What Is Spectrum TV Essentials?
Spectrum TV Essentials is a live TV streaming service that includes over 70 entertainment, lifestyle and children’s networks. But there’s a catch.
What Are Internet Data Caps?
When shopping for internet providers, the first thing most people base service selection on is how fast the connection is. Although that is certainly a product feature to consider, you may eventually find yourself going nowhere fast if you’re subject to a data cap on your service.
Table of Contents
- What Is an Internet Data Cap?
- What Uses up My Data?
- How Can I Estimate My Monthly Data Usage?
- How Much Data Do I Need?
- Which Internet Service Providers Have Data Caps?
Summary
Although data caps are slowly becoming things of the past, there are still plenty of providers which place limits on how much data a customer can use through their internet subscription service. Check if your provider is one of them and then use the information below to estimate whether or not that data cap will be enough for your household.
What Is an Internet Data Cap?
Internet data caps are limits placed on how much data can be run through an internet connection each month. Reaching a data cap would require a user to transfer enough data to meet a specific byte amount. These limits are implemented by individual Internet Service Providers (ISPs), and the limit differs by provider. Regardless of ISP, however, there are typically consequences for data transferred over an internet connection that has reached its data cap. Such consequences usually involve “throttling” your service to slow down any data transfers beyond your data cap. Although slow internet can be aggravating, data caps are used to maintain the flow of data over the internet in order to prevent overloads and outages.
This limit on an internet plan can appear under a few other names, like “monthly usage allowance,” “usage limits” or “fair use policy.” It is also sometimes called a “bandwidth cap,” even though such a term mislabels the limit (bandwidth refers to how fast your internet is transferring information, not how much data your internet is consuming). If you want to be thoughtful about how much data you use as well as how quickly you transfer it, read on to see how data caps affect you.
What Uses up My Data?
Everything you do that requires an internet connection uses up data. Checking your email, scrolling through Instagram, searching through Google, streaming Netflix, competing on Fortnite, listening through your favorite Spotify playlist and more are all examples of activities that use up data on your internet service. Data can therefore be consumed when downloading or uploading data through your internet-enabled device.
- Videos: The biggest data expenditures typically come from streaming videos. You can often control how much data your favorite shows consume by electing to watch your show in Standard Definition (SD), High Definition (HD) or Ultra-High Definition (UHD).
- Email: Email-checking is usually a negligible expenditure unless you’re sending hundreds of emails a day or sharing large files regularly through this platform.
- Games: Online-based games are another example of potentially large data consumption. The tricky part is that the data usage will vary by game and equipment platform. (See our related post: “Is Spectrum Good for Gaming?”)
- Social Media: This one is another variable one. Although there are listed averages for social media data usage, the data consumption is liable to be higher depending on the platform and settings within that platform.
- Music: Audio streaming depends on which platform you use. Be aware of the data requirements for your music streaming service before you let it play your data away without your knowledge.
| Service | Approximate Data Usage |
|---|---|
| Netflix | Standard Definition: 1 GB/hour
High Definition: 3 GB/hour |
| Hulu | Standard Definition: 700 MB/hour
High Definition: 1.5 GB/hour |
| Amazon Prime | Standard Definition: About 800 MB/hour
High Definition: About 2 GB/hour Ultra-High Definition: About 6 GB/hour |
| Disney Plus | Standard Definition: 700 MB/hour
High Definition: 2 GB/hour Ultra-High Definition: 2.5 GB/hour |
| Spotify | Around 40 MB/hour |
| Apple Music | 120 MB/hour |
| Fortnite | 50-75 MB/hour |
| YouTube | Standard Definition: 250 MB/hour
High Definition: 600 MB/hour |
| General Social Media | 120 MB/hour on average |
| Video Chatting | Standard Definition: 340 MB/hour
High Definition: 2 GB/hour |
| Web Surfing | 180 MD/hour on average |
| 300 MB/month for 20 emails/day without attachments |
How Can I Estimate My Monthly Data Usage?
