With many Comcast Xfinity customers already dealing with data caps, the company notified customers in northeast states in November 2020 that they would start seeing a data cap on their internet plans as well at the beginning of 2021. That plan was delayed and now Comcast is delaying the data caps again.
Light Reading reported last week that Comcast will not implement data caps in northeast states in 2022. A spokesperson for Comcast told Light Reading: “We don’t have plans to implement our data usage plan in our Northeast markets in 2022 at this time,” which could mean the states will see a cap in 2023. In May 2023, Charter will be out from under the conditions of its merger with Time Warner and will also be free to add data caps to its Spectrum internet plans.
While Comcast claims that only about 5% of customers use more than 1.2 TB of data in a month, those opposing the data cap point out that with many employees still working from home along with some students taking classes from home, it has been much easier for households to reach that limit.
Opposition included Massachusetts state representatives Andy Vargas and David Rogers who spoke out against the data caps early this year. When Comcast shared that it would be delaying data caps, Vargas tweeted about the decision.
Customers in the 27 states that already had a data cap on their plan will continue to have that cap and fees for going over the monthly data limit. The northeast markets that will be affected by the data cap if it goes into effect include Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Vermont, and West Virginia.