Comcast Expands Data Capping Trials: Why You Should Care

Guest post by Katie Fiegenbaum, Policy Intern with the Open Technology Institute

Earlier this month, Comcast expanded its trial program that imposes data caps on home broadband services. Users in Atlanta, Georgia, and the state of Maine will now join subscribers in a number of southern cities (including Savannah, GA, Nashville, TN and Charleston, SC) who are subject to a 300 GB limit on their monthly internet usage. This expansion to Atlanta is a big step toward implementing the caps nationwide, since Atlanta will be Comcast’s first trial in “a large, urban market.” It’s also part of a growing practice by many ISPs across the country to cap home broadband—despite the fact that these caps do not have a technical rationale, and they are not a "fairer” way to price broadband services.

A data cap is a monthly limit on the amount of data you can download or upload over your internet connection. Penalties for hitting the cap come in several different forms: slowing down data speeds until the next billing cycle begins (also known as “throttling”), cutting a subscriber’s service (either temporarily or even permanently) or, as Comcast is now doing in some areas, charging on a per-gigabyte basis for extra data usage. Sixty-four percent of U.S. broadband subscribers are currently affected by some form of data cap. Some companies are putting caps on their plans nationwide, and others are implementing them on a trial basis like Comcast.

Starting this month, subscribers to any of Comcast’s broadband services in Atlanta or Maine will face a 300 GB limit. Customers who go over the cap will automatically be charged $10 and allocated 50 GB of additional data. Customers will be notified multiple times by email before hitting the cap, and alerted by phone when the 300 GB has been completely used. This trial also includes a “discount” plan just for Economy Plus subscribers, giving those who use 5 GB or less per month a $5 discount off the cost of the regular plan.

300 GB of data is still a lot for today’s median user. Comcast reports that median usage is 17 GB per month. According to to the FCC’s 2013 Measuring Broadband America report, however, the median cable broadband user used about 40 GB per month. Many activities that used to happen offline, like watching movies, playing video games, and listening to music, are now moving online. Streaming HD video from Netflix uses up to 2.8 GB an hour and downloading a single video game can be 7 GB or more of your monthly data. And it’s not just entertainment that uses up data: online education including video lectures is just starting to take off. Though data usage is not going up exponentially, there is a clear trend towards higher data consumption by the median user.

Originally, Comcast implemented a data cap to limit customers who had “excessive data usage.” However, limiting these users has little rationale: there is plenty of bandwidth available. Even the minor capacity problems that do occur happen during peak usage hours, making monthly limits an ineffective way to deal with congestion where it does exist. Notably, amidst criticism of that argument earlier this year, carriers themselves even changed their justification for the imposition of data caps. Comcast now frames data caps as a way for cable companies to “fairly monetize a high fixed cost.”

But the fixed costs for Comcast are hardly high, and the system they propose is hardly fair. Digging up streets and installing wires do require a significant up-front investment, but cable providers paid off their fixed network construction costs a long time ago. Data transit costs have been falling for years and are now estimated to be at most a few cents per extra GB. Public statements from Comcast say that it has more than enough capacity for today’s demands as well as into the future. It’s clear that Comcast does not need increased revenue or huge investments to deal with additional capacity. Instead, these kinds of caps just help wireline providers rake in even larger profits and encourage a climate of broadband scarcity.

If you don’t live in Atlanta or Maine, this trial expansion may not seem like a big deal at the moment. But it matters because this is a step in implementing a 300 GB cap as the nationwide policy of the largest cable company and internet provider in the U.S. And once you’re covered by this kind of cap, the fear of using up your monthly data allowance can limit possibilities for innovation in business, communication, the arts, and education.