Comcast Internet Limit

As of June 2011, Comcast residential customers have a limit of 250 gigabytes (GB) of data usage per month. The company defines data usages as the amount of data received, downloaded or uploaded over a given amount of time. Data comes in the form of e-mails, pictures, videos or other files. To reach or exceed 250 GB of data usage, Comcast states that a customer would have to do one of the following: send 50 million plain text email messages (at 5 kilobytes per email); download 62,500 songs (at 4 megabytes per song); download 125 standard-definition movies (at 2 GB per movie); or upload 25,000 hi-resolution digital photos (at 10 MB per photo).

The aforementioned examples of excessive use shouldn't scare the average user. Comcast states that 99 percent of its customers do not exceed the monthly 250 GB limit. In fact, 95 percent of its customers could increase data usage and still they wouldn't be considered excessive users. Average residential usage is about 4 to 6 GB per calendar month. This includes sending e-mail, streaming online content and general Internet surfing.

Customers who exceed 250 GB of data usage in a month will receive a phone call from Comcast's Customer Security Assurance (CSA) informing them the total amount of their usage. CSA will help the customer identify the cause of the high data usage. If the 250 GB limit is exceeded in the six months following the call, the customer's Internet service will be terminated and he will not be allowed to sign up for residential or commercial service for 12 months.

Comcast encourages users to password protect their Wi-Fi or wireless networks to prevent other users from taking advantage of the customer's data usage. In addition, customers can monitor their usage by logging in to their online Comcast.net account and clicking the "Users & Settings" option in the menu bar at the top of the Home screen. The "High-Speed Internet Data Usage" meter appears on the Manage My User Accounts screen. Comcast also provides the last three months of data usage for reference.