UK Telecoms Providers Remove All Data Caps on Home Broadband Services

[MacRumors]

Britain's big telecoms providers have agreed to lift the data caps on all fixed-line broadband services to help people isolated at home following the coronavirus epidemic, reports Reuters.

The companies, which include BT, Virgin Media, Sky, O2, Vodafone, Three, and TalkTalk, committed to support and protect vulnerable customers during the pandemic following talks with the government and telecoms regulator Ofcom.

The ISPs are also introducing additional measures, which include helping customers who find it difficult to pay bills because of the viral outbreak, improving mobile and landline packages, and prioritizing repairs for vulnerabile customers.

"It is essential that people stay at home to protect the NHS and save lives. This package helps people to stay connected whilst they stay home," Digital Secretary Oliver Dowden said in the government statement.

The U.K. government last week imposed strict measures on public movement, including social distancing, a ban on gatherings of more than two people, and the closure of all shops selling non-essential goods.

People have also been told they should only leave the house to shop for basic necessities, exercise, medical needs and traveling to work if they can't work from home. The measures are expect to remain in place for at least 13 weeks, and possibly longer.

Article Link: UK Telecoms Providers Remove All Data Caps on Home Broadband Services

 

[robinp]

Surely they should be doing something similar for 4g / 5g too. Perhaps not unlimited, but doubling of data allowance for example.

 

[Andy-V]

I didn't think many broadband packages in the UK actually had caps.

 

[Kimjongjohan]

Do you seriously have data caps on home broadband?

 

[KrisLord]

This is welcome, but very few packages have any sort of data cap.
Perhaps there are people on legacy deals that never upgraded to uncapped products.

 

[G4DPII]

Very few had any left. only those on really old contracts. We haven't had a data cap on ours for about 10 years.

 

[ruka.snow]

It's crazy to think there are any services out there with caps, even late dialup and my first broadband(256Kbps) was unlimited.

 

[Huw Price]

Surely they should be doing something similar for 4g / 5g too. Perhaps not unlimited, but doubling of data allowance for example.

Hi there, 5g seems so new and limited in the UK thats its probably inconsequential. As for 4g isn't that included in this change?
Our ISP shows at home we used over 200gb last month and in theory the cap is 4882 GB& is called ResUnlimited for Residential Unlimited I guess. All the best

 

[MacknTosh]

And I think the public restrictions on gatherings etc. are expected to be in place for 3 weeks, and may be extended, if required (not 13). That’s not to say it won’t ultimately be 13 weeks, but that’s not what it is (yet)!!

 

[MacBH928]

interesting...I was told that ISPs cap usage because it creates "pressure" on the network and more data used will be cost them more. This seems to prove that they can open the limits for everyone no issue.

And yes, many people world wide still have cap limits even on fiber and 5Ghz networks.

 

[powerless]

It's crazy to think there are any services out there with caps, even late dialup and my first broadband(256Kbps) was unlimited.

But did your dialup disconnect every 2 hours? Download mangers FTW!

 

[itsmilo]

The UK has data caps on broadband? 🤯

 

[gusping]

I didn't think many broadband packages in the UK actually had caps.

Not many people have capped packaged at all, as far as I am aware. I expect 90+% of people have an unlimited data contract with their ISP. As much as I moan about the poor infrastructure here in the UK, we don't get mugged by our ISPs as much as our American friends do.

 

[mixel]

I didn't know there were any capped home broadband plans here either.. Makes it seem silly gesture. Maybe they were more common in rural areas where the likelihood of burning through it in an hour watching Netflix is unlikely as the speed is so crappy anyway? 😅

 

[recoil80]

Surely they should be doing something similar for 4g / 5g too. Perhaps not unlimited, but doubling of data allowance for example.

Some carriers are offering promotions like 100GB per month for a few € these days.
I must say my mobile data usage has gone downhill since the beginning of March as I'm always on wi-fi so I don't really care about those promotions.
One of the biggest just started a new campaign: if you have a broadband contract at home you can associate a SIM card to it and enjoy unlimited data on it. That is more interesting, as I could use unlimited data once the quarantine is over.

 

[ani4ani]

Not many people have capped packaged at all, as far as I am aware. I expect 90+% of people have an unlimited data contract with their ISP. As much as I moan about the poor infrastructure here in the UK, we don't get mugged by our ISPs as much as our American friends do.

There are few packages that have caps, mostly aimed at folks that are on benefits / social support who essentially pay nothing or very little for their landline and broadband, e.g. my mother-in-law has a package that costs £5 [$6] a month for 10Gb a month [presently uncapped].

Personally I am on an unlimited package for landland that includes all calls, unlimited BB for £23 a month [<$30 a month]. My moble contract, unlimited everything [data, calls and texts] is £16 a month [<$20 a month] - costs I would have dreamed about when I worked in the US

 

[Z400Racer37]

… Why do they have caps on their broadband??

