Comcast to Replace Usage Cap With Improved Data Usage Management Approaches

[neufuse Veteran]

Today, the way people use video and access information has changed dramatically. Four years ago, when we first instituted a broadband Internet data usage threshold, the iPhone had just been introduced...the iPad didn't exist...and the experience of watching streaming video on your home PC or through a Roku box or direct to an Internet-capable TV was much different than it is now.

While the world was changing, so were we. Over the past few years, we have been an industry leader in innovation ? delivering exciting new products to our customers on a regular basis. Our recent announcements about the Xfinity TV app, Streampix, HBOGO, WatchESPN, and Xfinity TV on the Xbox 360 are just a few examples of how we're using new platforms to deliver new services to a range of consumer devices and screens.

In 2008, we announced an Internet data usage policy that allowed residential customers up to 250 GB of data usage per month. It was widely recognized that this was far above any normal (including very heavy) residential use of our high-speed data service, and in fact, that remains the case today. (Netflix April 2011 Letter to Shareholders; PC World ? "Are Broadband Usage Caps Inevitable?"; ArsTechnica: "Comcast starts 250 GB bandwidth caps October 1"). With the passage of time, it's important to remember that the purpose of the usage threshold was simply to ensure that all of our customers were treated fairly and had a consistent and superior experience while using our high-speed data service. That has been and will be our sole goal. We've never had any intention to limit the lawful use of the Internet or restrict our customers' ability to view online video.

Importantly, we have consistently treated all video carried over the public Internet the same whether it comes from our sites or anywhere else on the public Internet. XfinityTV.com, nbc.com, Hulu, Netflix or YouTube, and every other Internet video site (whether our site or a third-party site) is treated, and will continue to be treated, exactly the same. That's consistent with FCC rules and consistent with what we have always done and continue to do.

We've also always said that we would evaluate customer usage and a variety of other factors and make adjustments as the marketplace evolved. Please see our FAQs and a Venture Beat story on this topic. Over the last several years, we have periodically reviewed this policy, and for the last six months we have been analyzing the market and our process and think that now is the time to begin to move to a new plan. This conclusion was only reinforced when, in recent weeks, some of the conversation around our new product introductions focused on our data usage threshold, rather than on the exciting opportunities we are offering our customers.

So as the market and technology have evolved, we've decided to change our approach and replace our static 250 GB usage threshold with more flexible data usage management approaches that benefit consumers and support innovation and that will continue to ensure that all of our customers enjoy the best possible Internet experience over our high-speed data service.

In the next few months, therefore, we are going to trial improved data usage management approaches comparable to plans that others in the market are using that will provide customers with more choice and flexibility than our current policy. We'll be piloting at least two approaches in different markets, and we'll provide additional details on these trials as they launch. But we can give everyone an overview today.

The first new approach will offer multi-tier usage allowances that incrementally increase usage allotments for each tier of high-speed data service from the current threshold. Thus, we'd start with a 300 GB usage allotment for our Internet Essentials, Economy, and Performance Tiers, and then we would have increasing data allotments for each successive tier of high speed data service (e.g., Blast and Extreme). The very few customers who use more data at each tier can buy additional gigabytes in increments/blocks (e.g., $10 for 50 GB).

The second new approach will increase our data usage thresholds for all tiers to 300 GB per month and also offer additional gigabytes in increments/blocks (e.g., $10 per 50 GB).

In both approaches, we'll be increasing the initial data usage threshold for our customers from today's 250 GB per month to at least 300 GB per month.

In markets where we are not trialing a new data usage management approach, we will suspend enforcement of our current usage cap as we transition to a new data usage management approach, although we will continue to contact the very small number of excessive users about their usage.

Our goal with this improved approach, these consumer trials, and our continued investment in our network is to create products that meet the needs of all of our residential customers (even the heaviest users) and provide everyone with a choice.

