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Not sure if this is the right place to put this, and apologies if this has been seen before, but... http://corporate.comcast.com/comcast-vo ... experience

tl;dr Comcast to be very, very slightly less of an arse. They're moving the 300GB data cap trials to 1TB at least (never been in an area with these implemented though).

That's encouraging for us Xfiniters. I know 300GB has been mentioned many times as the potential cap for all markets, but my own Usage Meter has always indicated that it is 250GB, if it were to be enforced. (Seattle area) Here's a current snip.

Good to know. I was mildly concerned about the potential cap (as we just switched to Comcast last fall), but a 1TB cap should put those concerns to rest.

They kinda had to. A standard connection of 100Mbps would eat through 300GB in under 7 hours... and looks like Comcast has 150Mbps as the $70 package, so less than 5 hours to blow through a monthly cap... Was as absurd as TWC's very brief trial of 5GB per month caps for base tier cable subscribers sometime around 2010.

1TB a month seems surprisingly reasonable. Could fit the entire blu-ray collection of Star Trek TNG into that and still have room leftover.

Kougar wrote:

They kinda had to. A standard connection of 100Mbps would eat through 300GB in under 7 hours... and looks like Comcast has 150Mbps as the $70 package...

You must live in an area with competition, because here in Chicago $70 would get you the 25mbit package at $67.

The Egg wrote:

Kougar wrote:

They kinda had to. A standard connection of 100Mbps would eat through 300GB in under 7 hours... and looks like Comcast has 150Mbps as the $70 package...

You must live in an area with competition, because here in Chicago $70 would get you the 25mbit package at $67.

I can't speak for Kougar but Comcast has similar prices in my area and there is basically no competition. 100mbit/6mbit Comcast package is $70-80 here. The "competition" is 12mbit/768kbit DSL for the same price. Makes for a pretty easy choice. Comcast has better pings and is generally more reliable too, and both of them have terrible customer service.

travbrad wrote:

The Egg wrote:

Kougar wrote:

They kinda had to. A standard connection of 100Mbps would eat through 300GB in under 7 hours... and looks like Comcast has 150Mbps as the $70 package...

You must live in an area with competition, because here in Chicago $70 would get you the 25mbit package at $67.

I can't speak for Kougar but Comcast has similar prices in my area and there is basically no competition. 100mbit/6mbit Comcast package is $70-80 here. The "competition" is 12mbit/768kbit DSL for the same price. Makes for a pretty easy choice. Comcast has better pings and is generally more reliable too, and both of them have terrible customer service.

I'm talking straight non-promotional pricing without any sort of bundle. The last rate card I have for my area (Chicago, 07/2015) lists:

$67 - 25mbit (Performance)
$79 - 75mbit (Blast)
$115 - 105mbit
$130 - 150mbit


Granted, my prices are slightly outdated, but I can't see them cutting the price almost in half. I think you guys are looking at promotional pricing.

Charter now Comcast’s biggest nationwide rival
http://arstechnica.com/business/2016/05 ... customers/

hugs 100mbps unlimited for $50 from rogers (canada)

[quote="MOSFET"]That's encouraging for us Xfiniters. I know 300GB has been mentioned many times as the potential cap for all markets, but my own Usage Meter has always indicated that it is 250GB, if it were to be enforced. (Seattle area) Here's a current snip.


You can consider yourself lucky. Locally we've been under caps since 2008 starting out with the 250GB cap and then moving to 300GB. Moving to 1TB will be a nice change though I'm sure people will start to run up against it with the move to 4K streaming. Even Youtube has some vids running at 4K. I've managed to come close to the cap quite often thanks to streaming and game downloads so I'm happy about the change though I would prefer no cap.

(Of course there would always be some sort of cap because they aren't going to let someone use their connection 24/7 at full speed month after month but that's the sort of thing that anyone can see would cause issues.)

The Egg wrote:

travbrad wrote:

I can't speak for Kougar but Comcast has similar prices in my area and there is basically no competition. 100mbit/6mbit Comcast package is $70-80 here. The "competition" is 12mbit/768kbit DSL for the same price. Makes for a pretty easy choice. Comcast has better pings and is generally more reliable too, and both of them have terrible customer service.

