Cox is now charging for internet by the gig (in certain areas) as well as speed

[melodramocracy]

push comes to shove there are other ways to entertain yourself than watching some dumb show. unless companies are going to lobby congress to have roving vans snatch up people and force them to pay for walking and breathing. books still exist and will exist for the foreseeable future.

There are other ways, certainly, but those other ways aren't what the general population is being conditioned to enjoy. Books (ie, the actual paper kind) are about 3 levels above vinyl collection in popularity. The idea is entertainment flowing through a set of your own personal devices, with no actual ownership, so once data limits become imposed (as we're seeing in this thread), people will have a tougher time adjusting.

Consider this as well: 4k televisions are currently a 'waste' technically for most tv viewers, seeing as streaming isn't really available in said format.. yet that standard is being pushed for newer televisions constantly, and prices are getting low enough that it's almost the standard. At some point, there will absolutely be demand for 4k streaming, which is an even better opportunity for caps to be in place (and exceeded, if the service providers get their way)

[Merie]

Pick another ISP?

Not American I'm guessing.

[Knaar]

To all the people saying netflix this netflix that, you do realize that watching netflix in hd is 3 gig per hours? so to bust that 1 tera a month you'd need to watch 340 hours of netflix in hd only (or about 1000 hours (aka 42 days non-stop) in non-hd), right?
That's 12 hours of netflix every.single.day on the month. If you and your family are watching 12 hours of netflix a day every day, you have problems.

[Deleted]

Once again you have ZERO proof the infrastructure is so bad data caps is needed. I am telling you for a 100% fact it isn't and google fiber proved that in spades. There is 2nd/3rd world country's that have better net then the US.

Data caps are there to milk people for more money. Nothing more and nothing less, them taking care of the lines/bandwidth takes up maybe 10% of there profits.

Sorry but those who think data caps are ok clearly don't know what they are talking about.

At current my ISP (TWC) doesn't even have a data cap.

dunno doesn't sound like that good of a cash cow to me.

let's assume for a moment that is their plan. they give people a reasonable data cap today, then in a few years when it becomes an issue they are stringy with increasing the cap so they sell more extra 50gb blocks.

people just aren't gonna do that. once people go over a couple times they will just install throttle software and start to think about their usage, just like they are used to on mobile connections already.

so the real money they will gain from this is being able to reduce the rate at which demand increases, which will allow them to reduce investments on their network hardware.

(also not to nitpick but we also have zero proof that this ISP has the level of infrastructure you describe in place. and that part about profits is just nonsense lol)

[cuafpr]

i'm waiting for "Data meters" like power / gas / water meters..... /sigh.

[Total Crica]

Not American I'm guessing.

Florida, USA. All ISP in the area have data caps.

[Jtbrig7390]

(also not to nitpick but we also have zero proof that this ISP has the level of infrastructure you describe in place)

Ummmm ya we do and a quick google search can prove it. We have also had people who work in said field post in this thread. Data caps are not needed, that is the simple fact.

Once again even google fiber proved it. It forced all the company's to provide better net (and caps).

[Knaar]

i'm waiting for "Data meters" like power / gas / water meters..... /sigh.

That already exist. it's called a computer and router.

[drakonblayde]

"“Cox High Speed Internet packages include 1 TB (1,024 GB) of data,” Cox explains. “Approximately 99% of Cox customers are currently on a data plan that more than adequately meets their monthly household needs.”

That begs the question: if 99% of customers are unaffected by a data cap, then why have a data cap at all?

What they're saying is actually probably true. The keyword in their statement is 'currently'.

The answer to your question is simple - while currently most of their customers won't exceed the data cap, they expect bandwidth consumption to grow and expect to make some money from folks getting hit with overages. When they reach some critical mass of customers hitting their caps and getting pissed about it, and when their competitors start advertising that they'll give you more data for the same or lower price, they'll simply raise the cap, thereby generating some good will feeling out of their customer base, and the entire process will repeat.

Sound familiar? It's the exact same crap the cell phone companies have been doing for decades, original with minutes, and now with bandwidth data thanks to the rise of the smartphone.

I'd expect them to do something similar to the cellphone companies as well, like not charge for off-peak usage (Need to do a huge cloud backup? No problem, just schedule it for off hours and we won't charge you for it!).

The truth is, no company is going to be able to survive at scale for long as simply a provider of network access. Comcast knew this, and that's why the NBC acquisition was such a coup. AT&T went another way, and bought DirecTV instead. Their gambit is that, by not charging you for streaming DirecTV content on the AT&T network, they can double dip, because you have incentive to stay subscribed to AT&T and DirecTV.

All that cord cutting is having an effect on the providers. Dropping HBO from your cable package because you have an HBO Go account? Directly hits their bottom line. Dropped your TV entirely and only have Internet and get your content from places like HBO Go, Netflix, or just straight up torrent piracy? Hits their bottom line.

So it's absolutely no surprise that they're trying to monetize their networks usage in order to make up shortfalls in other areas.

[callipygoustp]

people just aren't gonna do that. once people go over a couple times they will just install throttle software and start to think about their usage, just like they are used to on mobile connections already.

so the real money they will gain from this is being able to reduce the rate at which demand increases, which will allow them to reduce investments on their network hardware.

