Is Comcast considering a 500 GB broadband cap?

Three months after it suspended its 250 GB-a-month cap on broadband data, the largest American broadband provider, Comcast is reportedly looking to double that to 500 GB a month, according to a DSLReports source. This is part of Comcast previously promised tests with cap-tiers and pricing. Comcast replaced the 250 GB-cap plan with 300 GB plan in May.

And now Karl Bode at DSLReports says that cap may instead be as high as 500 gigabytes per month for those who subscribe to faster tiers:

Interestingly, our source claims that when Comcast proceeds with the deployment of this new cap system nationally, faster speed tiers will see higher caps. For example, users on the company’s “Performance” tier (currently 15 Mbps down, 2 Mbps up) will see a cap of 300 GB. Users on the company’s “Blast” tier (currently 25 Mbps down 4 Mbps up) will see a higher 500 GB cap.

Comcast declined to comment on speculation or rumors. Comcast would be following a pricing strategy some smaller ISPs such as CableOne and SuddenLink which have implemented similar caps. Currently at 64 percent of U.S. broadband subscribers have some type of cap according to my poll of providers and the Leichtman Research Group data on U.S. broadband subscribers, and many have lower caps on slower tiers. In general this points to a more sophisticated pricing model for wireline broadband as ISPs attempt to wring more value for their data pipes amid demand for broadband and worries about their pay TV businesses.

Comcast tower courtesy of Flickr user Kevin Burkett.



GigaOM