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Comment by veilrap | Hacker News Reader

I'm surprised by this, is Comcast super regional with it's restrictions? I have a Comcast 1gig plan in the Bay Area, and last I checked I get a small ($5?) discount for using my own modem. I've been on the plan for a least a few years now... so alternatively maybe I'm grandfathered in or something? Or maybe some Comcast sales person was lying to you about your options?

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My experience in the Bay Area - if you rent the gateway from Comcast ($25/mo) then you have no data cap. If you use your own modem and want to remove the data cap it costs $30/mo, more than renting the gateway. The data cap is 1.2TB per month in my area.

I think that is what the commenter meant: "...unless I pay a whole bunch of extra fees or accept a stupidly low monthly data cap"

(edit: I initially thought it was $15/mo for the gateway + no data cap but just checked and it is $25/mo. They are called "Xfinity Gateway" vs "xFi Complete").

Tell them it's a home office and get comcast business. There's no data caps on any of the tiers and they allow use of any modem on their approved list.

My current residential price is $65/mo for 500mbps/20mbps. Business is $120/mo for 500mbps/200mbps ($105 for first 24 months). I wouldn't mind getting a bit more sweet sweet upload. Maybe I will!

There is also "gigabit pro"/"gigabit x10" where they run fiber to your house. That is $350/month for symmetric 10gbps. Lots of limitations on availability and a big install fee, though. Gotta get the other half on board with that ;-)

I always wonder what are some ways to put 10 Gbps (well, even 1 Gbps) to good use in a home setting, beside marginally lower ping times. I'm not saying such uses don't exist, I'm just curious to know.

Context: recently upgraded 40 MBit DSL to 1Gbit/500MBit fiber.

You don't need to plan for media consumption anymore. It's there when you need it. Want to play 100GB XBox game? No problem, it's here in <15 mins.

For me, the big win is everything being snappy and never having contention on my Internet connection. Maybe I could do with 500Mbps up and down just fine instead of a gigabit but I almost never hit the limits of my connection and that’s an amazing place to be. When I do hit the limits, it’s when I’m downloading a huge file and I’m very grateful for the speeds I have.

I’m not the first one to say this, but often it seems that faster Internet speeds have enabled completely new use-cases and applications that sometimes weren’t even obvious until a critical mass of people had the faster speeds.

Competition matters. Comcast/Xfinity was my only "choice" in Cambridge, MA. It cost about $70 per month for 100Mbps service.

My building in Oakland, CA has multiple options, including fiber. The Comcast folks setup tables at least once per quarter to help customers/residents. The cost was much cheaper. I now have gigabit fiber from Wave, and pay less than I did back in MA.

You probably live in a zip code where ISP choice is an option l. Thus not getting bent like parent comment

We we offered $10/month to use their modem + unlimited, or $30/month to use your own modem unlimited.

We actually don't use that much data though, so just went with the data cap and our own modem, and never went over.

This was in the Seattle area.

> I have a Comcast 1gig plan in the Bay Area, and last I checked I get a small ($5?) discount for using my own modem.

Are you sure it's a _discount_? They charged me _more_ for "unlimited" data and own modem. This change isn't new (at least a few years) but a quick google found recent: https://forums.xfinity.com/conversations/customer-service/wh...

It's not regional. The rental is $15-25/mo these days. You might be grandfathered in.

If you choose the $25/mo option, you don't have have to pay to waive the monthly data cap.

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