Comcast XFINITY → What happens if I go over 250GB bandwidth use?

So I am wondering what happens if I go over 250GB. Not that its a problem for me the most I can use is 80gb in a month and that's pushing it. But its unclear to me what happens if you go over anyone know what will happen if anything?

Mod Note: See also ---> »The Bandwidth Limits/Congestion Management Topic

Some people claim they go over the 250GB (like 300 or 350GB) and you won't be called.

But in the event that you do go over an exceeding amount, CC will call you as a "warning" and recommend YOU to use a bandwidth meter.

The second time you go over, your service is automatically cut off with NO phone call. And you're terminated for 1 year.

This is the reason why I went to Business Class. (22/5, $100 per month)

Although Business Class is more money (I'm splitting the price lol) you don't get enforced bandwidth caps. People say that there are bandwidth caps on Business, but people claim that they do 1 or 2TB a month and have no problems.

I myself have been using my business class about 24/7 since I got it. (why not?)

There have been several people that have gone over, I am assuming I am one of those. I assume they send you a warning letter or 2 before disconnecting you.

I will let you know if/when I get one.

They will suspend your account for 12 months. They called me a few months ago, I had used 600+ gigs the past month and said if I went over it again they would suspend my account for 12 months.

That is HEAVY usage though. If you were at ~260 I doubt you would hear anything. The sh!t storm rains when you do 400+ for the most part. Especially if you double or triple your monthly cap.

So if I was to download 1.5TB in one month and then never go over 250GB I'm not going to get suspended?

I can't say 100%, but I think your chances are 50-50

so I guess I shouldn't worry too much doing 250-300 sometimes i do 220-260 most months

My guess would be No questions asked bye bye.

And probably not even a suspension just down right "don't let the door hit you on the way out and say hello to AOL for us"

Do not pass go... Do not collect $200 and see ya!

As a stockholder, I'd love to see them quit being wishy-washy with overages and move to an pay for overage model (no terminations) once the bandwidth meter rolls out. Comcast would remain competitive even charging $1 per gig over 250GB (given the current state of slow DSL), and the overage fees would still be mostly profit.

And as a Comcast user, I'd like them to be an industry leader and up the soft limit as capacity rises and costs drop. I 'might' be open to a pay-per-overage model as opposed to termination, but with >90% DOCSIS 3 coverage and a real-time congestion throttle for trouble spots in place, Comcast should be able to afford to give consumers a decent cap increase first.

They should up the cap per tier, like 250 gigs for the 12/2 300 for the 16/2 350 for 22/5 and 400 for the 50/10. Its not fare that some one who has faster speeds is expected to use the same amount of data as some one on the lower tier.

Hope that all made sense

I agree. 1TB for the 100Mb service.... assuming it makes it to the residential side of things. :>

If comcast doesn't provide you with a usage meter, how can they enforce the cap?

ok thanks its good to know. Thanks to caps they killed IPTV in this country which is actually pretty neat my gf in japan got it not to mention they also killed digital distribution. Makes me glad that I am moving to japan and its all thanks to Canada

Because they have a usage meter on their end.

How does it help me to stay under the cap, when Comcast has the usage meter on their end?

It doesn't, is it supposed to?

There are several tools you can use to track your usage, including 3rd party firmware on some routers and software such as "Netmeter"

It's not supposed to. You're supposed to do that yourself.

I monitor my own connection, and near as I can tell you really have to work pretty hard to blow the cap. You'd know it if you needed to be worried about it.

Anyway, they are releasing a bandwidth meter, it's just slow in rolling out. All that being moot - they can, will, and do nuke you if they decide to enforce a cap and you're over it. Some people seem to not be getting notified, some still report they are getting the warning/disconnect letter.

The router I have from Comcast WNR1000 has a meter in it, but it was disconnecting me prematurely, so I turned it off.

I get what you are saying. However, if they are not sending a warning to everyone who exceeds the limit, they also should not disconnect you either. This should be enforced fairly or not at all. I don't think I will ever exceed the cap, but I use carbonite as backup so who knows. that uses a lot of data.

»customer.comcast.com/Pag ··· E4685061

I'm in Washington state, the only state with the built-in bandwidth meter as of right now.

I didn't know about it, until I received an ominous phone call from a "Policy Analyst" at Comcast CSI. Their words...not mine.

Anyway, turns out I hit 800 GB last month. I told them that I had inadvertantly left my guest wifi wide-open and someone was probably downloading movies.

Heh, heh - I said, "Watch me turn it off." - and then I turned my own PC's NIC off .

They let me go with a warning - and walked me through how to find the bandwidth meter.

I knew I was downloading a lot, but had no idea it was quite that much.....whoops!

uTorrent has bandwidth caps - I run two separate clients, so put their limit at 100 GB each. Figuring that no way will I hit 50 GB for my other usage.

