BendBroadband has recently applied changes to its usage-based broadband policies that favor high-speed Internet customers that also bundle in the MSO’s TV service.
Under the new plan, described in this May 9 blog post that was spotted by DSL Reports, customers who take BendBroadand’s “Bronze” or above Intent speed tiers and bundle in its “Essentials” or above TV service are exempt from the MSO’s usage-based broadband policy.
“More than half of BendBroadband’s internet customers are no longer subject to a monthly data usage allowance under a new initiative that goes into effect today,” explained the Oregon-based MSO, which was acquired by TDS Telecom in 2014.
Non-exempt customers, a group that likely includes cord-cutters that rely heavily on broadband for their video consumption, are still subject to a BendBroadband usage policy that charges $10 for an additional 50 Gigabytes of data above the customer’s monthly limit.
For example, under BendBroadband new “Ultra”-branded set of packages, Ultra 50 package (50 Mbps down by 3 Mbps upstream) sets a monthly data usage ceiling of 250 GB; 500 GB for Ultra 100 (100 Mbps down by 5 Mbps up); and 750 GB for Ultra 300 (300 Mbps down by 10 Mbps up).
The policy shift at BendBroadband comes against the backdrop of an FCC order and condition placed on the Charter-Time Warner Cable merger that bars New Charter fromimposing data caps and usage-based data pricing for a period of seven years.
AT&T, meanwhile, has added an unlimited data plan that cost an extra $30 per month for standalone Internet subs, but is free to broadband subs who bundled with U-verse video or co-owned DirecTV satellite video service and pay on a single bill.
Comcast announced last month that it is moving to a terabyte data plan in all of its usage-based test markets starting June 1. Customers who go over that 1 TB monthly limit can buy additional buckets of 50 GB of data for $10 each, or move to a new unlimited data plan that runs an additional $50 per month.
