Comcast is testing a plan to increase its controversial monthly data cap to 1 terabyte a month. It also plans on increasing the costs for users who go over the limit.
According to the Wall Street Journal, officially all Comcast customers have a 250GB cap, but this hasn’t been widely enforced for years. Instead it has been trialling enforcing a 300GB limit in specific markets, mainly in the south. Around one in seven customers are affected by the trials
Starting from June 1, those markets will have a terabyte limit, which isn’t dependent on the connection speed of their plan. Comcast says this change is because of the, apparently surprising to them, fact that “our customers want the peace of mind to stream, surf, game, download, or do whatever they want online.
In those trial markets, customers who want to use more than a terabyte can either buy “buckets” of 50GB of data for $10, or get truly unlimited use for an additional $50, an increase from the current $30 charge.
According to Comcast, 10 percent of customers currently go over the 300GB limit and would benefit from the increase. It also says 1 percent of customers use more than the new terabyte limit.
The company says it will evaluate the effect of these changes before making a final decision about rolling them out nationwide.