Comcast has announced that it will delay data caps in the Northeast, but keep them in other regions. The company said that it will do this in order to ensure that its customers have the best possible experience. Comcast also said that it will continue to work with regulators to make sure that data caps are necessary and fair.
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In total, 12 states, one district, and parts of two states in the US will avoid data caps until 2023 (or longer if Comcast decides to delay it further). These include Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Vermont, West Virginia, the District of Columbia, and parts of North Carolina and Ohio.
This is now the third time Comcast has delayed the implementation of data caps in this section of the United States, as reported by Light Reading.
A Comcast spokesperson spoke to the publication and said, “We don’t have plans to implement our data usage plan in our Northeast markets in 2022 at this time.”
This doesn’t mean Comcast will never enact data caps in the northeast, as the company’s spokesperson left things open-ended enough for it to decide to add them later.
Massachusetts State Representative Andy Vargas posted on Twitter, calling the delay a significant victory and implying that the data caps might stay away for the long haul. He said, “Thrilled about this outcome– data caps were set to be reintroduced in 2022, but Comcast now has no plans to reintroduce them.”
— Andy X. Vargas (@RepAndyVargas) December 15, 2021
In a second Tweet, Vargas said, “Comcast, which postponed its planned data caps and penalties on northeast customers when it came under fire at the peak of the current pandemic, has abandoned the plan altogether.” This implies that the company might never bring them back, which would be great for customers in the northeast.
No one likes data caps (besides ISPs, as they’re able to upsell users more data). Most people don’t use enough data to hit the 1.2TB data cap, and the few that do will have a terrible experience with their ISP if data caps are implemented. It seems unnecessary, and users who are already in areas where Comcast has implemented data caps can attest to how bad they are.
Our Editor-in-Chief recently moved to the northeast from the west coast and was shocked to learn that Comcast doesn’t have data caps in this region. I also live in the northeast, and while I’m certainly happy to live in a data cap-free area, I feel for everyone who’s stuck worrying about how much internet they use on a daily basis.
Only time will tell whether Comcast decides to roll out its data-limiting plan in the northeast. Still, for the time being, Comcast customers in the area can go nuts downloading as many files as they want without worrying about Comcast’s $30 per month upsell.
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