It looks like the Federal Communications Commission is going to launch an inquiry into data caps and usage-based pricing, which have long been in the ISP broadband offering arsenal and which have drawn criticism from Democrats and streamers like Netflix that root for as much consumer bandwidth as possible. 

FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel, usually no fan of data caps, said Thursday (June 15) that she was asking her fellow commissioners to approve a notice of inquiry into how broadband providers use data caps.

The way the FCC has framed some of the questions reveals the tenor of the inquiry. Rosenworcel said the FCC wants to “better understand why the use of data caps continues to persist despite increased broadband needs of consumers and providers’ demonstrated technical ability to offer unlimited data plans.”

Internet service providers have argued that usage-based business models help differentiate their services and manage bandwidth demands on capacity.

The caps were generally suspended by ISPs during COVID-19 given the dramatic rise in at-home work and learning. Rosenworcel suggests that the return of such caps after the COVID pandemic could cause harm to consumers and competition and, thus, the access to broadband that is a must-have in today's online society.

In association with the proposed NOI, Rosenworcel said that the commission has opened a new consumer portal (fcc.gov/datacapstories) to collect data on the real-world impact of data caps, both fixed and wireless.

“When we need access to the internet, we aren’t thinking about how much data it takes to complete a task, we just know it needs to get done,” Rosenworcel said. “It’s time the FCC takes a fresh look at how data caps impact consumers and competition.”

Another question Rosenworcel wants answered is what authority the FCC has to regulate data caps.

Back when the FCC’s network-neutrality rules were in force, the general conduct standard was one way data cap foes said the FCC could regulate them. At the time, then-FCC chair Tom Wheeler signaled that usage-based pricing could be an innovative business model, but also indicated the FCC would prevent anticompetitive behavior wherever it concludes it is occurring.

U.S. broadband consumers are using more data than ever, while service providers have a proven economic incentive to cap their usage.

That’s the takeaway from a year-end report just published by OpenVault, a broadband analytics company serving the cable industry. The firm found that operators deploying “usage-based billing” yield 73% higher average revenue per customer (ARPU) compared with those using flat-rate billing. 

With most usage caps set at around 1 terabyte to 1.2 TB, that’s increasingly an issue for U.S. consumers.

OpenVault also found that 14.1% of U.S. high-speed internet subscribers, per weighted average, used more than 1 TB of data per month in 2020, a 94% increase over 2019.

Overall, internet consumption was up big in the 2020 pandemic year. Both flat-rate and usage-based subscribers consumed a weighted average of 482.6 GB a month in the fourth quarter, OpenVault said, up 40% over 2019.

Notably, usage peaked in the fourth quarter, rising to a 2020-high average of 483 GB, OpenVault said (see chart). The story was the same for upstream usage, which also peaked in December at 31 GB.

For the first time, OpenVault reported, more than half (53.6%) of U.S. broadband customers now routinely use more than 250 GB of data each month. Just a few years ago, OpenVault noted, the 250 GB level was considered power usage. 

Also for the first time, more than half (50.6%) of users subscribe to a speed tier rated at 100 megabits per second to 200 Mbps. The average downstream speed is 207.11 GB.

Notable as well is the significantly higher broadband usage in North America vs. Europe. Last year’s 482.6 GB of average total usage in North America compared to just 301.2 GB in Europe. 

Comcast has postponed a plan to implement a data usage limit of 1.2 terabytes in 14 additional states and territories in the Northeastern U.S., a move that would have put the cable operator’s entire broadband service footprint under usage cap.

The move comes after Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro raised concerns that the usage caps could be a problem for consumers at a time when the pandemic has robbed them of employment but saddled them with needs, such as home-schooling of their children, that render high levels of broadband usage essential.

Pleas came from other state officials, as well — in early January, a dozen Massachusetts state representatives “strongly urged” Comcast to call off the implementation of the cap.

An agreement made by the No. 1 U.S. cable operator with Shapiro now calls for the usage caps to be deployed in July, meaning customers wouldn’t see any hits to their bill until August. 

Comcast was already capping usage of customers in 27 states when it announced in November that customers in the following places would soon be capped, too: New York; New Jersey; Connecticut; Delaware; Massachusetts; Maryland; Maine; New Hampshire; Vermont; Pennsylvania; Ohio; Washington, D.C; Virginia; West Virginia; and North Carolina. 

The cap would result in Xfinity Internet customers being charged an additional $10 for every 50 gigabytes of data they use in excess of the 1.2 TB cap, plus tax, every month. Originally, it was technically was supposed to be implemented in the Northeast starting in January. 

