On December 20, 2018 I was not in the holiday spirit. In fact, I would say I was in a downright grinchy mood (even more so than usual).
The Steam sales were ramping up and my wallet, fresh of getting paid for a big project, was relatively fat and I was eager to buy some video games to enjoy over the holiday break.
But, despite my fat wallet and generous Steam discounts, there were no new games to enjoy.
The reason was my ISP, Cox Communications, had implemented data caps about a year prior. Instead of getting unlimited data, I was now limited to 1 TB per month.
Though not a miserly amount, I live in a home with three adults. Two of us work from home and all of us get our video through streaming. We never hit our cap, but we routinely used at least 750 GB of the limit, sometimes getting as high as 850 or 900. This meant just a few large Steam games could push us over the limit and into the dreaded $10 per 50 GB zone.
To get the same plan I had before would cost me an extra $50 per month. It wasn’t tenable and I wasn’t about to reward Cox for unilaterally changing our agreement. So, instead, I stressed.
