Comcast is bringing data caps to a bunch of new cities beginning November 1, roughly doubling the number of markets where it imposes data limits and overage fees. As before, customers will be allowed to use 1TB of data per month before being hit with overage charges of $10 for each additional 50GB. For an extra $50 per month, customers can purchase unlimited data. 
 
 Prior to the expansion, Comcast said it was enforcing data caps in 14 percent of the markets in its 39-state territory. Instead of immediately imposing caps nationwide, Comcast has been steadily rolling them out to new markets since 2012, usually adding a few at a time and gauging customer feedback before expanding to more. The caps were originally 300GB a month, but as more customers started exceeding them, they were boosted to 1TB (downloads and uploads combined) this year. Comcast says more than 99 percent of its customers use less than a terabyte of data. 
 
 Markets in 18 states will face data caps and overage fees for the first time, though other markets in some of these states were already capped. 
 
 Here are the newly capped areas, according to a Comcast FAQ: Alabama (Dothan); California; Colorado; Florida (North Florida, Southwest Florida and West Palm); Southeastern Georgia; Idaho; Indiana (Indianapolis and Central Indiana, Fort Wayne and Eastern Indiana); Kansas; Michigan (Grand Rapids/Lansing, Detroit, and Eastern Michigan); Minnesota; Missouri; New Mexico; Western Ohio; Oregon; Texas (Houston); Utah; Washington; and Wisconsin. 
 
 Comcast's data caps already existed in these markets: Alabama (excluding Dothan); Arizona; Arkansas; Florida (Fort Lauderdale, the Keys, and Miami); Georgia (excluding Southeastern Georgia); Illinois; Northern Indiana; Kentucky; Louisiana; Maine; Southwestern Michigan; Mississippi; Tennessee; Eastern Texas; South Carolina; and Southwest Virginia. 
 
 Customers can exceed the cap in two "courtesy months" each year before overage charges kick in. "This means that you will only be subject to overage charges if you use more than a terabyte for a third time in a 12-month period," Comcast said. 
 
 Comcast once again justified its data caps, saying in a blog post yesterday that the "data plans are based on a principle of fairness. Those who use more Internet data, pay more. And those who use less Internet data, pay less." 
 
 In reality, paying "less" actually means paying the same amount as before unless you choose a "Flexible Data Option" that provides a $5 discount if you use less than 6GB of data in a month. That discount comes with the risk of racking up overage fees much faster than the standard terabyte plan and thus isn't advisable unless you really use very little data each month. 
 
 The caps themselves are a "business policy" rather than a technical necessity, a Comcast engineering vice president acknowledged last year. Unfortunately, Comcast's data meter hasn't always been accurate, and Comcast has been reluctant to acknowledge any problems except when customers contact the media. ||||| Comcast is considering imposing monthly usage limits for all of its Internet customers. 
 
 David Cohen, executive vice president of America's largest cable company, predicted at a conference Wednesday that in five years' time, the company will have "a usage-based billing model rolled out across its footprint." 
 
 That means Comcast (CMCSA) customers could only consume a certain amount of data before facing extra charges for going over their limits. 
 
 Cohen said the company would aim to set the limit at a level where "the vast majority of our customers" wouldn't be affected. He speculated that the limit might be set at 350 gigabytes or 500 gigabytes per month. A cap of that size would allow you to download or stream between 70 and 125 HD movies, which typically run about four or five gigabytes in size. 
 
 Related: 4 ways a fast lane could change your Internet service 
 
 Cohen said he doesn't think Comcast will ever have a system in which "80% of customers" are impacted by data limits and are forced to pay for additional usage, though he added that it's "very difficult to make predictions." 
 
 "I don't think that's the model that we are heading toward, but five years ago, I don't know that I would have heard of something called an iPad," he said. 
 
 Comcast is currently experimenting with 300 GB data limits in some markets, charging those customers $10 for each additional block of 50 GB. There's also a 5 GB "flexible data" option for light users. Those plans were introduced after the company scrapped its hard 250 GB monthly cap back in 2012. 
 
 The move could also affect current Time Warner Cable (TWC) customers should the companies' pending merger be approved by regulators. If the deal is approved, the combined group will be the country's dominant provider of television channels and Internet connections, reaching roughly one in three American homes.
– Comcast is about to makes its residential internet service a lot more like smartphone data plans for millions of customers, the Washington Post reports. Starting Nov. 1, Comcast will be capping the internet usage of customers in 18 markets—including 12 whole states—at 1 terabyte. According to Ars Technica, Comcast has had a data cap in place in some markets since 2012. For Comcast customers who exceed the 1TB monthly limit, Comcast will charge a $10 fee per additional 50 gigabytes up to $200. To avoid the data cap, customers can either pay an extra $50 per month for unlimited data or $300 per month for Comcast's Gigabit Pro fiber-optic service. A list of markets that will be impacted by the data cap is here. Comcast claims the data cap is "based on a principle of fairness"—the people who use the most internet will pay the most for it. But Engadget argues that doesn't make complete sense, as in only the most extreme cases does someone using more internet impact anyone else's internet usage. A Comcast executive has also acknowledged that the data cap is a "business policy," not a technical necessity. Comcast says 99% of customers don't use more than 1TB of data—enough to stream up to 700 hours of video or play 12,000 hours of online games—per month. But that may not be true for long, with the increasing prevalence of HD and 4K games and videos that use more data.