 30429, 30434, 30439, 30442, 30445, 30457, 30467, 30471, 30477, 30501, 30504, 30506, 30507, 30517, 30518, 30519, 30520, 30527, 30529, 30530, 30533, 30534, 30542, 30543, 30548, 30549, 30554, 30558, 30564, 30567, 30575, 30606, 30607, 30620, 30622, 30624, 30634, 30635, 30643, 30655, 30656, 30666, 30673, 30677, 30680, 30701, 30733, 30735, 30746, 30802, 30805, 30807, 30808, 30809, 30812, 30813, 30814, 30815, 30816, 30817, 30824, 30828, 30830, 30901, 30904, 30905, 30906, 30907, 30909, 30912, 30914, 31002, 31063, 31064, 31068, 31096, 31301, 31302, 31304, 31305, 31307, 31308, 31309, 31312, 31313, 31314, 31315, 31316, 31318, 31320, 31321, 31322, 31323, 31324, 31326, 31328, 31329, 31331, 31333, 31401, 31404, 31405, 31406, 31407, 31408, 31409, 31410, 31411, 31415, 31419, 31421, 31543, 31545, 31546, 31555, 31560, 31566, 31568, 31569

Illinois

62910, 62960

Indiana

47520, 47586

Kentucky

40150, 40160, 40162, 40175, 42001, 42002, 42003, 42027, 42029, 42048, 42053, 42058, 42069, 42082, 42086, 42127, 42134, 42141, 42152, 42223, 42321, 42323, 42324, 42326, 42330, 42332, 42337, 42344, 42345, 42367, 42374, 42701, 42702, 42712, 42716, 42718, 42724, 42726, 42732, 42733, 42740, 42748, 42749, 42754, 42757, 42758, 42764, 42783, 42788

Louisiana

71201, 71202, 71203, 71209, 71225, 71227, 71229, 71234, 71238, 71280, 71291, 71292, 71294

Maine

03901, 03903, 03904, 03905, 03908, 04003, 04008, 04011, 04032, 04066, 04078, 04079, 04086, 04222, 04287, 04530, 04562, 04565, 04579

Mississippi

38611, 38618, 38619, 38621, 38632, 38635, 38637, 38641, 38649, 38651, 38654, 38661, 38664, 38666, 38668, 38670, 38671, 38672, 38674, 38676, 38680, 38683, 38801, 38802, 38803, 38804, 38824, 38826, 38828, 38829, 38834, 38835, 38843, 38846, 38849, 38855, 38856, 38857, 38860, 38862, 38866, 38868, 38869, 38876, 38879, 39041, 39042, 39043, 39046, 39047, 39056, 39066, 39071, 39073, 39079, 39110, 39145, 39151, 39154, 39157, 39167, 39170, 39174, 39175, 39193, 39201, 39202, 39203, 39204, 39206, 39208, 39209, 39210, 39211, 39212, 39213, 39216, 39217, 39218, 39232, 39269, 39272, 39301, 39302, 39303, 39304, 39305, 39307, 39309, 39320, 39325, 39335, 39338, 39342, 39347, 39348, 39355, 39364, 39366, 39367, 39401, 39402, 39406, 39422, 39437, 39439, 39440, 39441, 39442, 39443, 39455, 39465, 39475, 39477, 39481, 39773

South Carolina

29108, 29127, 29401, 29403, 29404, 29405, 29406, 29407, 29408, 29409, 29410, 29412, 29414, 29418, 29420, 29424, 29425, 29426, 29429, 29438, 29439, 29445, 29449, 29451, 29455, 29456, 29461, 29464, 29466, 29470, 29482, 29483, 29485, 29487, 29488, 29492, 29628, 29803, 29822, 29829, 29831, 29841, 29842, 29847, 29860, 29901, 29902, 29904, 29906, 29907, 29911, 29920, 29924, 29944, 29945

