BT Broadband : fair use policy ! (Warning contains moaning)

[liketom]

well gone and done it , BT has capped my so called unlimited broadband saying i've exceeded my limit !

Bastards:mad:


1 hour 45 min on the phone talking to a trained chimp ended up with them saying i'll just have to wait until monday when they will lift it

so my Broadband experience will have to rock on at 73 Kbps

no online gaming/no itunes tv show downloads/ and real slow internet browsing

how will i get by :(

[xUKHCx]

How much did you rack up in the month?

I estimate our house usage to be some where in the 80GB region (although we are with tiscali so we suffer with their rubbish service)

[liketom]

they say i've downloaded over 50gb

looking through my iTunes collection i can account for about 20 GB in TV shows - lost,Ashes,torchwood

then there was the SDK racking up the size too - a few uploads of my website average size 100mb x 5 - 7

then an upload of all my photo's to .Mac servers 4.5 gb

clearly it's all them page refreshes on Apple.com that's done it

[Cromulent]

They've done it to me too :( but it seems to only be in effect 6pm - 12pm in the evenings. During the day (even on weekends) I still get full speed. It really is a complete bummer though, I've got so used to having full speed internet access (and have done with BT) for the last 8 years.

[RevolutionOne]

Are you locked into contract with them? change to someone else :)

[liketom]

Are you locked into contract with them? change to someone else :)

stuck until december :(

[Fuzzy14]

Virgin do the same to me, and Sky have a fair use policy too so I don't think changing supplier will help. Save all your downloads outside 6-9pm and you should be OK, check their fair use policy in their terms & conditions for the times.

[zioxide]

Get a different ISP.

Who gives a **** about the contract. If your contract is "unlimited" but they're capping you then that should be a violation of the contract and enough to get you out of it.

[Gelfin]

If your contract is "unlimited" but they're capping you then that should be a violation of the contract and enough to get you out of it.

Indeed, I don't want to come across like I'm rubbing anyone's nose in it, because there's plenty to complain about with American network infrastructure, but I have never understood why such draconian resource management is the norm on U.K. networks. Most nations with a smaller geographic area to wire end up with a much more robust infrastructure and as a result offer service that makes U.S. users green with envy. But for some reason that isn't the case for you, and it really boggles me.

Most U.S. providers have a vague "abuse of resources" clause in the contract they can theoretically invoke on a case-by-case basis, but I don't know anyone who has ever been hit with that.

If something like you experience were going on here, I'd be complaining to the Public Utilities Commission that carriers should either be using my fees and, where applicable, my tax dollars to build a network that can provide the advertised service, or they should stop advertising service levels they have neither the capability nor the intention of providing. Is there no such similar agency to take public complaints about utility services there? It really does sound as if you are all getting quite thoroughly shafted.

[jb60606]

Is this a free broadband service or something? I can't believe they cap your broadband. In the early days of US Cable/DSL/Satelite, some ISPs would enforce a similar policy supposedly, but i've never heard of it actually happening. Call them back up and tell them your connection is slowing down the internet.

On the flip side, I just got fibre optic service and accidentally downloaded the entire internet. You're not missing much.

[pknz]

Eh in New Zealand, Fair use policy:

More than 2GB a day = 64kbps for 1 day, then back to full speed
More than 20GB a month = 64kbps for the rest of the month

I don't really see hows that a fair use policy, thats just a 20GB cap to me.

I envy your 50-80GB fair use policy.

[Markleshark]

*Touch Wood* So far I've not been capped.

I will however, flip on the phone if I ever do. I get unlimited, thats what I pay for and thats certainly what I'll be getting.

Tell BT to stick their internet up their arse Tom, you haven't signed anything so you aren't actually locked into it, and hell, if they moan just stop the direct debit.

[scotthayes]

I'd say BT are acting like total bastards. Their fair usage policy does not state what they class as a "Heavy User"

I'd ask them to state in writing what is a heavy user otherwise you'll have no idea what you are allowed to download.

[liketom]

unfair it is - i did another speed test at 12.30 am and it went from 73k up to 723k - in line with a post above saying they cap you speed.

if every ISP is like this then how can services like iTunes and even BT's own BT vision ever take off ?

also i am on the up to 8mb service with BT - Max speed i ever get is 3.4 Mb but low as 1.4 on a normal day.

Service is utter crap, but as a Brit we are expected to roll over and take it:o

[scotthayes]

I'm in the same situation as far as speeds go, I pay for the 8Mb unlimited and the most I've ever got is just under 3Mb. That's why I'm switching to Virgin. Same price for 4Mb but will be upgraded to 10Mb within the next month, and at least Virgin state what they class has heavy usage.

I totally agree with you on the BT Vision situation, you will easily go over their fair usage policy if you are watching shows on it, and when we get iTunes movie downloads you will be totally stuffed.

