Comcast's Usage Cap: Goodbye Unlimited Broadband Use!

Comcast announced a change to its broadband user policy on Thursday according to which all residential customers will comply with a 250 gigabyte per month data limit starting October 1.

Whether the limit is set up high or low is controversial but sooner or later consumers will definitely feel the restriction. Comcast didn’t specify if there are charges for going over the 250GB limit, after rumors in May according to which it could charge $15 per 10GB of excess.

As some righteously point out, the first rule of the Internet age is you can't and shouldn't legislate data usage and it won’t be long until we see this move backfiring on Comcast. The move could cost the cable company hundreds of thousands of customers. It’s only natural for customers not to be happy with a company that threatens them with a call from the Comcast Customer Security Assurance (CCSA) group if they go over the 250 Gbyte limit.

However, the main issue at stake here is the precedent this decision will create. As Sanford C. Bernstein analyst Craig Moffett highlights - “While the usage level specified is high, it is now finite…. A line has been crossed.” Yes, so much for the unlimited broadband use. This could mark the beginning of a bleak era.

Yet, traditional wireless networks are quickly improving, and more and more people now access the Internet using mobile devices such as the iPhone being charged approximately $30 per month. This is rising competition which translates into consumers with more alternatives regarding their broadband provider which translates further into Comcast and other companies alike being forced to loosen their usage caps in the future or at least to maintain them at today’s levels for long.

It’s to be (sadly) expected that other broadband service providers will soon adopt the same limiting policy. For instance, in Texas, Time Warner Cable is already testing usage-based, or tiered broadband pricing. Two other major providers, AT&T and Verizon may shortly find themselves inspired by Time Warner as some experts predict.