MARCH 2021 PCWorld 29West Virginia, and parts of North Carolina and
Ohio, as well as the District of Columbia.
The suspension apparently has come
about because of a deal (go.pcworld.com/
d1st) struck between the ISP and the state of
Pennsylvania, which delays the data caps until
July. “We’re pausing our data plan in our
Northeastern markets because it is new there
and we are providing them with additional
time to become familiar with the new plan,” a
Comcast spokesperson told PCWorld via
email. “Customers in these markets now have
six months to understand their data usage
and the earliest a customer may see charges
is August ’21.”
Comcast, like many ISPs we began
tracking in 2020 (go.pcworld.com/tk20),
suspended its data caps for several months
around March, when the United States went
into lockdown because of the pandemic.
Though states like California were always
subject to data caps, Comcast’s Northeastern
customers were not, presumably because
Verizon’s competing FiOS service offered
unlimited data. When Comcast reinstated the
data caps on July 1, 2020, the Northeastern
states also fell victim.
Disclosure: I’m a Comcast Xfinity customer
myself, and I exceeded the company’s
broadband data cap in December. My kids
are still distance-learning via Zoom; I’m still
working full-time from home and attempting
to conduct some form of social life through
Twitter, Zoom, Facebook, and whatever
video games I can download and play with
friends or my kids.
All of these activities require data, whose
quantity I managed carefully through
Comcast’s Xfinity app. I still exceeded it by a
few gigabytes in December, and I
immediately started looking for alternatives in
the San Francisco Bay Area. (If Sonic ever
manages to extend its unlimited broadband a
few more miles, I’m in business.) For now,
however, there are millions and millions of
customers like me suffering through the same
pandemic, but without the same data-cap
break those 14 states and D.C. are getting.
“Slowing” data, as carriers like AT&T or
T-Mobile do as you exceed a “soft” data cap,
seems like an acceptable compromise. It’s a
slight slap on the wrist that will still let you
conduct a Zoom call, but you’ll feel it on your
next video game download.
At least Comcast’s Internet Essentials
program won’t be subject to the caps.
Comcast also said this week that it was
increasing the speed of the $9.95/month
Internet Essentials program to 50Mbps for
downloads, after an ex-employee launched a
viral tweet (go.pcworld.com/vral) in January
that claimed the previous 25Mbps plan
wasn’t nearly enough.
Data caps aren’t necessary, but they’re a
policy Comcast can enforce because of the
lack of competition. What’s really unfair is the
dual standard. If Comcast is going to suspend
data caps, it should do so for everyone.