Cox expands its 1TB data caps to more territories
Customers in Arizona, Louisiana, Las Vegas, and Oklahoma will be charged for using more than 1TB a month.
Cox is bringing its terabyte internet data caps to a bunch of new territories, having already introduced the plan to Cleveland, Ohio; Omaha, Nebraska; Sun Valley, Idaho; Florida, and Georgia. As a result, customers in Arizona, Las Vegas, Louisiana, and Oklahoma will now also have to pay $10 for every 50GB of data they consume over the cap -- Cox hasn't announced when it will introduce it to other markets.
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.
