Comcast Corporation announced on Wednesday that starting June 1, it will raise the limit of monthly data customers can use, from 300 gigabytes to a terabyte, or 1,000 gigabytes.

With the previous cap, 300 gigabytes, people could stream high-definition videos for five hours a day. But this was still too low for many users, who usually stream 4K videos or download games.

According to Jenckes, a terabyte is more than users could consume in a month, since he considers it as an enormous amount of data. Credit: Wired
According to Comcast’s executive VP for consumer services, a terabyte is more than users could consume in a month, since he considers it as an enormous amount of data. Credit: Wired

Now with the new limit, customers who exceed it will have to pay the regular cap of $200, plus $10 more for additional increments of 50 gigabytes, Philadelphia-based Comcast Corporation said. People that want to avoid it, can sign up for an unlimited plan for an additional $50 a month. Current customers in the trial are still paying $30 to $35 more for unlimited data.

Marcien Jenckes, executive vice president for consumer services at Comcast Cable, said that around 60 gigabytes of data are used in a month by a typical customer. Interestingly enough, most of them, around 99 percent do not come close to that amount.

Significant leap forward with the new Terabyte data limit set to be introduced on June 1

According to Jenckes, a terabyte is more than users could consume in a month, since he considers it as an enormous amount of data. Jenckes says that one terabyte is the same as streaming about 700 hours of high-definition video each month. The limit will only be reached soon if that amount of data is used by a large family that streams video and music on multiple devices simultaneously.

Jenckes believes that the Comcast costumers need this raise of limit, because the should be able to stream to stream, surf, game, download, or do whatever they want online, without worrying about getting charged more.

Comcast has been testing usage-based additional fees in some cities like Atlanta, Nashville, Miami and other markets, where Internet customers use a considered excessive amount of data. The test affected about 14 percent of its customers, which is why the company is now considering introducing it in more markets, Jenckes said.

Source: Engadget