Comcast Experimenting With Internet Data Limit
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NEW YORK (CBSMiami/AP) — Just three years after Comcast began offering unlimited service for home use, the nation's largest cable and broadband provider has begun charging extra for heavy data usage.
As more customers cut the cord on cable and turn to the internet for their TV-watching, Comcast has started implementing multiple strategies across the country with data caps to recoup their losses.
In the last few years, Comcast has experimented with certain markets like Nashville and Atlanta, capping data at 300 GB per month. For every 50 GB customers went over, they'd be charged an additional $10. Soon after, they rolled out a slower plan of 3 megabits per second that included a $5 credit each month for using 5 GB or less, but charged $1 extra for each gigabyte over 5 GB.
Starting this month, Comcast has offered South Florida an unlimited data option for an extra $30 a month. In Atlanta, it's $35. That gives more options to data users who don't want to stretch for the company's Gigabit Pro service, which launched earlier this year for extremely heavy downloaders.
All of this experimentation comes as the company announced Tuesday they had lost 48,000 cable TV customers for the quarter. They did, however, add 320,000 internet subscribers and revenue rose more than 8 percent.
Data caps have been under scrutiny by federal regulators recently. In April, Comcast's $45 billion buyout of Time Warner Cable was denied due to fed concern that it would eventually undermine video rivals like Netflix and Hulu.
Comcast says the 300 GB cap lets users stream between 230 to 575 hours of video per month, taking into account whether the content is in high-definition or standard and streaming to your phone, tablet, computer or service box.
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