On May 18th, 2023, Spectrum’s deal with the FCC to not impose data caps on their customers will come to an end. There had been reports that Spectrum would follow Comcast and others to impose data caps, but now the company says they will not be adding data caps.
In a statement to LightReading Charter, the parent company of Spectrum said that they have no plans to change its data policies when the FCC ban ends next month.
This deal with the FCC to not implement data caps on internet customers was part of a bigger deal to buy Time Warner cable. Charter agreed for 7 years, it wouldn’t impose any data caps, but that deal is now coming to an end.
Spectrum has already tried to impose data caps. Back in 2021, Spectrum asked the FCC to allow it to impose data caps before the end of its deal. After it became clear that the FCC was unlikely to approve the deal, Spectrum pulled its request.
Now on May 18th, 2023, Spectrum’s deal with the FCC will end, and it is expected that Spectrum will impose data caps.
Right now, only a handful of major providers do not impose data caps in some form. Most customers may never go over 1TB of data it is possible. Streaming Netflix in 4K will go through 1TB of data in about 171 hours. That works out to be roughly 7 hours of 4K streaming every day in a month.
Now, most streaming is not in 4K. With Netflix HD, it works out to be about 500 hours of streaming to hit 1TB. That works out to be over 16 hours of HD streaming every day in a 30-day month.
Many have argued that data caps are about making extra profit. Comcast, for example, will let you out of your data cap if you pay extra to rent their modem. Extra fees to avoid data caps and fees for going over your data cap have become a comment way for internet service providers to make extra profit.
Spectrum will have the ability to add data caps to their customers anytime after May 18th, 2023.