[Dagless]

Well!

For 3 or 4 years we were with a certain provider who's name begins with PI and ends with PEX. They were great for years, for 2 of those years my bro just constantly downloaded off bit torrent and the likes (which was a pain for me trying to play games, maintain my software website etcetc). We were on 512kbps with the limit being 2mb, once we could get that speed in our area.

That speed came and went but we're still crippled at 512kbps.

Now some mad hijinks happen and they've totally cut off our broadband with no hope of going back, because they couldn't take money from dads debit card (which is BS) and even referred him to some debt collection thingy for people in debt!

So we went with BT Total Broadband (option 3 - unlimited). They were nice enough to give us 2mb broadband. But we do a lot of downloading (bro moved out so it's all legal) and uploading. The very moment they limit this unlimited service I'm going to go mofo on their faces. Good providers are so hard to find.
During the day the internet can crawl. Speedtests always says its 1.8mb-2mb which is fair, but sometimes downloads just go incredibly slowly and games become unplayable from 12-6pm. Past midnight and its a charm though.

For all their BS our last provider certainly didn't give us any limits. And I hope BT give us a bigger "Fair usage" limit since we live in a rural area populated mostly by old folk who aren't going to need these super fast 2mb connections most of the time.

Oh and the router they send is total junk. It's like a Fisher Price wifi router. How that can push a signal through a wall is a mystery.

[liketom]

yep the home hub is rubbish ,


Going to have to rename them to BT Total Crap Broadband.

As soon as Virgin offer there service in my street i'll be nursing a semi :D

[DoFoT9]

well at least you dont have a 12gb cap, slowed down to 8KBps....

[dextertangocci]

Even my crappy ISP in a third world country doesn't do that. I have an uncapped 4mbps connection (which is realistically 1.5mbps - 2mbps). I downloaded about 130GB last month without any problem:)

[Fuzzy14]

I'm sitting here on a Saturday afternoon on at 1MB on a 2MB Virgin connection, so I guess that's not bad, however at £18 a month it's horrendously overpriced which is why they cut a deal with me when I threatened to go to Sky.

A few of the posts above have commented about dumping their current ISPs and moving to Virgin for unlimited bandwidth, be careful, this is their T&Cs;


Broadband Size: M
During peak times, the top 3% of downloaders on the Size: M package download at least 300MB of traffic each, with the top 3% of uploaders uploading at least 150MB of traffic each.

Any users hitting this amount during peak times (4pm till 9pm) will have their broadband speed temporarily traffic managed – their download speed will be set to 1Mb, with their upload speed set to 128Kb. This will last for 5 hours from when the traffic management policy is applied.

Even if a Broadband Size: M user has their speed temporarily traffic managed, they can still download over 2,500 music files per day.

The limit is 800 MB for size L (cut to 1MB) and 3GB for size XL (cut to 5MB)

Linky (http://allyours.virginmedia.com/html/internet/traffic.html)

[CortexRock]

I don't think it will be terribly long before ISPs are forced by customer dissatisfaction to go back to a metered service.

The only difference being that the units of measurement will be gigabytes downloaded/uploaded... in fact, that would probably get around the problem of excessive downloading that they use as an excuse for capping speeds.

Given that if any of the "unlimited, up to 8 megabit" ISPs were actually capable of delivering a constant 8 megabit speed (that's equivalent to 1 megabyte per second... 8 megabits per second = 1 megabyte per second), anyone expecting to actually use that speed would burn through their AUP/FUP allowance in a matter of hours.

Example: BT Total Broadband Option 3 (Unlimited) realistically has a FUP cap of 40 gigabytes downloaded per month.

At a constant speed of 8 megabits a second, it would take approximately only 12 HOURS to download the 40 gigabytes you're allowed in a MONTH.

Taking the metered upload/download route would mean that the amount you're charged per month would be a function of how much bandwidth you use, rather than the speed at which you download.

This would be fairer too, because light users could be charged less as they'd only use a fraction of the maximum potential bandwidth available per month, and heavy users could be allowed to run at the 'promised' speed they're paying for, provided they pay for the bandwidth they use.

Any thoughts?

[Nermal]

I don't think it will be terribly long before ISPs are forced by customer dissatisfaction to go back to a metered service.

The only difference being that the units of measurement will be gigabytes downloaded/uploaded... in fact, that would probably get around the problem of excessive downloading that they use as an excuse for capping speeds.

I'm on a metered service here in NZ. Lots of ISPs have "unlimited, fair use" plans like the ones mentioned in this thread however I've signed up for a plan that gives me fast speeds at all times, with no traffic caps. I can download as much as I want … but I need to pay for it.

For what it's worth, I'm happy with this arrangement. It's not overly expensive, but more importantly I don't get stuck on dialup speed after doing a couple of big downloads.