Given grace periods, its effective start was actually March, and affected customers would see the hit to their bills starting in April. So Comcast is effectively delaying the pain for 90 days, not canceling it. 

At the time that it announced the expansion of the usage caps, Comcast insisted that 95% of its customers don’t come close to using 1.2 TB in an average month. Average monthly usage comes in at around 308 GB, Comcast said. 

However, OpenVault, which provides data to cable operators about their networks, released a report last year suggesting that the number of so-called “power users” is rising fast. Within two to three years, the company said, 5% to 10% of internet users will consume 2 TB or more data each month.

Then, of course, there are all those Zoom meetings, that are still prolifically occurring, as the number of COVID vaccine recipients edges toward 10% of the U.S. population. 

“As Pennsylvanians continue to navigate this pandemic, we know millions are relying on the internet for school and work more than ever,” Shapiro said in a statement. “This is not the time to change the rules when it comes to Internet data usage and increase costs.” 

Comcast has postponed a plan to implement a data usage limit of 1.2 terabytes in 14 additional states and territories in the Northeastern U.S., a move that would will eventually put the cable operator’s entire broadband service footprint under usage cap.

The delay comes after Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro raised concerns that the usage caps could be a problem for consumers at a time when the pandemic has robbed many of them of employment, but saddled them with needs, such as home schooling of their children, that render high levels of broadband usage essential.

Pleas also came from other state officials—in early January, for example, a dozen Massachusetts state representatives "strongly urged" Comcast to call off the implementation of the cap.

Also read: Comcast Expands 1.2 TB Data Caps to Full Footprint

But an agreement made by the No. 1 U.S. cable operator with Pennsylvania AG Shapiro now calls for the usage caps to be deployed in July, meaning customers wouldn’t see any hits to their bill until August. 

The agreement with the AG was first reported by the Washington Post. 

Comcast was already capping usage of customers in 27 states when it announced in November that customers in the following places would soon be capped, too: New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Pennsylvania, Ohio, D.C, Virginia, West Virginia and North Carolina. 

The cap would result in Xfinity Internet customers being charged an additional $10 for every 50 gigabytes of data they use in excess of the 1.2 TB cap, plus tax, each month. Originally, it was technically was supposed to be implemented in the Northeast starting in January. 

Given grace periods, the Northeast data cap's original effective start was actually March, and affected customers would start seeing the hit to their bills starting in April. So Comcast is effectively delaying the pain for 90 days, from April to August, not cancelling it. 

At the time that it announced the expansion of the usage caps, Comcast insisted that 95% of its customers don’t come close to using 1.2 TB in an average month. Average monthly usage comes in at around 308 GB, Comcast said. 

However, OpenVault, which provides data to cable operators about their networks, released a report last last year suggesting that the number of so-called “power users” is rising fast. Within two to three years, the company said, 5% to 10% of internet users will consume 2 TB or more data each month.

Then, of course, there are all those zoom meetings, that are still prolifically occurring, as the number of COVID vaccine recipients edges creeps toward 10% of the U.S. population. 

“As Pennsylvanians continue to navigate this pandemic, we know millions are relying on the internet for school and work more than ever,” Shapiro said in a statement. “This is not the time to change the rules when it comes to Internet data usage and increase costs.”

Notably, Comcast recently announced its intention to upgrade the customer premises equipment for some of its Northeast 1-gig internet customers, and bump up the overall speed for all 1-gig customers to 1.2 Gbps, so that 1-gig service subscribers truly receive advertised 1 Gbps download speeds via WiFi. 

So, starting in August, these customers can chew through their 1.2 GB usage caps even faster. 

Comcast will expand its 1.2-terabyte data usage cap to its entire footprint, adding Xfinity high-speed internet customers in 14 additional states and territories to the scheme starting in January. 

Customers will be charged $10 for every 50 gigabytes of data in excess of the 1.2 TB cap, plus tax, every month, with overage charges capped at $100. Comcast won’t charge customers in newly affected regions if they exceed their limits in January and February. And they’ll get one “credit” each year, which subscribers can use to cover themselves the first time they’re charged for exceeding the cap. 

So customers effectively have until April to get used to the usage limits. 

Xfinity Internet subscribers will also be advised when they’re approaching their usage limit. Customers can opt out of the cap and essentially render their service unlimited for an additional $30 a month. Gigabit Pro and business tier customers are exempt. 

