Come Dec. 1, some Xfinity subscribers in Arkansas, Louisiana, Tennessee and Virginia will wake up wondering if they have relocated to a developing country. That's right, Comcast, the world's largest cable company by revenue and a constant recipient of the "worst companies in the United States" award, will add some towns and cities within the specified states to the list of areas with an implemented 300 GB monthly data cap.
Even after the backlash that it is currently receiving from its clientele and even after stating that it no longer wants to be voted as one of the worst companies in the U.S., Comcast seems oblivious and is continuing to expand the coverage of its 300 GB per month data usage cap.
First spotted by DSL Reports, Little Rock in Arkansas; Galax in Virginia; Houma, Shreveport and LaPlace in Louisiana and Chattanooga, Johnson City, Gray and Greenville in Tennessee were added to Comcast's data usage trial list of areas covered by the data cap. Moreover, if subscribers in the said area exceeds the set monthly cap, there will be a $10 charge per 50 GB of overage on their bills at the end of each billing cycle.
Furthermore, last Oct. 1, Comcast started offering a $30 (or more in some areas) premium for customers who do not want to have a monthly cap imposed on them and want an unlimited data plan. The first areas that were covered are those in Florida, but the company is slowly covering every state that is listed under its 300 GB monthly data cap policy. The company previously stated that it is implementing such caps and fees in the spirit of "fairness."
In the email sent to its affected customers, Comcast stated that the average monthly data amount consumed by each Comcast Xfinity subscriber is 40 GB. So 40 GB spread across 30 days means just over 1.33 GB per day, which is barely enough to finish an HD movie and less than 30 minutes of 4K videos. Comcast noted that users will be warned before they reach the cap and tracking tools will be provided for monitoring data.
"If you are on the 300 gigabytes plan, we will send you a courtesy 'in-browser' notice and an email letting you know when you reach 90 percent, 100 percent, 110 percent, and 125 percent of your monthly data usage plan amount," an excerpt from Comcast's email that was sent to each of its affected subscribers. "You can also elect to receive notifications at additional thresholds as well as set up mobile text notifications."
With its creeping implementation of the data usage cap, Comcast seems to have secured itself another award.
