Comcast Usage Soars 34 Percent To 200GB a Month, Pushing Users Closer To Data Cap (arstechnica.com) 144
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Comcast said its customers' monthly Internet data usage increased 34 percent between Q1 2018 and Q1 2019, rising to a median of 200GB. The rise is being driven by streaming video, and, in particular, 4K video, Comcast said. The median customer is using only about 20 percent of Comcast's 1TB data cap, which is enforced in 27 of Comcast's 39 states. But the rise in median usage almost certainly means that more Comcast customers are exceeding the 1TB cap.
OpenVault research on the U.S. cable industry found [in January] that 4.1 percent of households were using at least 1TB a month, up from 2.1 percent the previous year. That same research found that U.S. cable Internet customers were using an average of 268.7GB per month. Comcast used to reveal the percentage of its customers that exceed its data cap, but the company seems to have stopped making that data public. In late 2013, when the cap was 300GB, Comcast was saying that only 2 percent of its customers used more than that. By late 2015, that was up to 8 percent.
OpenVault research on the U.S. cable industry found [in January] that 4.1 percent of households were using at least 1TB a month, up from 2.1 percent the previous year. That same research found that U.S. cable Internet customers were using an average of 268.7GB per month. Comcast used to reveal the percentage of its customers that exceed its data cap, but the company seems to have stopped making that data public. In late 2013, when the cap was 300GB, Comcast was saying that only 2 percent of its customers used more than that. By late 2015, that was up to 8 percent.
Re: BS (Score:4, Informative)
No, it doesnâ(TM)t - the âoemore users are exceeding the 1TB limitâ claim isnâ(TM)t coming from Comcast, it's the Authorâ(TM)s invented claim.
The median customer is using only about 20 percent of Comcast's 1TB data cap, which is enforced in 27 of Comcast's 39 states. But the rise in median usage almost certainly means that more Comcast customers are exceeding the 1TB cap.
Median means half customers use less, half use more - the real news is that half of Comcast users in the area discussed use less than 1/5th of the data they are entitled to.
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BUY A BUSINESS ACCOUNT. It's only slightly more expensive, has priority (and more competent) support, AND NO FSCKING CAPS.
Comcast won't sell a business account at many residential addresses. I've tried.
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I've got Comcast Business and live at a residential address. Had no issues getting it.
Alexa and Friends (Score:1)
Must be all of those Alexa smart speakers and their ilk given as Christmas gifts.
[Raise Hand] That's how we got ours this year.
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What a fucking waste (Score:1, Troll)
People could've done so much good with the
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Re: What a fucking waste (Score:1)
You do realize this is social media, you fucking moron?
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More like antisocial media, you insensitive clod!
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Social media refers to sites that are mainly about social interaction. That is - sharing things with a social circle. That's expanded a bit, but generally it means users subscribing to posts by *someone*, not about a topic or interest. Not all message boards / forums are "social media" as the term is commonly understood. Usually it refers to things like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. Those have a different use case than something like Reddit or Slashdot, which are mostly strangers commenting on a arti
Re:What a fucking waste (Score:5, Interesting)
The people who are using it for high bandwidth video and other useless shit that you hate is actually helping you in considerable ways you may not even realize.
Gamers? Demand absolutely lowest latency. Guess what? Tons of scientific applications require that too, but the demand simply wasn't there in just that one community. Thanks gamers!
Streamers? Demand a lot of bandwidth. Guess what? Tons of scientific applications require a fuckton of bandwidth too! Do you think we have 100gbps links nowadays because of scientific researchers on the internet? No. They exist for transmitting large amounts of video very quickly, such as by Netflix. And who benefits? Scientific researchers who also need the bandwidth!
"useless" consumer demand is enabling you and your rants, just remember that.
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Re: What a fucking waste (Score:1)
No, YOU are missing the point. In your weird rant about how the net is going to waste, you have contributed nothing. You have wasted bandwidth. You're a hypocrite. It doesn't matter if after this you might go jack off to scientific literature. Maybe those guys who watch Netflix do too. Most of them aren't in here posting bullshit judgment though. Go do something useful.
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you know, you're absolutely right, instead of using their connections to watch TV, they could be beating their children or making bombs!
Just because they use their time for leisure doesn't mean they aren't contributing. Sometimes you need to relax.
Re:What a fucking waste (Score:4, Interesting)
I don't need that much bandwidth. I read text. I look at images. I'm happy with 1 MB both ways. I understand what you're saying, but you're missing the point. Yay, we have fast connections, but I can count the number of people I know who use them for something positive/useful/additive to humanity on one hand.
How about this for the point. 1.54 mb /second is a T1. Without us that would run you around $10,000 USD every month. Ten thousand dollars just to post your shit posts to slashdot today.
The fact you don't pay that means you are an ungrateful hypocritical jerk.
You know you can always just send that money directly to me since you seem so desperate for the Internet returning to the old ways without us streamers and gamers.
Then you can get back to your pastime of "important" internet usages, such as shitting on others "unimportant" pastimes that don't exactly match yours, using the social media that is slashdot so you can continue to claim you never use social media in your posts to social media.
