Comcast To Remove Data Cap, Implement Tiered Pricing 329
StikyPad writes "Comcast is reportedly removing its oft-maligned 250GB data cap, but don't get too excited. In what appears to be an effort to capitalize on Nielsen's Law, the Internet's version of Moore's Law, Comcast is introducing tiered data pricing. The plan is to include 300GB with the existing price of service, and charge $10 for every 50GB over that limit. As with current policy, Xfinity On Demand traffic will not count against data usage, which Comcast asserts is because the traffic is internal, not from the larger Internet. There has, however, been no indication that the same exemption would apply to any other internal traffic. AT&T and Time Warner have tried unsuccessfully to implement tiered pricing in the past, meeting with strong push back from customers and lawmakers alike. With people now accustomed to, if not comfortable with, tiered data plans on their smartphones, will the public be more receptive to tiered pricing on their wired Internet connections as well, or will they once again balk at a perceived bilking?"
Re:Most won't notice (Score:5, Informative)
I was getting worried about our usage at home, since the kids now watch a few hours of Neflix a day along with out other internet usage. I called Comcast because I was having trouble finding where on our account management page the data was about how much we actually used each month - and when they showed me where to find it I was amazed at how little it was. 30-70GB a month on average, occasionally peaking past 100GB. So even in what I would consider a moderate to heavy internet usage household we were way under the existing cap, and will still be with a 300GB limit.
The only problem I can see here is if they don't notify users when they approach that cap. If something happened and I went way over, but was never warned till the bill came, I would be upset.
Re:Most won't notice (Score:4, Informative)
You are not the average user, by far.
Yes, he's not average, by far. He uses up to 35x the amount of the average comcast user
http://blog.comcast.com/2009/12/comcast-data-usage-meter-launches.html [comcast.com]
(Note: the median usage for Comcast’s customers is about 2 to 4 GB per month.)
Re:Most won't notice (Score:5, Informative)
The future is now. My house lives on Netflix and Vonage. We went to my fathers house to watch TV, and the kids couldn't understand why they kept missing their show because of these "commercial" things. And when their pappy said "I need to change the channel real quick to see the weather", the look of confusion on their face can only mildy be explained as hysterical.