Comcast released a website that says they are capping residential at 1.2 Terabytes of data usage. If you go over it’s $10/month per 50 gigabytes. Your maximum overage charge is $100/month. At least Comcast is not trying to say it’s for network management. This is a total money grab as with Covid work from home everywhere a terabyte isn’t that much. They try to justify it on their site they put up talking about how much you can do with a terabyte of data but in reality with all of the video streaming folks are doing a terabyte isn’t that much. They now offer an “unlimited Data” option to all residential plans. It is $30/month if you have your own modem(which most of my clients do) or an extra $25/month if you use their modem(which forms the basis for several upsells). You have until March of next year to figure our what you are going to do.
What to do for residential customers? If you can afford it..eat the $30/month if you really needs that high speed connection. If you want to save $5/month you can switch to Comcast’s modem. Otherwise I would highly advise switching to business class. If you are already under a contract you are effectively going to get a $25-$30/month price hike if you use what i consider a normal amount of data in this Covid time. You can check Comcast’s vision of your usage by logging into your xfinity.com account. If you have never logged in(and most people haven’t) you will need to call in to support to get your password setup. Then you can go into you account-internet and see what your data sage is. Most folks with more than 2 folks in the house are going to find out they are above this 1.2 terabyte cap. If you can afford the upcharge…and Comcast hopes you can…stay where you are. If not AND you are out of contract you have some options.
You do have a couple of ways to avoid the cap:
- reduce your usage. Easier said than done in this work form home Covid time we are in.
- Reduce your service level. In my case I would have had to drop from 1000 megabits service level to 100 megabits to save the $30/month i would need to keep my pricing the same
- Switch to business class. Business class is not capped so you will never get an overage charge. Business class however is more expensive than residential
Here’s the fine print on the xfinity.com page where they are “announcing” the new caps:
Starting in March 2021, customers not on an unlimited data plan who exceed 1.2 TB in a month will have a one-time courtesy month credit under the plan applied to their accounts, and will be responsible for any data overage changes after that. Blocks of 50 GB will automatically be added to customers’ accounts for an additional fee of $10 each plus tax. Charges will not exceed $100 each month, no matter how much data a customer uses. *Includes the states of CT, DE, MA, MD, ME, NH, NJ, parts of NC, NY, parts of OH, PA, VA, VT, WV, and the District of Columbia.
I am switching to Comcast business class internet. it’s $100/month for 200/20 vs 1 gig/40..but if i wanted to keep my residential gigabit i would be paying either $130/month and having to use a Comcast modem..which i would bridge anyway and disable everything in it..or it would be $135/month for me to keep my own modem. Those prices are for my area with the coming “unlimited Data Plan” Comcast is implementing. On the business side I can do 200/20 and it’s uncapped..AND i can run servers without interference and it’s $100/month instead of $107/month i am paying now..so i save just a bit. 300 down is i think $150-ish a month with a two year contract. I need to stay under or at what i am paying now..so 200/20 business class is where I am going. If you need some advice on what speed tier you really require or have other questions, please contact me at 301-524-5271 or wwarren@etc-md.com to help evaluate your options before you get stung by this new data cap that Comcast is imposing.