Comcast, which delayed its planned data caps and penalties on customers in the Northeast, has now abandoned the plan altogether.
Last week, Haverhill Rep. Andy X. Vargas firmly stated that Comcast told him directly that “they have no intention of reintroducing the data caps at all, which is a huge win.” Light Reading confirmed this claim when speaking to a Comcast official who said, “We don’t have plans to implement our data usage plan in our Northeast markets in 2022 at this time.”
When the COVID-19 virus first appeared in the U.S., many internet companies promised to waive their data caps and increase internet speeds. However, as time went on, there were internet service providers that weren’t feeling so generous anymore.
At the beginning of 2021, Comcast’s Xfinity Internet rolled out a nationwide data cap for the first time. They then delayed their data cap in their Northeast region until June when there was pushback from legislators.
The 1.2 Terabyte (TB) (1229 GB) Internet Data Plan not only limits households to 1.2 terabytes of data per month during a critical time where remote employees need internet, but it also greatly affects low income households. Comcast’s plan to charge those without unlimited plans $10 for every 50 gigabytes they use over the 1.2 terabyte limit, up to a maximum of $100 a month, would be a clear disruption of people’s lives as well as their bank accounts.
On January 1, Vargas, Rep. Dave Rogers, and other area legislators joined in a letter to Comcast urging them to terminate its plan and “reconsider any future attempts at imposing a data cap or any perversion of the principles of net neutrality in Massachusetts.”
The internet service provider agreed and pushed the delay even further to next year. As of now, they have absolutely no plans of activating data caps and usage-based broadband policies in its Northeast division in 2022. However, we have no idea if Comcast will revisit the plan for 2023 and beyond.
Comcast’s data usage policies are still active in its Central and West divisions. In July 2020, the company restored and updated its policies, increasing the monthly limit to 1.2 terabytes which is 200 GB more than the 1TB limit that was set before the first COVID-19 outbreak.