As of 2012, Comcast will stop supporting unlimited home data which would take effect in states with the most customer pool. Comcast consumers are being made responsible for the data they use and held liable for controlling it.

Comcast originally ran a trial of this in one city and it showed great success, so they are taking this practice to other states. The company states that this policy was made to combat the increase of internet traffic. Comcast CEO, Brian Roberts, claims it is “about fairness” and how it is a new system to regulate the increase of traffic of certain users that use much more data than others. However, this new policy is simply a slap to the face to customers as Comcast takes more money out of the consumers pocket without even providing a new or better service.

Comcast claims that this policy is for the greater good in order to deal with high traffic which would then lead to faster internet speeds all around. However, this plan does not improve the service whatsoever. This policy will result in two things depending on the consumer.

“About 8 percent of all Comcast customers go over 300 GB”, stated by Business Insider, so theses families will most likely go over and continue to pay extra each month until they buy the unlimited data plan. This defeats the whole purpose of why Comcast wanted to implement the rule in the first place, or they will avoid certain services and sites that use lots of data in order to prevent themselves from going over the data cap. Comcast has put the customer in a lose-lose situation where the company benefits either way.

How will the company profit by making consumers avoid high data using service? A lot of people actually do not have cable T.V anymore but rather just home internet, replacing standard television with programs like Netflix and Hulu. A study by Tech Crunch found that over 8% had cut their T.V services and 45% claimed they had reduced time spent watching T.V. This is a huge loss in profits to many internet providers, like Comcast, who offer cable T.V. By limiting the amount of data a person can watch, Comcast has reduced Netflix and Hulu’s audience greatly in attempts to reassure their “superior T.V service.”

ISPs (Internet Service Provider) are losing their power over the American people and Comcast’s effort to try to reassert themselves is a low-blow to its customers. They are simply charging more for the same service that was previously offered in order to slow the growth of superior internet services like Netflix. Comcast is the first company to implement this new rule but most likely not the last. They are currently under investigation by the FCC and it is up to us to stomp this pathetic excuse of a data plan and prevent it from spreading to our local areas.