Comcast has once again decided to give some of its customers a break from their data limits, Ars Technica reports. Faced with everincreasing pressure from customers and legislators, the internet service provider has decided not to impose any data limit overrun charges on its Northeast customers until 2022.
“We recognize that our data plan was new to our customers in the Northeast, and while only a very small percentage of customers require additional data, we are giving them more time to familiarize themselves with the new plan,” Comcast said in an announcement yesterday.
The latest change affects Xfinity customers in Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Carolina, New York, Pennsylvania, Vermont, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia.
If Comcast had continued with its policy, Northeast Xfinity customers should have pay $ 10 extra for every 50 GB of data they transitioned after they hit their 1.2 TB limit, unless they subscribed to an unlimited plan from last month. Those costs would be up to $ 100 per month.
Earlier this month, Comcast had said it wouldn’t start charging data charges to customers in those states until July 2021 after negotiations with Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh ShapiroThe state of Massachusetts passed legislation last month temporary ban ISPs like Comcast from imposing data caps on customers in the state until the Covid-19 pandemic is over.
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Comcast recently too increased the speed of its Internal Essential package from 25/3 Mbps to 50/5 Mbps, starting next month, in response to the response from parents, teachers and students who said the previous speed was not enough for low-income households to virtually go to school. It seems the pushback has worked to get the ISP to treat its customers with a little more compassion, but the work it took to closing the digital divide is far from over.
As a reminder, the rest of Comcast’s Xfinity customers in non-Northeastern states not only have to worry about data caps, but they are still overcharging even though the covid-19 pandemic hits them as well. It has been noticed time and again by organizations such as Electronic Frontier Foundation that data limits do not exist to manage network capacity. They are there to charge customers more money, whether that comes in the form of additional fees or to convince customers to upgrade to a more expensive plan.
As of now, Comcast hasn’t said anything about what it will do when the rolls are around in January 2022.