Comcast planning data limits for customers.
 

I mentioned this in another thread but here is the article from cnnmoney:

omcast plans data limits for all customers
May 15 NEW YORK
Comcast is considering imposing monthly usage limits for all of its Internet customers.
David Cohen, executive vice president of America's largest cable company, predicted at a conference Wednesday that in five years' time, the company will have "a usage-based billing model rolled out across its footprint."
That means Comcast (CMCSA) customers could only consume a certain amount of data before facing extra charges for going over their limits.
Cohen said the company would aim to set the limit at a level where "the vast majority of our customers" wouldn't be affected. He speculated that the limit might be set at 350 gigabytes or 500 gigabytes per month. A cap of that size would allow you to download or stream between 70 and 125 HD movies, which typically run about four or five gigabytes in size.
Related: 4 ways a fast lane could change your Internet service
Cohen said he doesn't think Comcast will ever have a system in which "80% of customers" are impacted by data limits and are forced to pay for additional usage, though he added that it's "very difficult to make predictions."
"I don't think that's the model that we are heading toward, but five years ago, I don't know that I would have heard of something called an iPad," he said.
Comcast is currently experimenting with 300 GB data limits in some markets, charging those customers $10 for each additional block of 50 GB. There's also a 5 GB "flexible data" option for light users. Those plans were introduced after the company scrapped its hard 250 GB monthly cap back in 2012.
The move could also affect current Time Warner Cable (TWC) customers should the companies' pending merger be approved by regulators. If the deal is approved, the combined group will be the country's dominant provider of television channels and Internet connections, reaching roughly one in three American homes.

This should be interesting as I do not recall being able to see how many GB you used on their website, or on their bills. How would you know that you were approaching a limit?

From the research I've done they have had a "hard limit" in the past but that merely corresponded to the highest speed data being Slowed down or "throttled" when that limit is hit. With 4K programming looking like it will be the 1080 of the future and having a size of 20-50GB per program seems like a 350GB limit would be eaten up very quickly.

This isn't a new model, the cell phone companies have been doing it for years.

Comcast maybe hastening their demise...they Re not the beloved cable company of all time. Their internet is their best feature and now they plan to limit data?

More info from Consumer Reports.

It's not just them...
 

It seems to be the way the cable industry is going. I think it's mostly about the chord cutters though, so if you have some form of live cable TV you will probobaly be good. IPTV services probably won't be able to track your usage either (Ie: AT&T uverse, Verizon fios, centurylink prism, TDS TV) to name a few.

Why do you think that companies offering IPTV won't be able to track your usage?

You can sign in to your Comcast (xfinity) account and see what your data usage is. There is a three month history of usage. Go to: my services, xfinity internet and view data usage details.

Many are using comcast internet to watch TV aka IPTV to avoid paying Comcast monopolistic prices for TV. Many of these cable monopolies were born of political corruption. Those same politicians should force Comcast to give the free TV at a reasonable price if they want to limit internet usage. Comcast wants all the cake!

I started dancing already!!! BTW another thumbs up vote for villages audio video!

I guess I can kiss streaming Netflix good by

Comcast data
 

We use comcast for online news and email, plus netflix. The way netflix has gotten so,stagnant with the listings will be dropped by us soon so there is little chance of us going over the limits. Local television is by way of a antenna in the attic. We have been off cc television about four years now.

Iptv
 

IPTV stands for "Internet protocol television" it is delivered through the same pipeline that the regular internet comes through, and as such the companies would have a hard time determining what data was used for the Internet connection and what was used to deliver TV programming. That isn't really the issue seeing as it's the chord cutters the cable companies are going to want to impose limits on. If 1 company starts this I would expect ALL the others to follow. They want to get at least $150 a month per subscriber, Internet only and the demise of the landline is hampering that, so they will find ways around it.

Well it seems that local municipalities (most recently Chicago) are planning on imposing entertainments taxes on streaming services soon anyways. Streaming TV, though the future it may be, still has many hurdles to jump comprised of the old systems in place.

I read that article, it also stated it would be a beta rolled out in very limited markets. But if they are actually going to do it then more power to them! Maybe more will follow!

