Comcast ends waving data caps while AT&T runs till 9/30

[GDRRiley]

Summary

Comcasts reinstates data caps while AT&T freezes till September 30th. other isps and cell providers have a mixed response

 

Quotes

Quote

Comcast and AT&T suspended their data caps and overage fees in mid-March, initially promising two months of unlimited data. The companies later extended that pledge to June 30, but Comcast hasn't granted any further extensions. We contacted Comcast yesterday but didn't receive answers to questions about its data cap, and Comcast's website still says the data-cap waiver only goes through June 30. While Comcast didn't answer the data-cap questions, a spokesperson pointed out that the cable company extended other pandemic offers for college students and people with low incomes beyond June 30, and it is keeping its Wi-Fi hotspots open to the public for free for the rest of 2020.

 

 

Quote

As previously noted, the FCC's Keep Americans Connected pledge expires after today. The pledge committed each ISP to "not terminate service to any residential or small business customers because of their inability to pay their bills due to the disruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic; waive any late fees that any residential or small business customers incur because of their economic circumstances related to the coronavirus pandemic; and open its Wi-Fi hotspots to any American who needs them."

My thoughts

I'm happy to see AT&T keep it up but really data caps should be completely removed there is no need for them. it shouldn't be hard for everyone to just keep doing what they have been. I'd like to see the FCC extend the pledge out till later this year

 

Sources

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2020/06/comcasts-data-cap-and-overage-fees-return-tomorrow-after-3-month-break/

[Senzelian]

Usually I'd be against data caps aswell, but now that I think about it I must say, that I find it interesting that people seem to always be against data caps, but never against bandwith caps. I feel like a bandwith cap on a home internet connection has a much larger impact on anyone's daily life, than a data cap on a mobile internet connection.

 

Personally I've never hit 5GB of data usage on my phone per month, but on my PC I'm currently on 560GB in the last 30 days. 

Yes I know, there are different use cases, but I still think home internet speeds are in need of much more attention than mobile data caps.

 

Just my 2 cents... 

 

P.S.
But it's good that they removed the data caps at least for a while. Here in Germany no one did that afaik. 

[GDRRiley]

13 minutes ago, Senzelian said:

Personally I've never hit 5GB of data usage on my phone per month, but on my PC I'm currently on 560GB in the last 30 days. 

Yes I know, there are different use cases, but I still think home internet speeds are in need of much more attention than mobile data caps.

we've got talks in the US about a 100B going into getting everyone to have 100/100 fiber or fixed based wireless connections

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2020/06/100-billion-universal-fiber-plan-proposed-by-democrats-in-congress/

[spartaman64]

47 minutes ago, Senzelian said:

Usually I'd be against data caps aswell, but now that I think about it I must say, that I find it interesting that people seem to always be against data caps, but never against bandwith caps. I feel like a bandwith cap on a home internet connection has a much larger impact on anyone's daily life, than a data cap on a mobile internet connection.

 

Personally I've never hit 5GB of data usage on my phone per month, but on my PC I'm currently on 560GB in the last 30 days. 

Yes I know, there are different use cases, but I still think home internet speeds are in need of much more attention than mobile data caps.

 

Just my 2 cents... 

 

P.S.
But it's good that they removed the data caps at least for a while. Here in Germany no one did that afaik. 

idk i find not being able to use the internet more debilitating than having to wait a few minutes for a download

[Evanair]

5 hours ago, Senzelian said:

Usually I'd be against data caps aswell, but now that I think about it I must say, that I find it interesting that people seem to always be against data caps, but never against bandwith caps. I feel like a bandwith cap on a home internet connection has a much larger impact on anyone's daily life, than a data cap on a mobile internet connection.

I've been running into my bandwidth cap within a week of the 1st of the month since going remote. The upload is killing me.  I'd much rather have slower speed and not have to worry about getting billed an extra few hundred dollars a month for internet.

1TB of data goes quick when you're uploading files for work, last month I transferred 15.6 TB, the month before that was 12.  At $10 per 10GB over TB, that adds up FAST.  Also, Comcast will not offer me the "unlimited" $50 dollars cap thing.

[SpaceGhostC2C]

8 hours ago, Senzelian said:

Usually I'd be against data caps aswell, but now that I think about it I must say, that I find it interesting that people seem to always be against data caps, but never against bandwith caps. I feel like a bandwith cap on a home internet connection has a much larger impact on anyone's daily life, than a data cap on a mobile internet connection. 

I think you are overlooking that this is for the US; over there, home connections (may) have data caps too. 

[Senzelian]

3 hours ago, Evanair said:

I've been running into my bandwidth cap within a week of the 1st of the month since going remote. The upload is killing me.  I'd much rather have slower speed and not have to worry about getting billed an extra few hundred dollars a month for internet.

1TB of data goes quick when you're uploading files for work, last month I transferred 15.6 TB, the month before that was 12.  At $10 per 10GB over TB, that adds up FAST.  Also, Comcast will not offer me the "unlimited" $50 dollars cap thing.

