World News – UK – Comcast will be charging customers more for heavy Internet usage starting next year

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26th. November 2020

by Christian Hetrick, The Philadelphia Inquirer

Comcast Corp.. . will charge more for heavy home internet users in northeastern states – including Pennsylvania and New Jersey – annoying customers who work and study online due to the pandemic.

The vast majority of Comcast’s Xfinity customers will not be affected by the « data threshold » for the next year, company officials said this week. However, the added cost comes as Internet usage increases across the country and consumers increasingly make video calls and bingeing shows while stuck at home. According to OpenVault, a Hoboken, N. , average monthly data usage in the US increased 40% in the third quarter of this year over the same period in 2019. J. . , Broadband software company.

Starting April, customers with Xfinity can use up to 1. 2 terabytes of data per month before being billed for more – unless you buy an unlimited data plan. Customers without unlimited data will have to pay $ 10 for each additional 50 gigabytes. Unlimited data plans cost an additional $ 25-30 per month, depending on whether you rent or own your own router, a Comcast spokesman said.

The Philadelphia-based cable giant said only 5% of its nearly 28 million residential internet customers exceed 1. 2 terabytes of data per month. However, the news sparked criticism from customers and industry watchers, who noted that the pandemic closed schools and offices, forcing consumers to do more online. Some said they would flee to Verizon Fios, where there are no data caps or thresholds, according to a company spokesman.

« So far in November, two of us who work from home have used 2. 1 TB (terabytes) of data. People with kids in a remote school use tons more, « wrote Nilay Patel, editor-in-chief of tech news website The Verge, on Twitter.

Comcast said 1. 2 terabytes is a « huge » amount of data, enough to run 500 hours of high-resolution video or a video conference for almost 3. Watch 500 hours per month. Even with more people working from home, the average monthly data usage was 383. 8 gigabytes from July to September, reported OpenVault.

« Our data plan is structured so that the very small percentage of our customers who are using more than 1. 2 terabytes of monthly data and the greatest demand for network development and capacity pay more for their increasing usage, « Comcast spokeswoman Jennifer Bilotta said in a statement. « There are unlimited data options available to these superusers. « 

Nevertheless, the number of « super users » is increasing. Nearly 9% of consumers used more than 1 terabyte of data in the third quarter, doubling year over year, according to OpenVault.

Comcast has already set the data limit in 25 states in the west and central US. S.. . The company lifted the data limit for these states from March to July due to COVID-19. Now the plan is being rolled out across the remaining 14 states.

The company’s broadband business boomed during the pandemic, seeing a record number of Internet customers in the last quarter. But the coronavirus has hit its other businesses, particularly theme parks and movie studios. Comcast net income declined 37% to 2 billion in the third quarter. USD back.

© 2020 The Philadelphia Inquirer, distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC

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Comcast, Xfinity, data cap