O2 Broadband - Are they having a laugh?

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Right, not only is O2 Access Home Broadband absolutely awful, they seem to think that i have gone over their FUP and have asked me to stop downloading. I would happily slow down my rate at which i download on their connection if i was actually at that house with the connection and the router plugged in.

I've just received an email from O2 with their FUP jargon stating i've been downloading too much;

We hope that you are enjoying your home broadband experience with us. Unfortunately, it looks like you’ve been using significant amounts of our network capacity and it’s affecting the service that our other customers get.

We need your help to make sure that all of our customers get the most from their broadband service. Here are some of the things you can do:
Be Aware - Make sure you know what’s using up a lot of bandwidth.
Peer-to-peer software - like Bittorrent. As these programs download and upload files, you might be using more than you realise.
File sharing - some programs might run continually in the background. If you turn off the ‘auto start’ setting you can stop this.
BBC iPlayer - If you’re using the old version, switch to the new version – it uses less capacity
Ask around - Someone else in your house might be using it more than you realise. Ask everyone to use a bit less
Lower your download speed - Most file sharing programs let you set a maximum download speed, please set yours to low.
Download an application that will monitor usage – There are lots available to download for free and it might help you keep an eye on how much you are downloading
And the simplest solution is to download and upload less.

Taking some or all of these steps will make sure all our customers get the most from their broadband. We’d like to help you sort this out as things unfortunately can’t carry on like this. Sadly, unless you cut down by next month, we’ll not be able to offer you a home broadband service. It’s not something we want to do, but it’s the only way to make sure all our customers get the same quality service.

And if you’ve got any questions or need some help to cut down, please call us.
Regards,

Felix Geyr

Head of O2 Home Broadband
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The funny thing is, i moved house nearly 2 months ago and didn't bother to move the connection over and took the router with me anyway. The connection is dormant and not even synced to a router. The house that i moved into a mate used to live in so i'm paying him a few quid each month until the end of his contract on it. (I couldn't wait 2 weeks or whatever it was for O2 to change the line over) The flat that i previously lived in is not occupied at the moment.

So why does O2 seem to think i have gone over their FUP? I am not a big downloader. I maybe thought that it could be collectively over a stretch of months but it couldn't be that as i had been travelling around europe from october to late april this year. Bit of a weird one...
 
Their FUP states 40GB/month so while the service is still being sold as unlimited, in reality it is very limited. To answer your question, well I'm as stumped as you! How can it be possible to breach an FUP when the router isn't even connected?

O2 Access is a shambles, quit while you can imo.
 
I actually didn't accept another 12 month contract for their broadband so i may try and wriggle out of this and perhaps get my money back. Only used a month of broadband since renewing.
 
If you purposely breach the 40GB cap they'll send you another email telling you that you're being disconnected. See it as an early get-out clause ;)
 
This is the email i got :D, they are pathetic :(, i was recieving 0.9meg at 4am in the morning today, now if thats peek time too them pfft

so i dont only recieve about 1 meg between 6-11pm, now theyve decided to screw me over and give me even worse through the morning, and you cant do anything about it :) i hope they disconnect me, im starting to download while im asleep so i get disconected
 
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I'm going to try and cancel this contract i seemingly renewed and try and get a few quid back off em. Cheeky buggers!
 
40gb a month limit LOL, some of us download this much in 1 afternoon. *************** ************** *************** ************** *********** 02 should not pretend to sell unlimited when it really isn't.
 
apatia77 said:
40gb a month limit LOL, some of us download this much in 1 afternoon. *************** ************** *************** ************** *********** 02 should not pretend to sell unlimited when it really isn't.
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20, not 40 :rolleyes:

It's been reported that broadband ISP O2 UK is to tweak the Fair Usage Policy (FUP) of its BT-based Home Access package. New customers will now face a soft download restriction of just 20GB (GigaBytes) per month on a supposedly "unlimited" service (currently 40GB). Customers who exceed 20GB on a regular basis could face disconnection. The change will take effect from next Wednesday (14th July).

The move, spotted by BroadbandChoices, follows a recent spate of confusion after O2 was accused of misleading customers over their "unlimited downloads" flexibility (original news). O2 set a FUP of 40GB but then informed customers to aim for just 10GB per month.

O2 also has a policy of warning those who exceed 40GB on a regular basis to "moderate their use" and those who do not comply have been known to face disconnection. However an "unlimited downloads" service is NOT UNLIMITED if you are disconnected for downloading too much. Most rivals would merely throttle the customers speed instead.

