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

[stevenho]

It costs money to maintain those wires.

Cable maintenance costs are extactly the same whether you use 0.1% of the throughput or 99%.

[Nasukkin]

Except when they start streaming at higher rates like 4k then you will eat that fast. They are setting up to get you later

Why in god's name would anyone stream at 4K? Sure, some people might be able to do it, but... why? 4K is such a ridiculously-high resolution for streaming. 1080p is plenty by today's standards. Nobody needs to see LoL at 4K on Twitch.

[Nitro Fun]

I kinda doubt that. Maybe you use 60GB on a single day, but not regularly. What do you do that you claim to use an average of 60GB every day?

Play overwatch, play WoW, stream twitch, work related stuff, watch netflix.

Netflix uses like 3 gb per hour for HD, a large part of the usage is coming from netflix.

[Bullettime]

Why in god's name would anyone stream at 4K? Sure, some people might be able to do it, but... why? 4K is such a ridiculously-high resolution for streaming. 1080p is plenty by today's standards. Nobody needs to see LoL at 4K on Twitch.

You'd be surprised how many people are moving away from cable and satellite in favor of things like Hulu and other streaming services. 4K streaming is expected to be a really big deal in the next year and forward because of that, along with the technology being more readily available on services and supported by newer model TVs.

[LilSaihah]

One of the concerns outlined in the article is 4K soon to be on the rise which consumes hefty amounts of data.

4k is mandatory for sending employers your resume?

[Aeluron Lightsong]

Most people use a lot of gigabytes of data in their daily lives, Netflix being a big one. It's just moneygrubbing from cable companies.

[Total Crica]

Cable maintenance costs are extactly the same whether you use 0.1% of the throughput or 99%.

That's what I thought as well. I mean, electric and water companies don't charge based on speed, nor do they tell you that they won't meter your usage if you only consume THEIR electric and water on their lines.

[unbound]

cox-sets-cap-on-data-usage-amid-complaints


They already charge based on speed, now they are starting to charging by usage as well. For some reason this is angering me. Does this bother anyone else?

It is bothersome because it Cox (to be followed by others most likely with the Trump win; his picks for the FCC chairman position are all anti-net neutrality, so you'll see this and other "plus" services being offered where they were free before) is essentially renegotiating the deal they made with consumers.

You already pay for a speed cap. The ISPs explicitly sold it as unlimited, but now that the profits aren't increasing as much, they are looking for ways to squeeze even more money out of their customers. They are starting at a pretty good cap by today's standards, but you'll find that the cap will be lowered little by little at the same time that you pull down even more data due to the continuing increases in file and streaming sizes.

BTW, they already make great profits...this is just a ploy to make even more money (e.g. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...oney-off-them/). The average large ISP (e.g Time Warner, Verizon, AT&T) makes, on average, about $45 / mo in revenue for high speed data which costs them about $1.50 / mo (yes, seriously...about 97% margin). But greed knows no limit...and there are plenty of idiots who will rush to defend the large ISPs because they can't be bothered to look into the facts of the matter.

[Thereaperszone]

Why in god's name would anyone stream at 4K? Sure, some people might be able to do it, but... why? 4K is such a ridiculously-high resolution for streaming. 1080p is plenty by today's standards. Nobody needs to see LoL at 4K on Twitch.

You're forgetting movies and things not everything is about twitch eh

[Karon]

Why in god's name would anyone stream at 4K? Sure, some people might be able to do it, but... why? 4K is such a ridiculously-high resolution for streaming. 1080p is plenty by today's standards. Nobody needs to see LoL at 4K on Twitch.

because most streaming plattforms only allow low bitrate streams. 1080p on youtube looks worse than 720p on bluray. That's why many use 4k even on 1080p screens. 4k resolution allows a higher bitrate which will look better even when you have a 1080p screen.

[Allerius]

Cable costs money to put down and maintain. I don't like charges for high use, but big users are being subsidized by the smaller ones and it's not exactly fair either. Perhaps a system where data usage over a certain threshold is put in a lower priority que to discourage overuse and keep cable costs low would be a good compromise.

[Total Crica]

Cable costs money to put down and maintain. I don't like charges for high use, but big users are being subsidized by the smaller ones and it's not exactly fair either. Perhaps a system where data usage over a certain threshold is put in a lower priority que to discourage overuse and keep cable costs low would be a good compromise.

You can't over use a cable line, can you? I mean, if you could, why would Cox say they WONT charge you based on usage if you consume THEIR content on their cables?

[Nitro Fun]

Most people use a lot of gigabytes of data in their daily lives, Netflix being a big one. It's just moneygrubbing from cable companies.

From my router:


Current traffic is latest 24 hours or something. The reason the weekly traffic is higher than usual is because I downloaded some games on steam during monday and tuesday. It's usually at this number at the end of the weekend.

[LilSaihah]

You can't over use a cable line, can you? I mean, if you could, why would Cox say they WONT charge you based on usage if you consume THEIR content on their cables?

You can't physically damage or degrade the line but you can create congestion by putting traffic on the network. It's theoretically possible that as a result of your 'overuse' of their network they need to upgrade their network otherwise performance will suffer.

[Allerius]

You can't over use a cable line, can you?

A given amount of cable only has a certain bandwidth, so with enough demand speed slows down and additional cable is necessary. Sort of like how using more electricity means there is additional strain on the power grid, but one house isn't going to do enough to require another power plant to be built.

[Tonyman64]

To the people making the argument that heavy consumers of data cost ISPs more, that's simply untrue. There is more than enough capacity and, as one poster already pointed out, using a greater portion of their existing capacity costs the company nothing.

- - - Updated - - -

A given amount of cable only has a certain bandwidth, so with enough demand speed slows down and additional cable is necessary. Sort of like how using more electricity means there is additional strain on the power grid, but one house isn't going to do enough to require another power plant to be built.

Except we're nowhere near capacity that ISPs have. It's a similar situation to what happens with mobile data. There is more than enough capacity, but companies can get away with charging more because people don't know that.

[Total Crica]

A given amount of cable only has a certain bandwidth, so with enough demand speed slows down and additional cable is necessary. Sort of like how using more electricity means there is additional strain on the power grid, but one house isn't going to do enough to require another power plant to be built.

But that doesn't answer "why would Cox say they WONT charge you based on usage if you consume THEIR content"? Nor does it answer why they charge for BOTH speed AND usage if its not THEIR content being used?

[Medusa Cascade]

Glad I get unlimited downloads here

[callipygoustp]

You can't over use a cable line, can you? I mean, if you could, why would Cox say they WONT charge you based on usage if you consume THEIR content on their cables?

Consumers are so pro-corporation these days that anything corporations do for profit is seen as the right thing to do.

[NED funded]

With the Trump administration coming in and the FCC chair changing, expect to see a lot more changes such as this, and more severe ones at that, because there won't be much of a recourse to fight it.

They actually plan to change net neutrality, how it will be changed its unclear.