IMO data caps hurt online game sales(like Steam games). I have a 4G wireless internet and with that I cannot really buy and download any of the big titles, since they tend to be gigantic in size. Downloading just one of them will mean that I have used up over half my monthly limit. Also, I must be very careful about using Youtube. I have to check if the video is at 360p or not, since going over that would cost valuable data limit. That only lessens my problems. Sometimes I would like to have some sort of 2h play while I do smth else, but that would take a sizable chunk out of my data limit. Playing online itself is not that worrying, since I would probably spend more data limit out of game than while playing. And my data cap has pretty much made me not play those games that make it mandatory to save saves on the cloud.

Like someone else said here, having a data cap on a high speed internet is like having a Ferrari that has just enough fuel to drive 100 meters. I would settle with slower speeds in exchange for bigger data cap, since only time I use the entirety of 4G is when I download stuff, but this internet is not meant for downloading stuff, so yea.

Where I live (Sweden) you never get any caps on residental fiber/ADSL. We pay $49 for 200/200Mbit.

Cell phone data plans are different though. Mine is capped at 6GB and I pay $30. For another $60 I could raise the cap to 200GB, but I don't think it's worth it.

It might be worth pointing out that data caps have, I think, non-exploitative uses: ISPs may have limited bandwidth to provide, and data caps may allow them to provide high-speed lines to users--which allows faster downloads and page-loading, and increases the feasibility of larger downloads--without their bandwidth becoming overwhelmed.

Like someone else said here, having a data cap on a high speed internet is like having a Ferrari that has just enough fuel to drive 100 meters.

I think that this might depend somewhat on the cap, and what the user wants to do with their connection, and to some degree the user themself. We have a data cap here, and it doesn't seem to trouble us much at all, despite my watching YouTube videos. (One nice feature of the plan that we have is that, as I recall, it provides a significantly higher cap late at night (between midnight and some time in the morning, I think it was).)

It might be worth pointing out that data caps have, I think, non-exploitative uses: ISPs may have limited bandwidth to provide, and data caps may allow them to provide high-speed lines to users--which allows faster downloads and page-loading, and increases the feasibility of larger downloads--without their bandwidth becoming overwhelmed.

Under that model, it's the same concept as a run on the bank - if everyone happens to want their advertised bandwidth right at the same time, they will each only get a fraction of it.

Overselling available bandwidth is at best a dirty trick, and at worse false advertising (a criminal offense in many jurisdictions).

Overselling available bandwidth is at best a dirty trick, and at worse false advertising

... Or it is perfectly legal and is a common feature from the history of telephone systems.

Total capacity has always been less than the number of lines connected.

When my dad was a kid many, many, many years ago, the phone systems transitioned from being operator-driven to rotary dial driven. The night they made the switch-over so many people wanted to call each other to try out the system that it overloaded the system, and it took several days for them to repair it.

The capacity of a switch exchange is far, far less than what you would get by summing every single line's maximum theoretical limits.

That is how business and residential connections are sold. You get service that is generally available but not guaranteed.

If you want to have full 100% capacity at all times you can get it, but those are called dedicated lines, a private circuit, or a leased line, and they are expensive. In effect you have either your own physical cables, or a portion of the fiber cables are dedicated specifically for your use and not used by the company for any other purpose.

Where I live (Sweden) you never get any caps on residental fiber/ADSL. We pay $49 for 200/200Mbit

Damn. I get 12/0.6 for that price T_T

(I guess because of a quasi monopoly on corroded/neglected phone lines)

It might be worth pointing out that data caps have, I think, non-exploitative uses: ISPs may have limited bandwidth to provide, and data caps may allow them to provide high-speed lines to users--which allows faster downloads and page-loading, and increases the feasibility of larger downloads--without their bandwidth becoming overwhelmed.

Under that model, it's the same concept as a run on the bank - if everyone happens to want their advertised bandwidth right at the same time, they will each only get a fraction of it.

Overselling available bandwidth is at best a dirty trick, and at worse false advertising (a criminal offense in many jurisdictions).

That's why ISPs *don't* guarantee speeds for residential connections. At home, I pay for "up to 24Mbps" and in practice I get 5Mbps due to the length/quality of the copper lines that link my house to this suburb's telephone exchange. If I had many thousands to spare, I could pay for new copper to be laid...
Sometimes due to maintenance/etc it drops out altogether. Time of day / congestion doesn't seem to be an issue in practice though, because despite it being legal, its still the kind of bad service that causes you to lose customers.
The backbone of my home ISP is only 20Gbps in places, so if they were to not oversell residential bandwidth, they'd be limited to 833 customers...

At work, we have a guaranteed 100Mbps commercial grade connection, which costs well over 20x more than my home one, due to it being guaranteed service.
A market exists where you can pay to reserve your bandwidth 24/7, guaranteed, and pay for the privilege... Or where you can save money by having a best-effort shared service.

That's why ISPs *don't* guarantee speeds for residential connections.

I challenge you to find an "up to" in there.

If you click through 'pricing and other info', you'll find in very small print "actual speeds may vary", but I'd hardly describe them as upfront about that fact. Which is a tad dishonest in my book.

That's why ISPs *don't* guarantee speeds for residential connections.

I challenge you to find an "up to" in there.

If you click through 'pricing and other info', you'll find in very small print "actual speeds may vary", but I'd hardly describe them as upfront about that fact. Which is a tad dishonest in my book.

I also don't see a data limit. I thought we were talking about data limited plans?
E.g. My ISP has a big number in GB's, not a big number in Mbps.

But yes, that picture is dodey. There's not even an asterisk on the speed value, indicating that there's fine print that applies to it. That's the least they should do - assuming it's not a guaranteed speed. I guess this is reason #52 as to why Americans hate comcast?

Note though, that even reserved bandwidth plans will have fine print saying that actual performance may vary, as the equipment between the ISP and you is out of their control.

I just took a look at our ISP, and they seem to quite clearly state on the "package selection" page--in the selection UI, not in fine print--that our line is "up to" 4Mbps. I thus argue that the problem not in the overselling of bandwidth, but rather with those ISPs that aren't open about the variability of the line speed.