Comcast announced on Friday that it is suspending enforcement of its data cap and overage charges for 60 days during the coronavirus pandemic.
“With so many people working and studying from home, we want our customers to access the Internet without thinking about data plans,” Comcast’s declaration tell. “While most of our customers don’t come close to using 1TB of data a month, we’re suspending our data plans for 60 days giving all customers unlimited data at no extra cost.”
Typically, Comcast charges an additional $50 per month for unlimited data, or $10 for each additional block of 50GB after customers exceed 1TB.
Comcast is also making its Xfinity Wi-Fi hotspots free for anyone to use. Millions of sites are scattered throughout the country; you can find hotspot locations Here. Hotspots are normally free to Comcast customers, while anyone else needs to purchase a season pass to use them.
Comcast is the largest Internet provider in the country. AT&T, the second largest Internet service provider that imposes data caps, announced that it would remove the caps yesterday.
T-Mobile also has a dealer declaration late Friday, said it would upgrade all current customers to “unlimited smartphone data for the next 60 days (without roaming).” This applies to any T-Mobile or Local through T-Mobile prepaid plan that has a monthly data cap. In addition, T-Mobile said it is offering all customers “an additional 20GB of mobile hotspot/tethering service for the next 60 days.” Sprint, which has been acquired by T-Mobile, is take the same steps.
To help low-income Americans, T-Mobile said it is “working with Lifeline partners to offer customers additional free data up to 5GB of data per month over the next two months.” Life is a federal program that provides discounted service to low-income people, and many Lifeline providers also sell T-Mobile service instead of operating their own networks. T-Mobile says it’s also increasing the data allowance on it Power system for schools and students, everyone’s upgrade to at least 20GB per month for the next 60 days.
Comcast, T-Mobile, and Sprint are among dozens of ISPs that signed a pledge to the Federal Communications Commission to waive late fees and keep customers connected when they miss payments. The agreement does not include the release of data keys, but some ISPs have done so anyway.
As noted in the previous area, Comcast is raising speeds from 15Mbps download / 2Mbps upload to 25Mbps / 3Mbps on Internet Communications, a $10-per-month service for low-income Americans. This speed increase is permanent, Comcast said. Comcast is also offering 60 days of free Internet Communications service to low-income customers.