Comcast is set to increase the 300 GB monthly limit it implemented in trial markets to 1 TB, effectively addressing the complaints and issue that came out of the initial rollout with yet another data cap.
According to the cable company, it has 23 million people subscribed to its Internet service, and 99 percent use a mere 60 GB per month, emphasizing that only 1 percent that consists of power users manage to exceed 300 GB. In other words, typical customers don't come close to reaching the limit, and even much more so in the case of a terabyte.
With the upped amount, Comcast hopes to give them the "peace of mind" to do everything they want online, including but not limited to streaming HD videos, playing online games, downloading files and browsing the Web.
"[W]e have created a new data plan that is so high that most of our customers will never have to think about how much data they use," Marcien Jenckes, executive VP of consumer services at Comcast, says.
Comcast also details what subscribers can do with 1 TB worth of data to get its point across, saying that it can provide 700 hours of HD video, 12,000 hours of online gaming and 60,000 high-resolution images.
The company aims to launch this increased data cap on June 1 to the markets involved, noting that the trial could soon cover more areas.
This development comes with perfect timing as more customers start to opt for cord-cutting solutions, and with that said, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings had only good words to say about it.
Huge for me as a Comcast customer. Now I'll never be able to watch enough to hit my cap. https://t.co/euhZy9jJhT
— Reed Hastings (@reedhastings) April 27, 2016
For those who want to get rid of the data ceiling, the company also mentions that customers have the option to go unlimited for an additional $50 per month or $10 for each extra 50 GB of data.
Long story short, average Comcast subscribers in the affected markets will no longer have to worry much about data caps, allowing them to do almost whatever they want online to their hearts' content.
On an interesting note, the company doesn't exactly measure data usage accurately at times, and it occasionally makes billing mistakes such as the typo that caused a customer's bill to skyrocket, so it wouldn't hurt to be careful.
