Comcast is raising its data caps — and the fee to get rid of them

Comcast is more than tripling the amount of data many of its subscribers are allowed to use in a month before they hit a cap, the company said. Comcast may be trying to make some preemptive moves as Charter nears approval for its massive takeover of Time Warner Cable. Regulators are instructing Charter to enter new cable or telecom markets as a condition of the deal, and it could lead to direct, head-to-head competition between Charter and Comcast in some regions. Charter will not be allowed to impose broadband data caps under the conditions regulators are seeking to impose, so if it really happens and consumers are given a choice between Charter and Comcast, a sky-high data cap might help Comcast defend its territory. "Comcast is doing this to remain competitive," said Jeff Kagan, an independent telecom analyst. "If they don't do this, [their] angry customers would end up leaving them, going to a competitor."

The announcement comes as Comcast reported strong growth in its cable Internet and TV business. It added 438,000 high-speed Internet customers over the past quarter. That's 7.6 percent more additions to the network than the same quarter a year ago. Most of Comcast's Internet customers, roughly 77 percent, get upwards of 50 Mbps service, the company said. The new data cap raises the monthly usage limit from 300 GB of data to 1 terabyte (equivalent to roughly 1,000 GB). The change takes effect on June 1, affects all of the markets where Comcast has been testing data caps — such as Atlanta and parts of Florida — and covers all speed tiers in those markets.