I'm talking straight non-promotional pricing without any sort of bundle. The last rate card I have for my area (Chicago, 07/2015) lists:

$67 - 25mbit (Performance)
$79 - 75mbit (Blast)
$115 - 105mbit
$130 - 150mbit


Granted, my prices are slightly outdated, but I can't see them cutting the price almost in half. I think you guys are looking at promotional pricing.

I am paying slightly under $80 for 100mbit where I live. I've had this cable internet for almost 15 years (it wasn't even originally Comcast, but Comcast bought that company) so definitely no promotional pricing. I only have internet through them too so no "triple play" savings either. FWIW I do have my own modem and router which I think they charge $10-15/mo for if you rent from them (everyone should do this IMO, it pays for itself very quickly)

Also this 100mbit internet was 75mbit less than a year ago before I got a free upgrade, which would put it right around the same price you quoted. They have just gradually upgraded the speeds over the years. 15 years ago when I first got this cable internet my speeds were 1.5mbit/256kbit, and I couldn't believe the internet could be so fast.

The Egg wrote:

Kougar wrote:

They kinda had to. A standard connection of 100Mbps would eat through 300GB in under 7 hours... and looks like Comcast has 150Mbps as the $70 package...

You must live in an area with competition, because here in Chicago $70 would get you the 25mbit package at $67.

I didn't give the website a zip code and Comcast doesn't provide service locally (thank god), so I assumed it was their general pricing. Wasn't some special promo price, just the base rate on the website. TWC offers 100Mbps here for roughly the same price.

travbrad wrote:

I am paying slightly under $80 for 100mbit where I live....
...Also this 100mbit internet was 75mbit less than a year ago before I got a free upgrade, which would put it right around the same price you quoted. They have just gradually upgraded the speeds over the years...

Ah. For some reason I originally read your post as saying 150mbit. Is it actually listed as "Extreme 105" on your bill, or are you just paying for 75mbit (Blast) and getting better than advertised speeds? One of the few good things I can say about Comcast is that I generally see 15-20% better than rated speeds in actual usage. If you're only paying for Blast, then that explains the price.

Kougar wrote:

I didn't give the website a zip code and Comcast doesn't provide service locally (thank god), so I assumed it was their general pricing. Wasn't some special promo price, just the base rate on the website. TWC offers 100Mbps here for roughly the same price.

Na, that would be promotional pricing. Comcast doesn't list base pricing anywhere on their website except in hidden fine print. Maybe. The whole thing is an endless loop of smoke and mirrors. They've deliberately made it next to impossible to see what you'll actually pay, or to compare packages apples-to-apples. A few of their offerings aren't listed at all online (such as the one I'm using right now), all of which are reasons that I occasionally go into a physical location and ask for a rate card (a fold-out pamphlet of all their offerings and actual prices). They're required to keep these on hand and provide them to customers when requested, but it still turns into an argument nearly every time. Either they play stupid, or try to tell me they don't provide them. Lately I've taken to bringing the old one with me, so I can shove it in their face and say "This is what I'm talking about. I got this right here. At this location."

It probably doesn't help that I'm mad before I even get there, because I'm expecting the resistance.

I pay $25/month, but only because I argued them down on a 10/2 plan (for a few months anyway). And since I'm by myself, that's all I actually need. I'll kill the internet plan when I leave for the summer, then try and act like a new customer when I sign up again in the fall.

Honestly, they've been pretty reliable, connection-wise (although my IPv6 disappeared after an outage a while back, not sure whose fault that is). The local branch is actually pretty decent to deal with, but I'm also in a semi-rural part of Oregon (and the office is a few miles out of town in a quiet area), so I'll probably go there to argue about pricing next time. Took a long time on the phone when I last did it.

I forgot entirely about Charter trying to buy TWC, looks like the deal has already been greenlit by regulators. That frames the 1TB data cap in an entirely different light, because Charter made a deal to with the FCC to not impose any data caps at all. I wonder if their deal with the FCC gives them the wriggle room to throttle customers above a data threshold though...