Small issue though: a great deal of television cost to the customer comes from the actual content providers if they are losing money streaming then they will just put a stop to it and make the cable companies play ball. Also there is no mention of whether this content will be standard def, if it will have commercials, or what the limitations will be.

There is always fine print.

Usage is something we should be use to because it determines our heating/cooling/water bills. I never even come close to my Verizon limits and I don't stream over the internet. What Comcast's proposal would do is appropriately charge those people who gobble up a lot of data

Understandably so. With Internet being declared a utility it was bound to happen. I just don't know if the companies holding the keys and setting these limits on a profit based system is the best thing for consumers. History has proven it usually isn't. Look back at what phone companies did with Long distance and what mobile companies are doing with broadband now.

I would bet dollars to donuts that CenturyLink can tell you exactly how much data was TV programming and how much was internet traffic.

I bet you are right, but the point is none of them will care as long as you have a live TV service.

As a CenturyLink customer, internet only, I certainly hope they don't put quotas on data use. What gives me hope is that they are essentially a phone (and internet access) company that also provides TV services as opposed to the "cable" companies that are essentially TV companies that also provide phone service (and internet access). Clearly the lines are blurring. The current pricing model for internet access has you paying more money for higher bandwidth. This implies more data will be transferred. Putting a quota on top of that may create a lot of unhappiness with their customers. It would cause a problem for us as we generate a "lot" of internet traffic.

The comparison to a traditional utility is a stretch. With water, gas, and electric, you are actually consuming something that has to be created. With internet access, nothing is being consumed - you are simply moving bits of data around using the infrastructure. The infrastructure has to be put in place but that is true for all utilities. The pricing model is already in place for people who use a lot of data - they pay for higher bandwdith. However, I would not be surprised to see the pricing model change if it can generate higher revenues/profits.

Exactly. You used to be able to get unlimited data on cell phone plans now it's an average of 10GB per month. That's a huge disparity, and that is what the industry is moving towards. As for phone companies, they would be well suited to be the exception to the rule to retain and gain more broadband customers. but it remains to be seen whether they will in fact do just that.

Love the HBO Blast plan at Comcast. The link lists a 250 GB data threshold!

I know I don't have to worry about exceeding it.

My Internet plan:
Blast!
MAC address: ---

Data usage

15GB
View data usage details
Note: Enforcement of the 250GB data consumption threshold is currently suspended.

You must not be streaming. You would use that much data (the 15GB) with just 3 movies on Netflix. That means a heavy streamer would be able to watch about 50 movies or HD TV shows per month before the data limit was exceeded. It doesn't seem like much but it can add up quick.

And Comcast just announced they are discontinuing Personal Web Pages in just 2 months.
So I will call and ask how much they will reduce my internet rate because they are eliminating a sales feature they promised.

Stay tuned.

Skip

Some organizations handle this sort of thing by giving you a "good customer" discount per month for some number of months. If you got them to take 5 or 10 dollars a month off for a year that would be an excellent outcome. I would guess that you would need to escalate to make this happen. I am very curious about your outcome - good luck.

I did a chat with them. They have already stopped web pages for new customers. Only us that have web pages will continue until October 8th.

This is what he told me:

Effective October 8, 2015, the Personal Web Page service will no longer be available. Comcast will be switching to a new service provider in an effort to enhance our network and provide customers with the best Internet experience possible. Customers will need to retrieve all content currently saved on their sites before October 8, 2015 to avoid permanently losing their files and information. The ability to activate this feature has been disabled for new customers and customers who have not already activated their Personal Web Page.

Make more sense than that e-mail. I told him it did not make me happy. The web space was one of the reasons I stayed with Comcast.

I guess I will move my web space back to thevillages.net. They only give 5M but it will work for what I want to use it for.

Maybe we should see if we can get the mods to make this subject a separate thread. We might get some more people interested.

Z

I saw this today ... it seems appropriate to post now.

How to win the war on drugs:
1. Legalize drugs.
2. Require all drugs be purchased through Comcast customer service.

Its never good to marry your email to your ISP. It's a messy divorce.