I was a satisfied customer–happily overpaying for my 105Mbps service because it was consistent, reliable, and delivered faster broadband than advertised. Comcast chose to start enforcing a data cap, though, so now our household runs on AT&T GigaPower.
After more than five years of exemplary service we just ditched Comcast Xfinity and switched to AT&T GigaPower. It didn’t have to be this way, but Comcast forced our hand and we discovered the grass may be greener elsewhere.
We have used Xfinity since we moved into this house in 2011. We paid for 105Mbps service, but Speedtest.net regularly reported download speeds at 120Mbps or higher. The service has been reliable and consistent, and it’s hard to argue with getting more speed than you’re paying for.
A couple weeks ago, however, each of us received a pop-up alert from Xfinity when we opened the web browsers on our respective computers. Comcast wanted us to know that we had passed 90 percent of our 1TB per month data cap. There were still another four days until the end of the month, so we’d have to be careful about how we use the internet or risk overage charges.
We have six people in my house active on the internet each day, and according to my router there are nearly 70 devices in our home connected to the internet. That includes DirecTV boxes, Nintendo DS3s, computers, mobile devices, and even a Samsung refrigerator and a Ring doorbell. According to our usage history, we regularly used 700GB or more of data each month, but this was the first time we’d seen the alert because Comcast only recently decided to enforce the data cap.
Technically, we would not have been hit with overage charges…yet. Comcast allows two months as a grace period or warning before actually charging you. After that, using more than 1TB of data in a month results in a $10 fee to add another 50GB. Comcast will then just continue adding 50GB increments to a maximum overage of $200 in a given month. That’s pretty hefty considering we were paying less than $100 for the whole first terabyte. Comcast also offers the option of just paying $50 a month more for unlimited data.
Rather than deal with data caps and usage alerts we decided to check out our options. It turns out that AT&T now offers its Uverse GigaPower service in our area. We can get 1GB broadband for $15 a month less than what I was paying Comcast for the 105Mbps. AT&T also has a data cap, but the bonus is that because we’re DirecTV customers as well—and AT&T owns DirecTV—we get a bundle deal that grants us unlimited data.
Even without the DirecTV bundle, though, AT&T is a better deal. For non DirecTV households, AT&T lets you pay for unlimited data for only $30 a month. If you choose not to, AT&T will also charge you $10 for incremental increases if you hit your data cap, but it maxes out at $100 instead of $200.
Check out the full story on Forbes: Why I Dropped Xfinity Internet And Switched To AT&T GigaPower.
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You are fortunate to have choices for your home data/com services. Comcast is a monopoly in my area, and not antennas will work for tv.