Amid work from home, Comcast plans to expand data caps nationwide
posted Saturday Nov 28, 2020 by Scott Ertz
Recently, a report showed that the number of internet power users has grown over the past year. This was no surprise, as much of the world has begun working from home. In addition, school is now from home, the majority of entertainment is from home. Add to that, the number of devices in our homes that are connected to the internet has expanded. With all of these changes, the amount of data being used is bound to increase as well.
Thankfully, most of the major internet service providers that have data caps have suspended those caps for the time being. However, this week we learned that Comcast plans to expand its data cap policy across all of its markets in the United States. As of today, there are twelve states where unlimited data plans are still available. However, that is about to come to an end.
In January 2021, Comcast will expand the controversial policy to all of the 28 million subscribers in the company's 39 market states. The announcement came via the company's Xfinity page about data, though the language has since been removed. The company did confirm the change through Ars Technica.
They will, however, give a "grace period" to users who will be added to the policy in January. For the first two months, users will not be charged for overages. This means that the enforcement of the policy, in these new markets, will actually begin in March 2021. In addition, the company has options for those who want to maintain unlimited data. Users can pay an additional $30 per month, or sign up for the "xFi Complete" plan, which is an additional $25 (a better option, but still not great).
As the nature of internet usage continues to change, adding data caps and overage charges is unbelievably inappropriate. People will be continually using more data as entertainment, work, school, and more continue to change.
