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amungus
Premium Member
join:2004-11-26
America

amungus

Premium Member

[KS] Usage caps - an open letter

Dear Cox,

Our household got a second usage notice today. Hadn't seen one in some months ("Preferred" package). Had never seen one on previous accounts.
Are there any plans to change the cap?

How is it that, even with the "Ultimate" package, that the cap basically allows for (comparatively) less use?
400GB/mo. @ 100Mbps = 9.5 h (/mo) = .312hrs per day (at full speed)
250GB/mo. @ 25Mbps = 23.9 h (/mo) = .79hrs per day (at full speed)

My node doesn't seem overloaded. The infrastructure seems to be able to handle more than 9.5, or 24 hours of sustained use in a month's time.

The only alternative in my area is AT&T. I've heard that their uVerse isn't capped, but might be, or might be later, so who knows. Would really not prefer to switch to them.

I've never bothered to worry about a cap until seeing these notices.
Now, I'm not sure what to do.

Would it be unreasonable to consider (increasing the cap to) 1/4 of the speed's max potential, for 4hrs. a day? That'd be 314.3GB/mo on the 25Mbps plan (»/calcu ··· 25Mbps)? How about rounding that up to 315, or 350 for kicks, and maybe just to say to your customers that you're still a better deal than any other provider?
How about a yearly review of that, to increase fairly with consumption trends, and at least to keep up with speed increases?
Should customers be expected to make do with *less* when the price only continues to go up? More speed is nice and all, but 50GB cap increase in 3yrs. time, while speeds have practically doubled is a little weird in my opinion.

It's 2014. In 2011 (3 years ago now), AT&T said it would do 250GB caps on its uVerse. They haven't increased theirs.

In 2011, Cox had a 200GB cap. and had this to say about it:

"If you determine that your Internet data usage consistently increases, we recommend that you consider a Cox High Speed Internet package that more closely matches your use of the service."

Ok. I'm no expert on this, but hasn't everyone's usage consistently increased over the course of 3 years? Pardon a bad car analogy, but that's a bit like saying that if you find yourself on a highway with ever increasing speed limits, that you should drive more slowly, and less often.

Also, I can't seem to find the source article here, but that one also references this:

According to DSL Reports, the MSO is issuing subscribers four warnings. In the first three warnings, Cox suggests that subscribers order a tier offering a larger data allowance. In the fourth warning, Cox warns subscribers that there service may be disconnected

Is that still the case?
In either case, how would one go about communicating to Cox that they would prefer a better dialog on this issue? It seems rather one-sided, and when the other side puts out passive-aggressive notices that "you should consider another package" ...it makes things a little difficult...

Sincerely,
A Cox HSI customer since about 2003 (with a couple of short breaks in-between due to locations not being in the service area).
davidhoffman
Premium Member
join:2009-11-19
Warner Robins, GA

davidhoffman

Premium Member

UVerse is capped at 250 GB per month. If you go over there is a $10 charge for another 50 GB, as far as I remember.

Cox is in the midst of standardizing the offerings in all of its markets. It likes the advantages AT&T has with nationally standardized ADSL offerings. That allows for national advertising campaigns. Cox wants to do that also. I think once the offerings are standardized Cox might increase its caps. They may also adopt the overage charge instead of cutoffs.

The future of cable internet service tiers is unclear. The future adoption of DOCSIS 3.1 could complicate things more than they are now. For Cox there is the question of willingness to really challenge the DSL providers in their markets. Should they make the bottom tier 25/5 for the same price they ask for 5/1, so as to be faster than any possible ADSL2+ service? If you want to dominate your market, you need to really provide a significantly better value. While there will need to be investments to leverage DOCSIS 3.1, the new standard will offer unprecedented opportunities to offer better values. Should that value be in tiers with faster speeds or should it be in a truly uncapped service? Or something else?

Termites
@cox.net

Termites

Anon

said by davidhoffman:

UVerse is capped at 250 GB per month. If you go over there is a $10 charge for another 50 GB, as far as I remember.

