Netflix calls out Comcast and other internet providers over data caps in letter to FCC

If there's one thing anyone has ever learned from paying for internet services, it's that most companies just stink. Internet service providers have been called 'too slow' when it comes to making high-speed broadband internet an available resource. Only about 10% of the United States has 25Mbps as their average download speed and that trend hasn't really changed.

On top of that, companies like Comcast are looking to put a cap on your internet! The FCC has been looking at Comcast's goal of capping data at 300GB, but Netflix isn't having it. According to Netflix, "Watching television shows and movies on the Internet is no longer a novelty" and they are right.

They'd know after all, their business is done through streaming and a majority of console users use their console for streaming. Netflix wrote the FCC a letter, hoping to get them to increase the cap or remove it altogether.

“Data caps (especially low data caps) and usage-based pricing (‘UBP’) discourage a consumer’s consumption of broadband, and may impede the ability of some households to watch Internet television in a manner and amount that they would like. For this reason, the Commission should hold that data caps on fixed-line networks–and low data caps on mobile networks–may unreasonably limit Internet television viewing.”

It isn't just Netflix that lives off of data streaming though, gamers tend to download games more often than they purchase physical games and devices like Roku and Chromecast only stream data.

 "A data cap or allotment of 300 GB of data per month or higher is required just to meet the Internet television needs of an average American. This does not account for the other things 10 that consumers typically do with their broadband connections, such as web­browsing or downloading games or apps from the Internet.  An above average television watcher, a multi­occupant household, or a consumer wishing to watch in 4K requires a much higher cap."

Basically, Netflix is saying no to Comcast and all those other internet service providers.

[via Time]