Why doesn't Unlimited mean Unlimited anymore? :/

DailyGeek

DailyGeek

DailyGeek

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Does anyone else find it strange that broadband providers and mobile phone networks constantly advertise unlimited packages for bandwidth, texts etc but in reality they are almost all limited by a fair use policy or bandwidth restriction after a certain allowance etc.

Surely the OFT should stop people using the term unlimited when such packages have often very limiting restrictions?

Grrr. Rant over :p
 
yeah it does seem a bit weird thier alowed to say it, surely they should just be forced to show the limits they disguse as "fair use".


bledd. said:
to stop people taking the ****
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If i said I'd give you a million pounds if you gave me a fiver then only handed you 10p would you consider yourself taking the pee for wanting the whole million?
 
My unlimited Virgin package gets traffic shaped for most of the bloody day. Sure I can download as much as I want, but I'll be doing it at a snails pace.

Tbh, they should advertise the average speed of the package they are offering you.
 
To the average person, it is effectively unlimited. Specifically talking about Broadband and the fair usage policy, only a very small portion of people will be affected by it and in which, the majority of time they will be doing things they shouldn't be doing in the first place. :)
 
Fire Wizard said:
To the average person, it is effectively unlimited. Specifically talking about Broadband and the fair usage policy, only a very small portion of people will be affected by it and in which, the majority of time they will be doing things they shouldn't be doing in the first place. :)
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Like what? Downloaded games off steam? Watching iPlayer? Downloading patches for World of Warcraft, WAR etc? Downloading digital purchases of Adobe Photoshop or Lightroom or Antivirus? Maybe downloading a few albums of itunes?

Download Purchases are more commonplace than ever before. Torrenting is perfectly legal and many companies use it as an official distribution method. On Virgin, my torrents are raped down to a lovely 2kb/sec. It's really "fair" because i am "doign things im not supposed to be".
 
Fire Wizard said:
To the average person, it is effectively unlimited. Specifically talking about Broadband and the fair usage policy, only a very small portion of people will be affected by it and in which, the majority of time they will be doing things they shouldn't be doing in the first place. :)
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I don't argue that at all (although maybe the limits VM slap on after a very small data allowance are an exception) however the term unlimited is rather misleading to say the least!

An average user these days probably downloads an awful lot more than an average user even two years ago as well. Times change too fast for these restrictions.

I was looking at an Orange handset with unlimited internet and email (subject to fair usage policy) monthly limit was 250Mb! Hardly unlimited?!
 
Because to the significant majority of users, using the services for standard usage (eg not downloading huge amounts of warez via torrents or using two mobile phones as a constantly connected baby monitor), they will never come close to the limits.
 
A simple marketing technique to lure you in, whenever you see unlimited anything especially technology it usually means it is limited.

You have to check their T&Cs, usually says 'by "unlimited" we mean 100gb transfer a month and subject to our excessive use policy', now an excessive use policy could range from anything the company wishes.

I have unlimited broadband yet after 2gb it slows to 20-25% of what it usually is. I run a mile when I see unlimited bandwith/space being advertised from a webhost, etc
 
It's outrageous, and yes the ISPs should be forced to be more transparent about it.

It took me three weeks to download the latest ubuntu because of VMs traffic shaping.
 
Because the government have almost no advertising regulations so people can say whatever lies they want about their product.
 
Dolph said:
Because to the significant majority of users, using the services for standard usage (eg not downloading huge amounts of warez via torrents or using two mobile phones as a constantly connected baby monitor), they will never come close to the limits.
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Do you run an ISP? Because it seems that the ISP's also believe that only people breaking the law have large data transfers. Which, as we know, is an idiotic belief.
 
Because there is no such thing as unlimted in the terms you are talking about :)

Same as below.... everyone else seems to have problems with BT, however :/
 
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I download a lot of things, and stream a lot of TV also, I've not been hit with any caps from BT.

There was one time where I thought I was..but it was the PCI wireless card playing up, I'm wired directly to the router now and its perfect.
 
Fire Wizard said:
To the average person, it is effectively unlimited. Specifically talking about Broadband and the fair usage policy, only a very small portion of people will be affected by it and in which, the majority of time they will be doing things they shouldn't be doing in the first place. :)
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I'd disagree with that. I have a unlimited mobile package with Voda for my Omnia. I have a 500mb per month FUP and I'm getting dangerously close to that limit. I'm not doing anything out of the ordinary, just email and webbrowsing. Thank god we have a 20kb per sig limit on here :)
 
To be honest it seems like a huge step backwards, it took bloomin' ages in the days of dial up to get "unlimited bandwidth" back then, we finally got it... broadband becomes the norm and we're back on usage caps again.

If a company is saying I've got unlimited bandwidth, I bloody want unlimited bandwidth. Not one that means I'm going to get throttled during peak hours because I downloaded a gig or two the night before, not one that means I'm going to get charged extra next month because I went "over my unlimited limit" =/


Some recent bits and bobs from the BBC.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7684322.stm

6.2m customers thought they had no usage cap
7.5m did not know their download limit
One million have reached or nearly reached their limit
22% of broadband providers advertise the true limits of their packages
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Tiscali - advertised as unlimited, has fair usage policy but with unspecified excess, will cut off those deemed heavy users
Be - advertised as unlimited, unspecified excess, will not cut off users
Sky - unlimited with no usage barrier or cut off policy for those on its own network. 40GB monthly limit for other customers.
Virgin Media - unlimited but traffic of heavy users is shaped at busy times
Toucan - advertised as unlimited, with unspecified fair usage, will cut customers off
BT, advertised as unlimited, unspecified fair usage, will not cut users off
AOL, 40Gb limit, will remove users who exceed it
Plusnet, 30Gb peak-time limit. Those exceeding their limit will be encouraged to upgrade
Orange, advertised as unlimited, unspecified excess, will remove heavy users
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Its survey found that 56% of broadband providers who advertised services as "unlimited" did impose usage caps and were prepared to cut people off if they used their service to excess.

Only two out of the nine actually said what these limits were.

As a result, uSwitch found that 80% of UK broadband customers either wrongly thought that they had an unlimited broadband package or did not know what their limit was.
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Yeah the amount of data you get on 'unlimited' mobile broadband tariffs is pathetic really, tbh I think the mobile network limits are just to keep people from using VOIP apps on their phones!
 
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