Not to beat a dead horse, but you really need to let your electeds know you oppose the proposed Comcast/Time Warner merger. It will only spread the misery and exploitation to an even larger segment of America:
Setting limits on data and charging extra when customers exceed them is precisely the type of scheme that nearly everyone besides Comcast considers to be a “data cap.” It’s the phrase normal people use to describe wireless data plans with exactly the same type of structure.
Comcast has gone so far as to ask for a correction to an article that called the limits “data caps” instead of “data thresholds” or “flexible data consumption plans.” Now it’s trying to convince the government that its data limits aren’t actually data caps.
“Comcast does not have ‘data caps’ today,” the company wrote this week in a filing with the New York Public Service Commission on its proposed acquisition of Time Warner Cable. “Comcast announced almost two years ago that it was suspending enforcement of its prior 250GB excessive usage cap and that it would instead be trialing different pricing and packaging options to evaluate options for subscribers—options that reflect evolving Internet usage and that are based on the desire to provide flexible consumption plans, including a plan that enables customers who want to use more data the option to pay more to do so as well as a plan for those who use less data the option to save some money… Some of these trials include a data usage plan that allows customers who use very little Internet each month to receive a discount on their service fee, and variations on a plan that provide customers with the ability to buy additional increments of usage if they exceed a base amount (starting at 300GB) that is included with their service.”
Comcast argued that the federal government is the appropriate entity to investigate data caps, and that, as a consequence, New York regulators shouldn’t bother examining them in their review of the Comcast/TWC merger—even though Comcast could impose data caps on TWC customers who don’t face them today.
“[W]hether data caps are appropriate is a matter of federal regulatory concern, not one that relates to this proceeding or that is even transaction specific (since nothing precludes TWC from adopting caps at any time, as it has in the past),” Comcast wrote.
Data caps, defined by an FCC panel that includes a Comcast VP
So what does the FCC have to say on the matter? The FCC doesn’t seem to offer its own definition, but the commission asked its Open Internet Advisory Committee to examine a variety of concerns related to Internet service, resulting in an August 2013 report titled, “Policy Issues in Data Caps and Usage-Based Pricing.”
The working group that wrote the report consisted of seven people—including Kevin McElearney, senior VP for network engineering at Comcast. Comcast’s friends at Netflix were represented as well, along with T-Mobile, the Writers Guild of America, the National Urban League, Union Square Ventures, and Northwestern University.