David that's why we need Googlefiber in the Middle Georgia Area.
This cap Limits and their E-mail its costing us in the long run already used your cap try to tell that to your employer...
Azlen
join:2010-05-03
Peoria, AZ

Azlen to amungus

Member

to amungus
Has anyone ever been disconnected after the fourth warning? I've heard of plenty of people who go over their caps frequently without penalty. I've always viewed those letters as more of a marketing tactic to get you to upgrade your speed package than anything else.
ajwees41
Premium Member
join:2002-05-10
Omaha, NE

ajwees41 to davidhoffman

Premium Member

to davidhoffman
any source or are you just guessing?
davidhoffman
Premium Member
join:2009-11-19
Warner Robins, GA

davidhoffman

Premium Member

Just an educated guess based on the previous reductions in regions by Cox and the normal trends in corporations to want national standards, not regional ones.

The airlines and mobile cellular companies make millions from overage charges and fees. Why would Cox not want to get additional revenue from overage fees in a similar manner? Which is more customer friendly? Hard caps, warning letters, and cutoffs, or you may need/want to buy additional buckets of bytes letters?

With limited growth potential due to population increases, you have to start going after customers you normally did not bother with. I remember when the two satellite TV companies, DirecTV and DishNetwork, almost never competed against each other in advertising. They went after cable customers. It was only when the market for pay TV got saturated that they turned on each other in a significant way. The cable companies are reaching that saturation situation. Going after ADSL customers may be one of the few ways to get additional revenue from growth in subscriber numbers.

I can see the possibility of a radical change in tier offerings once they get national standardization. How about three, down from four, with 25/5 as the bottom tier? How about offering the 25/5 bottom tier for the same long term price as the least expensive 768Kbps non-promotional offering from AT&T or other telephone companies? The goal is to get a net profit increase by getting more subscribers. Significantly eroding the DSL market might do that.

Cable Labs strongly asserts that DOCSIS 3.1 will not be the costly implementation fiasco that DOCSIS 3.0 was. I seriously doubt that. But, if it is true, then D3.1 should give the cable companies enough efficiency to be able to afford to seriously undercut ADSL pricing on a per Mbps basis.

Yes, I am taking educated guesses, but I seriously doubt that Cox is going to stay with unchanging hard caps for several more years.
ajwees41
Premium Member
join:2002-05-10
Omaha, NE

ajwees41

Premium Member

I don't think we will see standardization since Cox is not national available I'd bet would see each market/ hub have different offerings like they do now. pricing would be all over the place like Omaha has no real other provider than Cox. Sure there's centurylink and Dish and DirecTV.
davidhoffman
Premium Member
join:2009-11-19
Warner Robins, GA

davidhoffman

Premium Member

I agree with you about the television market. The different live event situations, such as sports, in each local television DMA make nationwide standardization difficult. In addition to those conditions, I cannot figure out why the Ultimate TV tier is not included with all the other tiers when you do price comparisons. DirecTV and DishNetwork both give you easy access to data about the top tier including price. Cox, on its website, strangely hides the Ultimate tier's price. Cox also makes it somewhat difficult to find the entire channel lineup of the Ultimate tier.

As for the internet marketplace, I agree the price for a specific tier may be different depending on local market conditions. I think Cox will standardize those future tiers nationwide as far as download and upload speed. The caps, if there are any, will be standardized nationwide also. At Burger King for example, Whoppers, Whopper Juniors, and hamburgers are standardized nationwide, but the local prices for those items may vary. That is the way I see Cox going with internet tiers.
jechapk
join:2012-11-07
Rogers, AR

jechapk

Member

yeah, they dont actually do anything about it. i have been over the cap every month for over 3 years.

I dont actually get a letter, but they send an email every month. I triple the cap at least every month
PinkyThePig
Premium Member
join:2011-05-02
Tempe, AZ

PinkyThePig to amungus

Premium Member

to amungus
I wonder if they just don't bother you when at ultimate tier (or if just my area is less congested).

