Comcast trying to make me play video games less?

Many of you might know about the Comcast data cap... I didn't until several months ago. When I had roommates I hit the 300GB limit once when EA access was free for a week and I downloaded UFC, PvZ, and other games. I've now moved and live solo, but this is the second month I'm about to hit the 300GB limit. It makes no sense, when it was four of us for years it happened once and now that I live alone I'm about to hit it twice in 3 months.

I kinda think they're just making stuff up. The rep on the phone said they couldn't provide any proof to where the data went - "we don't keep track of that", yeah right. I've now downloaded 3rd party software to keep track of usage, but it's only per each computer it's installed on, it's not going to count the X1. I pretty much just Youtube, listen to podcasts, Netflix, Hulu, Xbox Live, and sometimes Steam but not lately. This is just a scam for people in our demographic who have left cable, because for $30 more a month I would get unlimited data (like it's a fucking cell phone plan).

Trying to budget your internet usage is idiotic, a step backwards, and could hurt the economy. Since it could make people use the internet less - I now spend less time on Youtube, listening to podcasts, and I almost hesitated to download Division's 25gb beta - not to mention when games get patches/updates. I know there's a petition on Change.org (link below), but the government should step in. If not them then it seems likes Microsoft, Valve, Netflix, etc would pursue legal action. I'm in the Atlanta area and there's just Comcast and AT&T for the most part. AT&T is slow, like 20mbps while Comcast is like 75mbps. Luckily Google Fiber is supposed to start here this year or next. That's the real problem - a lack of competition. Comcast needs a rival like DC vs Marvel, MS vs Sony, Samsung vs Apple, the multiple cell phone service providers, and so on. They keep each other on their toes.

Anyone else running into this problem and any tips?

https://www.change.org/p/comcast-remove-300gb-data-cap-limit-from-all-internet-plans

I've used two of the three "courtesy overages" they give you, so I've gotten a pretty good feel for when I'm going to be close to going over.

The ever-expanding sizes of games doesn't help. I downloaded Just Cause 3 at the beginning of the month, and that was somewhere north of 40GB. One of my previous overages was thanks to GTAV, which weighed in at 52GB, I think? I got the little "you've used 90% of your data" warning earlier this week, so I'm waiting until February to buy/download The Witness and Rise of the Tomb Raider. Those will likely put me in danger of going over the cap next month.

All that said, in a month where I don't download a huge new game, I have no problem staying below the cap. We turned off cable years ago, so we watch a TON of Netflix and Amazon streaming, and the cap is never a concern.

It's frustrating and irritating, but once I use that third courtesy overage, the charge for going over doesn't seem TOO unreasonable to me. $10 for 50GB? I can afford that.

I lived in Augusta a few years ago when the 300GB cap went into effect there and it seriously changed how I used the internet. My usage was about the same as yours with a good mix of streaming, downloading games and just misc use. I was always nearing the cap by the 20th of the month, or earlier if I did not watch it. I am glad I no longer live in a capped market as the bandwidth needs have skyrocketed in the last two years if you are downloading games. With the new generation of consoles, and thus their PC ports, we have seen a massive increase in download sizes for the games and patches. Hell, it is hard to find a newly released game (graphically intensive of course) under 40GB and most patches come in at several GB as well.

Like you, I used an app on my desktop computer to track my usage, but found tracking other stuff such as consoles or tablets more challenging. Some wireless routers have a bandwidth monitoring feature, but that is an additional cost that may not be justified. I used the Comcast account page, and its annoying pop-ups when you are close to the limit, to also see what they are tracking for my usage. Also, if you have a good deal of data usage unaccounted for, check your wireless security to ensure nobody else is using your connection and disable auto updating on steam, consoles, etc. Hell, my downloads tab would be full of games waiting on updates because I did not play the game currently and had to budget my data and could not 'afford' to download the patch that month.

It was an incredibly frustrating experience and it is deplorable that Comcast was able to pull it off after their anti-competitive practices positioned them as a sole provider in many markets. I have lived in three states since then and the caps have definitely been factored into my choosing of where to live based on the ISPs available which, in my mind, is just ridiculous. It is also frustrating because I love digital copies of games and prefer them for the convenience, but with the caps I was seeking out disc copies just to stay under the cap. That is, if the game is actually on the disc and was not just a download code (fallout 4).

For me, it's more the principle of how evil, greedy, and stupid can they be - not the cost. They're losing millions because people are getting rid of cable boxes, so now they're trying to screw over the internet. There shouldn't be a cap and if there is one, it should be a number that's so high only a pirate is going to cross it. Treating internet bandwidth like it's water, gas, or power makes no sense. We shouldn't accept something that's unacceptable. Hopefully AT&T gets it speeds up and Google gets their internet going soon, since Google actually wants us to use the internet unlike Comcast.

If you do a Google search for unlimited comcast internet you'll find a page that offers it for an extra $30 a month on top of your regular bill. I did it to save money and I have. You have to call them to enable it but look into it if you're still having trouble keeping under the cap.

