Comcast is delaying a plan to enforce the 1.2TB of data capital and excess fees in the Northeastern United States after 2022 after pressure from customers and lawmakers in several states.
“[W]”We are delaying the implementation of our new data plan in our Northeastern markets until 2022,” Comcast said in an announcement yesterday. We recognize that our data plan was new to our customers in the Northeast, and although only a very small percentage of customers have additional data, we offer them more time to become familiar with the new plan. ‘
Comcast has applied the data sticker in 27 of the 39 states in which it operates since 2016, but not in the northeastern states where Comcast faces competition from Verizon’s unlimited FiOS fiber-to-the-home service. In November 2020, Comcast announced that it would take the cap to the other 12 states and the District of Columbia from January 2021. But with yesterday’s announcement, Comcast will not charge anyone in the 12 states and DC surplus fees throughout 2021. .
“This is the right call to postpone this indefinite data patch until at least 2022,” Connecticut Attorney General William Tong said on Monday. “I have heard of families in Connecticut who easily exceeded this limit while studying and working remotely. These were not so-called super users, but these were stories of typical Connecticut families just trying to raise their children during a global pandemic. ‘rates and upbringing. rates at these families at the time when they were most dependent on broadband access and least able to pay more were simply unscrupulous.’
The delay applies to Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Carolina, New York, Pennsylvania, Vermont, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia.
Comcast vague about plans for 2022
Comcast’s original plan for the Northeast imposed the limit in January 2021, while the courteous months provided for custom customers to exceed 1.2 TB without penalty, resulting in the first excess costs for using data during the billing period of April 2021. The plan elicited condemnation from lawmakers, including legislation in Massachusetts that would ban data caps and price increases until the pandemic is over.
Comcast responded in late January by delaying too much costs until the July billing period, but the extra few months did not silence the controversy. Yesterday’s announcement of a delay to 2022 did not specify in which month 2022 the first levies will appear. We asked Comcast if he planned to enforce the caps on the Northeast in January 2022 or a while later, but got no answer.
Unhappy customers in 27 other states
Comcast did inform us that there are no changes in the other 27 states, where customers will continue to face caps and excess fees. Comcast’s insistence on continuing to charge excessive fees in most of its territory maintains the unequal status quo in which a customer’s home country determines whether they should handle Comcast’s most popular policies. Comcast’s overcharge is $ 10 for each additional 50 GB block, up to a maximum of $ 100 per month. Customers can avoid too much cost by spending an extra $ 30 a month on unlimited data or $ 25 on the ‘xFi Complete’ plan which includes unlimited data and the rental cost for Comcast’s xFi gateway modem and router.
As we noted in previous reporting, Comcast said it would only charge Northeast users for unlimited data plans at least in April. “Customers in our northeastern markets who signed up for xFi Complete or Unlimited were not actually paid due to the complimentary months. [there is] no refunds or credits needed, “Comcast told us today.
Although Comcast claims that the 1.2 TB cap only affects ‘super users’, the percentage of Internet users reaching it is constantly increasing, and broadband usage has risen more than usual during the pandemic. OpenVault research found that more than 14 percent of U.S.-based subscribers used more than 1 TB per month in Q4 2020, compared to 8.8 percent of subscribers in Q3 2020, as we reported last week. The percentage of customers using more than 2 TB per month more than doubled to 2.2 percent in the same period. The average monthly usage in Q4 2020 was 293.8 GB and the average usage was 482.6 GB.
“The explosion in data consumption during 2020 has created a new normal bandwidth usage that is particularly visible compared to pre-pandemic periods,” OpenVault said.
Network capacity is not a ‘valid excuse’
Data override fees increase Comcast’s revenue, but limiting monthly data usage, no matter when in the month in which it occurs, is not an effective tool to prevent real-time network congestion. Comcast boasted of the strong performance of its network in the pandemic, and once again demonstrated that data capital is a profit game rather than a necessity.
Tong said in a letter to Comcast earlier this month that ‘[b]accessing road connections to the internet is an essential public service, especially during the ongoing pandemic … The last thing our residents currently have to worry about is whether they will make a mistake with data patches or incur significant unforeseen expenses to connect to stay. “
“Network capacity is not an issue for Comcast or a valid excuse to charge customers more,” 71 Massachusetts lawmakers told Comcast. letter end of December. “Comcast itself claims to have enough capacity across the network, including areas where no caps are currently in place … It is inconceivable that Comcast would prefer to impose this ‘cap and fee’ plan during a pandemic ‘when many Massachusetts residents are forced to work from home via the Internet and go to school.’