Armstrong invests millions of dollars annually into our broadband network. We have continuously improved Zoom by increasing speeds and delivering the area’s best, most reliable Internet experience for over 20 years. Data allowance plans, while unpopular, are necessary to support this continuous investment. Rather than significantly increasing the cost everyone pays, data allowance plans are built on a fairness principle – those who use more, pay more. The amount of data included in your plan depends on the services you have.
| Zoom Express | Zoom | Zoom II > Zoom IV | Zoom Extreme | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly Data Allowance | 300 GB | 1 TB | 2 TB | Unlimited |
What if I use more? No problem. The first time you exceed your data allowance plan, we automatically credit your account. The second time, we’ll issue a credit without hassle when you contact our customer support team to review your account, usage and options to find a plan that better suits your needs.
Calculate Your Data UsageOR
Sign In to View Your Actual UsageArmstrong offers pre-paid plans that allow you to increase your allocation by 100 GB or unlimited.
| GB | Retail | Pre-Paid | Savings |
|---|---|---|---|
| 100 | $20/month | $15/month | 25% |
| Unlimited* | $100/month | $35/month | 65% |
*Please refer to the Open Internet Policy for complete details regarding our Unlimited plan.
If you rarely exceed your allowance and these options don’t work for you, simply pay as you go. Customers with Zoom Express, Zoom, Zoom II – IV, Zoom Professional and Zoom Professional II will be billed in blocks of 50 GB for an additional fee of $10 per block while customers with Zoom Professional III > V will be billed in blocks of 500 GB for an additional fee of $100 per block.
No matter how much data you use, your Internet service will never be interrupted, and we will never bill you more than $200 during any statement period for usage exceeding your allocation.
Armstrong uses Bandwidth Activity Reporter, a solution from Incognito Software Systems to accurately and non-invasively measure your monthly data consumption. This solution utilizes Internet Protocol Detail Records (IPDR), a technology that is integrated into Cable Industry standards, to collect and record statistics on data traffic on our network.
To learn more about Incognito and IPDR technology, click here.
Zoom internet service level and above get 1 terabyte or more! A terabyte is a massive amount of data - 2,199,023,255,552 bytes. That’s 2 trillion bytes!
Stream 832 Netflix titles in HD! That’s more than 40 hours of streaming!
Play 24,000 hours of your favorite online game! The average month is only 730 hours.
Listen to more than 30,000 hours of your favorite music, then stream some more.
Upload or download about 120,000 high-resolution photos!
Streaming video is by far the biggest contributor to data usage. Some applications like Netflix allow you to adjust playback settings to view more while using less data. Some social media apps auto-play videos in your newsfeed even though you may have no interest in watching them.
Streaming music generally doesn’t use a lot of data, however some apps like Spotify and Pandora allow users to set a higher streaming quality. These settings can drive higher usage but perhaps more importantly to save data, be sure to turn these services off when you're not actively listening to them.
Streaming your favorite online game generally doesn’t use a lot of data but hosting a game server and game downloads can quickly add up. One Call of Duty download as an example requires 120 GB. That's approximately 10 DVDs to hold all that data. Even with Blu-ray, you’d need 2 dual-layer discs.
Background Data is concerning because consumers typically have no idea the usage is occuring. Smart phones and tablets frequently pre-load images, news articles and other data to improve the experience even when the user doesnt actively use the app. Have multiple devices in the same home? It adds up.
Software Updates like those that support the Microsoft Windows operating system are frequently very large and peer-to-peer sharing is enabled by default. Consumers should review these settings to decide which apps are allowed to auto-update and whether you want to have your data used to make the experience of others better.
Open Access Points / Weak Passwords are not just a bad idea when it comes to the overage fees you potentially expose yourself to additional charges but more importantly the risk you run with allowing your personal privacy and financial data to be compromised.