Suffice to say that, since the original article over one month ago, O2 has made some changes to their website. The Home Access package is now only displayed when necessary after an availability check, though the Support Section remark about aiming to use "10GB" remains. O2 also put out a new statement just over two weeks ago.

Felix Geyr, Head of O2 Home Broadband, said on 22nd June 2010:

"At O2, we’ve listened to customer feedback on the terms of our Fair Use Policy and recognise we need to be clearer about what we consider excessive use to be.

When we launched our Home Broadband Access service a couple of years ago, we sold our package as unlimited, subject to fair usage. Since then, usage has risen significantly and there are now a small number of customers that do affect the experience of others.

Because of this, and the fact that we want to be open and honest, we are changing our package and setting a fair usage policy at 40GB. This is over 10 times an average customer’s usage and for 90% of all Access customers it will mean no change to how they use the service. It will, however, mean a better experience for all as very high users will be reducing their usage. For customers who go over the 40GB limit, we will contact them and discuss ways to moderate their use.

We are continuing to invest in further improving the experience of our Access service and recently boosted the capacity on the service by a further 20%. In addition, this year we plan to unbundle 43 more exchanges, expanding our LLU network to cover an even bigger proportion of the UK population and allowing us to move Access customers over onto our own network enabling us to offer both faster speeds and reduced prices."

However, if O2 really wants to be "open and honest" with customers, then we would suggest they make the FUP policy restrictions for Home Access available on the product detail page. As we look at it now they still advertise "unlimited downloads" and only say a "Fair usage policy applies" in the tiny small print, which isn't linked to the policy.

The UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) is currently reviewing the situation for all ISPs and Ofcom is also investigating ways to make Traffic Management measures, and by association Fair Usage Policies (FUP), clearer for customers. Hopefully this will bring an end to misleading marketing practices.

It is important to say that O2 are an otherwise excellent ISP with a strong reputation and generally high quality of service. The Home Access package is ONLY offered to customers who cannot receive the operators cheaper, better performing and more flexible unbundled ( LLU ) Standard, Premium or Pro broadband packages. The LLU packages are usually top notch.
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source: http://www.ispreview.co.uk/story/20...e-access-broadband-isp-customers-to-20gb.html
 
mast3r said:
Has anyone moved into the house you moved out of without you knowing?
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Nope. The house is a large house with 2 self contained flats underneath. My mother who owns the property has let out the main house and 1 of the flats as holiday lets and i needed me to be out of there. The flat i was in is now empty and no one goes in there.

I took the router with me and only I know the username an password so it's very unlikely it's being used at all.
 
And here's O2's canned scripted response;

Thanks for emailing us about the fair usage policy.

I've checked your account and can see that you've used 53 GB last month.
There aren't any usage limits. That means you can download and upload as
much as you like each month, within reason.

Our network's been designed to cope with people downloading large files
(like music or films) and watching video online. But if you're using the
service excessively ? like continually downloading large files at peak
times ? then we do reserve the right to warn you to lower your usage.

This is because excessive use by a few people can reduce the speed that
other customers in the same area can get. We just want to provide
everyone with an excellent level of service.

However, if you wish to discuss this further, please call us on 0800
230 0202. It's a free call from landlines and O2 mobiles. Remember to
drop the first zero if you're calling from a mobile phone.

I trust the above information is helpful.

Kind regards

Ajit
Broadband Customer Liaison Advisor
www.o2.co.uk/broadband
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LOL! :rolleyes:
 
bin them 40gb is pants, go to bethere, which is actually owned by o2 there unlimited is actually unlimited, i know ive tried, most ive done in one month is about 400gb with no complaints from them.
 
nalla said:
bin them 40gb is pants, go to bethere, which is actually owned by o2 there unlimited is actually unlimited, i know ive tried, most ive done in one month is about 400gb with no complaints from them.
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If he could get Be, he'd be on a proper O2 connection to begin with.
 
Well they must be giving you the wrong readings as if there's nothing connected to the phone line then how in the hell has it managed to download 53GB ?!

And yea 40GB is pants by even low standards - I've not got the greatest line from BT but have gone through nearly 100GB in a month and only had one email warning me about not doing so too often!
 
I can't believe that there are still so called unlimited products actually limited to 40GB. How on earth do they expect someone to limit themselves to 1.3GB per day? I recall being limited to 40GB when I was on a 1Mbit connection about 6 years ago and there was nothing available like there is today.

I'm not a habitual downloader but I usually go over 100GB every month and that doesn't include what the kids download/stream.

Thanks goodness for Sky LLU, sensibly no limits.

What O2 want is a millions of broadband customers like my Mum who only download about 50MB a day. They don't want people who actually use the connections to download and stream content, as it is intended for.
 
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