[olug] OT - Cox to start billing for people using more than 1tb a month

[Aaron Grothe]

Hey Everybody,
I imagine everybody who uses Cox Communications for their Internet provider got the e-mail yesterday morning.
Cox is going to put a 1-tb / month usage limit on all of their residential cable users.  If you go over 1-tb they will happily bill you at the rate of $10/50 gb after that.  This limit applies to all speed tiers.  I thought they would give top level people an option of having more, but nope.
Why this sucks is I really don't have a choice for internet.  Talked to CenturyLink and since I live in midtown the MAX speed I can get is 1.5Mbps, which is kind of bad.
It is nice that Cox has a monopoly on high-speed internet access to my neighborhood.
The fees apparently don't kick in for the next two billing cycles, but it still kind of sucks :-(
Keep in mind 1-tb is a lot of data, I fully acknowledge that.  You have to wonder though with more people cutting the cable cord and going to internet entertainment.  More HD/4k content how long until 1tb starts to look like a pretty low amount, and cox gets closer to that paying for every byte model they'd love to have.
I think the solution might be to go with a business account.  The speed is half for what I'm currently paying, but there are no data transfer limits yet that I'm aware.  Besides the speed drop you also have to sign a 3-year commitment unless you want to pay quite a bit more.  Not sure what I have to do for that.
The next time I buy a house having multiple internet vendors if there still are more than one by then will be on my list of concerns.
Google fiber is sounding better and better.
Good luck everybody,
Aaron0-0-0"The Journey is the Reward" - Old Zen Buddhist Saying