Does Cox WIFI have a Limit?
Cox Communications provides broadband internet, video, telephony, and home Cox Communications is among the largest telecommunications companies in the US providing internet, television, telephone, and smart home services to millions of customers in 18 states. Another thing about their internet service offerings that many Cox connection users have asked is - does Cox WIFI has a data limit. To be precise, most of the Cox internet plans do come with a limit on monthly data usage. But in reality, the amount of data that you can utilize in a month is relative to the specific Internet plan you have signed up for.
Restrictions on the Amount of Data Allotted to Different Cox Internet Plans
Cox currently has multiple levels of broadband internet service packages for households and corporations that provide download speeds from 50 Mbps to 1,000 Mbps. The higher tier plans for general internet surfing and some Streaming plans have tighter or no data restrictions while the lower tier plans have strict data prices.
For instance, Cox offers the Starter internet plan with 50 Mbps speed that allows the customer only 500GB per month. The basic packages available for today’s essential service are $100 Mbps or $300 Mbps and have a data allowance of 1TB. At the other end of the spectrum, Gigablast and Ultimate internet plans are depicted as coming with “no data limits” which in a way means you can get as much high speed as you want. Nonetheless, Cox can also control the network resources that you consume based on data, which is usually above 1.2 TB within a month.
So in summary:
- Starter (50 Mbps): Half a terabyte, or 500GB, of data for a monthly allowance.
- Essential (100 Mbps or 300 Mbps): It also has a high monthly data allowance of 1 terabyte.
- Gigablast and Ultimate: No limitations on the amount of data that can be used however can control the resources inside after the usage of 1200 GB per month.
Possible Consequences When the Amount of Data Exceeds the Limit.
Just as the title says, if you exceed your monthly data allowance on the Cox Internet they will start charging you additional fees per megabytes which can be very costly. For the companies that are using the Starter plan for more than 500GB storage or the companies on the Essential plan that are using more than 1TB storage, the consumer is charged $10 for each following 50GB block. Notably, these overage fees can build up extensively when you persist in going way beyond the cap significantly.
For instance, if you subscribe,e to the Essential 300 Mbps plan with a 1TB data allowance but consume 1.3TB of data in a particular month, the overage fee you will incur on the next bill is $60. However, there is an option availed by Cox for making upfront payments to buy more 500Gb blocks for $30 per block if one expects to use more data in the short term in a given month.
Cox also has methods for customers to check their own internet data usage through an account portal on the internet or the Cox Connect mobile application. This enables the subscriber to be alerted as they reach their monthly usage so that they may have to reduce usage if they are likely to exceed the charges in the following month. As for plans that don’t have strict caps like Gigablast, Cox will contact you to explain that you’ve been using a lot of data for network maintenance purposes before they start reducing your internet speeds.
Considering these precursors, this paper offers a comparison of Cox data usage and the factors that determine it.
This is usually specific to the number of activities that happen over the internet in your home during a given month depending on which package you have subscribed for with Cox WIFI. While basic tasks like web surfing, email, and VoIP may be less than a few GBs per month, data usage can balloon with activities like streaming, online gaming, video conferencing, and multiple connections per premise.
The most data-hungry activities you would want to monitor closely include:
- Video Streaming of high definition and ultrahigh definition for Netflix, Hulu, Disney Plus, YouTube, or similar internet applications consumes around 3GB for each hour of HD video and about 7GB per hour of 4K video.
- Console Streaming / Cloud Gaming like PlayStation Now or Google Stadia, Xbox Game Pass, or even Netflix which can be between 10 to 20GB per hour. It also adds to the data usage especially when downloading large game files.
- Video Conferencing through products such as Zoom, Skype, FaceTime, and the like at high-definition resolution levels. This can use 3-8GB per hour call depending on the type of call.
- Running IoT smart home devices and security cameras that upload data to the cloud in the short term and unobtrusively.
Similarly, households with laptops, tablets, smart TVs, and phones use more than 8 billion minutes a month even with ‘light’ usage of the gadgets. Imagine simple tasks such as updating multiple user accounts once throughout the day, not to mention automated updates throughout the night in terms of application availability and download, let alone offloading photos and videos to cloud storage.
Here are some guidelines to preserve the home WIFI data:
If you find your household consuming Cox internet data rapidly and approaching the limits often, here are some useful ways to conserve data:
1. You can also monitor the data consumption through your Cox account and even set up a usage alert.
2. Make sure you set the videos to watch to Standard Definition instead of HD/4K which takes double or even triple the amount of data for a greatly distinguishable difference on most devices.
3. Reduce your large download and system/game update periods to the nighttime after 1 am but before 5 am during this period the usage does not count towards your monthly data allowance.
4. Turn off options that enable an episode or a new series to play automatically after the current one because excessive streaming consumes GBs without use.
5. Ofcom recommends setting security cameras, smart speakers, and other connected devices to alert only essential notifications over mobile data rather than using constant home WIFI data.
6. Turn off auto sync for photos from mobile devices to other cloud services such as Apple iCloud, and Google Photos since these services consume GBs of data monthly without prior notice.
The amount of data usage also increases every year with progress in the quality of videos or games, the addition of more devices into homes, and changing usage habits in the household with multiple people working from home as well as schooling and being entertained through screens. The best way to avoid getting charged higher fees for exceeding the data limits in the Cox-connected WIFI plans you are subscribed to is to keep keen track of usage every month.
Ready to upgrade your internet experience? Call us now at +1 844-349-7575 to explore the best Cox Internet plans for your needs!