Cox is the latest ISP to expand broadband data caps

After beginning a wide expansion of data caps earlier this year, Cox is now putting limits on even more of its internet subscribers. As spotted by Ars Technica, Cox has expanded its 1TB home data limit to Arizona, Louisiana, Nevada, and Oklahoma; the cap was previously in place for customers in Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, Ohio, Rhode Island, and Virginia.

Cox subscribers who use more than 1TB of data in a month will automatically be charged $10 for every additional 50GB that they use up in a month. There are some locations where Cox isn’t charging overage fees yet (gigabit customers, who have a 2TB limit, also appear to be excluded), but it appears to be in place for most states.

While 1TB is a pretty high cap that most subscribers are unlikely to reach, there’s still good reason to be unhappy about Cox putting it in place. For one, home internet service has long had no cap at all, and now subscribers are getting less internet access for the same price.

But more importantly, even though 1TB seems like a lot right now, it won’t be in the future. As streaming video becomes increasingly popular, data usage is going to soar. That’s already happening, and it’s going to become an even bigger issue when people begin switching over to 4K, which requires a lot more data.

Unfortunately, home data caps are starting to proliferate. Comcast has placed a 1TB data cap on most of its customers as well, having raised that cap from a meager 300GB little more than a year ago. AT&T also places a 1TB cap on all but its highest-paying home broadband subscribers.

Ars Technica does point to a bit of good news, though: CenturyLink, which has about as many customers as Cox, dropped its plans for data caps back in May, saying it “no longer aligns with our goal to simplify offers and pricing for our customers”