In a case of "good news, bad news", Comcast, the largest residential Internet broadband provider in the US, has announced that it has decided to eliminate the 250 GB monthly broadband data caps for users of its Internet service. In a post on its official blog, Comcast said:
... we"ve decided to change our approach and replace our static 250 GB usage threshold with more flexible data usage management approaches that benefit consumers and support innovation and that will continue to ensure that all of our customers enjoy the best possible Internet experience over our high-speed data service.
That"s the good news. The bad news is that starting in the next few months, Comcast will begin trials on two different Internet data usage polices. Both of them will include overage fees that will add $10 per 50 GB to a customer"s monthly bill.
One trial version will simply extend all Internet subscribers to a 300 GB per month limit before the data overages are charged. The other plan will allow people to pay extra per month for the Blast and Extreme subscriber tiers which will increase the data limit.
For those Comcast users who won"t be picked to serve as trial subjects, Comcast does has some good news:
In markets where we are not trialing a new data usage management approach, we will suspend enforcement of our current usage cap as we transition to a new data usage management approach, although we will continue to contact the very small number of excessive users about their usage.
In other words, start your downloads. There"s no word if Comcast will be changing any of its Internet subscriber prices.