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Comcast is delaying a plan to enforce its 1.2TB data cap and overrun charges in the northeastern United States until 2022 after pressure from customers and lawmakers in several states.
“[W]We are delaying the implementation of our new data plan in our Northeast markets until 2022, “Comcast said in an announcement yesterday.” We recognize that our data plan was new to our Northeast customers, and while only a very small percentage of customers require additional data, we are giving them more time to familiarize themselves with the new plan. “
Comcast has enforced the data cap in 27 of the 39 states in which it has operated since 2016, but not in the northeastern states where Comcast faces competition from Verizon’s fiber-to-the-home FiOS service. In November 2020, Comcast announced that it would raise the cap to the other 12 states and the District of Columbia starting in January 2021. But with yesterday’s announcement, no one in those 12 states and DC will be charged any fees. overtaking by Comcast throughout 2021..
“Delaying this untimely data cap until at least 2022 is the right decision,” Connecticut Attorney General William Tong said yesterday. “I’ve heard from families in Connecticut who easily broke that cap by studying and working remotely. Far from so-called superusers, these were stories of typical Connecticut families who were just trying to stay employed and work. “Educating their children during a global pandemic. The tariffs applied to these families at the very time when they depended most on broadband access and were least able to pay more was simply unacceptable.”
The delay applies to Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Carolina, New York, Pennsylvania, Vermont, West Virginia and the District from Columbia.
Comcast waves over plans for 2022
Comcast’s original plan for the Northeast imposed the cap in January 2021 while providing courtesy months in which newly capped customers can exceed 1.2TB without penalty, resulting in the assessment of early fees. overage for data usage during the April 2021 billing period. The plan has drawn condemnation from lawmakers, including Massachusetts legislation that would ban data caps and price increases through end of the pandemic.
Comcast responded in late January by postponing the overage charge until the July billing period, but the extra few months have not quelled the controversy. Yesterday’s announcement of a postponement until 2022 did not specify in which month of 2022 the first overrun fees will appear. We asked Comcast if it plans to impose the caps on the northeast in January 2022 or later, but we got no response.
Unlucky customers in 27 other states
Comcast told us there was no change in the other 27 states, where customers will continue to face caps and overage fees. Comcast’s insistence on continuing to charge overage fees in most of its territory maintains the uneven status quo in which a customer’s state of residence determines whether they face Comcast’s most unpopular policy. . Comcast’s overage fee is $ 10 for each additional 50 GB block, up to a maximum of $ 100 per month. Customers can avoid the overage charge by spending an additional $ 30 per month for unlimited data or $ 25 for the “xFi Complete” plan which includes unlimited data and the cost of renting the Comcast xFi modem and gateway router.
As we noted in the previous coverage, Comcast has said it won’t charge Northeastern users for unlimited data plans until at least April. “Customers in our Northeast markets who signed up for xFi Complete or Unlimited weren’t billed because of the free months. [there is] no need for refunds or credits, ”Comcast told us today.
Although Comcast claims that the 1.2TB cap only affects “super users,” the percentage of Internet users reaching this mark is still increasing and broadband usage has increased more than usual during the pandemic. A study by OpenVault found that over 14% of US-based subscribers were using more than 1TB per month in Q4 2020, compared to 8.8% of subscribers in Q3 2020, as we reported on the last week. The percentage of customers using more than 2TB per month more than doubled to 2.2% in the same period. Median monthly usage in Q4 2020 was 293.8 GB and average usage was 482.6 GB.
“The explosion in data consumption in 2020 has set a new standard for bandwidth usage that is particularly noticeable compared to pre-pandemic times,” OpenVault said.
Network capacity is not a “good excuse”
Data overage charges increase Comcast’s revenue, but limiting monthly data usage regardless of what time of month the usage occurs is not an effective tool for avoiding real-time network congestion. Comcast has boasted of its network’s strong performance in the pandemic, once again showing that data caps are a game of profit rather than a necessity.
Tong told Comcast in a letter earlier this month that “[b]Road strip internet access is an essential public service, especially during the ongoing pandemic … The last thing our residents need to worry about right now is whether they are going against the caps data or incur significant unforeseen expenses to stay connected. “
“Network capacity is not a problem for Comcast or a valid excuse to charge customers more,” 71 Massachusetts lawmakers told Comcast in a statement. letter end December. “Comcast itself claims to have a lot of capacity on its network, including in areas where no cap is currently imposed … It is inconceivable that Comcast would choose to impose this cap and charge plan for a period of time. pandemic, as many Massachusetts residents are forced to work and attend school from home via the Internet. “
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