[thecritix]

three little letters...

aol

i'm on unlimited, when i called them to renegotiate my contract.. they said our a heavy user if you change to someone else they might cut your speed down.

I intended to stick with, but resented paying the same money I had when i owed them for a router etc (if that makes sense)

I'm really happy with them to be honest

[jabbawok]

We've got Bt Option 3 here which is free because My housemate works for BT. at peak times it's like dial-up. I reckon we pull down a gig or two a day, or at least we did. It's painful to use. Luckily we have cable in our road, so i've ordered Virgin "L" package, just broadband. Now I'm waiting for a cable engineer to come along and fix a problem with our line so it actually works. I cant wait to have real broadband again.

[remmy]

Ignore these big providers such as BT and Virgin, I won't go near them. Poor customer service and hidden contracts. Find a smaller provider that gives what you want as soon as the contract ends.

[Schtumple]

My quite tip to you is this:

From what I've been told by someone who worked for virgin, most ISP's will only monitor your bandwidth usage during peak times, in virgins case, it's 1pm -11pm, if you do any large downloads/uploads outside of that, your fine, they don't care.

[Dagless]

Just thought I'd pop back and give my BT connection a speed test.

We're paying for a 2mbps connection. Current speed now? 732kbps*. I'll have a complain with BT later, if they're charging me for 2mbps but giving us less than half of that then I demand a price reduction to match.

This is ridiculous. We're not even heavy broadband users. No big downloads, no streaming. Just email and forums.

* Router says we're at 928kbps.

Out of interest are there any good ISP's out there?

[Peterkro]

Be* and ADSL24 I can recommend there are others I'm sure will be recommended.

[PowerFullMac]

Ignore these big providers such as BT and Virgin, I won't go near them. Poor customer service and hidden contracts. Find a smaller provider that gives what you want as soon as the contract ends.

That is a very good idea.

I is stuck on BT.

Virgin sucks, I would never go near them!!! They have bad service (they used to be NTL, didnt they?) and they cut off your connection for using torrents! :mad:

[nick9191]

I'm with Homecall who are now owned by Pipex. There not terrible, I usually get around 5mb and it should be 8mb. And I download well over 100gb per month, they don't seem to care.

[Dagless]

Be* and ADSL24 I can recommend there are others I'm sure will be recommended.

Awesome! ADSL24 says my number will be able to get the full service in March '09 - just in time for when our BT contract expires.

[Peterkro]

I'm with Homecall who are now owned by Pipex. There not terrible, I usually get around 5mb and it should be 8mb. And I download well over 100gb per month, they don't seem to care.

Pipex for a number of years were great,when the family that owned it sold out it went down the tubes,I'd expect Homecall to go the same way.

[glacies]

I've switched to O2 at 8Mbps. Downloading is good at 700-800 kbps.

Never experienced a cap, and I must have download at least 30-40 GB per month as there's three of us sharing the connection, all from different countries so we d/l our own shows and watch live news.

Support is great and it's a toll-free no. I'd recommend O2 to anyone.

Ps. O2 is actually Be Unlimited.

[whooleytoo]

I'm surprised that companies that advertise "unlimited" packages don't get sued more often.

I'd agree with those who suggested going with smaller providers, that's worked well for me too. Now have an excellent 7Mb no-contention, reliable service with no-quibbles over usage; and hope to upgrade to 10 or 12 this month.

[bigandy]

Just thought I'd pop back and give my BT connection a speed test.

We're paying for a 2mbps connection. Current speed now? 732kbps*. I'll have a complain with BT later, if they're charging me for 2mbps but giving us less than half of that then I demand a price reduction to match.

This is ridiculous. We're not even heavy broadband users. No big downloads, no streaming. Just email and forums.

* Router says we're at 928kbps.

Out of interest are there any good ISP's out there?

You're, um, not quite on the money there.

if you're getting a download rate of 732kbps then you're actually surpassing your 2mbps connection somewhat.

[Dagless]

What I meant was the usually numbers are between 1900-2100kbps (which I thought was 2mbps?), but we're at 700kbps during these hours. I didn't say it was download speed. Just the running speed that our router and speedtest.net says.

Needless to say it'll jump back up again tonight after the 5pm rush.

[garybUK]

the trouble is no one is really investing in the network (until BT eventually get round to 21CN) but even then you'll still have the same old copper/aluminium cables running to your house.

No company wants to invest in re-pulling cables to every house that wants it. So instead they put you on a heavily contended services and the only way to keep it relatively stable is to stop you usiing it properly!!! Virgin is the same, it's so oversubscribed without increasing capacity, their answer is to put caps in to stop you using it!!!

they really need to get off their asses and pull fibre to the home and increase the backhaul capability.