Possibility 1:
They got a crappy version of reality compared to the US

Possibility 2:
They’ve got some crappy government law somewhere with some “unintended consequence“ while they powers that be were “just trying to help.” 👌🏼

 

[Falhófnir]

Good grief some people are full of crap online. The facts:

For wired broadband, Ofcom enforces a standard called 'true unlimited' - most broadband packages now seem to be labelled as such, and that's exactly what it says on the tin. Some (cheaper) plans are 'unlimited' which means no data cap, but they have fair usage strings attached so if you go over a certain amount per month, you get your speed throttled, but technically there's no limit to the overall amount of data you can use.

I can only imagine the data caps being talked about are for home broadband using the mobile phone network, as they're the only ones I could see that actually had usage caps when we switched not that far back. In rural areas sometimes you can get faster speeds this way using 4G, but obviously the network is more prone to congestion.

 

[swm]

Do you seriously have data caps on home broadband?

data caps sound so early 2000s - when operators wanted to sell bytes just the same way sold minutes

 

[nicho]

Good grief some people are full of crap online. The facts:

For wired broadband, Ofcom enforces a standard called 'true unlimited' - most broadband packages now seem to be labelled as such, and that's exactly what it says on the tin. Some (cheaper) plans are 'unlimited' which means no data cap, but they have fair usage strings attached so if you go over a certain amount per month, you get your speed throttled, but technically there's no limit to the overall amount of data you can use.

I can only imagine the data caps being talked about are for home broadband using the mobile phone network, as they're the only ones I could see that actually had usage caps when we switched not that far back. In rural areas sometimes you can get faster speeds this way using 4G, but obviously the network is more prone to congestion.

Your opening statement made me spit coffee by the time I reached your final paragraph in which it is painfully obvious you didn't even read so far as the 14th word of the article.

Here's a yahoo article where you only have to read as far as the 13th word to see that your "facts" are wrong. I guess you did present them as being imagined, so there's that:

Coronavirus: UK broadband data caps removed during pandemic

Coronavirus pandemic prompts removal of UK broadband data caps on fixed-line connections.

news.yahoo.com

You're ignoring the existence of older plans, which you wouldn't see if switching recently. Some people don't like change.

 

[Falhófnir]

Your opening statement made me spit coffee by the time I reached your final paragraph in which it is painfully obvious you didn't even read so far as the 14th word of the article.

Here's a yahoo article where you only have to read as far as the 13th word to see that your "facts" are wrong. I guess you did present them as being imagined, so there's that:

Coronavirus: UK broadband data caps removed during pandemic

Coronavirus pandemic prompts removal of UK broadband data caps on fixed-line connections.

news.yahoo.com

You're ignoring the existence of older plans, which you wouldn't see if switching recently. Some people don't like change.

It was more a reaction to the nonsense post immediately above mine than the article generally. I was giving the facts with regard to how the Broadband network in the UK is regulated. The final paragraph as I made clear was my opinion only. I only skim read the article, and saw most of the providers mentioned are also mobile phone network operators, drew conclusions from that. I stand corrected, there you go.

 

[shadowcatz23]

data caps sound so early 2000s - when operators wanted to sell bytes just the same way sold minutes

I dunno Mediacom here in the US still has caps. It seems pretty common to have caps in the US. I just went to Metronet, who has no cap, to get away from Mediacom.

 

[page3]

I've just moved to an ISP with a data cap (of 300Gb/month). They're expensive too. Why? Well, they sorted out my crap line which my previous ISP failed to do after 6 months. They promise (and deliver) almost no contention. They have amazing analysis tools, available to the end user. They have UK support and pick up the phone within a couple of rings.

Quality over quantity and price. Definitely worth it in my case.

 

[Kebabselector]

Do you seriously have data caps on home broadband?

Some of the really 'cheap' BT packages had low caps (and quite a high cap on Andrews and Arnold broadband - very good supplier though). Other than that not many people have caps.

My old ADSL service was capped at 200gb - mainly for capacity reasons on the older legacy network.

 

[SteveJUAE]

My in laws are those people who have never changed their package in nearly 20 years, I use to pay the surcharge for when my kids spent their summer holidays back in UK as just gaming broke their GB ceiling

They are just to worried about changing settings etc as everything has worked fine, they do not stream as they have satellite and terrestrial TV

My eldest now 32 often tries to help them upgrade but they have little interest even though we could save them over 20 UKP a month with added benefits

I recall myself when I lived in the US how absurdly restrictive and expensive being mobile or connected was plus the lack of choice. I know its got better in recent years but US still remains about the 3rd most expensive place for mobile connectivity

Having said that one of the most envied US deal was free local calls on land lines, largely irrelevant these days

Most people in the world probably pay less that $5 a month for data/calls that's why Whats-app and their like are so popular