I note that in the form for the Alpha test, we were asked if we had caps on our Internet usage.  We have Comcast and have a 1TB limit per month.  We usually use about 60% of that until my granddaughter was off of school for the summer and must have watched Netflix 10 hours a day!  We went over our limit last month.

So, I fixed that problem.  But, if we normally use about 500-600 GB per month as I teach online for three schools and we do enjoy streaming music and video, I wonder how much more MSFS would add to that.  There are unlimited plans and, if necessary, we could go with that although they are not cheap.

 

1 hour ago, ricka47 said:

I note that in the form for the Alpha test, we were asked if we had caps on our Internet usage.  We have Comcast and have a 1TB limit per month.  We usually use about 60% of that until my granddaughter was off of school for the summer and must have watched Netflix 10 hours a day!  We went over our limit last month.

So, I fixed that problem.  But, if we normally use about 500-600 GB per month as I teach online for three schools and we do enjoy streaming music and video, I wonder how much more MSFS would add to that.  There are unlimited plans and, if necessary, we could go with that although they are not cheap.

 

That is a very good point and a question that needs to be answered. Right now the forums are just over the top with excited folks. They are all busy looking forward to "seeing their personal homes" and planning their first flight in MS20xx. 'I note that in the form for the Alpha test, we were asked if we had caps on our Internet usage.' I am lucky enough to be able to afford most of the reasonable things that I need and want to enjoy flight sims, but, I fully expect to hear a long loud scream from those who complain about "59.00 USD for a well designed aircraft. If 20% of the "Dream Performance and expectations" are realized then the total cost of flight sims is going way up. That is OK but folks need to be prepared for that.

I've got 12 Mbps and 25 gig caps.  Additional bandwidth costs $10 per gig.  Four of us are using the connection.  Let's hear it for satellite Internet!  

Hook

If you take a look at Google Stadia bandwidth requirements you'll find 35 Mpbs for 4k streaming of games. You don't need to go into detailed calculation to realize that kind of streaming will be a major pain for many people. If you stream games, watch Netflix, download larger files and on top of that have more people living with you who also want to stream things it will be a nightmare of making compromises in order to avoid hitting your cap. I believe streaming of games comes too early, many places even in well developed countries still lack the digital infrastructure to achieve all of that.

As for MSFS, I don't think it will be as dramatic as that, though. I expect the scenery to be streamed but not the entire sim. You'd also assume MS found a way to cleverly reduce the amount of data which has to be streamed like making use of LOD adjustments according to the scenario in the sim for example.

I should be good hopefully. My usage is averaging about 500 Gb a month and have a 1TB a month cap. My speed is 150 Mbps although the speed test I just ran did 172 Mbps. Pings are usually around 10 ms.

9 minutes ago, PWJT8D said:

I should be good hopefully. My usage is averaging about 500 Gb a month and have a 1TB a month cap. My speed is 150 Mbps although the speed test I just ran did 172 Mbps. Pings are usually around 10 ms.

I have about the same numbers (1TB cap, 179 Mbps download at last test, monthly usage about 600 GB).  But, I wonder how fast that extra 400-500 Gb could be eaten up.   I think that it costs another $50/month to go to unlimited with Comcast.  I hate to give Comcast/NBC any more money but would do so rather than worry about hitting a cap each month.

I remember back in the 90s asking NTL in the UK when they would be bring internet with the cable TV connection they said their`s is no demand for it, they soon changed that and was one of the first to use it, when streaming becomes the norm industry will react or lose customers to a competitor. 

2 hours ago, rjfry said:

when streaming becomes the norm industry will react or lose customers to a competitor.

Agreed. A lot has changed over the last few years. 2-3 years ago I paid 60$/month for a 50Mbps connection (without cap), today I could get 1Gbps for the same price. And that in a ridiculously expensive country (Switzerland). There's a lot of competition out there and providers will have to adapt to this new demand. A lot could change in the 1.5 years to come. Caps might be history by then.