Following pressure from politicians and the public, Comcast will not enforce a 1.2 TB data limit for customers in the northeastern United States until 2022, the company said in an announcement identified by ArsTechnica. “We are delaying the implementation of our new data plan in our Northeast markets until 2022,” said Comcast. “We recognize that our data plan was new to our customers in the Northeast, and while only a small percentage of customers need additional data, we are giving them more time to familiarize themselves with the new plan.”
This is the second inspection delay that Comcast announced in less than a month. In early February, the company said it would not start charging customers extra fees until July 2021, after pressure from Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro. “Postponing this untimely data limit until at least 2022 is the right decision,” Connecticut Attorney General William Tong said after yesterday’s announcement.
Comcast announced that it would implement a data cap in the Northeastern United States in November. For customers who exceeded their data quota, telecom planned to charge $ 10 for each additional 50 GB that exceeded the 1.2 TB limit, up to a maximum of $ 100 per billing cycle. To ‘facilitate’ customers to the new limit, Comcast said it would waive any overuse fees in January and February and launch an annual credit account that people could use if they exceed their limit at any time after the first two months of 2021. The only way to avoid excessive fees was to spend an extra $ 30 per month on the company’s unlimited plan or $ 25 on the “xFi Complete” package. Since starting to talk about the cap, Comcast has maintained that 95 percent of its customers use much less than 1.2 TB per month.
The delay helps customers living in Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Carolina, New York, Pennsylvania, Vermont, West Virginia and the District of Columbia. However, this does not affect those living in any of the other 27 states that make up Comcast’s 39-state footprint. In these markets, the company has had a data limit since 2016. And while the delay is good news for those living in the Northeast, there are still uncertainties ahead, as Comcast did not say when it plans to implement the data limit in 2022.