For the record, yes I am calling your pastime a waste, just to make sure you personally classify this post as "important" usage of the Internet just like yours.
Because naturally you are counting yourself on your one hand, all while making posts to insult others Internet usage who ultimately made it not cost you ten grand to do so, right?
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"The people are hungry for more than just food. They crave distractions. And if we don't provide them they'll create their own. And their distractions are likely to end with us being torn to pieces..." -- Game of Thrones
Even the Romans knew the value of the circus. For all that you think you are smart, people 2000 years ago had more insight into the basic human condition than you do.
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Re: What a fucking waste (Score:2)
Half of Comcast subscribers use less than 20% of their 1TB data cap... what data hogs? The onesComcast wonâ(TM)t quantify and the author straight-up invented?
The median customer is using only about 20 percent of Comcast's 1TB data cap, which is enforced in 27 of Comcast's 39 states. But the rise in median usage almost certainly means that more Comcast customers are exceeding the 1TB cap.
Re:What a fucking waste (Score:5, Insightful)
I am not a scientist or gamer. I just don't want my bill to go up because of bandwidth hogs.
And it won't. Your bill will go up due to lack of competition. People in other countries pay much less for much more, even if you only compare people who live in cities. Hell, even if you only compare people who live in cities in the US with people who live anywhere in most developed countries.
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Re: What a fucking waste (Score:1)
Re: What a fucking waste (Score:2)
Youâ(TM)re claiming that a culture that embraces âoehonor killingsâ and hurling homosexuals off buildings views abortion as murder. Seriously?
Re: What a fucking waste (Score:2)
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If that's really the best you can do, then congratulations. You should be proud.
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Amen to that shit. 'Idiocracy' here we fucking come. Who knew it was actually a fucking documentary, huh.
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The asshole ISPs have turned the Internet into a cable TV channel. It totally bastardized the dream of a network of peers sharing ideas and information. Now it is so morons can plop their asses down on the sofa for hours and zone out on commercial TV garbage.
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Video is such a waste. I live in Seattle so I'm still limited to 56k dial-up. That's much faster than any human can read so faster is a waste.
Re: What a fucking waste (Score:1)
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The media conglomerates won't rest until they've turned the Net into TV. I'm starting to think we were foolish to believe that there could have been any other outcome.
Re: What a fucking waste (Score:2)
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And what would you have them stream, o Lord and Master?
I used to think like you. Then I realized that people will be people, and there's nothing I can do about it. Now it doesn't bother me.
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As somebody who's been around since the beginning of the Net, it's a real shame to see that all of this network usage is being used up by people streaming garbage video
I haven't been around since the beginning of the net, but I have been around since the beginning of the web, and I for one am pleased that we have so much video on the internets now. The only things I'm not happy about are that there is so little competition in most regions, and that the USA has fallen so very far behind in quality of access. (With actual competition, I wouldn't care about NN; we need more competition for other reasons as well, so I see that as the real problem, not NN.)
Re: so what? (Score:2)
Thatâ(TM)s the authors inference, nothing more, since Comcast provided only one statistic/fact - half of subscribers use less than 20% of their 1 TB data cap, the other half of subscribers use more.
The median customer is using only about 20 percent of Comcast's 1TB data cap, which is enforced in 27 of Comcast's 39 states. But the rise in median usage almost certainly means that more Comcast customers are exceeding the 1TB cap.
That a greater number of subscribers are exceeding 1 TB is a guess inventedby the author to ensure a click-bait headline, nothing more. It maybe true, it may not -the numbers Comcast provided prove nothing of the sort.
Caps? (Score:2)
Data caps simply aren't scaling with bandwidth.
My own provider would let me upload 150 hours of 30mbps video before hitting my 2TB cap. I'll never reach it.
Re: Caps? (Score:2)
There is no need for caps to rise, half the subscribers use less than 20% of data cap - why donâ(TM)t we wait until eighty percent of users exceed one-half their data cap before we talk about there being a problem?
Stream 4k Video (Score:2)
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I think there are a variety of other factors at play besides resolution though. The Over The Air display on The Tivo is 1080i and the picture quality is dramatically better that of the Amazon Fire's 1080p, but roughly comparable IMHO to the Tivo 4k from Netflix.
The bottom line is that there
Hit the cap every month.. (Score:1)
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My family of 5 streams a lot of Netflix and with frequent video game updates, we consistently go over the cap and recently switch Netflix to low quality just to keep the bill manageable.
This is the problem with streaming and the fact that no one can watch together if it at least they local cached (a 1TB drive would easily suffice to cache for a month) the movie that everyone watched but at different times would be far less use on bandwidth. Then there is if you have children the fact they can watch the same movie over and over a downloaded version is far better for the bandwidth ask the parents how many times the children watched Frozen? Let it Go is still going. and the sequel is about t
show your work (Score:2)
How about backing that statement up with some data? "Almost certainly" is pretty meaningless in this context, because it's possible to get to a median of 200gb without a single person going over 1TB.
