ISP Usage Cap

I received an email from my ISP last night, which has me puzzled. It was to advise me regarding how to check my usage via my account page. It was obvious to me that the reason I received this email was that I had been using a lot of bandwidth lately downloading movies.

I checked where it said, and did find that I was less than 2GBs from my 50GB limit. Figuring that I was being set up for a usage penalty, I stopped downloading anything until the next billing cycle. However, when reading the email again, I noticed this:

The vast majority of our customers do not exceed their usage amount
in a month and Cox does not charge you an additional fee if you
exceed it. However, if you find that you are exceeding the usage
amount for your package, you should check for the following potential
causes...

The thing that I fail to understand is if they are not going to charge me for exceeding my limit, what is the point in having a limit at all? Is there something more to this that I am missing?

Hmm, maybe I should give them a call and find out what their policy is.

A Guy said:

seekermeister said:

The vast majority of our customers do not exceed their usage amount
in a month and Cox does not charge you an additional fee if you
exceed it. However, if you find that you are exceeding the usage
amount for your package, you should check for the following potential
causes...

The thing that I fail to understand is if they are not going to charge me for exceeding my limit, what is the point in having a limit at all? Is there something more to this that I am missing?

I believe the answer is in your quote. I think they are saying, if you haven't been downloading this much, perhaps your PC is infested and a Bot is using it for nefarious purposes. Comcast is sending emails basically saying we think you are infected.

Comcast Notice: Infected with a Bot

That's how it looks to me anyway. A Guy

Yes, that was implied as a possibility following the ... that I added, but it didn't say that was a fact. I have been downloading videos pretty heavily, and somewhat in line with the usage that they show, show I see no reason to suspect anything nefarious, and since they have a record of my activity, it should be clear to them also. My main concern is whether their policy includes the possibility of a termination or slowdown of service with a continuation of thiskind of usage. Obviously, in either case, the consequence would be quite significant.

JaidynM said:

I'm not sure how it is in America but some Australian plans allow you to go over the limit but the speed is then slowed.

Only during the overage, or permanently?

Most ISP's have a Fair Usage Policy (FUP). That means that beyond the stipulated download limit, internet speeds will halve/reduce till the download counter resets to zero again. Read more.

Fair Usage Broadband - The Truth About 'Fair Usage' Broadband

Bill2 said:

Most ISP's have a Fair Usage Policy (FUP). That means that beyond the stipulated download limit, internet speeds will halve/reduce till the download counter resets to zero again. Read more.

Fair Usage Broadband - The Truth About 'Fair Usage' Broadband

I found that article of interest, until I noticed that it applied to the UK, which may or may not compare to the situation in the US. From the responses that I have gotten on this thread, I suspect that it is, but I do need to look into this more closely.