Comcast will put a cap on all customers’ internet usage on October 1st, 2008. Customers will have a 250 GB data monthly cap. 250 GB is a lot of data transfer considering the average customer uses 2 to 3 GB per Month.

The move, reported first by DSL Reports, was confirmed by Comcast today (Techmeme). On its site, Comcast posted its amended user policy:

We’ve listened to feedback from our customers who asked that we provide a specific threshold for data usage and this would help them understand the amount of usage that would qualify as excessive. Today, we’re announcing that beginning on October 1, 2008, we will amend our Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) available at http://www.comcast.net/terms/use/ and establish a specific monthly data usage threshold of 250 GB/month per account for all residential customers.

250 GB/month is an extremely large amount of data, much more than a typical residential customer uses on a monthly basis. Currently, the median monthly data usage by our residential customers is approximately 2 – 3 GB. To put 250 GB of monthly usage in perspective, a customer would have to do any one of the following:

  1. Send 50 million emails (at 0.05 KB/email)
  2. Download 62,500 songs (at 4 MB/song)
  3. Download 125 standard-definition movies (at 2 GB/movie)
  4. Upload 25,000 hi-resolution digital photos (at 10 MB/photo)

I am not a fan of Comcast as they have been trying to force customers who have no other choice to man up.