Following pressure from politicians and the public, Comcast will only apply a 1.2 TB data patch to customers in the Northeastern United States in 2022, the company said in an announcement. ArsTechnica. “We are postponing the implementation of our new data plan in our Northeastern markets until 2022,” Comcast said. “We realize that our data plan was new to our customers in the Northeast, and although only a very small percentage of customers need additional data, we offer them more time to become familiar with the new plan.”
This is the second delay Comcast announces in less than a month. In early February, the company said it would no longer charge customers too much fees until July 2021 after pressure from Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro. “This is the right call to postpone this unlimited data space until at least 2022,” Connecticut Attorney General William Tong said on Monday.
Comcast first announced that they would implement a data patch in Northeast America in November. For customers who went through their data allocation, telecommunications planned to charge them $ 10 for every additional 50 GB they had over the 1.2 TB limit, up to a maximum of $ 100 per billing cycle. To relieve customers in the new cap, Comcast said it would waive excess fees in January and February, and an annual bill that people can use if they exceed their limit at any point after the first two months of 2021. The only way to avoid excessive fees altogether was to spend an extra $ 30 per month on the company’s unlimited plan, or $ 25 for the “xFi Complete” package. Since first talking about the cap, Comcast has maintained that 95 percent of its customers use far less than 1.2 TB each month.
The delay helps customers living in Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Carolina, New York, Pennsylvania, Vermont, West Virginia and the District of Columbia. However, this does not affect those living in one of the other 27 states that make up Comcast’s 39-nation footprint. In these markets, the company has had a data patch since 2016. And while the delay is welcome news for those living in the northeastern United States, there is still uncertainty, as Comcast did not say when it plans to implement the data patch in 2022.