@H8Datacaps wrote:
@zoycan wrote:
@stephgc wrote:
This still doesn't explain why you even have data caps; or usage plans as you call them.
Whatever you may think and whatever motivation Comcast has for their policies, bandwidth isn't free. The large percentage of normal users shouldn't have to subsidize the heavy ones. If Customer A uses 50 GB and Customer B uses 300 GB, A is essentially paying part of B's bill, while B continues to complain that they should be able to use even more.
I disagree with your post sir and here is why.
Comcast requried me to sign a contract for 2 years at $230 a month which included unlimited data. I've been on basically the same contract for 10 years, always unlimited data. Over time the contracts go up in price so if you re-sign a 2 year contract you can get what they call "promotional" pricing - it should be called, under contract pricing.
Starting January 1 this year my data was no longer unlimted, it was in my case $90 more the the amount of data they said I use every month (600gb).
The terms and conditions of the contract I signed dicate what happens when one or the other party changes the terms of the contract. In this case, in black and white, Comcast has the right to change their services and pricing any time they like, and if they do, I the right to cancel the contract and leave them.
The problem is, there is no alternative to high speed data in my area. Because they have a monopoly, they can completely change the contract at will, and I have no choice (except for going back to dial up or DSL speed which isn't a viable option).
So, either I go back to DSL speed or I accept the increased charge and complain to the FCC who is supposed to keep monopolies from abusing their power in this fashion.
The FCC did respond to my letter and asked Comcast what they are going to do about it. Comcast said that tiered billing is an acceptable practice and they are going to do it. They omitted the fact that I had contracted for unlimited internet and they changed the terms of my contract, and they also ommitted the fact that they have a monopoly on high speed data in my city so I have no alternative but to pay their increased price if I want high speed data.
Meanwhile, my mother who only uses 100gb a month didn't get a price break when they instituted the 300gb cap so they are not doing tiered pricing as they told the FCC.
Enough people like me complained, the FCC complaints were up 813% (from memory) from the prior year over this, so Comcast relented and increased the data cap to a realistic cap.
As you can see from Comcast's posts above, I'm just out the $150 increase they charged me for January - May 2016. But I suppose I should be happy they went back to the contracted price in June and just shut up about it.
As data becomes more competitive (my neighorhood had fiber installed last month).. you'd think Comcast would think ahead a bit and not make policies that cause such tsuris for customers who have happily paid $230 a month for a decade, but I suppose they don't think this way. I know when my contract is up and I have other options I will look very carefully again as they lost my customer loyalty with this horrible debaucle.
16 years here. And it's gone from decent to bad to worse while the prices go higher. And the thing that Mr. zoycan doesn't understand is I have the same data cap paying $90 for extreme105 internet service as somebody paying $9.95 for basic service which makes his argument wrong on its face. They are not paying for my service. I'm paying for theirs. When I asked why we all had the same data "usage" plan I was told it was only fair and that I'm not paying for data, I'm paying for speed. Considering I only occasionally get the speed, I'm paying for something I can't realistically have.
Competition has come to us here. Google fiber is in town and contract or no, as soon as I can, I'm getting away from Comcast. Google doesn't have data usage plans.
And another thing Mr. zoycan doesn't really understand is that ISPs are the ones who provide the bandwidth/data usage for everyone. They get paid to keep their infrastructure running so data can move from one point to another. I once dreamed of building my own data center here. That dream turned to dust once I got a look at the poor infrastructure of this state due to the allowance of monopolies without accountability.
I believe I'll lease my servers from Texas until I retire. Texas doesn't have data usage plans imposed upon them. Fancy that.
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