One thing lost in the work-from-home shuffle is how much additional Internet bandwidth we use while we’re all stuck at home. The lucky few may have unlimited Internet (hello, friends with Sonic fiber), but I bet most of our Internet service providers implement data caps. For example, my provider Comcast has a one terabyte monthly limit, with each additional block of 50 gigabytes costing $10 dollars (extortionate). Under normal situations our family of four would never approach that limit, but during these COVID times with many Zoom meetings and extra Netflix sessions, bandwidth gets used up rather quickly.
Due to the ever kindness of Comcast (ha ha!), it eliminated its data caps for the three months after the coronavirus outbreak began back in March. In support of people working from home and children learning remotely, customers like us were able to use as much data as we like. Which explains why it never entered my mind that all this extra usage would cause a problem in the future. July marks the first month the unlimited data is no more, though Comcast increased the typical one terabyte cap to 1.2, surely a result of having done the calculations, and the slight increase should cover a vast majority of customer usage patterns.
Comcast will also show customers how much bandwidth they have used during the initial quarantine months, so they can have a sense of scale and if needed, cut back now that the data cap is back in place. Unfortunately for my household, the stats are not so good: for the three months since March, we went over the one terabyte cap in all three; two out of the three we’ve even gone past the new 1.2 terabyte allowance. Now that the data restrictions are in effect, I’am going to have to keep an eye on our consumption and adjust accordingly.
This massive increase in data use is not something we’ve been talking about, though I suspect it will become an issue for people now that caps have returned. Companies expect employees to work from home, but what they don’t compensate for is the additional bandwidth needed to support that task, and if doing so pushes someone over the data limits, it can get really expensive. Unlike the self-employed, we don’t get to itemize home Internet as a business expense; I think one can reasonably argue it has become just that in the times of COVID-19.
Of course, I am incredibly lucky to still be employed and able to work remotely.
Which way would you take?