Leaked Comcast docs prove 300GB cap has nothing to do with network congestion
I previously worked in engineering at ISPs. There are two points to make: (1) Monthly data caps do not help manage congestion, at least not directly. However, non-engineers have a lot of trouble understanding this. (2) Telling customer support agents to say "this is not about congestion management" is a perception-management move. Cable companies are very sensitive to criticism that they are offering a "shared pipe" and that you're somehow not getting what you signed up for.<p>On the first point: Congestion is problem during peak hours, not during the whole month. You could download a few terabytes over the course of a month and not cause a problem for anyone else, if you avoided peak hours. Data caps only work for congestion management if they discourage you from using services during peak hours.<p>There's not a grand conspiracy by the cable or mobile companies about this, though - it's mostly a failure to understand this concept, or an unwillingness to go back to peak load pricing (e.g. different night/weekend rates like phone plans have/had).