Arbitrary Data Caps... Now in California
What the heck, Cox? I just moved a few miles down the road and switch from Spectrum (no caps) to Cox (caps). Your tag line is caps affect a very small number of users. If that's true, why have them at all? My first month, I just got a new Xbox One X and downloaded my library of games to my new Xbox... BAM... over the cap. Worse, the 85% of data and 100% used emails went out at the exact same time. When I logged in literally two minutes after receiving your emails, it said my usage was well over your cap at 1250GB. You're lucky the current administration doesn't care about end users, because I've filed a complaint with the FCC. I encourage others to do the same. Frankly, I may switch to AT&T, who waives caps for UVerse/DirecTV consumers. I'm already paying 15% more than I was under Spectrum for the exact same service, and now you expect me to pay an extra $50/mo to keep my unlimited data on a HOME connection? You're as shameful as Comcast!! We already have speed tiers -- that's how you manage a network. Data is an unlimited resource, band*width* is not. You want to manage your network, fine -- QoS me if I'm running higher than most other users. Increasing my data costs by more than 50% when I already have the Gold Package is pure greed, plain and simple. I will be contacting all my law makers in California, too. If we can't get this stopped nationally, I hope we can at least block you locally. I was so excited to move back to an area with Cox, as I'd had you in Phoenix many years ago, and you always had consistently great service. Now, I think you're just another greedy corporation out to screw your consumers. Thanks for ruining your perfectly positive image. My letter to the FCC: I'm exceedingly frustrated about my new cable provider's data cap policy. I lived in an area of San Diego with Spectrum (Formerly Time Warner) as my cable provider. I recently moved to an area with service provided by Cox Communications. I'd used AT&T UVerse for a while, too, and they also had data caps, but waived them if you also subscribed to TV service. I find it extremely disturbing that they charge different prices for speed tiers, but the datacap remains the same throughout the speed tiers. There's literally zero explanation for this other than corporate greed. At a time when data usage is on the increase, caps should be going away, not being added. I do understand that the increased demand for data will put pressure on networks, but companies can use QoS and network prioritization to better handle loads. A Verizon style soft cap, where once you exceed a threshold, your data is set to a lower priority on a QoS table, makes a lot more sense than an arbitary hard cap with imposed fees. As an IT professional and lifelong gamer, I feel our profession is being targetted by greedy corporations. 4K Netflix streaming eats up roughly 12GB/hour. A typical video game download for Xbox One, Playstation 4, or Nintendo Switch eats up 30-50GB. Heck, even patches and updates can exceed 10GB/ea. With arbitary data caps as low as 350GB on AT&T and 1000GB on Cox, my new service provider, I'm easily hitting my data cap. Want more data? $10/50GB, or roughly all of my games just got $10/ea more expensive. Want to watch a 4K movie on Netflix? A few of those will cost more than the entire monthly subscription for Netflix. This reduces competition from Netflix and Hulu and pads the pockets of profiteering cable companies for absolutely no legitimate reason. Alternatively, I can spend an extra $30/500GB... if I plan it and make the decision before I hit my cap, or an extra $50/unlimited. That would bring my internet service to a whopping $159+tax/month, and my overall cable bill to nearly $300/mo. This forces me into the uncomfortable decision of spending less on other things or having the unpredictability of a cable bill, all when from a technical perspective, there is absolutely no increase in cost to the ISP. A network is a bit like laying pipe for water, except the water (data in this example) is unlimited. There are significant upfront costs on building infrastructure, and a bit of maintenance cost on electricity and network equipment, but resource usage (data) does not increase maintenance cost. At times, a lot of demand for internet may congest "pipes," and for this and only this reason, network prioritization (QoS) makes sense. Speed tiers already prioritize customers, yet caps put artibrary limits on an unlimited resource (data). Ironically, as mobile providers are increasingly offering unlimited, landline operators are increasingly imposing artibrary data caps. After decades of unlimited access and expotenential technical growth, data caps have the potential to stiffle the industry and cause real harm to consumers, particularly those who can least afford it. This is dramatically hurting the tech industry. I strongly suggest FCC impose limits on how data caps are utilized and considers weighing the needs of network prioritization/latency (the only legitimate ISP interest), streaming and cable carrier competition, and the dramatically increasing need for data when coming up with a policy that makes sense. I'm not alone. A quick search revealed there are MANY others in this same boat. There's a great article here about how this is already hurting the tech industry, as people are actively discouraged from buying new, advanced electronics: https://gigaom.com/2013/03/01/4k-broadband-caps/ and http://stopthecap.com/ . If the FCC is to encourage market competition and foster a world where America remains a technological leader, one of the first steps should be to remove data caps and prevent corporations from imposing them. Speed tiers already do this, and explanatory clauses about using QoS during peak hours of usage to throttle the heaviest users would reasonably ensure landline internet providers can continue to operate efficiently in peak demand periods.1.4KViews0likes1Comment
Data usage monitor not working
We have not seen any data in 4 days from the online data usage monitor, which I know is incorrect as we have been using the internet and streaming movies. The last (what I believe) accurate report was on 1/30/15. What I am wondering though is around this timeframe we turned in our emta as we dropped phone services, and went to renting the netgear 3000dv2 Gateway. It seems to be working fine, no speed issues but is there something in the gateway that needs to be turned on? I went in there and looked around but didnt see anything obvious. I just want to be aware of how much data we are actually using.2.4KViews0likes2Comments
Bandwidth Monitor in RI
I notice on the Data Usage Tool that Dec 1, changes were made to bandwidth measurements in RI. I think the new measurements are not accurate and posting to see if anyone else is having issues. In Dec, I had 30+GB/day for 3 days that we were out of town. The spike did not continue to show any type of hack and other than those days, I would say that the usage trend follows our data usage but the volume is 2-3x's higher than it should be. When I noticed that we were going to approach our max, I put the family on a Netflix hiatus. I run a secure network with a strong password but I changed it today just to rule that out. I've shut down an iMac that is rarely used to simplify troubleshooting. We are only using macs, ipads, and iphones. If the problem continues, I will unplug my router for a day and see what the data usage is then. I'm wondering if the tool is measuring bandwidth from my cable box router? I also wonder if it's just incorrectly using a multiplier of actual data since the trend is correct except for the 3 days we were not a home. On a separate note, I discovered an issue with NETFLIX that did cause my data to be higher than needed. You cannot manage quality by device, only by account. Further, "HD and Ultra HD" are included in the same tier so you can choose low, medium (standard definition) or high. If on HD or auto, NETFLIX chooses stream rate based on the customer's available bandwidth. Since I'm on COX's highest plan, I'm at 100Mbs and getting a 7GB/hour stream from Netflix even if my kid is watching NETFLIX on an iPad or if I only need 3GB/hour HD because I don't have a 4K TV. I've contacted NETFLIX about this since it they are wasting their own bandwidth as much as mine. Any one else having issues in RI after the change? Understand we are very small market.5.7KViews0likes13Comments
Usage
I didn't know I had a limit to my data. Now that I know I'm scared to death to watch movies, backup my pictures, or almost anything else. What is the point of high speed internet? If this is the case i guess I just get off line, it cost to much for cox to tell me how much I can use1.9KViews0likes1Comment
Internet Connection Drops after High Usage
Hey everyone. Been having this issue for about a week now. I do a LARGE amount of uploading/downloading every day. I do video production for a living and am constantly uploading new content and downloading. Here in the last week or so I have switched all my online drive storage over to Google and have been migrating all my data. Drive has an option to download files and sync to my system drive, so I have been downloading all the content again to my comp. After about an hour of constant downloading, all of the sudden my connection will just shut off completely. My question is, does COX have a limit to how much can be downloaded/uploaded? Do I need to switch my plan to accommodate for these factors? Really frustrating hoping a download will complete when the connection kicks off after a while and I find that only a few files downloaded.2.4KViews0likes1CommentData Usage and Internet Back ups
Hello, Internet Service: Premier Question: I would like to back up my data on the internet just in case of hard drive failures and the such, however, the data usage is limited to 300GB a month. Is that strictly download, upload, or combined? I would like to upload ~500GBs. Thanks everyone!2.1KViews0likes1Comment