Comcast confirms introduction of data usage cap. Image: Comcast.
Capping seems to be a return topic of frustration for network customers this week, with news of iPhone carrier Orange capping 3G data speeds in France now being followed by Comcast’s decision to officially limit download and upload online data access.
More pointedly, Comcast Corp., the second-biggest Internet service provider (ISP) in the United States, this week confirmed via its Web site that its user agreement will be updated on October 01 in order to limit customer data usage to 250GBs each month.
The addition of a download and upload data cap comes after Comcast recently angered large sways of its customer base by abruptly reserving the right to suspend the Net access of those it deemed to be guilty of excessive data usage. Such users carry the unfortunate moniker of ‘bandwidth hogs’ and are often linked to contentious P2P (peer-to-peer) file-sharing services.
According to a Comcast statement, the announcement of a 250GB cap has been issued in response to those customers “who asked that we provide a specific threshold for data usage,” in order for them to better understand the company’s perception of “excessive.”
While the majority of general Net users are unlikely to get anywhere near the 250GB limit (Comcast claims the customer average is between 2 and 3GBs), those customers who do stray beyond the cap will be contacted directly and told to keep their usage below the pre-set gigabyte ceiling.
It is worth noting, however, that customers ignoring Comcast’s warning and exceeding the 250GB limit twice in a six-month period could face having their service terminated for a minimum of 12 months.
When Comcast initially unveiled its data cap proposal back in May of this year, citing network stability and fair usage as part of its reasoning, the ISP also hinted at the introduction of a $15 USD penalty for every 10GB amassed above the limit. This week’s confirmation statement made no mention of any such additional fees.
For those perplexed Comcast customers currently mulling over how much monthly data usage they would need to invest to hit the 250GB limit, Comcast claims it would require the standard-definition (SD) download of around four movies every day or the gathering of some 50 million e-mail messages.
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