Comcast lowers data caps in northeastern states through 2022

Comcast has once again decided to cut some of its customers a break with their data limits, Ars Technica reports. Face never-increasing pressure from customers and lawmakers, the Internet service provider decided not to apply the over-limit data charges to its customers in the Northeast until 2022.

“We recognize that our data plan was new to our Northeast customers, and although only a very small percentage of customers need additional data, we are giving them more time to familiarize themselves with the new plan,” Comcast said in an ad yesterday.

The latest change affects Xfinity customers in Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Carolina, New York, Pennsylvania, Vermont, West Virginia, and District of Columbia.

Yes Comcast had continued its policy, Xfinity Northeast customers should have pay $ 10 more for every 50 GB of data they switched after reaching their 1.2TB limit, unless they subscribed to an unlimited plan, from last month. These fees would cap at a maximum of $ 100 per month.

Earlier this month, Comcast said it would not charge customers in those states with overage fees until July 2021. after negotiations with Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro. The state of Massachusetts introduced legislation last month to temporarily ban ISPs like Comcast have imposed data caps on state customers until the end of the covid-19 pandemic.

Comcast also recently increased the speed of its Internal Essential package from 25/3 Mbps to 50/5 Mbps, starting next month, in response to parents, teachers and students saying the previous speed was not enough for low-income households to attend school virtually. It seems the pushback worked for the ISP to treat their customers a bit more compassionately, but the work required to closing the digital divide is not about to be done.

As a reminder, the rest of Comcast’s Xfinity customers in non-northeastern states not only have to worry about data caps, they also continue to pay overage fees, even though the covid-19 pandemic is affecting them as well. This has been emphasized time and again by organizations like Electronic Frontier Foundation that data limits do not exist to manage network capacity. They exist to charge customers more money, either in the form of overage fees or to convince customers to upgrade to a more expensive plan.

So far, Comcast hasn’t said anything about what it will do once the January 2022 roles are around.