A data cap, often erroneously referred to as a bandwidth cap, is an artificial restriction imposed on the transfer of data over a network. In particular, it refers to policies imposed by an
internet service provider
An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides services for accessing, using, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, non-profit, or otherwise private ...
in order to limit customers' usage of their services; typically, exceeding a data cap would require the subscriber to pay additional fees based on whether they have exceeded this limit. Implementation of a data cap is sometimes termed a fair access policy, fair usage policy, or usage-based billing by ISPs.
U.S. ISPs have asserted that data caps are required in order to provide a "fair" service to their respective subscribers. The use of data caps has been criticized for becoming increasingly unnecessary, as decreasing infrastructure costs have made it cheaper for ISPs to increase the capacity of their networks to keep up with the demands of their users, rather than place arbitrary limits on usage. It has also been asserted that data caps are meant to help protect
pay television
Pay television, also known as subscription television, premium television or, when referring to an individual service, a premium channel, refers to Subscription business model, subscription-based television services, usually provided by multichan ...
providers that may also be owned by an ISP from competition with
over-the-top streaming services.
Although often referred to as a "bandwidth cap", it is not the actual
bandwidth
Bandwidth commonly refers to:
* Bandwidth (signal processing) or ''analog bandwidth'', ''frequency bandwidth'', or ''radio bandwidth'', a measure of the width of a frequency range
* Bandwidth (computing), the rate of data transfer, bit rate or thr ...
(bits per second) that is limited, but the total amount of data downloaded per month.
Standard cap
Generally, each user of a network is expected to use high speed transmission for a short time, for example to download a megabyte web page in less than a second. Continuous usage, such as when
sharing files or
streaming video
Video on demand (VOD) is a media distribution system that allows users to access videos without a traditional video playback device and the constraints of a typical static broadcasting schedule. In the 20th century, broadcasting in the form of o ...
s can seriously impair service for others. In
DSL
Digital subscriber line (DSL; originally digital subscriber loop) is a family of technologies that are used to transmit digital data over telephone lines. In telecommunications marketing, the term DSL is widely understood to mean asymmetric dig ...
, where the core network is shared but the access network is not, this concept is less relevant. However, it becomes more relevant in
cable internet, where both the
core network
A backbone or core network is a part of a computer network which interconnects networks, providing a path for the exchange of information between different LANs or subnetworks. A backbone can tie together diverse networks in the same buildin ...
and the
access network
An access network is a type of telecommunications network which connects subscribers to their immediate service provider. It is contrasted with the core network, which connects local providers to one another. The access network may be further ...
are shared, and on wireless networks, where the total network bandwidth is also relatively narrow.
Example cap
In 2016, U.S. provider
Comcast
Comcast Corporation (formerly known as American Cable Systems and Comcast Holdings),Before the AT&T merger in 2001, the parent company was Comcast Holdings Corporation. Comcast Holdings Corporation now refers to a subsidiary of Comcast Corpora ...
offered a service plan with a data cap of 1 terabyte.
At contemporary data consumption rates, each member of a family of four would need to separately watch 100 movies in a month to approach the cap.
In that case, typical data usage habits would not exceed that cap.
Unlimited data
"Unlimited data" is sometimes a
marketing promotion in which an
Internet service provider
An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides services for accessing, using, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, non-profit, or otherwise private ...
offers access to Internet without cutting service at the data cap.
However, after a user passes some data cap, the provider will begin
bandwidth throttling
Bandwidth throttling consists in the intentional limitation of the communication speed (bytes or kilobytes per second) of the ingoing (received) data and/or in the limitation of the speed of outgoing (sent) data in a network node or in a network ...
to decrease the user's speed of access to data, slowing down the user's internet use.
Many providers throughout the rest of the world offer no data cap at all, but they may impose a fair use policy, allowing them to disconnect users with excessive download usage.
By region
As of October 2015, there were 58 wired broadband providers in the US that used data caps, among them major wireless cell phone providers such as
Verizon Wireless
Verizon is an American wireless network operator that previously operated as a separate division of Verizon Communications under the name Verizon Wireless. In a 2019 reorganization, Verizon moved the wireless products and services into the divi ...
and
AT&T
AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the world's largest telecommunications company by revenue and the third largest provider of mobile tel ...
