Fair usage policies..

Anksy

Anksy

Anksy

Soldato
Joined
29 Mar 2007
Posts
5,762
starting to get annoyed, im on the computer every day for a good majority of the day, i get this email yesterday saying im using too much so im now back to a limited connection, im now only getting 1-2 meg at peek times, and again struggling to play only games with my friends at night.

i had a 2 week break due to my computer breaking, before it broke i was getting these crap connections too, so when i got my new computer and i seen no problem with my connection up to this point, which has been 3 weeks i gathered it was my old computer that was screwing up my speeds, but nope, seems like it was this stupid fair usage policy.

im on o2, Unlimited

so Do all ISP's have them ? are some better than others ?
 
We've heard this story before :(

There isn't a package referred to as O2 Unlimited. Admittedly, on that page they make the statement "each package has unlimited usage...", however, with only a few exceptions will this claim be made without fair use provisions which enable the ISP to throttle or suspend your connection or impose penalty charges for over use.

You are most likely to be able to download to your heart's content without any bother on VM's cable service, a few providers with LLU packages and [I'm guessing a small number of] non-mainstream ISPs offering a BT wholesale product at a significantly elevated price.

What is available to you will depend on your location; whether there is cable in your area or which telephone exchange you are connected to.

What you get will largely depend on how much you're willing to pay.
 
In the NL luckily the situation is far better than in the UK, nearly none bar some budget ISP's have **** like throttling, traffic scaping, fair use policies, etc...

I'm currently with online ( previously orange) 20mb for 20 per month, and they have no trouble with me downloading 300-500gb in a month or so occasionally.
 
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every isp in the UK do it, their fair usage policy (get out of jail free card)
However:
Bethere dsl do actually offer u a 24/7 completely unlimited line
also
Virgin as I'm with them, but u got to take the 50mbit cable off them to get true 24/7 full speed, their 20mbit/ 10mbit etcs are all same subject to AUP afraid :(

I heard SKY are trying to provide a pretty fair dsl service these days, however I couldnt confirm.

So Bethere dsl were the only true 24/7 unlimited through your phone
& Virgin but has to be the full 50mbit service u take :(
 
Are you on an unbundled o2 product or o2 access? If it's the later it is subject to much stricter usage limits than the unbundled products, i think you get 40gb usage allowance.
 
oh its o2 access, its so called 'unlimited' (dont worry i know its ****!), well im guessing due to playing online games a good 5 hours a day, watching, downloading films and tv every day for about 5 hours, then a good 3 or 4 hours of surfing for college work, i cant imagine what i use :), but ive been on o2 for about a year now, it will teach me in the future to read the policies.

http://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange/WNKEL

thats my exchange,i know im limited to my broadbands, ive made a few threads in the past about my poor connection so i know how limited i am :p i cant believe myself, or anyone on here, or even o2 themselves never even mentioned it was from the fair usage policy before! but it obviously is, i think i must have rang o2 well over 25 times in the past about it, and they never even hinted that it was the policy :) not hard to believe i guess

in all my other threads, i allways believed and was led to believe for the past 6 or 7 months that it was my exchange being 'Congested' and there was nothing i can do, which is also what o2 said, but its not. :(

atleast now i have pin pointed why i had such **** speeds at peak times, i can hopefully fix it if i pay more than usual with a new ISP.
 
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I believe that O2 consider peak time to be between 20:00-23:00. Does your connection perform okay getting on past midnight?

I didn't see any mention of traffic management in the broadband terms & conditions or FUP on their site, athough a Google search did bring up this page on the support site which is completely free of any real detail. An announcement was posted on the O2User forum in October '09 which I am guessing represented an email sent to Access subscribers. It's hard to put a finger on exactly what degree of restriction they enforce and at what times, but by all accounts there is a significant problem. A long-running thread on the official O2 forums polls 90% of the respondents as perceiving a "dramatic slowdown" during peak hours.

hyper_piper45 picked up on the 40 GB cap, confirmed on the official forums.

There were a couple of threads recounting how some users have migrated away from O2 before their contract ends and without a penalty charge by either breaking the download cap in successive months or complaining to the ISPA. If you've been with them for a year or more then I suppose you can get away without any issues.
 
yes mate, after midnight its perfect, back upto 6meg +, and what you just said is Exactly correct, my speed gets reduced from 8-11pm give or take a hour now and again.
 
i've had sky's unlimited package for about 3 years now, i get 16meg speeds and download anything i want. they'll do for me.
 
@pooley: that's great to hear but the exchange Anksy is connected to doesn't appear to have any LLU presence.

Anksy,
Just out of interest, when you say you get limited to "1-2 meg at peak times" and are "getting crap connections" what is it that you see exactly? I'm not going to judge how you use the 'net, by the way :)

On the O2 site, in their Traffic Management section (Support -> Broadband Help -> Home Broadband -> Setup & technical info) they state that online gaming should not be affected and, to quote them, "The only thing you might notice is a better connection, with less traffic on the network."

If you were otherwise happy with the price, performance and conditions of your existing account then you could try raising your specific gaming issue with them while considering other options. Here is a selection of ISPs that have been taken from various "I'm off to..." or "I switched to XYZ and they're better because..." threads:

I haven't got much on the other five. This probably tells you where I would go.
 
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if you look at what time i posted this, its not exactly peek time



so there not only screwing me about at peek times, theyve decided to follow it through the morning now, ****s!!!!
 
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