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Is wired connectivity still that much of a problem in parts of the US? We have data caps in the UK but they only kick in at absurd levels of usage - to the poin

Is wired connectivity still that much of a problem in parts of the US? We have data caps in the UK but they only kick in at absurd levels of usage - to the point it's never occured to me to check. I rather assumed that there would be a gradual improvement in the situation over there.

etcet 8y ago
Most Comcast customers in the US have a 1T monthly cap. Their language: "After using these 2 courtesy months, if you exceed the plan you will be charged $10.00 for each 50GB of additional data provided, but charges will not exceed $200 each month, no matter how much you use." I hit 700G last month. If I had to do a full backup or restore I'd definitely go over 1T. Annoyingly, they count both ingress and egress traffic.
mjevans 8y ago
It is. Source: I live in a 'dense' suburb near Seattle (renting, but finally in a house that's not as noisy or otherwise hell as apartments can be). I'm a Comcast customer (for lack of ANY OTHER actual high speed data competition; DSL is like 8M bit down and less than 1M bit up per second). Their 1G bit plan gives me something like 25-30 M bit/sec upload, and comes with a VERY small 1T bytes cap. Not even /trying/, I easily come near to 700-800 M bytes per month. I fully expect to exceed that during the holiday season when I have to liquidate my vacation time per my current employer's policy (or loose it) and have nothing better to do than binge on various legal video products.
- flerchin 8y ago
  Probably just a typo, but 800MB is .0008 of a Terabyte.
  - mjevans 8y ago
    It was, I was thinking in the line speed (close to 1000 M bit/sec) but was talking about the used quota T / G.
- techsupporter 8y ago
  This is one reason you’ll have to drag me out of the city: only Seattle and a handful of very expensive suburbs (Mercer Island and the like) have CenturyLink’s symmetrical 1000/1000 service for $85 with no caps. It is a godsend for a household that hoovers down bits like they’re going out of style. Even Frontier is better than Comcast, at least in the data cap respect, and that’s saying something bad about Comcast...
cookiecaper 8y ago
Video is big. Numbers that sound large like "1 terabyte" are easily consumed by streaming video, even at 1080p. Multiply by the number of active streaming devices in your home, and then account for all other internet usage. It adds up fast. Comcast is looking to recoup some of the income they've lost from cord-cutters by targeting users whose bandwidth consumption looks suspiciously like video. They seem committed to getting you to pay them for TV/video content one way or the other, while simultaneously discouraging further cord-cutting by raising the specter of potentially-unpredictable overages.

etcet 8y ago

Most Comcast customers in the US have a 1T monthly cap. Their language: "After using these 2 courtesy months, if you exceed the plan you will be charged $10.00 for each 50GB of additional data provided, but charges will not exceed $200 each month, no matter how much you use." I hit 700G last month. If I had to do a full backup or restore I'd definitely go over 1T. Annoyingly, they count both ingress and egress traffic.

mjevans 8y ago

It is. Source: I live in a 'dense' suburb near Seattle (renting, but finally in a house that's not as noisy or otherwise hell as apartments can be). I'm a Comcast customer (for lack of ANY OTHER actual high speed data competition; DSL is like 8M bit down and less than 1M bit up per second). Their 1G bit plan gives me something like 25-30 M bit/sec upload, and comes with a VERY small 1T bytes cap. Not even /trying/, I easily come near to 700-800 M bytes per month. I fully expect to exceed that during the holiday season when I have to liquidate my vacation time per my current employer's policy (or loose it) and have nothing better to do than binge on various legal video products.

flerchin 8y ago
Probably just a typo, but 800MB is .0008 of a Terabyte.
- mjevans 8y ago
  It was, I was thinking in the line speed (close to 1000 M bit/sec) but was talking about the used quota T / G.
techsupporter 8y ago
This is one reason you’ll have to drag me out of the city: only Seattle and a handful of very expensive suburbs (Mercer Island and the like) have CenturyLink’s symmetrical 1000/1000 service for $85 with no caps. It is a godsend for a household that hoovers down bits like they’re going out of style. Even Frontier is better than Comcast, at least in the data cap respect, and that’s saying something bad about Comcast...

cookiecaper 8y ago

Video is big. Numbers that sound large like "1 terabyte" are easily consumed by streaming video, even at 1080p. Multiply by the number of active streaming devices in your home, and then account for all other internet usage. It adds up fast. Comcast is looking to recoup some of the income they've lost from cord-cutters by targeting users whose bandwidth consumption looks suspiciously like video. They seem committed to getting you to pay them for TV/video content one way or the other, while simultaneously discouraging further cord-cutting by raising the specter of potentially-unpredictable overages.