Tennessee

37010, 37013, 37014, 37015, 37020, 37022, 37025, 37026, 37027, 37029, 37030, 37031, 37032, 37033, 37036, 37037, 37042, 37046, 37048, 37049, 37051, 37055, 37059, 37060, 37062, 37064, 37066, 37067, 37069, 37071, 37072, 37073, 37074, 37075, 37076, 37080, 37082, 37083, 37085, 37086, 37087, 37090, 37098, 37115, 37119, 37122, 37127, 37128, 37129, 37130, 37131, 37132, 37135, 37137, 37138, 37141, 37143, 37145, 37148, 37149, 37150, 37152, 37153, 37165, 37166, 37167, 37172, 37179, 37181, 37185, 37186, 37187, 37188, 37189, 37190, 37201, 37203, 37204, 37205, 37206, 37207, 37208, 37209, 37210, 37211, 37212, 37213, 37214, 37215, 37216, 37217, 37218, 37219, 37220, 37221, 37228, 37229, 37232, 37235, 37236, 37238, 37240, 37243, 37246, 37306, 37318, 37324, 37330, 37352, 37366, 37398, 37701, 37705, 37709, 37710, 37713, 37714, 37716, 37719, 37721, 37722, 37725, 37726, 37737, 37738, 37742, 37748, 37754, 37755, 37756, 37757, 37763, 37764, 37766, 37769, 37770, 37771, 37772, 37777, 37779, 37801, 37803, 37804, 37806, 37807, 37820, 37821, 37828, 37829, 37830, 37840, 37841, 37843, 37845, 37847, 37849, 37852, 37853, 37854, 37862, 37863, 37871, 37872, 37876, 37882, 37886, 37887, 37892, 37902, 37909, 37912, 37914, 37915, 37916, 37917, 37918, 37919, 37920, 37921, 37922, 37923, 37924, 37929, 37931, 37932, 37934, 37938, 37996, 37998, 38002, 38010, 38011, 38014, 38015, 38016, 38017, 38018, 38019, 38028, 38029, 38036, 38039, 38046, 38048, 38049, 38052, 38057, 38060, 38061, 38066, 38067, 38068, 38069, 38075, 38076, 38103, 38104, 38105, 38106, 38107, 38108, 38109, 38111, 38112, 38113, 38114, 38115, 38116, 38117, 38118, 38119, 38120, 38122, 38125, 38126, 38127, 38128, 38131, 38132, 38133, 38134, 38135, 38137, 38138, 38139, 38141, 38152, 38157, 38305, 38326, 38339, 38357, 38365, 38367, 38375, 38504, 38547, 38549, 38553, 38555, 38556, 38557, 38558, 38560, 38565, 38570, 38571, 38572, 38577, 38583

Comcast plans to upgrade its cable broadband facilities nationwide to support gigabit broadband using DOCSIS 3.1 technology within two years, according to a company official.

DOCSIS 3.1 will allow existing hybrid fiber-coax infrastructure to support broadband service speeds up to 10Gbps, but most consumers would find the equipment costs to support speeds that fast on a home network prohibitive. Commercial customers might not.

“We’re testing it this year,” Robert Howald, Comcast’s vice president of network architecture, told FierceCable. “Our intent is to scale it through our footprint through 2016. We want to get it across the footprint very quickly. We’re shooting for two years.”

Comcast is also claiming to move forward with its 2Gbps fiber to the home service in select areas located close to existing fiber infrastructure, but first promised the service would be available to customers in early summer. To date, Stop the Cap! cannot find any customer actually subscribed to the service.

Customers will be able to lease DOCSIS 3.1 equipment from Comcast starting in early 2016. As more customers get the equipment, Comcast will likely realign its broadband offerings to further boost speeds.

 

Abbes Nacef was not very happy when he opened his web browser a few days ago to see a message inserted at the top of his screen.

“Your Internet service has reached the maximum limit of allowable overage charges. If you wish to continue service, please contact our business office to discuss your account.”

Nacef, who lives in Monastir, a Tunisian city best known for its tourism, was surprised because it was the first sign his Internet account had gone over the limit.

“While you can get uncapped DSL in Tunisia, it is not very good service and in my area it is not offered,” Nacef told Stop the Cap!. “Most in our neighborhood rely on a wireless ISP service which is less costly than 3G or 4G mobile service, but is capped and charges roughly $25 for each extra gigabyte allotment.”

Nacef’s call to his provider was not pleasant. He had already accumulated almost $180 in charges for the month of August, most in overlimit fees. The culprit was quickly identified — Microsoft Windows 10, which took several attempts to reach Nacef’s computer over a challenging Internet connection. But Nacef also learned his computer was repeatedly requesting updates from Microsoft, including three software patches that would not complete and were sent over and over for almost two weeks.