So, moral of the story - have a good story and then sin in good faith.

I personally think bandwidth caps are stupid- here's why:

»www.zatznotfunny.com/200 ··· th-caps/

»netmaniac.com/2008/08/th ··· th-caps/

The lowest I have heard someone getting the call at is I think ~490GB. Comcast will not bother you unless your usage is extreme and is on a busy node.

The most recent postings I have seen regarding Comcast notifications for usage violations have been for very high amounts (600-800GB). You will not get a call if you go over 250GB, and are not downloading with egregious excess. The only thing that has stayed constant with time is that the cap is very soft.

These are the reports I have noticed since June 2009:

Reported warnings/disconnects for exceeding cap

»Warned for exceeding the cap, used 715G last month
»Got the call. We used 610GB on a 50mbit/10mbit d3 connection
»Account cut off at 250G? Correction: 715G
»I got a warning from Comcast
»So, has anyone gone over the cap?
»Anyone got letter from Comcast ...
»I got the call ... 680G last month
»Got the call, 850G this month
»50/10 - Just got banned.
»When do I get the call or will I?
»Comcast banned me today 2nd warning 680 GB
»Got the letter for exceeding 250GB/month
»I got the call ... 750GB
»Got the call, 750gb last month
»Service cancelled
»After shut off, allowed to get business class with no hassles
»Got the call, 800GB

Sorry but every time someone suggests this, it's just as ridiculous as the last time. What about devices such as mobile phones with WiFi, Zunes, iPods, and XBOX Live? There is no meter to meter those devices, and my router is an N router which cannot take advatage of some hack open source firmware, assuming I was inclined to void my warranty and use something like that on a device like a firewall.

No, if Comcast wants its customers to adhere to a limit, then they are responsible for giving us access to the same usage data they see, just as a cell phone provider does when they charge per minute. Could you imagine a cell phone provider telling its customers that they should put some 3rd party software on their phones to keep track of how many minutes they use. It would be treated as absurd, but yet we accept it from Comcast.

I love my Comcast HSI, and I don't come close to 250GB/mo, but let's get real here. You can't hold people to a cap when you give them no visibility into how much they actually use.

I agree with you Neil.

I think the 250GB cap legally should not be able to hold weight, until an official Comcast bandwidth meter is available. We know it's coming, but in my instance when I log onto Customer Central, there is NO bandwidth monitor available.

I did use a Linksys WRT-54g with DD-WRT firmware, and that had a bandwidth monitor. Well the 54g is quite a few years old, and it's underspec'd CPU can't keep up with 50/10 internet service. So that's unplugged for now. In the mean time I have gone through 3 routers trying to find a good one, and none of them have a bandwidth meter. Right now I'm on my second Linksys WRT-320N, and I could put DD-WRT on it, but it's already unstable after transferring lots of data over wifi, the wireless radio shuts down. What can I say, the 320N is less than $100... you get what you pay for. I'm thinking of maybe trying a Netgear WNDR-3700, which is quite a bit more expensive, but again you have to pay to play. It supposedly features bandwidth logging (text chart only - not pretty graphs like DD-WRT).

So without a way to measure your usage, how are you supposed to be responsible for it? What if we took the gas gauge out of our cars. Ok we could "estimate" how much gas we have left by keeping track of mileage, but it's not accurate. I wouldn't buy a car without a gas gauge for sure.

I wonder if anyone's been cutoff and successfully sued Comcast for not having a bandwidth meter in place? Hopefully for Comcast's sake, they hurry up and get this meter rolled out to cover their ass.

Unless you pushing an obnoxious amount of traffic 24/7 I wouldn't really worry about it. I have never seen anyone kicked off the network or otherwise "punished" for going over the limit.

This is interesting, but I dont think it will be viable. Generally, the people that are getting booted are A. pirating or B. running a server from the home (against Comcast TOS). To find someone that is legally pushing more than 250 gigs AND gets booted, AND lives in an area where the meter isnt in place, they probably could sue to get services back; or at least make enough local noise where Comcast will just suck it up and reinstate their services.

The general statement with Comcast (and any other company ever really) is that "we reserve the right to change anything we want whenever we want", so I dont think a court case could hold any water.

Me too Cypher. I just dropped the $160 and picked up a Netgear this weekend. So far it's sweet.

Yeah, I have one of those WNDR3700's as well. Decent for a dual-band access point but that's all I've relegated mine too. The web interface is just horrible and I don't think its traffic meter is accurate. But it runs X-WRT so there is hope of it one day using DD-WRT or some other alternative firmware.

I ended up buying another router to route and let the Netgear just carry on as a AP (of which it is great).