For Xfinity broadband customers in 27 U.S. states, these rules are not new. But they will be to subscribers in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Pennsylvania, Ohio, D.C, Virginia, West Virginia and North Carolina. 

Comcast insists 95% of its customers don’t come close to using 1.2 TB in an average month. Average monthly usage comes in at around 308 GB, Comcast said. 

But OpenVault, which provides data to cable operators about their networks, just released a report suggesting that the number of so-called “power users” is rising fast. Within two to three years, the company said, 5% to 10% of internet users will consume 2 TB or more data each month.

Comcast will expand its 1.2-terabyte data usage cap to its entire footprint, adding Xfinity high-speed internet customers in 14 additional states and territories to the scheme starting in January. 

Customers will be charged $10 for every 50 gigabytes of data they exceed the 1.2 TB cap, plus tax, every month, with overage charges limited to $100. Comcast won’t charge customers in newly affected regions if they exceed their limits in January and February. And customers will receive one “credit” each year, which they can use to cover themselves the first time they’re charged for exceeding the cap. 

So customers effectively have until April to get used to the usage limits. 

Customers will also be advised when they’re approaching their usage limit. Customers can opt out of the cap and essentially render their service unlimited for an additional $30 a month. Gigabit Pro and business tier customers are exempt.

For Xfinity internet customers in 27 other U.S. states, these rules are not new. But they will be to subscribers in Comcast's northeast division, which inlcudes New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Delaware, Massachussettes, Maryland, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Virginia, West Virginia and North Carolina, as well as Washington, D.C. 

Comcast competes with Verizon's uncapped wireline broadband operations in these northeast territories. 

Even with customers streaming and zooming more these days, Comcast insists that 95% of its customers don’t come close to using 1.2 TB in an average month. Average monthly usage comes in at around 308 GB, Comcast said. 

But OpenVault, which provides data to cable operators about their networks, just released a report suggesting that the number of so-called “power users” is rising fast. The company said that within 2-3 years, 5%-10% of internet users will consume 2 TB or more data each month. 

After turning the data-usage meter off for the last three months of the pandemic quarantine period, Comcast has restored its limit on residential broadband usage for most customers.

But the No. 1 U.S. cable operator will now allow users to gobble through 1.2 terabytes of data before it imposes additional charges, as opposed to the pre-pandemic limit of 1 TB. The limit was imposed July 1.

Comcast said it will now allow users to exceed the limit during one month without charges — it was previously offering two months’ worth of mulligans. However, the MSO reset the clock for all customers, meaning if you previously used one or more courtesy overages during 2020, that won’t count.

Comcast bills customers $10 for every 50 Gigabytes of data used once they exceed the 1.2 TB limit.

Comcast insists 1.2 TB is enough for pretty much anybody. With that allotment, the cable company said, customers can stream 480 hours to 560 hours of HD video a month, or more than 150 hours of 4K video.

These data-usage policies apply to most of Comcast’s more than 29.1 million U.S. residential wireline broadband subscribers, save for some areas in the Northeast where Comcast competes directly with Verizon Fios.

Notably, Charter Communications, the second-largest U.S. wireline broadband service provider with just over 27.2 million customers, does not currently impose usage limits. But it just petitioned the Federal Communications Commission to relax deal conditions related to its purchases of Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks so that it may, among other things, set data caps.

AT&T, the No. 3 U.S. fixed broadband supplier with roughly 15.3 million customers, has extended the moratorium on its 1-TB usage cap until Sept. 30.

AT&T has received criticism for “zero-rating” its HBO Max and AT&T TV video services, which means the two platforms don’t count against its data caps. Suspending usage limits forestalls dealing with that issue.

After turning the data usage meter off for the last three months of the pandemic quarantine period, Comcast has restored its limit on residential broadband usage for most customers.

But the No. 1 U.S. cable operator will now allow users, starting July 1, to gobble through 1.2 terabytes of data before it imposed additional charges, as opposed to the pre-pandemic limit of 1 TB.

Comcast outlines its updated data usage limit policy on this page.

The cable operator said it will now allow users to exceed the limit during one month without charges—it was previously offering two mulligans. However, Comcast reset the clock for all customers, meaning if you previously used one or more courtesy overages during 2020, Comcast isn’t counting that.

Comcast bills customers $10 for each bucket of 50 gigabytes for which they exceed the 1.2 TB limit.

These data usage policies apply to most of Comcast’s more than 29.1 million U.S. residential wireline broadband subscribers.

