Im just wondering if anyone knows which ISP's do not use the 'Fair Usage Policy'?
I get the feeling that broadband has been stretched too far. When we had 2 and 4mb everything was fine, we could use our full bandwidth without any complaints
Then along came 8mb and we assume that we can use all of it when ever we wanted because thats what we're paying for, but apparently we can't!
What is the Fair Usage Policy on the 'unlimited' Option 3?
BT Total Broadband's Fair Usage Policy is designed to make sure that the very few excessive users on the Option 3 Unlimited product do not use their service at the detriment of other customers.
BT will monitor network performance and may restrict the amount of bandwidth available to very heavy users during peak time to ensure that the majority of the customer base has a good customer experience. There will be no restriction imposed outside of these peak times.
If you don't use Peer-to-Peer or file sharing software or if you don't download very large files continuously at peak times, then it is very unlikely you will be affected by this policy.
Does this mean I can’t use Peer-to-Peer (P2P) applications?
No, we are not stopping people using any P2P service. We are simply ensuring that bandwidth is shared fairly between all customers at peak times, generally in the evenings. Outside of these times P2P will have full bandwidth access. It is worth noting that P2P is not a time-sensitive application.
A minority of users (around 2%) far exceed all others in terms of bandwidth demand, some using 600 GB per month. We have taken the decision to limit bandwidth available to these users at peak times.
What do you mean by "limiting the bandwidth"? What will you do?
We will apply speed restrictions that limit the available downstream capacity for certain applications during the period when we experience peak network bandwidth demand.
In particular, our data shows us that P2P activity for certain heavy users consumes a disproportionate amount of available bandwidth and this will be the focus of some of our controls.
Is this the road all ISP's are going to be heading down at some point because they can't actually provide us with the bandwidth they're offering?
I get the feeling that broadband has been stretched too far. When we had 2 and 4mb everything was fine, we could use our full bandwidth without any complaints
Then along came 8mb and we assume that we can use all of it when ever we wanted because thats what we're paying for, but apparently we can't!
What is the Fair Usage Policy on the 'unlimited' Option 3?
BT Total Broadband's Fair Usage Policy is designed to make sure that the very few excessive users on the Option 3 Unlimited product do not use their service at the detriment of other customers.
BT will monitor network performance and may restrict the amount of bandwidth available to very heavy users during peak time to ensure that the majority of the customer base has a good customer experience. There will be no restriction imposed outside of these peak times.
If you don't use Peer-to-Peer or file sharing software or if you don't download very large files continuously at peak times, then it is very unlikely you will be affected by this policy.
Does this mean I can’t use Peer-to-Peer (P2P) applications?
No, we are not stopping people using any P2P service. We are simply ensuring that bandwidth is shared fairly between all customers at peak times, generally in the evenings. Outside of these times P2P will have full bandwidth access. It is worth noting that P2P is not a time-sensitive application.
A minority of users (around 2%) far exceed all others in terms of bandwidth demand, some using 600 GB per month. We have taken the decision to limit bandwidth available to these users at peak times.
What do you mean by "limiting the bandwidth"? What will you do?
We will apply speed restrictions that limit the available downstream capacity for certain applications during the period when we experience peak network bandwidth demand.
In particular, our data shows us that P2P activity for certain heavy users consumes a disproportionate amount of available bandwidth and this will be the focus of some of our controls.
Is this the road all ISP's are going to be heading down at some point because they can't actually provide us with the bandwidth they're offering?
Doesn't seem very fair when he's paying for 'unlimited'. But they've actually admitted to him that he has been capped and that he was sent an email telling him that he was close to his limit - which, he never received.