Working from home runs into data caps

[MillCreek]

I just read an article in the WSJ describing how with work and school from home, many people are running into their internet plan data cap restrictions. This has been a bonanza for the internet plans insofar as many people are now upgrading to an unlimited data plan rather than pay $ 50/month more for each month that exceeds the cap.

This made me worry, so I was able to check our data usage with Xfinity.  There are just the two of us, but my wife is doing her Zoom video classroom every school day, and I do several Teams video meetings every work day.  Our biggest month was August, when we used 450 GB, September was 340 GB and October will probably be the same as September.  Xfinity has raised the monthly data cap to 1.2 Terabytes.

[lee n. field]

we have a customer who thinks they can run their whole office off their cell phone internet plan.  just keeping up with windows updates would "peg the meter".

[Fly320s]

My highest month was 280GB in August.  I'm at 244 for October, so far.

[K Frame]

I'm not even sure how I would check my home data use...

OK, according to some stuff I just found, Verizon Fios is considered an unlimited service but apparently has a "soft cap" at 10 TB a month, but there's no real way for anyone to check how much data they've used as Fios doesn't have a meter.

But, there's no way in hell that I'm using anything even remotely close to that.

[dogmush]

Pretty sure most routers have an option to run a meter to keep track, but you'd have to log in to the router and look around for it.

But at a 10TB limit I'm not sure I'd bother.


Related: now that cloud based 4k security camera systems are starting to become common I wonder if you'd have to worry about that?  If you have 8 cameras streaming 4k video to a cloud server, I wonder how much data that ends up being?  (My ring cameras only stream clips when they catch motion, I assume to limit data use, but I could set them to record everything)

[cordex]

Related: now that cloud based 4k security camera systems are starting to become common I wonder if you'd have to worry about that?  If you have 8 cameras streaming 4k video to a cloud server, I wonder how much data that ends up being? 

Quite a bit.  I've got 5 count 4k cameras running right now (but only to local) and with my current video config using H.256 compression and a smaller substream they'll fill up 8TB in a bit over a month.

I doubt most people are doing 8 count 4k cameras streaming at full quality to an offsite server, though.

(My ring cameras only stream clips when they catch motion, I assume to limit data use, but I could set them to record everything)

Can you?  I couldn't figure out how to get my floodlight cam to do that.

[dogmush]

Can you?  I couldn't figure out how to get my floodlight cam to do that.

I think so?  I thought I saw that in setup options, but I've only had them up and running for 5 days, so I'm not an expert.

I doubt most people are doing 8 count 4k cameras streaming at full quality to an offsite server, though.

True, but 5 years ago people weren't running 720P wireless video systems pretty much at all.  Now we have 4k over wifi.  I expect we'll see data and streaming increase as the "internet of Things" takes off.

[Nick1911]

My wife and I are working from home and using the internet fairly heavily. We seem to average around 200gb per month doing so, and have a cap of 1TB.

I could see having problems if someone had a job which required moving a lot of high definition video around.

[Big Hairy Bee]

Luckily, although yes I pay some, my apartment has no cap.  Which is good because teaching remotely, playing XBox, and streaming use a ton of data.  I can't access my usage

[AmbulanceDriver]

July and August we averaged 500gb each month.   September, when our oldest started online school, that has increased by approx 100gb.   

[charby]

I'm a domiciled employee, so when I got new internet service, I made sure I got a truly unlimited home plan. Locally owned company was the only provider in my town that would do that. Century Link and Mediacom said we don't offer that, so screw 'em. :)

[Lennyjoe]

I’m online from 08-1600, watching/listening to Netflix the whole time and occasionally surfing on iPad during breaks and still have no idea how much data I’m using.  Either way I’m not limited on my service plan.

[Lennyjoe]

Currently on unlimited thru AT&T for $40 and not even hitting some of the numbers others are working from home. 231gb used in the last 30 days.