4 ms·

In Washington State they have already started enforcing this. I had to add $30 to my bill to cover the realities of WFH. Also you get to pay more to use your ow

In Washington State they have already started enforcing this. I had to add $30 to my bill to cover the realities of WFH. Also you get to pay more to use your own equipment. It’s $25 to use their modem and router.

tzs 6y ago
To break that down a little, adding unlimited data is $11/month if you use their current modem, which is $14/month to rent. Hence $25/month. You can put their modem in bridge mode and use it with your own router. That’s probably what I would do if I needed unlimited.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- evan_ 6y ago
  You can also buy your own modem for less than $100
  - nitrogen 6y ago
    Yes, but this thread is about how doing so costs more than renting if you exceed the data cap.
    - evan_ 6y ago
      oh I misunderstood, that's obscene
- jdeibele 6y ago
  Late to the conversation but I wanted to switch the DNS for parents-in-law and found that Comcast has DNS settings locked down (not user changeable) on their router. Since they're also using VoIP and cable from Comcast, I didn't go any further. I wanted to switch the DNS to AdGuard because my mother-in-law had a JavaScript pop-up that convinced her to call "Microsoft". I put uBlock Origin on Chrome and Edge. Users can set the DNS setting on their devices to use something else but I bet it's a tiny fraction that do. As somebody who worked at an ISP, I can sympathize a little bit with not wanting customers to f*ck up their DNS.
MrMember 6y ago
I've had a 1TB monthly cap here in Minnesota for several years now. Luckily I live alone and I rarely hit the cap, and they give me one "courtesy" month a year where I can exceed the cap without penalty. Sad to see them rolling it out to more states, that must mean it has been a "success" for them. I'd love to switch away from Comcast but the only other option for me is significantly slower DSL.
iotku 6y ago
>I had to add $30 to my bill >It’s $25 to use their modem and router Honestly this is the biggest farce of the whole caps situation. Forcing people to overpay to rent their crappy modems because it's $5/month LESS than using your own equipment which doesn't get benefits such as particular customer support or replacements. (If something is wrong with your service they'll likely blame your equipment) Doesn't cost any more to turn off data metering on your own modem, it's just an incentive to kill the market of people having their own (often better) modems which otherwise would cost less in the long term. I suspect it's just so they have a higher chance of padding their "xfinitywifi" network spamming more than anything.
- localhost 6y ago
  I would imagine this is to reduce their cost of supporting random devices on their network by creating a financial disincentive for people to put them there in the first place. Still sucks though because I upgraded my modem so I can use their 1Gbps service (which has been great in my neighborhood) to avoid renting and now renting is cheaper ... sometimes you can't win.
m463 6y ago
I suspect if you use their equipment, they can use it to offer service to other people roaming.

tzs 6y ago

To break that down a little, adding unlimited data is $11/month if you use their current modem, which is $14/month to rent. Hence $25/month. You can put their modem in bridge mode and use it with your own router. That’s probably what I would do if I needed unlimited.

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
evan_ 6y ago
You can also buy your own modem for less than $100
- nitrogen 6y ago
  Yes, but this thread is about how doing so costs more than renting if you exceed the data cap.
  - evan_ 6y ago
    oh I misunderstood, that's obscene
jdeibele 6y ago
Late to the conversation but I wanted to switch the DNS for parents-in-law and found that Comcast has DNS settings locked down (not user changeable) on their router. Since they're also using VoIP and cable from Comcast, I didn't go any further. I wanted to switch the DNS to AdGuard because my mother-in-law had a JavaScript pop-up that convinced her to call "Microsoft". I put uBlock Origin on Chrome and Edge. Users can set the DNS setting on their devices to use something else but I bet it's a tiny fraction that do. As somebody who worked at an ISP, I can sympathize a little bit with not wanting customers to f*ck up their DNS.

MrMember 6y ago

I've had a 1TB monthly cap here in Minnesota for several years now. Luckily I live alone and I rarely hit the cap, and they give me one "courtesy" month a year where I can exceed the cap without penalty. Sad to see them rolling it out to more states, that must mean it has been a "success" for them. I'd love to switch away from Comcast but the only other option for me is significantly slower DSL.

iotku 6y ago

>I had to add $30 to my bill >It’s $25 to use their modem and router Honestly this is the biggest farce of the whole caps situation. Forcing people to overpay to rent their crappy modems because it's $5/month LESS than using your own equipment which doesn't get benefits such as particular customer support or replacements. (If something is wrong with your service they'll likely blame your equipment) Doesn't cost any more to turn off data metering on your own modem, it's just an incentive to kill the market of people having their own (often better) modems which otherwise would cost less in the long term. I suspect it's just so they have a higher chance of padding their "xfinitywifi" network spamming more than anything.

localhost 6y ago
I would imagine this is to reduce their cost of supporting random devices on their network by creating a financial disincentive for people to put them there in the first place. Still sucks though because I upgraded my modem so I can use their 1Gbps service (which has been great in my neighborhood) to avoid renting and now renting is cheaper ... sometimes you can't win.

m463 6y ago

I suspect if you use their equipment, they can use it to offer service to other people roaming.