Notably, Charter Communications, the second largest U.S. wireline broadband service provider with just over 27.2 million customers, does not currently impose usage limits. But it has just petitioned the FCC to relax deal conditions related to its purchases of Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks so that it may, among other things, set data caps.

Related: AT&T's 'Zero Rating' of HBO Max Taken to Task by Dem Senators

AT&T, which is the third biggest supplier of fixed broadband in the U.S. with around 15.3 million customers, has announced that it’s extending its moratorium on its 1 TB usage cap until Sept. 30. 

After turning the data usage meter off for the last three months of the pandemic quarantine period, Comcast has restored its limit on residential broadband usage for most customers.

But the No. 1 U.S. cable operator will now allow users, starting today, to gobble through 1.2 terabytes of data before it imposed additional charges, as opposed to the pre-pandemic limit of 1 TB.

Comcast outlines its updated data usage limit policy on this page. 

The cable operator said it will now allow users to exceed the limit during one month without charges—it was previously offering two mulligans. However, Comcast reset the clock for all customers, meaning if you previously used one or more courtesy overages during 2020, Comcast isn’t counting that.

Comcast bills customers $10 for each bucket of 50 gigabytes for which they exceed the 1.2 TB limit. 

These data usage policies apply to most of Comcast’s more than 29.1 million U.S. residential wireline broadband subscribers. 

Notably, Charter Communications, the second largest U.S. wireline broadband service provider with just over 27.2 million customers, does not currently impose usage limits. But it has just petitioned the FCC to relax deal conditions related to its purchases of Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks so that it may, among other things, set data caps. 

Also read: AT&T's 'Zero Rating' of HBO Max Taken to Task by Dem Senators

AT&T, which is the third biggest supplier of fixed broadband in the U.S. with around 15.3 million customers, has announced that it’s extending its moratorium on its 1 TB usage cap until Sept. 30. 

AT&T has exempted use of its new streaming service, HBO Max, from counting against the mobile data caps and soft caps of its wireless customers.

The news comes courtesy of The Verge, which spoke to Tony Goncalves, the CEO of AT&T’s Otter Media division who helped spearhead the development of HBO Max.

Also read: HBO Max: Everything You Need to Know

Notably, usage by AT&T wireless customers of streaming services including Netflix, Hulu and Disney Plus is not exempted from data usage limits.

What seems to be a clear violation of 2015 FCC net neutrality rules that have since been rolled back, AT&T justifies the move under its sponsored data policy, whereby third party companies can pay the telecom to be taken off the meter in regard to customer data usage.

As The Verge noted, the only services using the policy happen to be AT&T streaming platforms. 

Amid the pandemic, AT&T suspended wireline data caps through June 30. It’s unclear as to whether the exemption will also apply to AT&T home internet service when and if those caps return. 

The Communications Workers of America and consumer groups are calling on all ISPs--wired and wireless--to lift data caps, waive usage overage charges, and discontinue throttling the capacity of some customers who exceed data thresholds. 

ISPs have committed to opening WiFi hotspots for free and some are waiving overage charges and holding off discontinuing service for nonpayment. But the unions are looking for more. 

Related: Comcast Ramps Up Broadband (Public) Service 

In addition to data caps, they want the FCC: 

"To remove barriers to immediate access to service plans, including any waiting period to enroll (e.g., 90-day period without a broadband subscription) and the disqualification of those with past or current arranges with the company; and 

"Share with the FCC data collected on the number of customers served, by what packages, and where expanded services were provided during the emergency, especially data on the impacts of raised data limits on service quality and network management or any challenges raised by waiving waiting periods." 

This information can help the FCC manage connectivity challenges associated with the pandemic, including identification of critical-need communities and network weaknesses, and help the government prepare for future crises." 

They also want that info shared with the public, with privacy safeguards. 

While the strategy doesn’t necessarily result in universally happy customers, employing broadband usage caps does appear to be an effective tool for operators interested in controlling the expansion of network usage.

According to data released by OpenVault, second-quarter broadband usage by customers on plans with usage-based pricing averaged 215.6 gigabytes per household, 12.2% less than the 241.9 GB per home used by customers without capped services.

Related: WOW!: We’ll Stay Cap Free

Homes with usage-based pricing also experienced slower growth of network usage—27.3% year over year vs. 36.6% for non-capped homes.

Notable: 3.1% of customers for non-capped services exceeded the 1 terabyte monthly threshold, on average, vs. just 2% for services with caps. A number of operators in the cable industry have adopted a 1 TB usage limit.

Overall, OpenVault said average U.S. broadband usage growth in Q2 grew by 31.3% year over year to 226.4 GB.

