The changes will go into effect in July, with a two-bill grace period that will last up until September. After that, customers will have to fork out for any extra usage above the terabyte limit. Cox, like other US internet providers, claims the dramatic rise in data usage left it with no choice.
However, the company says that a terabyte of data — which it claims allows you to watch 140 2-hour HD movies — is sufficient for the overwhelming majority of customers (98 percent to be precise). Customers signed up to its faster Gigablast plan (available in select regions) will be capped at 2TB of data. Cox customers can manually track their usage using the data usage meter online or via the Cox Connect mobile app.
US internet providers are increasingly adopting 1TB caps. This despite the fact that the plans have come under fire in tech circles for being anti-competitive, with both companies and net neutrality advocates urging the FCC to investigate the practice of zero-rating that exempts favored services from data caps.
