Question about BT limits and fair usage.

radar19

radar19

radar19

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Lincolnshire
I'm a bit confused at BTs fair usage and download limit policy. Now I'm staying at my uncles house and he has BT broadband. He says he has the umlimited package but he's recivied 2 letters from BT about downloading too much. Thing is, both him and his wife only do light web browsing ands play Second life.

This has lead me to believe that they have fallen foul of the fair usage policy, which is odd as they use the Internet a lot less than I do when I'm back home.

While I'm here I've downloaded about 16gb worth of data from steam plus more from streaming podcasts and videos, but I'm made sure to do this outside of peak times. Now I'm worried that he'll get another letter from BT but they should be on the unlimited package. I've not noticed any throttling or speed drops.
 
Not entirely sure Bt have an "off peak time" for internet usage, pretty sure my limit is hard set regardless of when I use it per mont, but then again I'm on the basic package and will be charged if I go over it.

Are you sure their network is secure? Especially if it has wireless? If they have BT vision then it doesn't count towards their usage but clearly if a neighbour has access then it will. Streaming video can be data heavy if you are on iPlayer etc - you are better to access it via the BT vision box in that case.
 
Should be in network & connectivity section, but oh well.

BT policy makes their customers bleed for their broadband. I, too, got a letter about the volume of internet traffic I was using, and spent a long time on the phone shouting at people until I could be put through to someone who could help me. The fair usage for an unlimited BT package comes in at about 40GB/month, then they generally cap your speed - this cap applies to the capped peak rate speed too, so my speed was reduced to about 10% of normal until the end of the month, even going so far as to cap my capped peak rate speed to bring it down to about 100kbps. Whether you use that allowance in peak times or not is irrelevant, they'll still sting you for it, but it's easy to get them to back off if you're aggressive about it.

Please note that I don't advocate aggression as a way to deal with customer service on a general basis. BT, however, have one of the worst service records I've ever had the misfortune to suffer. Their outsourced call centre staff know next to nothing and insist on taking you through the same by-rote crap every time you contact them, and they'll bounce you from one desk to the other all day if they think they can get away with it. It takes a great deal of strong persuasion before you're put through to people who speak english as a first language, and these are the people who can really help you with your problems. You're best off gtting your uncle to cancel the whole thing and sign up with a decent LLU provider if his exchange is unbundled, or even if it's not go for a different ISP. The line quality will still be BT standard, but you'll get better customer service and 'unlimited' actually means unlimited.
 
BTRetail, BTOpenreach, BTWholesale.

All terrible companies.

Check you Uncles Router make sure it's secured wirelessly
 
Andy said:
BTRetail, BTOpenreach, BTWholesale.

All terrible companies.

Check you Uncles Router make sure it's secured wirelessly
Click to expand...

Yep, its secured. I'm currently pulling 430KB/s downstream from Steam which is normal for here. But we have the same package at home and me, my mum and sister hammer the internet yet we havent been throttled or had any letters. I'm worried that I'm going to run up a massive bill or something.
 
I was with BT for over 5 years. Here is a copy/paste of an email from them regarding fair usage. This was also supposedly an "unlimited" package:


Dear Customer,

We thought you'd like to know that your broadband usage in March is now above 80GB.

In accordance with our Fair Usage Policy, and to protect the online experience of all our customers, if your monthly broadband usage goes over 100GB, we'll restrict your broadband speed at peak times (typically this is between 5pm and 12am, but these times may change depending on the demands on the network) to 1Mbps for 30 days.

Please note: your service won't be affected in any other way - we'll restrict only your speed, not the amount you can upload and download.

We'll email you again to let you know if your usage exceeds 100GB. For more information, including tips on how to manage your usage, please see our Fair Usage Policy. Or call 0800 707 6044, 8am-5pm, Monday-Friday.

Best wishes,

BT Total Broadband team



This is absolute ******** though because they reduce everyones speed during those peak times anyway regardless of how much you have downloaded.
 
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I moved to vodafones broadband@home package which is provided via bt broadband. Ive hammered it recently and have experienced no traffic management at all which is great as when I used to be with BT it was shocking. It's downloaded 36gb over the last 22 hours, great value for money as it comes with free landline calls too for £25 a month.
 
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ive got bt unlimited for 15.49 per month, told them i was going to leave unless they reduced it. never had any problems downloading as much as i want from them. your rellies must be unlucky......
 
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