Working from home could get more expensive in 2021 if you get your internet from Comcast. There’s some news you should be aware of. On Jan.1, Comcast will begin enforcing data caps all over the country, including here in Franklin County. If you’re not lucky enough to live in Greenfield, where they have a municipal provider in GCET, Comcast may be your only option for high-speed internet.
Comcast will charge you $10 per 50 gigabytes if you go over their new cap, up to a maximum of $100 per month, although they’re waiving the fee in January and February. Comcast’s new data caps are set at 1.2 terabytes per month. That sounds like a lot, and Comcast is happy to tell you that it is. It’s over 500 hours of Netflix streaming! But how does it work out in real life?
Over the last six months, as two people working from home, our internet usage would have cost us an extra $90 in overage fees. When everyone’s budgets are tight due to the pandemic and more people than ever are working and learning from home, Comcast has decided to squeeze Franklin County residents for even more money.
What can you do? Contact your local representatives. Tell them that we need municipal internet in all of our towns. Cities as big as Greenfield and towns as small as Leverett and Charlemont have led the charge. It’s up to us to join them.
In Montague, the chance for a municipally owned internet provider slipped through our fingers just four years ago, and Comcast has quickly taken the opportunity to make sure we pay for it. Don’t let it happen again. Let your representatives know that your town needs competition to keep Comcast monopolies from taking advantage of us. Formatted version with hyperlinks: https://bit.ly/3nTzI1M
Alexandra McLarty
Montague