Comcast, AT&T, and Verizon Should Suspend Data Caps Because of Coronavirus

For years, US broadband providers have taken advantage of a lack of US competition by imposing arbitrary and expensive broadband usage caps and "overage fees." With the country facing a massive surge in videoconferencing and home learning thanks to the coronavirus epidemic, experts say it’s time for broadband providers to suspend these costly, unnecessary restrictions. Thanks to limited competition, affordable broadband is just out of reach for many US residents. With huge swaths of the US public now being asked to work, learn, and play exclusively from home, those restrictions could impose additional costs on already struggling American families, said Benton Institute for Broadband & Society Senior Fellow Gigi Sohn. “Fixed and mobile ISPs should step up in this time of crisis and suspend all data caps and overage fees,” she said, adding that such restrictions don’t have much of a technical justification, existing largely as a way for broadband providers to extract even more money from their captive and frustrated customer bases. “Chairman Pai should show leadership by bringing in the CEOs of the major fixed and wireless ISPs and asking them to suspend data caps and overage fees, and provide extra bandwidth to those who need it at no charge until the COVID-19 crisis is over,” Sohn suggested.