OpenVault collects, manages and analyzes high-speed data usage from network operators.

WASHINGTON — The Federal Communications Commission is getting flooded with comments asking it to “please protect our free data.”

The FCC is currently investigating zero-rating plans — in which some video content does not count against broadband-usage caps — from a handful of top ISPs as part of its general- conduct standard of review for business practices that could impede a free and open Internet. The review was also prompted by a complaint fi led against Comcast’s Stream TV.

A check of the FCC docket on open Internet issues finds a flurry of form letters — the majority of the several thousand comments filed over the past couple of weeks — in two different variations, but making the same point. Many appear to have been generated from an online form set up by Phone2Action, a boutique firm providing grassroots online activism tools for clients and headed by, among others, former Washington, D.C., Mayor Adrian Fenty.

“Free data plans are new and innovative services that give you ‘free’ content as part of your existing wireless data plan,” reads one of the letters, which then details their many upsides.

The dark cloud on that sunny horizon, the commenters suggest, is Washington, D.C. “We must act now to protect these free data plans from regulators and policymakers,” the letter reads, adding that companies should be encouraged to find more ways for users to feed their growing mobile appetites, not less, and for Washington to allow the Internet “we all love and rely upon” to “grow and evolve.”

Broadband providers argue that zero-rating plans are a user-friendly way to differentiate service — for example, T-Mobile zero-rated Pokémon Go as a way to differentiate its service as the wildly popular VR game swept the nation. On the other side, opponents argue zero rating is a pay-to-play way for some services to get an unfair advantage and divide the net into haves and have nots.

It might not be an either-or proposition. The FCC could decide that the plans are OK in some circumstances, but anticompetitive in others.

Former Democratic FCC chairman Reed Hundt has said he thought the FCC would have to allow for some form of zero-rating plans. Asked at the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council’s 14th annual Access to Capital and Telecom Policy Conference in Washington, D.C., about the FCC’s current investigation into zero-rating plans, Hundt said he thought the agency was going to have to decide that people — in this case, broadband providers that carve specific services out from usage-based pricing plans — are going to have to be allowed to give things away for free.

“Being against free is not very popular,” Hundt added — except with such groups as MoveOn.org, Color-Of- Change, Center for Media Justice, Fight for the Future, Demand Progress, Free Press and Open Technology Institute. They told the FCC that zero-rating plans could “break the net,” urging action be taken on the strength of more than 100,000 comments critical of the practice.

FCC chairman Tom Wheeler in June said the FCC continues to investigate the rating plans, but did not signal any imminent decision on them.

In a decision that could have far-reaching implications for the nation’s Internet-service providers, the Federal Communications Commission imposed a condition on Charter Communications’s acquisition of Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks that will bar the post-merger Charter from imposing data caps and usage-based pricing policies for a period of seven years.

That condition, alongside others that prevent New Charter from charging interconnection fees and entering programming deals that could harm online video distributors, clearly are in place to keep the MSO from erecting barriers that could tamp down OTT competition.

The FCC so far has not moved to pursue rules that would fit similar collars on other ISPs, but chairman Tom Wheeler has tasked the commission with investigating the impact of data caps, usage-based policies and zero-rated offerings that exempt some services from an ISP’s or mobile carrier’s usage policies.

CAUSE FOR WORRY

That posture is cause for concern for ISPs that have implemented or are testing usage-based policies that are being built into their business models. While ISPs that use such policies preach that it’s about fairness — those who use the most bandwidth pay more than those who don’t — critics see them as a tool to keep over-the-top video competitors in check.

Industry analysts offer various opinions as to how the Charter conditions will affect ISPs that currently use data caps and usage based pricing. And it’s still too early to tell if those conditions will put much pressure on other ISPs to voluntarily toss out their capping and usage-based data policies, at least in the near-term, Jeff Wlodarczak, CEO and senior media and communications analyst of Pivotal Research Group, said.

Wlodarczak also doesn’t believe the lack of a usage-based pricing option will have much of an effect on the MSO’s current business strategy, which is focused on driving revenue generating units (and revenue) without being super-aggressive on price.

It’s also possible that Charter could try to compensate in other ways, such as driving customers to higher-end, more expensive tiers of service. Charter’s entry-level speed — 60 Megabits per second downstream — is already faster than the lower-end services marketed by many of its MSO peers.

Though it’s not clear if the FCC’s condition on Charter will affect other ISPs directly, some have recently tweaked their policies and begun to offer new unlimited data options that are OTT-friendly (see sidebar, below).

