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We recently ended our Xfinity service and now only have internet speed of 300mbps. This saved us about $160 each month, which was a big relief. It was our first month with just streaming for TV, kids doing online school, and my usual 4 to 6 hours of gaming on weekends. On Sunday night I received a notice saying we’d used 90% of our data, followed by another alert that we’d hit the limit. I was charged $10 for an additional 50gb and another $10 if I exceeded that, with more charges once I surpassed the limit—up to $100 in overage fees. Then I saw an offer for unlimited data for $30 extra per month. Have others faced similar problems with Xfinity? It seems they charge just enough to encourage overage fees, then push for the unlimited plan. /rant
You’re getting 1.2TB of bandwidth each month, with the first overage being free. You can monitor your usage on the Xfinity website. It’s not a real expense for you if you’re not paying extra on Comcast’s end. There seems to be no real option—US telecoms are generally not reliable. If you can’t handle the data cap (like 10% daily usage), the $30 could pay off eventually, at least until things stabilize.
Metro Detroit has been limited for the past couple to three years. My suggestion is to instruct your kids not to activate streaming unless they’re genuinely viewing it. Check OTA antennas—they offer a solid way to reduce data usage. Or you might end up paying more. Just a note, AT&T (DSL), Comcast, Cox all impose limits. It’s not just a Comcast issue. Though Comcast was among the pioneers.
Yesterday marked my wife's first day without a job, so it’s likely she spent the day watching streams and doing online school for our child. This might help explain the 10% charge in a single day. I recently chatted with a coworker, and from our conversation it seems that with cable service—even basic—you get unlimited data with Xfinity. However, to offset lost income from people switching to limited plans, they’re restricting internet-only accounts and adding extra fees for unlimited data. I get the business side, but it still feels a bit frustrating. Before we decide to cut cable, I wasn’t working as much overtime, so I’ve been gaming a lot on weekends and uploading to YouTube, plus my child’s games and streams, and my wife streams a lot (like Netflix). We’ve never had any problems, but our usage looks a bit above average—especially with spikes during weeks I took off from work. We never faced any caps back then, which made this change feel unexpected and a bit painful. I might need to put in a bit more overtime and pay the extra $30 per month for unlimited data.
From what I understand, when we had cable, we were limited. The only options to get unlimited were A) renting the XFI gateway for $25 per month or B) paying an additional $30 each month. OTA TV is still available. That’s how my family watches live TV. I use a HDhomerun and a Plex server not just to record live broadcasts but also to share the antenna signal across three TVs in the house. This helped reduce our usage somewhat. We typically use between 600 and 700 gigabytes each month out of the 1.2 terabytes we receive monthly. Just be a bit more mindful about updates—like setting Windows machines to metered connections so they don’t automatically download updates. Only update the games you play regularly. For video streaming, consider lowering the quality. 4K video consumes a lot of data, so when possible, use 1080 or 720p. The limit is why I never upgraded to a 4K TV. I worry about streaming in 4K because it would be too demanding. While I could handle 4K Blu-ray, ripping them onto my Plex server would likely require another 10TB of storage.
I visited the Xfinity store locally and upgraded to unlimited data. They adjusted my plan, lowering my internet cost from $70 per month to $60 for the same speed, then included the $30 monthly fee for unlimited data. Overall, it felt like I saved about $20 compared to the previous rate. Thanks for your feedback!