You could also say that it's "almost certain" that most Comcast users just use 5gb per month but there's one guy in suburban Dallas who's rocking 5 zetabytes per month or some shit.
If you're gonna write a
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You could also say that it's "almost certain" that most Comcast users just use 5gb per month but there's one guy in suburban Dallas who's rocking 5 zetabytes per month or some shit.
Except that would result in an average, not a median.
Re: show your work (Score:2)
A 200 GB update is normal? No, it is not, check your numbers again...
Re: Especially since Comcast Canda is out there (Score:2)
The author invented the claim, Comcast gave no indication how many users exceed the 1 TB cap, all they said was that half of customers donâ(TM)t even exceed 20 percent of monthly cap.
..and the trap is ready to be sprung! (Score:4, Interesting)
I wonder how many gigabytes the OTA broadcast antenna on my house has received this month? Oh that's right it costs me nothing after installing it!
Re: ..and the trap is ready to be sprung! (Score:1)
Hey, I'm one of those streams (who also uses my connection for work and has a wife and 2 kids), but I also have an OTA antenna.
We regularly approach or exceed 1TB of data. OTA helps some with the entertainment part BUT where we are you get 12 virtual channels.
Data wise it's used between youtube videos to DIY things or when I'm stuck on an unexpectes issue to my son watching documentaries and other historical/informational showd and movies with a mix of entertainment thrown in (when not at one of his sports
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Since that's incoming traffic that's not initiated on your end, and assuming your broadband router is configured correctly and is 'stealthed' properly (i.e., 'closed' ports don't respond with a packet that indicates the port is 'closed' -- which would indicate it's a an active IP address, and also it doesn't return ICMP
Re: ..and the trap is ready to be sprung! (Score:2)
Cord cutters use OTA, you get that right?
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I know this isn't popular to say (Score:2)
Basically, the regulatory pressure is off of them. Which to be fair to Trump is exactly what he said he'd do. It just so happens that those regulations were helpful to a large number of nerds. Seems like everybody hates regulations until
Re: ..and the trap is ready to be sprung! (Score:2)
I think you have some unresolved issues, best seek the help of a professional.
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You're hilarious.
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It's a one-time expense, though, not a monthly bill, to have one installed, if you need to pay someone to install it. Highly recommend.
I’m nowhere near the threshold (Score:2)
But I’ve noticed that, lately, sites like Netflix and Crunchyroll seem to suffer about one long freeze-up per episode when streaming over Comcast lately. Dos t happen if I pull them in from a VPN connection to my work network...
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Support (Score:5, Insightful)
When the network you have is not longer supporting the needs of the commnunity time for a new network.
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The FBI Conducting an investigation isn't spying, it's them doing their job
data cap (Score:2)
What's this cap thing I keep reading about. As a European I have trouble translating it. Some form of extra service?
Re: data cap (Score:1)
COMCRAP (Score:2)
FUCK COMCRAP
January I start getting pop-ups telling me we were over 900Gps (1TB cap). This is not possible as we were only a week into the billing month. The CS person that was lucky enough to take my call was checking & and the "heavy day was Saturday, you went through 100Gps". How does that equal 900? She got a bit flustered & pointed out that I don't RENT THEIR FUCKING X1 BOX (ok she didn't say fucking) so they can't "analyze the data". She referred me to "Internet Security" which I guess mea
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You could be right. However, it seems that with our normal use (same as always, we are fairly habitual on our usage with no 4K) we are back to 500-600G (thanks for the correction) per month. I'm unsure what I could analyze after the fact. However 900G in around 4 days when the "heaviest day" was 100G just doesn't add up.
Regardless, it's still fuck comcrap. I could spend most of the morning writing what I've gone through with that company & it's still going on. All I can do is wait for a competitor.
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Cord Cutter Here (Score:1)
Cord cutter here, I barely hit the 1TB cap, here's how
1. OTA antenna for stale static commercial laden content, with a home-build DVR.
2. Netflix Streaming for good shows
3. Amazon prime, since I need it anyway to get cheap chinese crap in my hands faster.
4. Netflix DVD Service - This get ripped right away automatically, and I watch it when Its convenient for me.
5. Libraries - Again, rent, rip, store, watch.
6. Used DVDs - rip, re-sell, profit!
7. PS3 for Games, since I don't want to pay to play, no XBONE, or P
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Monthly fight (Score:2)
Larger family here and we fight the 1TB cab almost every month. I have to keep an eye on the last week of the billing period. If they would up it to 1.5 I wouldn't ever need to check.
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I pull up bandwidth usage for my daughters and we discuss it together, basically name and shame the high users. They are supposed to limit their video usage to a certain threshold anyways, so this roots them out when they need to be doing other stuff.
Lack of competition engenders abusive suppliers (Score:2)
Simple enough. Data caps are rare in competitive markets.
I move several TB/month on my 80Mbps connection whilst paying about $45/month.
Competition is a good thing
Re: People don't know any better (Score:2)
Re: People don't know any better (Score:2)
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