Cap has a couple definitions. One meaning is the upper limit on an amount. In the case of Internet services, a cap is the amount of data you are allowed to use in a designated amount of time. Usually a month.

Internet Service Providers charge you according to what your particular cap is – along with things like bandwidth. It’s likely written in your service agreement that if you exceed your allotted data cap, you’ll see an extra charge on your next bill.

When the pandemic hit, many ISP’s waived any additional data cap charges. Good for them. A year later, they are backing off this generous offer. Though nothing really has changed in the past 12 months, it seems to be impacting their bottom line and many of them are reinstating data caps.

Some ISPs are taking it a step further. It seems that even staying under your allotted data cap, but getting close each month, can give them cause to either force a limit on data or cancel your subscription altogether.

What?

Professional sports leagues have salary caps. If you exceed the cap, there is a luxury tax imposed. Understandable. What if the head of the league decided that the pandemic is costing them money so they arbitrarily lower the cap mid-season to cover their losses due to the pandemic?

Can a baseball umpire decide, “hey, I have a dinner reservation in an hour so I’m gonna call out any batter at two strikes instead of the allotted three?” That probably wouldn’t go over very well. Unless that particular umpire was the only option and without him or her, there would be no game.

That’s a large part of the problem. In a lot of areas, there is only one Internet provider. So if you have to work from home, go to school on a computer in your kitchen, stream more television shows or play more video games because there’s nothing else to do, you have no other choice.

The issue with these providers is they never expected anyone to get close to the data caps they agreed to. Now, many households are getting close to or exceeding them because of the situation we are all in due to circumstances out of our control.

Let’s face it, the Internet has been working overtime for just about a year now. It’s not surprising that the provider’s network is being stressed to the limit. But we’ve all been stressed to the limit.

Is it fair, because their network is at the brink that they change the rules in the middle of the game because it’s easier to pass along the problem to the user instead of spending the money to upgrade their infrastructure?

We posted a blog – DIY Home Management on December 10, 2020 – that covers some of the ways businesses and homes can take some control over their Internet experience.

It is possible to take back some control by knowing exactly how your network is performing and what you need from a provider. It’s a good read. Check it out.