If you live in one of the twelve states where Comcast is planning to roll out 1.2 TB data limits, we have some moderately good news: you won’t have to start monitoring your account for extra charges until July. The ISP planned to start charging customers fees of $ 10 or more for using more than 1.2 TB of data as of March this year, but the launch has been delayed (via The Washington Post) This gives us a few more months until the scourge of Comcast’s home Internet data limits is truly national.
The affected areas are in the Northeast region of Comcast: Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Vermont, West Virginia and the District of Columbia, as well as parts of North Carolina and Ohio. If you live in one of these areas, your account in August may have up to $ 100 in extra fees for use in July. It is a lot of extra money, but at least now you have a little more time to see if it will be affected and to make a plan, if applicable.
The cap was scheduled to be launched in March, but is being postponed after the Pennsylvania attorney general raised objections, saying that now, when we are fighting the pandemic and using the internet to work and study, “this is no time to change o Rules when it comes to using Internet data and increasing costs. ”After negotiations, Comcast agreed not only to postpone the start date of the data limit, but also to exempt early cancellation fees for customers who do not want to be subject to the limits, according to a press release from the attorney’s office. -general.
While Comcast customers in the region are likely to be satisfied with the delay, the ability to cancel your service free of charge is only useful if you have another ISP that will provide the service, which many in the U.S. do not. The rest of the country has had data limits for some time and people don’t like them. However, they were launched anyway because ISPs basically have no real competition.
Comcast is, however, giving its low-income customers a short break. It announced that it was doubling the speeds of its Internet Essentials plan yesterday and apparently will not impose data limits on that plan for the rest of 2021. Comcast confirmed The Verge that this policy was national.
The 1.2 TB extra fees will arrive in the Northeast in July, appearing in the August accounts. If you exceed the 1.2 TB limit, you will have to pay $ 10 for each additional 50 GB, with fees limited to $ 100. You get a “courtesy” month, in which if you exceed it, you will not be charged more, but after that the fees will start to roll. Of course, if you go over it frequently, Comcast will be happy to upgrade you to unlimited data for just $ 30 per month or as part of a $ 25 per month xFi Complete package.
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If you live in the Northeast and are concerned about charging your account until July, Comcast has a tool to verify the amount of data you use. Since they’ll charge you for that use, you can see if you normally have more than 1.2 TB of use or not – and now, you’ll have a few more months to figure out what to do if you’re consistently finished. It is possible that you are not, however. At the time when I had a data limit, I was usually below the limit and I am a very heavy internet user who backs up many photos and videos in the cloud.
Disclosure: Comcast is an investor in Vox Media, The Verge’s Mother emprise.