(also not to nitpick but we also have zero proof that this ISP has the level of infrastructure you describe in place. and that part about profits is just nonsense lol)

You argue with assumptions and then comment on lack of proof? LOL that's good stuff right there.

[Mad_Murdock]

To all the people saying netflix this netflix that, you do realize that watching netflix in hd is 3 gig per hours? so to bust that 1 tera a month you'd need to watch 340 hours of netflix in hd only (or about 1000 hours (aka 42 days non-stop) in non-hd), right?
That's 12 hours of netflix every.single.day on the month. If you and your family are watching 12 hours of netflix a day every day, you have problems.

I think some people are forgetting to to mention the 10-20 movies\games they also pirat..I mean...download at the same time. But to be fair, in my house of 3, we actually have hit a terabyte once or twice. Though my overall monthly average is around 550-600GB a month. Like some others, I'm a teleworker, and sometimes I have to push\pull large 30GB VM files to a site or lab. Add in that my son like to download every game that pops up for free on PSN and some months are brutal.So far no data caps, but since TWC has a webite that allows me to monitor it, I imagine one could be in the works.

I do agree with others, that making the providers content not count against the cap seems a bit shady.

[Deleted]

Ummmm ya we do and a quick google search can prove it. We have also had people who work in said field post in this thread. Data caps are not needed, that is the simple fact.

Once again even google fiber proved it. It forced all the company's to provide better net (and caps).

could you do me a favor and link said proof? usually companies don't talk about those kind of things. my quick google search just comes up with PR stuff.

[drakonblayde]

so the real money they will gain from this is being able to reduce the rate at which demand increases, which will allow them to reduce investments on their network hardware.

Network hardware is cheap. Indeed, it's never been cheaper, especially with all the players in the market these days. Physical Infrastructure to connect to that network hardware is a *much* bigger cost. Believe it or not, *not* spending capital to modernize the network will end up costing more in the long run, as it'll increase Operational Expense to run a legacy network, mainly because the operators will have to get creative to keep it viable (creativity is expensive), as well as leave them prey to losing revenue to competitors that are modernizing their networks. So this idea is pretty much hogwash.

Comcast, Charter, and AT&T (I don't know about Cox) have all spent a crap load of money the last 5 to 6 years modernizing their networks (this means hardware and infrastructure, where needed). You simply have to do it if you want to survive.

The real reason for things like data caps is, as I've mentioned earlier, is for them to monetize the network they have built out, since bandwidth consumption trends are only going to rise as more and more people get their content via the network rather than more traditional means. Those who don't find ways to monetize their networks are eventually going to face some serious financial problems, leaving the companies that do as the only players around.

[Jtbrig7390]

could you do me a favor and link said proof? usually companies don't talk about those kind of things. my quick google search just comes up with PR stuff.

You made the original claim that the current infrastructure can't support no data caps originally. So the burden of proof is now on you not me champ.

Like the poster said above this is the same bullshit stunt that has been going on with cell phones.

[Tikaru]

XFINITY/Comcast rolled out data caps a little while ago as well. We have a data cap of 1TB, which honestly doesn't seem to be that big of a deal.

According to their website, we've never used up more than 600GB of data.

I'm guessing they're going after people running their own business out of their home without paying for a "business" package from their ISP.

[drakonblayde]

could you do me a favor and link said proof? usually companies don't talk about those kind of things. my quick google search just comes up with PR stuff.

Of course they don't comment on it. It makes them look bad. You want to find out what's really going on in an SP network, talk to former employees (preferably those that left of their own accord, those who got thrown out tend to be a bit biased). I know alot about what's going on in other providers networks simply because grumpy old network engineers tend to talk to each other, and I hear alot more nowadays now that I work for a vendor instead of a competitor.

- - - Updated - - -

XFINITY/Comcast rolled out data caps a little while ago as well. We have a data cap of 1TB, which honestly doesn't seem to be that big of a deal.

According to their website, we've never used up more than 600GB of data.

I'm guessing they're going after people running their own business out of their home without paying for a "business" package from their ISP.

I can say with absolute certainty that this is not Comcast's goal. They really don't care. Their data cap is almost solely aimed at extracting more money from cord cutters, those who rely entirely on the network for their media consumption.

[Evil Midnight Bomber]

Consider this as well: 4k televisions are currently a 'waste' technically for most tv viewers, seeing as streaming isn't really available in said format.. yet that standard is being pushed for newer televisions constantly, and prices are getting low enough that it's almost the standard. At some point, there will absolutely be demand for 4k streaming, which is an even better opportunity for caps to be in place (and exceeded, if the service providers get their way)

Netflix offers all of their original programming in 4k.

[Blueobelisk]

Is there any way for me to check how much data I use per month? I have access to router and Verizon Fios cable bill, but it doesn't seem like the kind of thing that normally gets tracked...

[Evil Midnight Bomber]

As in, friends watching netflix while I am doing something else.

So you invite friends over to watch Netflix while you do something else?

[Jtbrig7390]

Is there any way for me to check how much data I use per month? I have access to router and Verizon Fios cable bill, but it doesn't seem like the kind of thing that normally gets tracked...

I think u can log into ur account on there website and see.

- - - Updated - - -

So you invite friends over to watch Netflix while you do something else?

Some people do.....