In order to understand where your data needs land, consider how you typically use the internet each day during a monthly billing period. Generously estimate how much time you will spend on those activities so you can give yourself a little extra space to use your data comfortably. Once you have a general idea of the recurring activities you know the members of your household will engage in on a daily basis, you can estimate your probable monthly data usage.
See our example below:
| User Activity | Hours per Month | Total Data Used per Month |
|---|---|---|
| One user plays Fortnite for an hour each night | 30 | 1.5 GB |
| One user watches an hour of Disney Plus after school each day | 30 | 21 GB (Standard Quality) |
| One user listens to Spotify while doing housework | 60 | 2.5 GB |
| One user unwinds after dinner by watching favorite documentaries on Netflix | 50 | 50 GB |
This short list of likely daily activities can be summed up by approximate number of hours engaged in that activity by month, which can then be multiplied by the estimated data usage per hour for each activity. As you can see, the above example only pushes this household up to 78 GB of data, which is well below the typical 1 TB data cap. If this scenario were true for this sample household, then a data cap is most likely not an issue for them.
However, not all habits can be cleanly budgeted for. If you were to add on more hours of video streaming for any occasional binge-watching, extra rounds of online gaming marathons, or regular uploads of content when sharing albums of travel videos to social media, then a data cap of 1 TB might noticeably inhibit day-to-day internet performance before the month’s end. If you are the kind of person who spends a significant amount of time on internet-reliant activities, then you may want to think about finding a plan that offers you unlimited data usage.
Another aspect to consider when you are trying to estimate for a data allowance is the development of accessible technology. Smart home technology is becoming more widely attainable, and most smart home devices require internet connectivity. Adding any internet-connected device to your home will impact your data usage to some degree. Therefore, if you are a tech enthusiast who is interested in outfitting your home with the latest gadgets, a data cap may not be right for you. If you have a “simpler is better” philosophy regarding smart home integration, you probably don’t need to worry about a data cap.
Image source: store.google.com
Which Internet Service Providers Have Data Caps?
Still deciding on an ISP? Use the table below to check for data caps across companies to help you compare data cap policies all in one place.
| Provider | Data Cap per Month | Overage Penalties |
|---|---|---|
| AT&T | 1 TB or Unlimited | $10 per 50 GB over cap (Max charge of $100/month) |
| CenturyLink | 1 TB - Unlimited | None, except in extreme cases of excessive use |
| Cox Communications | 1.25 TB - Unlimited | $10 per 50 GB over cap (Max charge of $100/month) |
| Viasat | 21 GB - 300 GB | Any data exceeding the cap may experience reduced speeds |
| Frontier | Unlimited | None, except in extreme cases of excessive use |
| Suddenlink | Unlimited | None, except in extreme cases of excessive use |
| Optimum | Unlimited | None, except in extreme cases of excessive use |
| Spectrum | Unlimited | None, except in extreme cases of excessive use |
| Windstream | Unlimited | None, except in extreme cases of excessive use |
Written by Sarah Solomon
Edited by Henry St. Pierre
Frequently asked questions
What is a data cap?
Internet data caps are limits on how much data can be downloaded or uploaded to an internet network during any month of service. Data caps vary by provider and plan.
How much data per month is enough for me?
Most casual internet users don't even get close to a data cap of 1 TB, but if you have multiple internet-connected devices in your household which regularly stream high-quality video, participate in live online gaming or download large files, you may want to consider an ISP without data caps.
What is the difference between bandwidth limits and data caps?
Bandwidth limits are about data speed, and data caps are about data amount. A bandwidth limit is measured in "megabits per second" (Mbps) and indicates how quickly data can be transferred over your network at any given time. This affects how many devices on your network can use the internet all at once, as well as the quality of internet speed each of those devices can have. Data caps, on the other hand, are measured in bytes: gigabytes (GB), megabytes (MB) and terabytes (TB). This measures how MUCH data is being transferred through your internet connection (regardless of how fast that connection is). Getting any information from the internet (videos, files, songs, etc.) consumes data.