“It was the fifth call my ISP had received about this problem, and they were very annoyed also because Microsoft Windows 10 assumes you will use their Edge browser which defeats the early warning messages from my ISP that usage limits are approaching,” Nacef said. “When I switched back to my old browser the bad news was there, but it was too late.”

His ISP has agreed to cut the charges in half and has warned all of its customers if they want Windows 10, the ISP will offer them a copy on a returnable USB memory device for free.

Nacef thinks the huge multiple download attempts to receive Windows 10 itself was responsible for most of the extra usage, but he is wary about the frequent software updates and the fact they are shared with other users by default.

That is what may have tripped up Rob DuGrenier who paid an exorbitant $150 this month for 1.5Mbps Internet service just to get a 75GB usage allowance for his immediate family in far northern Québec. The alternative was an overlimit fee of $20 for each 5GB allotment of usage over the usual 30GB allowance granted to “Power” users.

“Internet is not an option for our family for medical reasons, but this hurts,” DuGrenier writes. “It is definitely Windows 10 and there is something wrong with it because our ISP reports we are sending a lot more data than we are receiving, and there are no viruses or malware on the computers.”

His ISP now suspects Microsoft is using his connection to distribute software updates to a number of other users across northern Canada. When DuGrenier’s family disabled the option that opted them in to distributing Microsoft updates to other customers, upstream traffic dropped 98%.

“Were we sending Windows 10 itself all over northern Quebec and Nunavut? We just don’t know and Microsoft has not responded,” DuGrenier reports. “They have billions, I do not. They should be paying my Internet bill this month.”

The worst of the reported problems of bill shock are occurring in remote areas where Internet service can be a mixture of wired and wireless connections that are often slow and usually usage-limited. Windows 10 was designed to reduce bandwidth demand on wireless connections, assuming they would be metered. But how Microsoft detects which networks are wireless and metered and which may only partly be so is apparently a work in progress.

This morning, the Sydney Morning Herald reports at least one customer on a Pacific island was slammed with a catastrophically high Internet bill. Maureen Hilyard in the Cook Islands owes her ISP $390 this month, all because of automatic updates from Microsoft for Windows 10.

“In this context, where Internet access is both painfully slow and seriously expensive, these forced updates are almost literally forcing people off the Internet and are resulting in massive excess data charges,” EFA executive officer Jon Lawrence told the newspaper.

Hilyard is a customer of Bluesky, primarily a satellite Internet Service Provider that dominates the Cook Islands, which have no other options for Internet access. A basic account costs $31.50 a month, but that provides just 3.5GB of data for the entire month. Automatic overlimit charges of $0.03 per megabyte accrue after the allowance is used up.

The most likely victims of Windows-induced bill shock subscribe to usage-limited wireless or satellite Internet services. While many providers throttle the speeds of customers who reach the usage limit, others charge penalty rates. Microsoft has no way to know which is true. Instead, the company claims it looks for evidence of a wireless connection before performing updates and when it finds one, it assumes it to be metered. But wired connections stay firmly in the unmetered category, whether they are usage-capped or not. Customers are invited to choose by digging through confusing settings menus.

Even more problematic is the built-in peer-to-peer technology that gives Microsoft’s servers a break and uses your Internet connection to share the latest Windows software updates with other Windows users across town and beyond. Microsoft has offered no provision to track this usage, but users can opt out with this advice from the Sydney Morning Herald:

Users can tweak their Windows 10 system settings by enabling a “metered connection” by searching for “Change Wi-Fi settings” in the start menu, clicking on “Advanced Options” and enabling “Metered connection.” This lets Windows 10 know the Wi-Fi connection you’re on is capped, so instead of forcing a software update onto your PC or tablet, it will notify you first. You can then choose to delay the upgrade until you are on an uncapped connection, or until you’ve rolled over into a fresh month of data.

This workaround only applies to Wi-Fi connections, however, not Ethernet connections.

A second workaround actually comes in an update which Microsoft itself released. It’s a bit more fiddly though, as it involves manually uninstalling driver updates and then downloading a special troubleshooter app to prevent them from installing again automatically. The full instructions are available online.

