The change took effect Jan. 1, but overage fees won’t start until July. Consumer Reporter Susan Hogan shows you how to monitor your data to avoid fees.
Comcast has rolled out new home internet data thresholds for many of its Xfinity customers, catching some off guard. It means many families who are working and learning from home no longer have access to free unlimited data.
Those impacted now have access to 1.2 terabytes of data a month. If they use more than that, they will be charged $10 for every additional 50GB of data they use, with a maximum charge of $100.
Comcast received a lot of pushback about the change. Many customers are upset that it happened during the pandemic when we’re all using more data at home. The company initially said it would waive fees for the first three months, but has now decided to extend that period to six months. The change only impacts the East Coast — the West Coast and central U.S. already had thresholds in place before the pandemic.
Comcast, which owns NBCUniversal, the parent company of NBC4, says only 5% of its customers use more than 1.2 terabytes of data a month. They sent News4 the following statement:
“1.2 terabytes is a massive amount of data that enables consumers to video conference for 3,500 hours, watch 1,200 hours of distance learning videos, stream 500 hours of high-definition video content a month, or play more than 34,000 hours of online games. Our data plan is structured in a way that the very small percentage of our customers who use more than 1.2 terabytes of monthly data and generate the greatest demand for network development and capacity pay more for their increased usage. For those superusers, we have unlimited data options available.”
If you’d like to upgrade to unlimited data, you’ll pay an extra $11 a month if you rent a modem from Comcast. If you own your modem, it will cost an extra $30 a month.
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For those who don’t upgrade, Comcast will send you notices when you hit 75% and 100% of your monthly threshold. Below, you’ll find step-by-step instructions on how to monitor your usage and see which devices are using the most data.
To see how much data you’ve used during the current month, log into your Xfinity account and click on “My Account” and choose “Manage Internet.”
Scroll down to the bottom of that page, and you’ll see the last four months of data usage, including the current month.
To see which devices are using the most data, click on the WiFi symbol at the top of the page.
Scroll down and click on “View All Devices.”
You’ll see all of the devices currently connected to your internet.
Click on each device to see how much of your network activity it is using. You can also pause a device from this page.