Seems like a rather rare exception that one would upload this much data over 4G.

 

38 minutes ago, SpaceGhostC2C said:

I think you are overlooking that this is for the US; over there, home connections (may) have data caps too. 

Yeah I think that's the issue.
Here in Germany we have plans for 100€/month that deliver unlimited data over LTE.

I was under the impression, that you could obtain such a contract in the US aswell.

[GDRRiley]

6 minutes ago, Senzelian said:

Seems like a rather rare exception that one would upload this much data over 4G.

 

Yeah I think that's the issue.
Here in Germany we have plans for 100€/month that deliver unlimited data over LTE.

I was under the impression, that you could obtain such a contract in the US aswell.

we don't, most company offer "unlimited" but are really only 35-40gb plains before slowdowns for cellphone plans

 

when I said fixed based wireless I didn't mean phones. I meant point to point like this company does https://www.common.net/

[imreloadin]

8 hours ago, GDRRiley said:

we've got talks in the US about a 100B going into getting everyone to have 100/100 fiber or fixed based wireless connections

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2020/06/100-billion-universal-fiber-plan-proposed-by-democrats-in-congress/

That's all fine and dandy until the ISPs pocket the cash and don't do shit.

23 minutes ago, Senzelian said:

Seems like a rather rare exception that one would upload this much data over 4G.

You realize we're mostly talking about home internet service here right? Mostly cable, dsl, and fiber services. Not many people here have 4G for their home internet.

[GDRRiley]

1 minute ago, imreloadin said:

That's all fine and dandy until the ISPs pocket the cash and don't do shit.

I agree but this if done right will force them to deploy it or pay it back.

[imreloadin]

1 minute ago, GDRRiley said:

I agree but this if done right will force them to deploy it or pay it back.

They've greased too many palms with their lobbying for that to happen

[GDRRiley]

Just now, imreloadin said:

They've greased too many palms with their lobbying for that to happen

its all down the FCC, even now NY sued one ISP for not doing what they said. Pai won't do shit but he'll be gone soon enough

[Doobeedoo]

What's a data cap? You can't tell me how much data I may have! 

 

[GDRRiley]

3 hours ago, Doobeedoo said:

What's a data cap? You can't tell me how much data I may have! 

 

How much data you get a month before you get charged. Many here in the US are set at 1TB. 

[Doobeedoo]

9 minutes ago, GDRRiley said:

How much data you get a month before you get charged. Many here in the US are set at 1TB. 

Haha yeah I know, just can't believe that it's still an actual thing. Even if 1TB may be enough for most for example, it's still lame especially on cable. Even on phones depends where and which operator there are 'unlimited' options. Some have some cap, then slow down, one of my operators actually has infinite plan, you just need to confirm it every 100GB pass.

[Drama Lama]

Let’s praise a company for removing a bad thing they should have removed many many years ago 

[Lurick]

1 hour ago, Drama Lama said:

Let’s praise a company for removing a bad thing they should have removed many many years ago 

They aren't removing it though, they stopped it for a couple months and now they're putting it back.

[Senzelian]

13 hours ago, imreloadin said:

You realize we're mostly talking about home internet service here right? Mostly cable, dsl, and fiber services. Not many people here have 4G for their home internet.

To be honest I didn't.

In the EU data caps are something we encounter only on mobile plans and usually not on home internet connections.

 

Well, I guess I learned something new today  

[GDRRiley]

10 minutes ago, Senzelian said:

To be honest I didn't.

In the EU data caps are something we encounter only on mobile plans and usually not on home internet connections.

 

Well, I guess I learned something new today  

ISPs here do it for network magnment and other BS reasons. other than one company who really didn't build a strong enough backbone which means 1/2-2/3 the rated speed everyone else would be completely fine if all were removed. but it would hurt their bottom line

[Drama Lama]

There was a time where you paid for the used data in Europe but that’s so long ago I estimate about two decades 

[Trik'Stari]

On 6/30/2020 at 5:00 PM, Senzelian said:

Usually I'd be against data caps aswell, but now that I think about it I must say, that I find it interesting that people seem to always be against data caps, but never against bandwith caps. I feel like a bandwith cap on a home internet connection has a much larger impact on anyone's daily life, than a data cap on a mobile internet connection.

 

Personally I've never hit 5GB of data usage on my phone per month, but on my PC I'm currently on 560GB in the last 30 days. 

Yes I know, there are different use cases, but I still think home internet speeds are in need of much more attention than mobile data caps.

 

Just my 2 cents... 

 

P.S.
But it's good that they removed the data caps at least for a while. Here in Germany no one did that afaik. 

You generally run into a data cap first, I would think.

 

It's odd, once you have 100mbps or above, you really begin to realize just how much your speed is limited by the other end.

[justpoet]

Really, data caps are silly.  How much data goes across isn't what ISPs pay for in general.  They pay for the size pipe they use.  They also charge us by the size pipe we get.  So…let's just stop oversubscribing everything by so much that common traffic can't be handled, rather than say there's a data cap and hope people don't still all use it at once.