This turns out to be one of the most widely discussed topics that we have reapproached ever since the pandemic. Data caps have been the bane of existence for many users who take advantage of modern technologies and have multiple people living under the same roof, and it seems gamers are feeling it the most.
Clearly, if you have a bad habit of randomly downloading stuff (hopefully, all lawfully, of course), you may run into data cap issues as you will eventually hit your limits. But when it comes to everyday (modern) uses of the internet and your favorite (modern) devices, you shouldn’t have to worry about such limitations. This is because everything should evolve together (in a perfect world). However, that isn’t the case.
As modern technology evolves, so does the need for data, as resolutions grow, graphics become more intense, maps become much larger, and the average size of games increases to compensate for all of it. Factor in the fact that consoles store more than just a single game at a time, and things can become dangerous quickly when you download multiple games in a month, or, God forbid, you have to update them.
The issue is that ISPs refuse to increase the monthly data caps or banish them completely. Thus, the time it takes to get to the finish line shortens as tech outgrows these outdated limitations. Even worse, when you consider that these data caps are nothing more than a cash grab.
As an example, I booted up my Xbox Series X to get an idea of what is waiting for just updates alone. I picked a random game in the list of pending updates, and there is a 96 GB update waiting for it, and I “have to” download the update if I want to continue playing the game.
That one update alone equates to almost 10% of the current month’s data cap. That is a big hit to take from a download that is done and over within a few minutes.
Now, going back to the list, we can take in the fact that this is just one of 11 updates pending for various games on the console. They aren’t all waiting on a 96 GB update, but some of them are, and all of them added together would wipe out around half of the month’s quota. Which prevents you from playing some of these games if you don’t want to go over your cap since you have everything else happening on the internet to consider as well (TVs/streaming, music, smart home, etc, etc, etc).
Thankfully, for me, I don’t have enough free time to play more than one game at a time. But if I had kids running around, you can bet they would want to download all of these updates. Close enough, I do have a roommate who is an avid player of two different games that update frequently. He also (practically) lives and breathes Netflix every day. Between two people, we frequently come close to going over. I couldn’t tell you how many times I received a text from my ISP saying, “You have consumed 90% of your monthly quota”.
It’s nice that fiber competition has been expanding, putting strain on these practices since most fiber services come with “unlimited data,” and the claim is true. No throttling or any other limitations. Nothing but pure, true, unlimited data. I guarantee that once this competition becomes too heavy for ISPs that enforce these caps, they will be forced to drop them.
So it might be time to look into what services cater to your address to see if there is a chance to switch to a fiber provider. Especially, since most of these services are less expensive than coaxial or DSL. You’d want to look for names like Google, Quantum, or Lumen (now T-Mobile Fiber Home Internet). They are typically around $70/month for 1 Gbps or faster (and tat 1 Gbps is both directions).