MoffettNathanson principal and senior analyst Craig Moffett said that the Charter conditions and recent data policy changes implemented by ISPs do change the game, because they effectively take usage-based pricing off the table as pay TV operators continue to face off against rising OTT competition.

‘CALM BEFORE THE STORM’

“It’s hard not to see this as simply the calm before the storm,” Moffett noted earlier this month in a semi-regular “Cord-Cutting Monitor” report, citing Hulu’s coming multichannel service, new OTT options from DirecTV and Amazon, and a virtual pay TV service called “Unplugged” that YouTube reportedly has in development.

“If and when the rains come, cable operators won’t have the umbrella of usage-based pricing,” he wrote. “We’ve always described UBP as an insurance policy, not to forestall OTT video but simply to make cable operators economically indifferent to it.”

On that note, Moffett has long considered usage-based pricing as a mechanism for MSOs to preserve a “transport charge” for video.

“With Charter committing to no UBP for seven years, and with Comcast … raising usage caps from 300 GB to an all-but-irrelevant 1 TB per month, UBP is now essentially off the table,” Moffett said. “That doesn’t make cord-cutting any more likely. But it does leave cable more vulnerable.”

Some ISPs that have implemented caps and usage-based pricing clearly are troubled by the FCC’s condition on the Charter-TWC deal and the potential threat it might pose to their future policies.

“Charter’s concessions related to usage-based pricing and data caps are certainly concerning,” Thomas Larsen, Mediacom Communications’ group vice president of legal and public affairs, said in a statement soon after the FCC’s proposed conditions were circulated. “Promoting a model in which the vast majority of a company’s broadband subscribers subsidize the behavior of a small group of heavy bandwidth users seems to go against the fundamental principles of American commerce.”

When the FCC was still considering the order that was eventually issued that bans Charter from using caps and usage-based broadband pricing for seven years, AT&T said it was “apparent that some or all of the conditions will have a broad effect beyond the parties to the merger.”

SIDEBAR: Fitting Customers With Different Data Caps

U.S. ISPs, both big and small, have been gravitating to unlimited data plans and soft caps that charge extra when monthly limits are exceeded. Here’s a snapshot of policies that have been deployed or are in the pilot phase:

Comcast: Starting June 1, Comcast will move to a monthly 1-Terabyte data plan in its current group of test markets, including Atlanta; Tucson, Ariz.; Chattanooga, Tenn.; and Charleston, S.C. Customers who exceed that ceiling can buy an additional 50 GB of data for $10, or move to a new unlimited data plan that costs $50 more per month.

AT&T: In March, the telco introduced an unlimited data plan for its U-verse and GigaPower residential broadband service that costs an extra $30 per month for customers who take a standalone data service, but, as an incentive, drops that charge for customers who bundle Internet with U-verse video or DirecTV service and pay on a single bill. Customers without unlimited data plans must pay $10 for an additional 50 GB when they exceed their monthly limit.

Mediacom: Also sells additional data buckets of 50 Gigabytes for $10 each when customers exceed their monthly limit, which scales up and down depending on the speed of the customer’s data tier. Mediacom has set a high monthly allowance of 6 Terabytes for its new 1-Gbps residential broadband service.

Suddenlink: The Altice-owned operator launched an unlimited data plan that is available to customers who take its two fastest tiers in a given market. Subs not on Suddenlink’s unlimited plans may pay $10 for an additional 50 GB when they exceed the limit.

BendBroadband: The operator, now owned by TDS Telecom, has set different monthly data limits based on the speed of the customer’s data subscription, and charges $10 per month for an additional 50 GB when customers exceed their limit. On May 9, BendBroadband began to exempt customers from those policies if they bundled Internet service with pay TV. BendBroadband estimates that more than half of its Internet customers are now longer subject to its datausage policy.

GCI: The Alaska-based operator’s “No Worries” data policy sets monthly data caps that scale up and down depending on speed, with the option to buy an additional 30 GB of data for $10 each when subscribers exceed that; upgrade to a different plan with a higher monthly limit; or get moved to a “basic level of service” (less than 1 Mbps) with no overages.

SOURCE :Multichannel News research

Netflix offered its support of the conditions placed on the now-approved merger of Charter Communications and Time Warner Cable, which prevents New Charter from applying broadband caps and interconnection fees.

"Charter’s commitment to an open Internet without interconnection fees or data caps will foster innovation and promote the efficient scaling of the Internet,” Netflix said, in a statement issued Friday. “In applying this policy as a condition across the “New Charter” footprint, the FCC has made sure the merger will support growing consumer demand for all streaming video services."

