{"id":4284,"date":"2020-06-19T17:28:00","date_gmt":"2020-06-19T17:28:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aviancetechnologies.com\/blog\/blog\/which-internet-providers-are-lifting-data-caps-during-the-coronavirus-and-which-arent\/"},"modified":"2020-06-19T17:28:00","modified_gmt":"2020-06-19T17:28:00","slug":"which-internet-providers-are-lifting-data-caps-during-the-coronavirus-and-which-arent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aviancetechnologies.com\/blog\/which-internet-providers-are-lifting-data-caps-during-the-coronavirus-and-which-arent\/","title":{"rendered":"Which Internet providers are lifting data caps during the coronavirus, and which aren’t"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Which Internet providers are lifting data caps during the coronavirus, and which aren’t<\/h2>\n

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As American businesses are forced to shut down because of COVID-19 (the novel coronavirus), customers are anxious about their bill for Internet access. Data caps, an annoyance in the best of times, suddenly can mean paying additional fees if a family sheltering in place goes over their limit.<\/p>\n

Think of it: you’re working from home, videoconferencing over Skype or Zoom, while your kids are playing games and chatting with friends. There’s streamed movies to watch in the evenings. Disney+ and Netflix may be in constant rotation, adding to the bandwidth strain. That’s a lot of data!\u00a0<\/p>\n

In response, some ISPs and cellular service providers are providing relief for customers. Some are merely adhering to the FCC\u2019s Keep Americans Connected Pledge<\/a>\u00a0(PDF), which asks the signees not to terminate a customer\u2019s service for non-payment. Others are removing data caps and lowering bills in response to COVID-19.<\/p>\n

And others, as you will see in our list below, are doing nothing at all.\u00a0<\/p>\n

AT&T<\/h3>\n

All AT&T home Internet Wireline customers, as well as Fixed Wireless Internet customers, can use unlimited data. AT&T will continue to offer $10\/mo Access from AT&T service for qualifying customers. AT&T Prepaid has also added<\/a> a new $15\/mo offer for 2GB of data.<\/p>\n

For the next 60 days, AT&T also pledged<\/a> not to terminate the service of any customer who can\u2019t pay their bill, and will waive the fees associated with late payments. (Waivers can be applied for\u00a0here<\/a>.)\u00a0 It will also waive domestic postpaid wireless plan overage charges for data, voice or text for residential or small business wireless customers.\u00a0AT&T will keep its public Wi-Fi hotspots open to everyone, and has automatically increased hotspot data by 15GB per month per line.<\/p>\n

Effective April 8, AT&T waived Guam-based international roaming charges for AT&T Mobility accounts through April 30 and retroactively to April 1. New AT&T TV\/DirectTV customers will receive a free year of HBO. An AT&T “Summer Camp” collection of content has been added<\/a>, and AT&T also added a number of free channels to those customers who didn’t already have them.<\/p>\n

CenturyLink\u00a0<\/h3>\n

For the next 60 days, CenturyLink said it has committed to waive late fees and to not terminate a residential or small business customer\u2019s service due to financial circumstances associated with COVID-19. The company is also suspending data usage limits for consumer customers during this time period due to COVID-19. It has committed to the FCC’s Keeping Americans Connected Pledge.<\/p>\n