Some providers have a "excessive user" policy

hazephase · #1 08-26-2007, 05:00 AM

There are people with unlimited broadband and these people can get hit by download restrictions . They have a level where they say that the person is using too much of broadband . Watching 20 minutes of video online a day can add up to 10GB of downloads in a month – more than enough to be labeled an "excessive user" according to some providers.

James · #2 08-26-2007, 07:49 AM

Originally Posted by hazephase

There are people with unlimited broadband and these people can get hit by download restrictions . They have a level where they say that the person is using too much of broadband . Watching 20 minutes of video online a day can add up to 10GB of downloads in a month – more than enough to be labeled an "excessive user" according to some providers.

This is appalling. If they said "virtually unlimited" or "unlimited for most users" then that would be OK, it would tell people to look at the small print. People will believe "unlimited" without looking at the small print.

JenniP · #3 08-26-2007, 09:01 AM

Thats why its best to go with a capped provider, they spell out up front what your limits are, give you tools to monitor it.

Unlimited bandwidth is a myth the sooner people realise that the better.

Caps dont have to be restrictive though, and on the whole people tend to use less bandwidth than they think they do.

Personally I would rather pay for capped, and not have traffic shaping or port blocking than hammer it and have "unlimited" and get put on the "Heavy users" list.

Jen

hazephase · #4 08-26-2007, 09:38 AM

There are so many people that don't know this and that is why I have post it here so that people can read it and and not get taken for a ride by the big companies and the nice words that they use .

James · #5 08-26-2007, 06:09 PM

Originally Posted by JenniP

Thats why its best to go with a capped provider, they spell out up front what your limits are, give you tools to monitor it.

Unlimited bandwidth is a myth the sooner people realise that the better.

Caps dont have to be restrictive though, and on the whole people tend to use less bandwidth than they think they do.

Personally I would rather pay for capped, and not have traffic shaping or port blocking than hammer it and have "unlimited" and get put on the "Heavy users" list.

Jen

Heavy user policies for "unlimited" broadband packages have been around for some time. Didn't Breath get in trouble for this about ten years ago?

JenniP · #6 08-26-2007, 10:38 PM

Dont think it was 10 years ago, ADSL has only been around for around 5, but yes pretty much every Broadband provider has been in trouble with this at some point.

The ones I can remember are Pipex, Tiscalli, BT, Breathe as you said, think Demon had at some point.

It all comes down to what happens when people believe the marketing hype and actually try and use the "unlimited". Fair use policies especially when they arent announced are rarely fair on the consumer.

Jen

attagirl · #7 09-05-2007, 02:57 PM

I agree, if you are offered unlimited then you should get unlimited. If they cannot handle that then it is not your problem. You need to make sure that you read the terms of service because if it states that you are limited in anyway even with an unlimited account and you agreed to it. they got you.

James · #8 09-06-2007, 10:49 AM

Originally Posted by JenniP

Dont think it was 10 years ago, ADSL has only been around for around 5, but yes pretty much every Broadband provider has been in trouble with this at some point.

The ones I can remember are Pipex, Tiscalli, BT, Breathe as you said, think Demon had at some point.

It all comes down to what happens when people believe the marketing hype and actually try and use the "unlimited". Fair use policies especially when they arent announced are rarely fair on the consumer.

Jen

Jen you have converted me on this. Like most other people I would have simply believed that a package that said "unlimited" was in fact unlimited, but that is quite a roll call of offenders. Even Pipex!

James · #9 09-06-2007, 10:52 AM

Originally Posted by attagirl

I agree, if you are offered unlimited then you should get unlimited. If they cannot handle that then it is not your problem. You need to make sure that you read the terms of service because if it states that you are limited in anyway even with an unlimited account and you agreed to it. they got you.

Wouldn't this come under the trades descriptions legislation? After all if it says unlimited that is an unambiguous statement.

Does this site have exposes of unlimited offers that aren't in fact unlimited?

JenniP · #10 09-06-2007, 11:24 AM

You will find none of them truly unlimited, dig deep enough there will be a "fair use policy" somewhere, even if its not (and normally its currently) enforced.

Business packages seem to be better for being unlimited and meaning unlimited, but again the fine print can often have a surprise.

The trouble is you are never sure what's worse, having unlimited bandwidth you cant really use because of heavy traffic shaping and protocol throttling, or paying for an capped unthrottled unshapped connection.

Jen