• by Wendy Davis  @wendyndavis, October 1, 2009

Cox Communications has increased the maximum bandwidth that Internet subscribers can use in any given month.

The company said this week that its bandwidth caps will now range from a low of 30 gigabytes per month to a high of either 250 or 400 gigabytes per month, depending on the market. Previously, caps ranged from 3 gigabytes to 100 gigabytes per month.

"Cox has had bandwidth allowances in place for quite some time now," company spokesperson David Deliman said. "We simply increased the monthly allowance for each of our packages of high-speed Internet service to better serve our customers."

Cox's new low -- 30 gigabytes per month -- is enough bandwidth to download around 15 standard-def movies.

Cox is not the only Internet service provider to cap users' bandwidth. Comcast imposes caps of 250 GB, while Time Warner has tested pay-per-byte pricing that involved caps ranging from 5 gigabytes to 40 gigabytes.

But limiting users' bandwidth has proven controversial. One reason is that some Internet service providers that imposed caps in the past did not explicitly state what they were. Before Comcast announced bandwidth caps of 250 gigabytes a month, the company used to warn some subscribers that they might be cut off for "excessive" consumption but didn't specify how much was too much. Last year, Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum took issue with that practice and extracted a $150,000 settlement from Comcast.

In addition, some broadband advocates say that caps that seem generous now will be insufficient in the future, when Web connections get faster and people consumer more video online.