Of course, as we bring new product innovations to our customers on multiple platforms, we must address the realities of managing a network that services more than 20 million customers. As the FCC has acknowledged repeatedly, we have to manage data usage on our network for the benefit of all of our customers And we're committed to manage data usage on our network with a clear set of important principles designed to maximize the benefits of using our high-speed data service to access the Internet for all of our customers ? principles of consistency, fairness and non-discrimination. At all times, including during our pilot tests, we will be transparent to our customers. We will provide our customers with the information they need to select the service level and options appropriate to their needs, including providing our customers the tools necessary to manage their use of our high-speed Internet service.

Given this changing and dynamic marketplace, we will continue to consider other ways to ensure that all of our customers are treated fairly and have a consistent and superior experience while using our residential high speed Internet service in the way in which it is intended.

Source: http://blog.comcast.com/2012/05/comcast-to-replace-usage-cap-with-improved-data-usage-management-approaches.html

[jnelsoninjax]

Nice to know, however last month our account went over the 250GB, but nothing happened, still browsing, still able to download, etc. no phone calls, emails, nothing at all from them saying that we exceeded our bandwidth, the only reason we discovered it was by logging into our comcast account to check for the bill. So it seems that either they did not notice, it was an error on there end, or there is not a penalty for exceeding!

[neufuse Veteran]

  On 17/05/2012 at 17:46, jnelsoninjax said:

Nice to know, however last month our account went over the 250GB, but nothing happened, still browsing, still able to download, etc. no phone calls, emails, nothing at all from them saying that we exceeded our bandwidth, the only reason we discovered it was by logging into our comcast account to check for the bill. So it seems that either they did not notice, it was an error on there end, or there is not a penalty for exceeding!

they are soft caps, you have to be in the top 1% of the node usage on a congested node... if not you'd not get a call

if you did it say 5 months in a row you'd go up the red flag pole

[greenwizard88]

So now, if you go over 300gb you get charged $10/50gb, instead of just having to be in the top 1% or something.

Overall though, I can't disagree with this. And coming from Comcast, that's excellent lol

[neufuse Veteran]

  On 17/05/2012 at 18:01, greenwizard88 said:

So now, if you go over 300gb you get charged $10/50gb, instead of just having to be in the top 1% or something.

Overall though, I can't disagree with this. And coming from Comcast, that's excellent lol

They sound more like you can buy up your monthly cap, like pay $10 per month and now your cap is 350GB, pay $20 now you are 400GB... not overages but buy ups

[ViperAFK]

Good, I go over the 250 gig cap quite often lol. Luckily they've just sent me a few letters, but not disconnected me or anything.

The cap is just too small for a household that streams lots of movies/tv and has multiple steam users...

[neufuse Veteran]

  On 17/05/2012 at 18:23, ViperAFK said:

Good, I go over the 250 gig cap quite often lol. Luckily they've just sent me a few letters, but not disconnected me or anything.

back in 2007 until 2008 I got kicked off Comcast for using and I am not kidding 1.7TB... we littearly just transitioned out area from adelphia to comcast, and their monitors where including Set top box traffic (they used IP for a lot of things) in the caps... and the STB bandwidth matched exactly the number they said... and I was told basically "tough" by the security and abuse department even though we proved it was their fault we "went over the caps twice" and "you are disconnected for 1 year, there is no action of recourse".... so they screwed up and we had to pay for it... they should of known they where in the wrong, their STB IP network is a completely different subnet and assigns 10.x.x.x addresses but the abuse department didn't give a crap that adelphia had their system configured wrong when they bought them out.....

[Motoko.]

  On 17/05/2012 at 18:01, greenwizard88 said:

Overall though, I can't disagree with this. And coming from Comcast, that's excellent lol

I seriously hope you don't do this

[Hell-In-A-Handbasket]

I barely and have never. Actually hit my cap of 250 w ith Comcast, if they are increasing it then all good. People that regularly come close to 250 will be happy also.

