Comcast, in a surprisingly generous move, is tripling internet data plans from a 300GB limit to a cool, cool terabyte per month.
Starting June 1, all data plans in Comcast's trial markets will get upgraded to 1,000GB, regardless of speed. Those left still wanting after sucking up a full terabyte of data can add an additional 50 gigs for $10, or go with an unlimited data plan for $50/mo more.
That said, Comcast wishes you luck in using up that much data. According to the company's announcement, it wagers that a terabyte of streaming equates to about 700 hours of HD video, 12,000 hours of online games, and 60,000 high-resolution photos.
Thanks... ?
Oddly, Comcast admits that less than 1% of its current base goes over a terabyte, and that the average subscriber only uses "about 60 gigabytes of data in a month." This leaves us pondering why the provider feels the need to heap all those bonus gigs on its customers - not that it's a bad thing.
One take is that while customers may not regularly clock over a terabyte, more have been going over the current 300GB limit and accruing unwelcome overage fees in recent years. While relatively small, the number of Comcast customers going over the base plan reportedly quadrupled from 2% in 2013 to 8% in 2015.
The extended data cap will also be helpful for Comcast's take on Google Fiber, giving customers a taste of nonstop internet usage to promote the wallet-hemorrhaging yet super-speedy 2GB/s connection service.
Comcast's claim for the move is to give customers "peace of mind to stream, surf, game, download, or do whatever they want online," but need we remind you - this is Comcast we're talking about.
Thus, it might be a good idea to keep an eye on your bill this summer to make sure you aren't going to lose your firstborn in exchange for all that extra data.
