LOS ANGELES—Frequent consumers of online porn could be paying more for the privilege next year, at least if they access the internet through the telecom giant Comcast, according to a new report by the tech site The Verge. Despite signing the federal government’s “Keep America Connected” pledge, in which service providers promised not to increase financial burdens on users during the coronavirus pandemic, Comcast will slam customers in numerous markets with data caps starting in January, according to the report.
How will the new data caps affect porn fans? The specifics remain to be seen, but online video of any type consumes more data than any other form of online communication. According to one 2020 report, even at the lowest resolution, an average porn viewing session of about 15 minutes consumes about 90 megabytes of data. That amount goes up dramatically for higher resolution or HD videos.
While many Comcast customers are already subject to data caps, starting in early 2021, the company will phase out “unlimited data” plans, imposing a strict 1.2 terabyte monthly limit. Customers could pay up to $100 extra in a month that they exceed the limit.
While 1.2 terabytes would be a lot of porn, presumably even heavy porn users also download other types of data and video online as well, which could push them close to the limit depending on their porn consumption. During the pandemic, use of the video chat app Zoom jumped by a factor of 20 in the early weeks of the crisis alone.
Since then, the prevalence of remote work and online schooling required during the pandemic has also pushed video data use to new highs.
The states initially affected by the new limits will be, according to The Verge: Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Vermont, West Virginia, Washington D.C., and parts of North Carolina and Ohio.
In a tweet on Monday, Comcast defended its new caps, saying “1.2TB is a massive amount of data and you can do a lot with it in one month. Stream about 500 hours of HD video a month or spend nearly 3,500 hours of videoconferencing (Zoom, FaceTime, Google Duo, Houseparty, etc.), enough to video conference for nearly four months straight.”
But customers were skeptical, with one replying, “You lose all credibility when you say 1.2 TB is massive.”
Another, in a reply typical of outraged Comcast users, said, “Thanks to COVID my family has had to all move back in together. Kids and all. Between those of us who are fortunate enough to still work, the kids who are in school, and then having to stay inside and watch tv and game with the internet, we hit that cap easy. Gross.”
The “Keep America Connected” pledge expired at the end of June. But as new coronavirus cases have surged to record levels — with the United States hitting a staggering seven-day average of 178,692 new cases per day as of November 24 — states now anticipate a new wave of stay-at-home orders, which are likely to send internet usage soaring once again.
Photo By Mike Mozart / Wikimedia Commons