Best bet is to invest in some very expensive 2 way satellite internet connections with heavy lags :) pointing to Eutelsat's Eurobird 3 :)

[bigandy]

What I meant was the usually numbers are between 1900-2100kbps (which I thought was 2mbps?), but we're at 700kbps during these hours. I didn't say it was download speed. Just the running speed that our router and speedtest.net says.

Needless to say it'll jump back up again tonight after the 5pm rush.
If speedtest says you're getting about 700kbps you are in fact, hitting around 6.7mbps.

1900-2100kbps throughput would put your connection nearer to 20mbps.


the trouble is no one is really investing in the network (until BT eventually get round to 21CN) but even then you'll still have the same old copper/aluminium cables running to your house.

No company wants to invest in re-pulling cables to every house that wants it. So instead they put you on a heavily contended services and the only way to keep it relatively stable is to stop you usiing it properly!!! Virgin is the same, it's so oversubscribed without increasing capacity, their answer is to put caps in to stop you using it!!!

they really need to get off their asses and pull fibre to the home and increase the backhaul capability.

21CN is going to be too little, too late. FTH isn't happening, FTK (kerb) is more likely, however they're still not 100% that it's going to be accessible to anyone other than BT. The most likely is ADSL2+, or (fingers crossed) VDSL2+ upgrades at the DSLAMS. Which will still keep us behind the world broadband network.

[Dagless]

How very odd!
Well I wish my connection could push past the 60-120kbps (time of day depending) download speed.

[whooleytoo]

If speedtest says you're getting about 700kbps you are in fact, hitting around 6.7mbps.

1900-2100kbps throughput would put your connection nearer to 20mbps.

I'm very confused - are you saying speedtest is very, very inaccurate; or are you mixing up bits per second and bytes per second?

[calculus]

21CN is going to be too little, too late. FTH isn't happening, FTK (kerb) is more likely, however they're still not 100% that it's going to be accessible to anyone other than BT. The most likely is ADSL2+, or (fingers crossed) VDSL2+ upgrades at the DSLAMS. Which will still keep us behind the world broadband network.

That's easy for you to say...

[whooleytoo]

How very odd!
Well I wish my connection could push past the 60-120kbps (time of day depending) download speed.

You need to find an ISP that offers a no-contention option, there are several here so I'd imagine you shouldn't have a problem finding options in the UK.

[Dagless]

I'm very confused - are you saying speedtest is very, very inaccurate; or are you mixing up bits per second and bytes per second?

If it helps to clear anything up I'm being told-

Router - 1664kbps / 449kbps up
Speedtest.net - 728kbps / 364kbps up
IE Download - 93kbps

[whooleytoo]

If it helps to clear anything up I'm being told-

Router - 1664kbps / 449kbps up
Speedtest.net - 728kbps / 364kbps up
IE Download - 93kbps

The speedtest test scores are quite low, less than 40% of the advertised speed; BUT the key is the contention. You might be with an ISP with 12:1 (or even 24:1) contention, which means they're only promising to provide 2Mbps / 12 = 166.66kbps; though it's generally going to be far higher. Depending on what their tech support is like, you might have a tough job getting any improvement, seeing as you're over that figure.

If you had an ISP with no contention, a 2Mbps connection IS a 2Mbps connection. (for instance, our 9Mbps connection is getting 8944kbps/711kbps up during business hours).

[PowerFullMac]

The speedtest test scores are quite low, less than 40% of the advertised speed; BUT the key is the contention. You might be with an ISP with 12:1 (or even 24:1) contention, which means they're only promising to provide 2Mbps / 12 = 166.66kbps; though it's generally going to be far higher. Depending on what their tech support is like, you might have a tough job getting any improvement, seeing as you're over that figure.

If you had an ISP with no contention, a 2Mbps connection IS a 2Mbps connection. (for instance, our 9Mbps connection is getting 8944kbps/711kbps up during business hours).

Notice how ISPs advertise their speeds as "up to". They are saying it may or may not go up to 8meg speeds (for example) but it dosent always mean the cables in your area can do it.

Its like saying a car will go up to 200MPH, but if you are on a London road you can only go 5, no matter how good the car is. :D

[whooleytoo]

Notice how ISPs advertise their speeds as "up to". They are saying it may or may not go up to 8meg speeds (for example) but it dosent always mean the cables in your area can do it.

Its like saying a car will go up to 200MPH, but if you are on a London road you can only go 5, no matter how good the car is. :D

True, though I think they're just covering their bums on the contention issue there.

If someone here signs up for a bargain basement Eircom broadband package, they might be getting a 1Mbps connection with 1:24 contention; which means in the evenings when everyone is online their new broadband package is slower than a dial-up modem. If it's 1:48 contention, it's waaay slower than a dialup modem.

I'm amazed the Eircom site doesn't even list the contention anywhere, even if you delve down into the details. Little wonder they print "up to", indeed! :p