I live in AZ and last year I downloaded something like 4 TB over a 6 month time period. I have never received a letter, email, call etc. from it.

ikyuaoki
join:2011-04-12
Wichita, KS

ikyuaoki to amungus

Member

to amungus
I have no issue problems on the usage issue, I am pretty stay under 400GB usage cap so I haven't receive any of this letter yet that in results of my disabled nagle algorithm of TCP that turns my TCP packets into tinygram packets so in theory, that should reduces the overhead and also it reduces a adds to usage down drastically.

EDIT: half of empty bandwidth glass cup does matter to me this really results that reduces the usage cap drastically down too.
whiteazn
join:2005-02-10
Henderson, NV

whiteazn to jechapk

Member

to jechapk
said by jechapk:

yeah, they dont actually do anything about it. i have been over the cap every month for over 3 years.

I dont actually get a letter, but they send an email every month. I triple the cap at least every month

this is what I am wondering. I have been over 3-4 times and received an email everytime, even for being over 1GB for the month. Starting to think they won't do anything about it, at least not right now.
thornnnn
join:2002-02-14
North Kingstown, RI

thornnnn

Member

I don't feel comfortable operating outside the terms of my contract. I share a 250 tier plan with others in the house so my personal cap is 125GB/month. I can stream 1 hd movie and use the connection for email/text browsing per day. I have borrowed my friends verison FIOS tho.. and downloaded 800 GB in 2 days. FIOS cap is 25x cox's highest tier. cox: 400GB/Mo. vs FIOS 10TB/Mo. With cox i have cut the cable.. and spend 23 hours a day in darkness. with FIOS. i could watch tv all day long. IF cox keeps raising the speed.. without raising the caps.. i'll be reduced to being able to watch only 1 commercial per day. Cox if you read this.. PLEASE allow access to the bandwidth meter (a must have for cox) to the entire IP. hiding it behind the primary account holders password compromises their security or deny's usage of the meter. Please assume if we have permission to use the IP.. we should be ok to use the meter to monitor such use.
arnieb5
join:2001-10-29
Chesapeake, VA

arnieb5

Member

At least in the Hampton Roads area, all email accounts have access to the bandwidth meter, not just the primary account.
The Saguaro
join:2002-05-18
Tucson, AZ

The Saguaro to ajwees41

Member

to ajwees41
Actually there is a major internal move to standardization in both offerings, pricings and business practices. Regardless of the fact that Cox isn't available nationwide, it is felt to be necessary to meld the various companies that were bought into one which BTW is being somewhat resisted by longtime employees of those companies that were bought. I would imagine you will see this by the end of this calendar year or early next.
The Saguaro

The Saguaro to davidhoffman

Member

to davidhoffman
The Ultimate Tier is shown on the Channel Lineup on the web site in all markets.

NormanS
I gave her time to steal my mind away
MVM
join:2001-02-14
San Jose, CA
TP-Link TD-8616
Asus RT-AC66U B1
Netgear FR114P

NormanS to davidhoffman

MVM

to davidhoffman
said by davidhoffman:

UVerse is capped at 250 GB per month. If you go over there is a $10 charge for another 50 GB, as far as I remember.

I have heard of legacy ADSL users (150 GB limit) being billed for going over. I have not heard of U-verse users (250 GB limit) being billed for going over.
davidhoffman
Premium Member
join:2009-11-19
Warner Robins, GA

davidhoffman

Premium Member

Perhaps At&T does not want to upset U-verse customers anymore than they have so far.

NormanS
I gave her time to steal my mind away
MVM
join:2001-02-14
San Jose, CA
TP-Link TD-8616
Asus RT-AC66U B1
Netgear FR114P

NormanS

MVM

said by davidhoffman:

Perhaps At&T does not want to upset U-verse customers anymore than they have so far.

More likely they want to drive customers away from legacy ADSL (billed for overages) to U-verse (not billed for overages).