[sava700]

They should increase it.. I pay for Blast and at the very least I should have 500GB/month of usage as a soft cap PERIOD. But even with 250GB/month I'm barely getting near that but its the fear factor I'm worried about. To add on that which makes a little less fear they never put a meter on my account even after I asked for it 3 times so screw em.. if I go over it is their fault and I've taken enough screen shots of my account screens to prove it not to mention documented call #'s and reference #'s of each call.

Also for what I pay which is WAY too much for Blast my speeds should be much higher than advertised for this package...I don't think $70/month is fair at all for the speeds I get. I talked to the manager in this area and he said not even DOCSIS 3.0 is being rolled out here for another year+ so wtf comcast!? Upgrade and get everything working first then do something like this.

[ViperAFK]

  On 17/05/2012 at 18:27, neufuse said:

back in 2007 until 2008 I got kicked off Comcast for using and I am not kidding 1.7TB... we littearly just transitioned out area from adelphia to comcast, and their monitors where including Set top box traffic (they used IP for a lot of things) in the caps... and the STB bandwidth matched exactly the number they said... and I was told basically "tough" by the security and abuse department even though we proved it was their fault we "went over the caps twice" and "you are disconnected for 1 year, there is no action of recourse".... so they screwed up and we had to pay for it... they should of known they where in the wrong, their STB IP network is a completely different subnet and assigns 10.x.x.x addresses but the abuse department didn't give a crap that adelphia had their system configured wrong when they bought them out.....

Heh, I actually ended up with comcast after they bought adelphia too.

[neufuse Veteran]

  On 17/05/2012 at 18:34, Hell-In-A-Handbasket said:

I barely and have never. Actually hit my cap of 250 w ith Comcast, if they are increasing it then all good. People that regularly come close to 250 will be happy also.

I've never went above 200GB data wise... only time that happened to me was when they counded STB data usage as cable modem usage ugh... someone who never goes above 200GB somehow used 1.7TB in one month.... you'd think they would of said wait a minute

[neufuse Veteran]

  On 17/05/2012 at 18:42, sava700 said:

They should increase it.. I pay for Blast and at the very least I should have 500GB/month of usage as a soft cap PERIOD. But even with 250GB/month I'm barely getting near that but its the fear factor I'm worried about. To add on that which makes a little less fear they never put a meter on my account even after I asked for it 3 times so screw em.. if I go over it is their fault and I've taken enough screen shots of my account screens to prove it not to mention documented call #'s and reference #'s of each call.

Also for what I pay which is WAY too much for Blast my speeds should be much higher than advertised for this package...I don't think $70/month is fair at all for the speeds I get. I talked to the manager in this area and he said not even DOCSIS 3.0 is being rolled out here for another year+ so wtf comcast!? Upgrade and get everything working first then do something like this.

every comcast customer has a bandwidth meter, if you are missing it then you need to talk to someone at executive complaints because EVERYONE should have one on their customer account management page... why even have blast anymore? speeds up to 30Mbit, I get that with their base plan! base anymore is 15Mbit down and "boosts" up to 35Mbit...

[Hell-In-A-Handbasket]

  On 17/05/2012 at 18:42, sava700 said:

They should increase it.. I pay for Blast and at the very least I should have 500GB/month of usage as a soft cap PERIOD. But even with 250GB/month I'm barely getting near that but its the fear factor I'm worried about. To add on that which makes a little less fear they never put a meter on my account even after I asked for it 3 times so screw em.. if I go over it is their fault and I've taken enough screen shots of my account screens to prove it not to mention documented call #'s and reference #'s of each call.

Bandwidth isn't free.

Also everybody has a meter, y of have to sign on. Your Comcast account as the primary account ( not alias or child, or alt ) and it should be in one of the top tabs on y our account.

If not you can get into the web chat with a rep and they can fix it, don't call on phone, they won't be able to help you.

*** it's on the Users And Settings Tab at the top

[Growled Member]

Seeing as I only have 12 GB a month for my home use, I'd snap it up in a heartbeat.

[neufuse Veteran]

  On 18/05/2012 at 01:21, Growled said:

Seeing as I only have 12 GB a month for my home use, I'd snap it up in a heartbeat.

what ISP do you have? HughesNet? hehe.....

