Unusually high data usage megathread

I realize your post is from July 2020 but wanted to comment since I have not seen anyone post in this context. I just started seeing almost 1.5x spikes in my data usage in November and December without any changes in the household and now over the 1.2TB for each month when August was 676GB for example. One thing people may not be paying attention to and I do not see this on this forum so far but started doing some research since Xfinity support, although friendly, are basically reading from a script. With COVID, people may be increasing or changing their plans. The only difference in my case was entering a new one year promotional contract with Comcast in September where my download bandwidth increased from 60Gbs to 100Gbs (typically a good thing) and my monthly bill actually droppped from $49.95 to $45.00. What I did see was afterwards I started hitting the new data caps that were being enforced. I went back and reviewed my bills since July and the exponential increase in data usage is almost equivalent to my new better download speeds, i.e. from 60Gbs tp 100Gbs. This is approximately a 1.665 increase in new download bandwidth which is close to what my new data usage is even though no changes in the household. I did some more research and logisitcally the data you download is the same, but the speed at what you download can technically be different as if it actually downloaded or not. With a faster download speed, apps such as uTube, for example will buffer up data content in advance whether you view it or not if you have the higher download speed to support it. On slower connections not so much. When I did the math and when I moved to my new faster data plan of 100Gbs from 60Gbs, the new data overages started adding up to this new ratio. I am wondering how many people with WFH, home school, etc are increasing their data plans thinking this will help during this pandemic time or moving from slower connections which previosuly worked well in the past. Obviously, Comcast would not want you to know that moving to a slower connection / lower cost plan could actually help you avoid the new data overage caps while still having sufficient bandwidth to do what you always were able to do without having to now monitor your devices with the new overage fees. BTW, my older lower data plan which was fine is no longer available. 

Hi, @rajsingh_1605! Thank you so much for your patience while waiting for a response. I appreciate you greatly for your time spent in reaching out for help with the data concern over our forums page. As someone who has a household of kids doing online schooling, I can definitely understand the frustration that is caused when seeing an unexpected surge in data usage. To research this further, please send us a private message with your first/last name and full address so I can ensure I am working on the correct account.

Same issue for our household. Nothing has changed except our usage has climbed from 400 GB to 1100 GB over the course of the last 3-4 months. Checked our laptops and the usage has been consistent each month of around 100 - 150 GB - which means that we would be streaming a TB of netflix, Prime, etc. At an average of 1 GB/hour for streaming that means 1,000 hours. Do the math people - if you are streaming 2 devices for 16 hours a day you still do not hit a TB over the course of 30 days..... But yeah, I am sure the issue is on our end.

@1975029, do you only stream in SD? I ask because that's typically around 1GB/hour.  However, I don’t think many people actually do much SD streaming these days.  3GB/hour is a good general estimate for HD, and 7GB/hour is a good estimate for 4K (Actual numbers will vary by service and the types of programs you watch.)

I averaged out my data usage for the last 6 months at 531 GB per month and just received a notice in January that i'm over the 1.2 TB plan. That is impossible based on my monthly average data use as nothing has changed.  What is going on?

Have you checked your usage that Comcast is saying you have used? Just go to My Account on the Comcast web site, the phone app, or even an X1 TV to see your current usage.

@Andy 

Honestly, checking usage with Comcast's tools is less than helpful.  I can go on and find devices that are, theoritically, using data , but without numbers on the information provided, it's pointless data.

All you get are colored bars that say "low", "high", "very high". There's no context associated with it so it's pointless data.  

It did help me to find out that one of my Nest Cams was more active than I thought. Ok, good to know and the answer there is going to be "well, you should move it so it doesn't get triggered as much".  That's a ridiculous solution, though.  The Nest Cam has a purpose:  monitor a specific door for a specific reason.  Moving it so it uses less data reduces it's effectivness.

The only way to verify your data usage is to be able to monitor all the data going in and out and that means putting firewalls or data monitors on all devices or on a router.  Then you can track per device and compare against what Comcast says.

So:

cable mode <---> router with QoS/packet monitoring <---> all your devices.

Router says X, Comcast says Y, then you have an argument.

I disagree with what Comcast says I'm using as well and I'm very annoyed that I have to restructure my network to monitor data from each device and I have to start asking myself "Well...I guess I shouldn't watch the next show on Amazon Prime because I was in Zoom meetings all day, one of the kids lives with us and, oh yeah....I backed up my pictures so I could make sure I don't lose my progress on that photo project if my NAS fails".  

The comcast meter on the web does give numbers, however it doesn't give a device breakdown.  However, that number, combined with the Xfi app's adjectives, should give you an idea.  (Though still not nearly as detailed as what some other routers can give you.)

True, if you pile enough stuff onto your internet connection, you will eventually get to the point where you have to think about it, or pay for unlimited and go back to not thinking about it.  However, I think for a lot of people in this thread, they have some software or some setting that is causing lots of use of data that they don't even know about.  So, for a lot of people, it's worth doing some investigation, because they may end up turning something off that they didn't even know was on.

Even if we are legitimately using what they are saying, which still seems excessive, the whole thing is very dirt-baggy knowing they are doing this with adults working from home, and lots of students remote learning(on zoom) Definitely taking advantage of the situation. I have had Xfinity since Comcast even first started. Why are deals only offered to new customers, and not us loyal customers. Yes, maybe I cut everything except for the internet. But maybe I wouldnt have if they just had better packages and offers to loyal customers instead of making me pay for a ton of extra channels I dont even watch. Or the one channel I want is in a package 2 tiers up from what I pay for,  including a ton of channels I will never watch. All just one big scam.

Hi @Molly1232, and thank you for posting to the Xfinity Forum. I'm sorry that we weren't able to get this resolved for you in a timely manner. We hate to lose you as a customer. Please reach out to us to let us know if there's anything else we can assist you with in the future. 

I changed my internet to Xfinity a few months ago. My TV has been with Xfinity for years, but I use a TiVo box.  Over the past few months, I found that a few of my TV channels have gone black. Yesterday, I had a Xfinity guy out to try to figure out what was going on. Neither he, nor whoever he talked to on the phone could figure it out.

Reading a bunch of TiVo forums, I learned that Xfinity is moving some channels to "TVIP". It appears that this is a regional thing with different channels switching in different regions. TiVo doesn't do TVIP, so that explained my loss of those channels. Thus far, they are kind of "minor" channels (TCM, TBN, CMTV, CSPAN, NewsMax to name a few) so I can live with it.

Anyway, I wonder if people who have a "TVIP compatible" cable box haven't changed their viewing habits at all, but that box is now eating up Internet bits instead of TV bits. To add insult to injury, the box probably just stays on the last channel watched, so it would eat Internet bits until the next time they changed channels. Might be a clue for some.

Hi there, Tiffgreg419. Is there something I can assist you with here? Please elaborate on your concerns. Thank you. 

We are having the same issue! We were barely home this month and yet are 75% of the way through our data plan. That's impossible. Xfinity needs to do something about this ASAP, especially considering we've had a lot of bandwidth issues with them during the pandemic. I understand most people are having this issue with most of us WFH, but why make it more difficult by not being able to chat with agents and having improper data usage meter monitoring.