.
Before 2010 there was a trend of providing unlimited data without bandwidth throttling. In the United States the
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdiction ...
has fined service providers for offering unlimited data in a way that misled consumers. In June 2015, the FCC fined
AT&T Mobility
AT&T Mobility LLC, also known as AT&T Wireless and marketed as simply AT&T, is an American telecommunications company. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of AT&T Inc. and provides wireless services in the United States. AT&T Mobility is the thi ...
for misleading consumers. In October 2016 the FCC reached a settlement with
T-Mobile
T-Mobile is the brand name used by some of the mobile communications subsidiaries of the German telecommunications company Deutsche Telekom AG in the Czech Republic (T-Mobile Czech Republic), Poland (T-Mobile Polska), the United States (T-Mobile ...
in which they would pay for failing to disclose restrictions on their unlimited data plans.
Iranian Communications Regulatory Authority set a Fair Usage Policy in 2017.
Justification
U.S. internet service providers have most recently asserted that data caps are needed in order to provide "fair",
tiered services at different price points based on speed and usage.
In 2016,
Sonic.net
Sonic is a telecommunications company and internet service provider based in Santa Rosa, California, acting as a competitive local exchange carrier in the San Francisco Bay Area, Sacramento, and Los Angeles.
History
Sonic began as an effort to ...
CEO Dane Jasper criticized the historical assertions that data caps are meant to conserve network capacity, arguing that the cost of actually delivering service had "declined much faster than the increase in data traffic". When Sonic was first established in 2008, its infrastructure costs were equivalent to 20% of its revenue, but these had fallen to only 1.5% by 2016 because of the declining costs of equipment.
Suddenlink
Suddenlink was an American telecommunications subsidiary of Altice USA trading in cable television, broadband, IP telephony, home security, and advertising. Prior to its acquisition by Altice, the company was the seventh largest cable operator wi ...
CEO Jerry Kent made a similar assertion in an investors' call, stating that the "days" of having to make investments to keep up with customer demand were "over", and there would be "significant free cash flow generated from the cable operators as our capital expenditures continue to come down."
As most major U.S. internet providers own television providers, it has also been suggested that data caps are intended to
discourage users from
dropping their pay television subscriptions by placing ''de facto'' restrictions on the use of competing streaming video services that are delivered over the internet, such as
Netflix
Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...
.
The lobbying group
Internet Association
The Internet Association (IA) was an American lobbying group based in Washington, D.C., which represented companies involved in the Internet. It was founded in 2012 by Michael Beckerman and several companies, including Google, Amazon, eBay, and F ...
additionally argued that data caps are meant to create "
artificial scarcity
Artificial scarcity is scarcity of items despite the technology for production or the sufficient capacity for sharing. The most common causes are monopoly pricing structures, such as those enabled by laws that restrict competition or by high fi ...
", especially in markets where there is limited competition in broadband, also pointing out that some providers offer their own streaming video services that are
exempted from data cap policies, such as Comcast's Stream TV. Comcast defended the exemption by stating that the service is not delivered over the public internet; it can only be used while connected to the provider's home Wi-Fi router.
See also
*
Bandwidth hogging
In computing, bandwidth is the maximum rate of data transfer across a given path. Bandwidth may be characterized as network bandwidth, data bandwidth, or digital bandwidth.
This definition of ''bandwidth'' is in contrast to the field of signal p ...
*
Bandwidth management
Bandwidth management is the process of measuring and controlling the communications (traffic, packets) on a network link, to avoid filling the link to capacity or overfilling the link,https://www.internetsociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/BWro ...
*
Bandwidth throttling
Bandwidth throttling consists in the intentional limitation of the communication speed (bytes or kilobytes per second) of the ingoing (received) data and/or in the limitation of the speed of outgoing (sent) data in a network node or in a network ...
*
Internet in Canada#Usage-based billing (UBB)
*
Uncapping
Uncapping, in the context of cable modems, refers to a number of activities performed to alter an Internet service provider's modem settings. It is sometimes done for the sake of bandwidth (i.e. by buying a 512kbit/s access modem and then altering ...
References
{{reflist
External links
BroadbandReports.com review of Optimum Online policies
Broadband
Data transmission
Net neutrality