[Yochanan]

  On 17/05/2012 at 19:00, neufuse said:

every comcast customer has a bandwidth meter, if you are missing it then you need to talk to someone at executive complaints because EVERYONE should have one on their customer account management page... why even have blast anymore? speeds up to 30Mbit, I get that with their base plan! base anymore is 15Mbit down and "boosts" up to 35Mbit...

I used to have a bandwidth meter, now I don't. This was not too long after Qwest became CenturyLink. They're the only competitor in the region---which, I might add does not have a data cap. You do the math.

[cooky560 Veteran]

Back in 2008 I switched to cable ISP with no bandwidth caps, I'm happy staying put :p

[moloko]

thats alot of data streaming. does this include normal TV use too? that could add up quickly.

[neufuse Veteran]

  On 18/05/2012 at 10:40, moloko said:

thats alot of data streaming. does this include normal TV use too? that could add up quickly.

normal tv usage doesn't use data... it uses QAM's on a NTSC channel on comcast... that is just broadcast RF, there is no way to count it... VOD though could use data if they use IP for the transmission method like they do with their XBOX VOD app... but Set top box VOD just reserves a QAM channel that is set aside for VOD for that user on their node, so no data is used... the STB though does keep track of "bandwidth used" for OOB channels (the box's data stream for guide and channel data) and VOD data streams but it will never count as data on the cable modem count... each cable modem device you have counts as another cap... so each modem as a 300GB cap per device... STB's excluded unless they are IP STB's

[moloko]

  On 19/05/2012 at 16:54, neufuse said:

normal tv usage doesn't use data... it uses QAM's on a NTSC channel on comcast... that is just broadcast RF, there is no way to count it... VOD though could use data if they use IP for the transmission method like they do with their XBOX VOD app... but Set top box VOD just reserves a QAM channel that is set aside for VOD for that user on their node, so no data is used... the STB though does keep track of "bandwidth used" for OOB channels (the box's data stream for guide and channel data) and VOD data streams but it will never count as data on the cable modem count... each cable modem device you have counts as another cap... so each modem as a 300GB cap per device... STB's excluded unless they are IP STB's

Great explanation. Thanks.

[BoDEAN]

Comcast is way overpriced these days. Only if WOW! was available in my area

[+LogicalApex MVC]

  On 17/05/2012 at 20:06, Hell-In-A-Handbasket said:

Bandwidth isn't free.

Also everybody has a meter, y of have to sign on. Your Comcast account as the primary account ( not alias or child, or alt ) and it should be in one of the top tabs on y our account.

If not you can get into the web chat with a rep and they can fix it, don't call on phone, they won't be able to help you.

*** it's on the Users And Settings Tab at the top

Well of course it isn't free I'm paying for the service...

I find it ironic that Comcast puts a cap on home users who they claim rarely hit the cap, but not on business users who I'm sure pass these numbers all the time.

I have Comcast Business Class at home to keep their cap police off me as I usually do 2TB a month on a low month at home...

The cap argument makes no sense unless you're tying to stifle something like internet video from competing with your cable business.

[Hell-In-A-Handbasket]

  On 21/05/2012 at 16:53, Frazell Thomas said:

I have Comcast Business Class at home to keep their cap police off me as I usually do 2TB a month on a low month at home...

dag, i barely hit half of the 250GB and that was when i was streaming multiple movies over Netflix ( multiple movies a day ) /Xbox and computer games every single day and weekends all day. what are you doing to peak over 2TB

[+LogicalApex MVC]

  On 21/05/2012 at 17:11, Hell-In-A-Handbasket said:

dag, i barely hit half of the 250GB and that was when i was streaming multiple movies over Netflix ( multiple movies a day ) /Xbox and computer games every single day and weekends all day. what are you doing to peak over 2TB

My situation isn't typical in that I do a lot of RDP, VPN, and I run public facing servers on my local network. But my point is the line is shared with residential users and I don't have a cap to contend with.