For years, we as consumers have become accustomed to paying higher rates to accommodate for data caps set in place by our Internet Service Providers (ISPs). These data caps have been justified under the defense that without them, the ISPs would not be able to handle the greatly increased strain that would come from consumers not limiting their own usage. During this global pandemic, many ISPs including Comcast have removed their data caps to allow users to stay at home without having to worry about going over their allotted data usage.
Comcast has reported that this greater demand has increased their uploading traffic by 32% and their downloading traffic by 18%. With all this increased traffic, consumers would expect Comcast to be struggling to maintain service with all the new strain on their systems, but Comcast seems to be doing just fine. This raises the question that if they are able to survive without problems while removing their data caps, why do those caps need to exist in the first place.
It becomes obvious that there is no need to cap consumer data and that the only reason these caps are set in place is to increase revenue. Covid-19 has damaged the global economy greatly but as we start to rebuild after this pandemic, we need to question the necessity and ethical consequences of many previous business practices that only harm the consumer for increased profits.
Source: https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20200420/06583844328/fancy-that-comcasts-network-holding-up-fine-without-usage-caps.shtml