Netflix, which had railed against the now-scuttled proposed marriage of Comcast and Time Warner Cable, volunteered its support for the Charter-TWC deal in July, when Charter pledged to extend its “settlement-free’ interconnection policy to the systems it would be acquiring from TWC and Bright House Communications. Netflix reluctantly entered paid interconnection deals with Comcast, TWC, AT&T and Verizon Communications (Bright House has been benefiting from the TWC-Netflix agreement), arguing that they violate network neutrality rules.

The conditions on the Charter-TWC deal, which will be in place for seven years, prohibit the combined company from using data caps or usage-based pricing for broadband, and from striking paid, interconnection fees, as well as from anticompetitive programming contracts that would put online video distributors (OVDs) at a disadvantage.  Per those conditions, New Charter must also adhere to the FCC's Open Internet rules no matter what the court decides.

Comcast’s controversial trial of usage-based broadband policies in select markets is going up a notch. 

The operator announced in this blog post Thursday that it is moving to a terabyte data plan in all of those test markets starting June 1, a decision that comes soon after the FCC announced several proposed conditions on the pending Charter-Time Warner Cable merger, including one that would prohibit  Charter from imposing data caps and usage-based data pricing for a period of seven years.

Customers who go over that 1 TB monthly limit can buy additional buckets of 50 GB of data for $10 each, or move to a new unlimited data plan that runs an additional $50 per month.

“All the data plans in our trial markets will move from a 300 gigabyte data plan to a terabyte by June 1st, regardless of the speed,” Marcien Jenckes, Comcast Cable’s EVP, consumer services, wrote.

Prior to this coming change, Comcast has been testing several usage-based policies, including an unlimited data option that runs an additional fee of $30 to $35 per month, depending on the market, and only in a subset of its trial markets.

Comcast has also been testing a soft, monthly usage cap of 300 Gigabytes per month that charges $10 for each additional bucket of 50 GB above that threshold (with a “three-month courtesy program” that won’t bill subs the first three times they exceed the monthly limit). Comcast is also testing a more variable usage-based policy in Tucson, Ariz., that adjusts the monthly consumption ceiling based on the speed of the customer’s data tier, as well as a “Flexible-Data Option” for lighter users on the MSO’s Economy Plus and Performance Starter tiers.

Update: Comcast confirmed that customers currently on the unlimited plan in the trial markets can keep their current pricing through end of 2016. They'll also have the option to move to the new 1 TB plan when it takes effect June 1. 

Comcast has not announced if or when it will implement a usage-based policy on a commercial basis. So far, trials have been limited to the following areas: Huntsville, Mobile and Tuscaloosa, Ala.; Tucson; Little Rock, Ark.; Fort Lauderdale, the Keys and Miami, Fla.; Atlanta, Augusta and Savannah, Ga.; Central Kentucky; Houma, LaPlace and Shreveport, La.; Maine; Jackson and Tupelo, Miss.; Chattanooga, Greenville, Johnson City/Gray, Knoxville, Memphis and Nashville, Tenn.; Charleston, S.C.; and Galax, Va. Comcast’s data usage plans do not currently apply to customers on the MSO’s fiber-based Extreme 505 and Gigabit Pro services, and also have not been applied to Comcast business service customers and those on “bulk Internet agreements.”

"We’re currently evaluating our plans to roll this out in other markets, we’ll keep listening – and we'll be open to making further changes in the future to deliver the best high-speed data service to our customers," Jenckes said. 

In those pilot markets, "[W]e have experimented with different offers, listened to feedback, and learned a lot. That is what we said we would do when we launched our trials four years ago – analyze and assess our customers' reaction to the data plans, including being open to increasing them over time."

He said the new data limit on the trial policy “is so high that most of our customers will never have to think about how much data they use.”

Currently, more than 99% of Comcast’s high-speed Internet subs “do not come close to using a terabyte,” he added, noting that the typical sub uses about 60 GB of data, or about 6% of 1 TB, per month. Jenckes also tossed in some figures to illustrate how much 1 TB represents – 700 hours of HD video, playing 12,000 hours of online games, and downloading 60,000 hi-res photos in a month.

Comcast has previously argued that the trials are “based on principles of flexibility and fairness.” Critics of the policies believe they are in place to generate more broadband revenues while keeping growing over-the-top video competition in check. 

