BT Fair Usage

Retromatic

Retromatic

Retromatic

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West Sussex
I'm on the BT "unlimited" broadband package for home users, I've been restricted during peak hours since I started with them (about a year ago), but this morning they have been capping me at 0.5mb broadband.

After about an hour of phone calls I finally spoke to someone who told me that I would be restricted to half a meg for the rest of the month. I've only ever been restricted during peak hours (typically 5pm-11.30) - is this some new thing of BT's or a breach of contract?

I did enquire about Business Broadband but that seems to have the same restrictions.
 
It varies, I always go over there "unlimited" limit which I think is about 100gb per month - I have done since I've been with them but as my downloads are always restricted during peak time (normally to 2mb), I only normally download overnight.

But now it's being restricted to 0.5mb 24 hours a day.
 
When working on a contract for BT they do restrict some customers to 0.5 mbit/s. They have only ever done this when someone REALLY loves P2P, Steam, Youtube or BBC iPlayer (a little too much) IMHO.

What is your normal usage throughout the day/week/month? You could be considered on of their few "heavy" users. What are the main sites you use and how long do you use them throughout the day/week/month?

Did BT Customer Service tell you this or Technical Support? Did you speak to the back office teams as they are the only people with extended access to the systems to see this IIRC?

**NINJA EDIT***

Leviathon said:
It varies, I always go over there "unlimited" limit which I think is about 100gb per month - I have done since I've been with them but as my downloads are always restricted during peak time (normally to 2mb), I only normally download overnight.

But now it's being restricted to 0.5mb 24 hours a day.
Click to expand...

Yup you will be restricted. Very few of their customers are restricted like this. I believe it should be in the terms and conditions but I am not a BT customer so cannot comment. Again customers have had this throttling before but I did not hear of any legal challenge regarding this.

Your choice going forward. You could always change ISP?
 
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jake108 said:
When working on a contract for BT they do restrict some customers to 0.5 mbit/s. They have only ever done this when someone REALLY loves P2P, Steam, Youtube or BBC iPlayer (a little too much) IMHO.

What is your normal usage throughout the day/week/month? You could be considered on of their few "heavy" users. What are the main sites you use and how long do you use them throughout the day/week/month?

Did BT Customer Service tell you this or Technical Support? Did you speak to the back office teams as they are the only people with extended access to the systems to see this IIRC?

**NINJA EDIT***



Yup you will be restricted. Very few of their customers are restricted like this. I believe it should be in the terms and conditions but I am not a BT customer so cannot comment. Again customers have had this throttling before but I did not hear of any legal challenge regarding this.

Your choice going forward.
Click to expand...

Thanks for your comments. Well I got passed around between technical and customer support, but in the past I have spoken to thier Fair Usage Team or something similar - they now said this doesn't exist anymore. Whether they are telling porkies or not, I have no idea.

I am a heavy user yes, it can range from 100gb- a lot higher, my contract ends in January - trouble is wherever I go the same (or less) restrictions will apply I guess.
 
lol...when I was with Virgin I was throttled back and I was also informed I was in their top 3% of heavy users in the whole of the UK :p

I went to Sky Unlimited and never been throttled once...line rental, free landline calls and 8MB connection (getting 5MB real life speeds) for £25 a month...result! ...plus my ping is MUCH better with Sky
 
subbytna said:
lol...when I was with Virgin I was throttled back and I was also informed I was in their top 3% of heavy users in the whole of the UK :p

I went to Sky Unlimited and never been throttled once...line rental, free landline calls and 8MB connection (getting 5MB real life speeds) for £25 a month...result! ...plus my ping is MUCH better with Sky
Click to expand...

Unfortunately I've been with Sky in the past, as I'm a long term customer for SkyHD etc - they throttled connection (at a previous property). I've also been with Demon, Plusnet, Talktalk, Bethere and 02.

All have throttled me or had some kind of connection problem apart from Bethere, but I can't get Bethere in this exchange :(
 
http://www.samknows.com/broadband/broadband_checker

Check what you can get here.

The ISPs thought of as best and that are really unlimited are BE*/02 and Sky.

If you can get cable, Virgin are unlimited too but do throttle during peak hours, you can see exactly how much here:
http://shop.virginmedia.com/help/traffic-management/traffic-management-policy.html

Am on Virgin 20mb, Get 7gb to download with in peak hours, reduced to 5mb if I go over, reset at midnight.
Is great, tend to use newsgroups most after midnight anyway :)
 
And Sky throttling?

Were you on their LLU?

I would have thought you weren't, I used to do 250gb+ a month when I was on Sky and never got throttled!
 
thepeganator said:
And Sky throttling?

Were you on their LLU?

I would have thought you weren't, I used to do 250gb+ a month when I was on Sky and never got throttled!
Click to expand...

Sky wouldn't let me on thier LLU for some reason, although I haven't tried at this property. I would need somewhere between 100-500gb allowance per month, so will check the link and see what's available, cheers.
 
Well that link doesn't throw up as many as are actually available to me, but it says just the usual - Plusnet, BT, 02, Directsave, Eclipse. None of which I'm interested in.
 
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You could change the ammount you download, 500Gb a month is an awfull lot of material, they do say it will make you go blind you know:p
 
Yes. LLU stuff is mostly untouched, it's when LLU isn't available and you're going through a BT reseller etc that caps and stuff come in to play.
 
Leviathon said:
Just looking back on Sky again, it's been a long time since I used them last, does fair usage still apply to normal ADSL with them?
Click to expand...

Don't bother with Sky and there connect service, I tried and second day I was on it I was down to 0.50 Mb, I had only downloaded MOH game from EA, 40Gb a month limit with the connect service.

If you can get Sky LLU service then that will be fine but not Connect
 
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