Be thankful you're not in Canada or Australia. I have a 400GB cap now in Canada (unlimited is available, but similar to the extra $30 Comcast charges), but fortunately my ISP doesn't count any bandwidth used between 2am and 8am. I schedule my Steam updates and other big downloads for that time. Australia was way worse. I was paying almost the same amount as I do in Canada for a 100GB cap and 10mbps (I was not in a major city).

Competition also doesn't necessarily help if all of the competitors offer almost exactly the same service. Canada has three major national carriers, and several regional carriers, but its still expensive or capped on all of them. I wouldn't quite call it collusion, but it's not far off.

That's not to say that Comcast isn't a terrible company abusing its power, it probably is. Caps suck everywhere. They aren't even very effective at reducing peak usage (which is the only usage that matters), but it must be enough to justify the minimal cost of implementing caps.

Google Fibre sounds like a dream, and it makes me sad that something like that will probably never make it to Canada.

This is what you do, get an Amazon Prime account, buy physical copies of the games and pre-order them to get 20% off. You can have a lower Internet package, the money you save with the lower cost of the package, the 20% off and the free shipping should be significant enough to buy even more games.

Bandwidth in the United States is kind of a problem so while a cap is shitty, I can understand why they would do that. Money has a lot to do with it, sure, but we also lack the infrastructure necessary for the bandwidth we require. That's one of the reasons why Google Fiber expanding is such a great thing. They're building that infrastructure that should have been in place years ago. This is also the reason why internet speeds are so slow and expensive in the US compared other 1st world countries. Hopefully the FCC will actually do their damn jobs and enforce net neutrality which will help other companies expand and build new infrastructure with them. Comcast could do that too, but they have little financial incentive to do it so they don't.

Have you wondered why Comcast just bumped up their speeds without a price increase over the last year? Because they're afraid of Google Fiber taking their market share, that's why!

First thing i'd check is if someone is stealing your wifi? Second if you stream netflix a lot you'd be surprised how fast you'll hit that 300gb, well if you watch in HD anyway.

90% of pc games will be steam codes in a wrapper though...I think i've heard even some Xbox and ps4 games have just been download codes now.

@deathstriker: I just can't bring myself to get that angry about it. You'll never see my jumping for joy about Comcast, but the bottom line is that they are a business trying to make a profit even as people are turning off their cable subscriptions in favor of online services. 300GB is, by many accounts, more than adequate for the vast majority of their customers. Why wouldn't they charge extra for those that go over? It seems more than fair to me that they give you three free overages and then only charge a reasonable fee (IMO) for going over what seems to be a reasonable cap (again, IMO).

It's not fair when you're paying the same fee for something while the quality/limit of it is heavily hampered and lowered. Not to mention it's area specific, I have to watch my internet usage like I'm in some communist or bootleg country (or give into their scheme and pay $30 extra a month). While my friend who also uses Comcast doesn't have a limit just because he has a different zip code. I'd like to see proof that using more bandwidth is making them bleed money, I'd like to see proof that 300gb is a fair number, and I'd like to see them provide a real usage tool to say where the internet is going, because there are news stories out there about them getting caught making up overages. I'm not angry, I'm just using critical thinking and examining the situation rather than just taking their word. Your thought process reminds me of my friend who's a Hilary Clinton supporter (he's too easily accepting of the status quo).

Anyone know if Att has an upper tier unlimited plan? Without it my anime can never really be unlimited.

They used to not enforce the data cap. Looks like Im in a state that still doesnt thankfully.

Even if they aren't, most PC games will install some of the game off of the disc and download the rest, and then the patch.

I don't have a bandwidth cap here and never have, thank God. They're the worst, but even if everyone complains, they're not going to get rid of them until there's a widespread competitor that offers reasonable internet prices without capping it. Come on, Google! Well, with Google, they'll use all of that extra bandwidth everyone's getting to give them more ads, but there are ways to deal with ads.

Sounds sour. I hope we never get data caps here.

@deathstriker: Sorry if it's been mentioned, but if you need it, there's a pretty nice data monitoring thing on the Xbox One. It somewhere in the network settings, but it has like the monthly view, total view, etc. That's last time I checked... not sure how the dashboard update has affected it.

I'd hate to be American

@baconhound: I have a hard time understanding this perspective as an IT worker. They make HUGE profits off of their internet service packages. When you look at the costs of infrastructure, as well as the subsidies they have received there is no reason they shouldn't be able to provide much more bandwidth (bandwidth most likely costs them around 1 cent per GB, if that). I can assure you that people could use ten times as much bandwidth as their cap allows and they would barely even notice a dip in profits. They're just being cheap and trying to screw consumers in every way they can. 300 GB isn't really reasonable for a lot of people, if you share an internet connection with other people you'll burn through that just using Netflix. The issue is that Comcast isn't improving THEIR service and infrastructure to meet the needs of their customers.

Have you looked at the service that is provided in many European countries and Asia? Higher speeds, higher, if not unlimited caps, and lower prices. I really do find this as an interesting discussion since I think we're getting seriously screwed on all fronts by ISPs.

For years the meter on my account read 0 GB every month. God only knows where the bandwidth I used was being tracked, hopefully nowhere instead of another customer's account. Sadly it is working now and I come close to the 250GB cap.