Cox adding fees for heaviest internet users

Cox Communications customers in Wichita received e-mails on Tuesday informing them they will be charged $10 per every 50 gigabytes that they go over on their data plans.

So, for example, if a user went 500 GB over his allotment, he would face $100 in additional fees that month. Customers will be automatically enrolled in the new fee service on Feb. 20.

The plan includes 1 terabyte of data (or 1,024 gigabytes) before the additional charges would accrue.

For perspective, streaming an hour of video on Netflix takes up about 1 gigabyte of data for standard definition video and about 3 gigabytes for high-definition video.

That means users would have to stream more than 300 hours of HD video per month or more than 10 hours of HD video per day before the additional fees would start kicking in.

The fee would affect about 2 percent of its customers, Cox said in the e-mail. Heavy users will receive an e-mail when they reach 85 percent and then 100 percent of their total before fees kick in.

Customers will also be given a grace period of two months before the charges are assessed.

This story was originally published January 24, 2017 at 6:24 PM with the headline "Cox adding fees for heaviest internet users."