Outside of the proposed condition on the Charter-TWC deal, the FCC is also looking into data cap and zero-rating policies, but earlier this month FCC chairman Tom Wheeler said he had no timetable to offer on when the Commission would complete its review.

The FCC has received more than 13,000 complaints about Comcast’s usage-based broadband data trials, according to a Freedom of Information Act request filed with the Commission by the Cut Cable Today website, which posted its findings yesterday.

Comcast last month expanded its data trials, which include policies with soft monthly caps that charge extra for additional buckets of data, an option for lite users, as well as a newer “unlimited” data option.

Critics of the policies believe that the policies, which aren’t in place to deal with network congestion issues, are in place to juice broadband revenues while keeping growing over-the-top video competition in check.  

Comcast has not announced when it will end the trials or if it intends to make them company-wide policy. For now, the MSO said the tests are providing it with feedback, reiterating that customers are finding the new usage-based policies fairer than the static cap that it discontinued in 2012.

Comcast issued this statement on the subject Wednesday:

“We are conducting data trials in select markets around the country, covering a small percentage of our customers. We designed the various plans we are trialing with a minimum 300 GB/month data plan because more than 90 percent of our customers use less data than that and are not affected. The trials are providing us with invaluable consumer feedback. For example, we surveyed our heavy data users and 80 percent thought our data trials were fairer than our past approach, which was a 250 GB/month static cap. It’s important to note that 10 percent of our customers are consuming nearly 50 percent of all the data on our network. As a result, these trials are based on the principle that those who use more, pay more and those who use less, pay less.”

T-Mobile is taking aim at data caps and overage fees with Binge On, a zero-rated video offering that lets most of its customers view video for free using optimized streams from about two dozen partners, including Hulu, Starz, HBO, Showtime and  Sling TV.

It’s “completely in line" with those rules, company president and CEO John Legere said Tuesday at the company’s “UncarrierX” event, noting that no money is changing hands, the program is available to anyone, and customers can turn the feature on or off. Binge On, he declared, is “highly network-neutrality friendly.”

Binge On will officially be unleashed this Sunday (November 15), and will be available to all current and new subs T-Mobile’s qualified Simple Choice plans. Free video streaming from T-Mobile’s partners will be available to customer on data plans that provide at least 3 gigabytes of data per month. 

The initial batch of providers that work with the Binge On technology include Netflix HBO Now, HBO Go, Hulu, Sling TV, Slingbox, ESPN, Showime, Starz (including Movieplex and Encore), T-Mobile TV, Vevo, Vessel, Univision Deportes, Major League Baseball, go90, DirecTV, Fox Sports, Fox Sports Go, NBC Sports, Crackle, Vudu and Ustream.

T-Mobile has also integrated its Binge On system to support content from go90, offered by rival Verizon Communications, and video apps from DirecTV (now part of AT&T)  “just because we can,” Legere said.

T-Mobile also announced that customers on qualified plans can get a seven-day free trial of Sling TV, and 30% off on subscription’s to the OTT-TV’s core package for 12 months. Those customers will get Sling TV’s primary offering for $14 per month. 

T-Mobile is supporting Binge On content with a new proprietary video streaming optimization technology that delivers “DVD or better” quality (480p or better). That technology, the company said, will also allow customers on its Simple Choice data plans to watch three times more video via their data plans. 

Legere, who declared it “Data Day,” said video has been a “huge pain point” for mobile, as a “big portion of data [is] needlessly wasted.”

Public Knowledge, which is no fan of zero rating plans, had a hard time hammering T-Mobile, one of the poster-companies for competition to the Big Two--Verizon and AT&T, but was clearly not a fan of the move.

"Turning the mobile Internet into a carrier-controlled walled garden is ultimately a bad idea for consumers, for all online services (even those included in T-Mobile’s zero-rating today), and for the wireless industry as a whole," it said in a statement. "In the name of competing with AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint, T-Mobile should not take steps that could have such troubling competitive implications."

T-Mobile, however, believes its approach is good for competiton.

“This is all about innovation; it’s all about competition, it’s about consumer choice,” Neville Ray, T-Mobile US’s CTO, said at the event. “And if net neutrality is not about all of those things, what’s it all about? I think there’s very little to be concerned with what we’re doing here. This is liberating, not a contraint." 

Legere said the topic remains ripe for debate. 

“Network neutrality has been a topic of fear for many people,” he said. “They fear that this treasure of the internet is going to be taken away by big companies using it, preferentially to their advantage for reaping profits, which is completely the opposite of everything we do at T-Mobile.”