Cord-cutting at What Data Cost?
- Thread starter Bronxiniowa
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I haven't researched other than just watching my data useage.
I haven't cut the cord, but I do watch a significant amount of streamed content with about 20% of it being UHD.
Before getting UHD streaming a typical month was around the 400Gb mark. With the mix now my useage has increased to about 600Gb. Given those figures, I firmly believe that a full month of nothing but streaming and OTA would end up either at my 1TB data cap or exceeding it.
EDIT: I think those that have cut the cord or are planning to, would use less than mine because they are actually not watching as much as those of us with cable or sat subscriptions. Just gut feeling, no facts to back it up.
I haven't cut the cord, but I do watch a significant amount of streamed content with about 20% of it being UHD.
Before getting UHD streaming a typical month was around the 400Gb mark. With the mix now my useage has increased to about 600Gb. Given those figures, I firmly believe that a full month of nothing but streaming and OTA would end up either at my 1TB data cap or exceeding it.
EDIT: I think those that have cut the cord or are planning to, would use less than mine because they are actually not watching as much as those of us with cable or sat subscriptions. Just gut feeling, no facts to back it up.
We have been doing nothing but streaming and ota for a few months now. Previously had a mostly unenforced 350gb limit with uverse and never got a warning. Now I have a 600gb limit, and when I checked last weekend I was at around 100gb used in the billing cycle. I imagine I will hit 500 or so. That is using ps vue for tv, and my daughter constantly being on netflix and hulu.
Others may use more.
Others may use more.
Those without OTA will likely plow through considerably more data; I'm betting more than half again. OTA with DVR capability is a lifesaver bandwidth-wise.
Possibly. Even with OTA I find probably 80-90% of my usage is streaming. 95% of my daughters is streaming, and my wife is about 50/50. We simply do not have the time to use more than what we are, which is one of the main reasons "cutting the cord" as they say was such a no brainer for us.
I imagine with what for us is heavy usage we would use approx 90% of our 600 gb cap
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FYI I hope you dont have cox as they just reduced their data cap from 2tb a month to 1tb a month. Super upset at that. They didn't notify anyone or even lower the prices of their packages.
I do. One roamio Ota and one tivo bolt. No fees at the moment. Will have one on the bolt next year.
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This seems to be how things work these days. When enough customers are actually using the service, they whack down the limit.
You may recall that Microsoft will be reducing their Onedrive ceiling by 67% to a cramped 5GB (same as iCloud) and their "unlimited" plan to 1TB. Wireless service went through a similar cycle (except for the carriers that have limited coverage and even more limited customer interest). Promises of bandwidth and capacity are fleeting as the goal is to oversell everything and pull back when people find it indispensable.
I like putting everything in terms of how many copies of Windows you can fit and the new size fits one compressed 64 bit copy. Windows 98se was 639MB (about the same size as .net 4.x) and Windows 10 64 bit (English only) is about 4.1GB.
It is father's day and I have Sling TV and economy basic cable, which provides local and about 30 cable channels, some repeats on Sling and others not. As of today, I have used 286gb of data. I have a 1tb limit. On the channels repeated by cable, I watch it there to cut down on using data because I also have Netflix. But I'm really not concerned about exceeding the 1tb cap. I have Comcast economy, Sling TV, and Netflix and I Skype and use Pandora along with surfing the net and Facebook
From the comments, it sounds to me like the cable providers that offer internet are going to make you pay for cutting the cord by reducing your data cap, leaving you open to overage charges. I remain in a gilded cage called Mediacom.
Depends on the provider. I don't measure my data use but I know it's got to be quite a bit higher than average. I like to play video games and I buy just about all of them digitally. This means I routinely download games that are 40-50GB (sometimes larger). When you download 2-3 of them per week (sometimes more, sometimes less) that adds up to a lot of data and that isn't even factoring in all the several gigabyte patches they put out these days or the data used while I am playing these games online.
I am with Charter and I currently have their double play bundled with TV but I still stream a lot of video. I did go about 2 years as a cord cutter before adding the double play so I was streaming even more then on top of the same game downloads.
I mentioned at the beginning of the post that I don't measure my data and there is a reason for that. I have had broadband internet service through Charter since around 2001 (at my parents house back then because I was in 8th grade) and I have always just used the internet however I want without worrying about my data use. In those 15 years I have never once received any kind of notice saying I was using too much data. I'm not even sure whether Charter has a cap or not but if they do it's a non-issue for me.
If anything it seems like the caps are getting bigger, not smaller. Comcast recently increased their data cap from 300GB to 1TB. AT&T also increased their data caps but it looks like they actually charge people who go over.
I just did a search to see what my data cap is with Charter because I've never paid attention to what it was before. The first thing I found was an article from last month about how Charter doesn't have data caps and won't for at least 7 more years.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/...-data-caps-but-they-exist-elsewhere/83713186/
Apparently this was one of the stipulations from the FCC in order to get their purchase of Time Warner Cable approved. Interestingly enough the same article claims that they had already removed the data caps that they weren't enforcing anyway from their fine print back in 2014.
Talking about what they're going to do isn't the same as what they're doing now or will end up doing.
At the moment, Comcast is running cap free except for some test areas. This has been pretty much ongoing since 2012.
By their own admission, the average Comcast customer is using around 60GB of data per month. Only 1% go above 1TB.
Practically speaking, if the average went up to 250GB, they'd surely be crying the blues.
If the Net Neutrality people get their way, it may turn out that customers are using quite a bit more as Comcast may not currently be counting their demand traffic and this will force them to make another trial configuration that contemplates counting all non-linear content.
Huh? From the sounds of that article it sounds like AT&T and Comcast aren't just talking about increasing their caps. They already did it. In Comcast's case it might only be on a test basis but if they more than tripled their cap in the only markets where the had a cap that has to be a good sign.
The fact that they don't have caps elsewhere only enforces my point. Comcast doesn't have a cap in most of the country and Charter, TWC, and Brighthouse don't have them anywhere. AT&T just increased their cap. The only case I read about with someone recently lowering their cap was a post here from someone who has Cox. Even in that case it was lowered to 1TB which is still quite a bit of data.
The point was that caps are a non-issue for me and it seems like they would be for most other users too. The major providers either don't have them or have 1TB caps now. I feel for the people on legacy DSL systems with 250GB or less caps but they have to be a pretty small minority.
If the average customer is only using 60GB like you say those 1% of power users up around the 1TB cap shouldn't be putting that much strain on the network. If anything they should raise the caps or eliminate them all together so that they can advertise that they don't have data caps. Most of their customers are barely using anything so going cap free wouldn't put much if any extra strain on the network and it's good publicity for the provider.
As I thought I made clear, Comcast has been testing caps for four years and continues to do so. They seem to rotate the markets so it isn't just a matter of beating up on one group again and again.
I would point out that Charter has acquired both TWC and Brighthouse so it isn't cast in stone where they will go now that they may have eliminated some of the competition.
But that may change if the recent Net Neutrality ruling isn't overturned. I'm thinking it likely that IPTV delivered by a provider would be covered under the broadband rules as broadband traffic and that would do some serious damage to AT&T's plans to offer "unlimited" Internet to DIRECTV customers as well as possibly forcing them to include their own IPTV in the traffic numbers -- something they've said doesn't currently count.
My interpretation comes from the actions of the FCC and their assertion that TV is TV whether it comes from Comcast or Netflix and as such, it has to be treated equally.
I'm not saying I agree with Net Neutrality, just observing what effects it may have on companies that have thought they could skirt around it.