What makes 300GB so special? It happens to represent the monthly usage allowance Comcast customers in several southern and western service areas receive after more than two years of “Data Usage Plan Trials.”

One of most asked questions posed to Comcast is why one of the nation’s largest and most profitable Internet Service Providers needs to impose usage caps at all, especially as the company has repeatedly raised broadband speeds for customers.

It took a parody Twitter account known as “Cable Cares” to get a cogent answer from Comcast’s vice president of Internet services, Jason Livingood: he doesn’t know.

Livingood admitted Comcast’s “data usage plans” a/k/a “usage caps” are a “business policy” far removed from his work as a Comcast engineer helping to keep Comcast’s broadband service up and running efficiently.

Stop the Cap! never doubted it for a moment.

Internet Service Providers have often claimed usage caps are a matter of “fairness” — first to control congestion on their broadband networks and later as a way to pay for needed upgrades. But neither has proved true.

Starting in 2008, Comcast imposed a 250GB usage cap on its broadband service and issued warnings to customers that rampaged past it, threatening to cut their service off if they did not curtail usage. Those contacted were told their heavy use could impact broadband service for other customers who used it much less.

Internet providers told the Government Accountability Office another story entirely, admitting congestion is not a problem for cable operators or phone companies at all.

“Some wireless ISPs told us they use usage based pricing to manage congestion,” the GAO reported in June 2014. But “wireline ISPs said that congestion is not currently a problem.”

As upgrades have exponentially increased network capacity, the story told to defend usage caps changed dramatically. The new claim is that usage-based pricing and caps can “generate more revenue for ISPs to fund network capacity upgrades as data use grows,” the GAO reported.

Except as the New York Times reported last year, the United States is hardly a broadband speed leader and the quality of service “has nothing to do with technology. Instead, it is an economic policy problem — the lack of competition in the broadband industry.”

For now, Comcast isn’t commenting at all about the reasons for its usage cap trials. But a few years ago, Comcast VP David Cohen believed caps would be rolled out across Comcast’s entire nationwide service area anyway. 

Comcast executives have repeatedly told investors customers had accepted the usage cap trials and few have exceeded their usage allowances. But judging from Comcast’s customer support forums, the issue of usage caps and measurement rises near the top of complaints.

Comcast’s unregulated usage meter is a frequent target. What it registers is what Comcast uses to bill its customers.

“I have the ability to track my inbound and outbound data usage at my router.  Nothing in my house can talk to the Internet (the cable modem) without going through the router,” one customer wrote on Comcast’s support forum. “The traffic meter on the router is significantly less than the Xfinity Usage Meter.  As of right now, my router says my inbound/outbound usage since 7/1/2015 is 67.34GB, but the Xfinity Usage Meter says I am at 114GB.”

“At Comcast, the meter is right and the customer is wrong,” complains another customer.

“I am sick of calling customer service and being told that the Xfinity usage meter is right, but that there is absolutely no data that can be given to me to support that answer.  This is beyond ridiculous and I am beyond frustrated.  I have no options for recourse and am just supposed to accept that I am flying blind.”

Flying blind can be costly. One Comcast customer opened his broadband bill to discover $260 in charges conveniently automatically removed from his checking account after Comcast claimed he used almost 2TB of usage in a month.

“My wife and I browse emails, browse the Internet with Facebook and sometimes watch Youtube,” the customer wrote. “We don’t even have Netflix or any other streaming service here at the house.”

The customer complains Comcast refuses to refund or document the 2TB of usage. As long as Comcast “verifies” a customer’s modem handled that traffic, the customer is billed without recourse.

But customers do have some recourse: complaining to the Federal Communications Commission or the Better Business Bureau.

“I have seen other posts from customers with similar issues,” a Comcast customer noted. “It seems that they get help once they threaten to go to the FCC or the BBB.”

The FCC’s online complaint form often results in substantial billing credits and charge reversals for shocking cable bills. The FCC is gradually turning its attention to the issue of usage caps, perhaps proportionate to the number of consumer complaints about the issue.

The Better Business Bureau helps put customers in touch with executive level customer service agents empowered well beyond the usual offshore customer service center employees. It appears they did exactly that 35,281 times in the last three years — 14,052 in the last year alone. Most of those complaints were evidently resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.

• Click here to file a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission
• Click here to file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau