BT Option 3?

[gabriel]

I was just checking around and found this:

http://www.productsandservices.bt.co...Id=15764#speed

unlimeted downloads?? Not that i like bt to be frank

[jimbouk]

"Fair usage policy applies" and I can't find the policy after a quick look so they're obviously hiding the small print...

[peterb]

From BT's website:

3. All BT Total Broadband options (including any unlimited options) are subject to BT's Fair Usage Policy as set out at the Support and Advice section at www.bt.com/broadband.

7.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.

full details here http://www.btyahoo.com/broadbandusage_holding

Looks almost too good to be true!

[burtie]

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.

Bt are at the moment traffic shaping all weekend and from 4pm to 11pm everynight.

[peterb]

Traffic shaping (to improve average performance for all when the network is heavily loaded) is not the same as specifically throttling specific heavy users.

[burtie]

That what i was tying to say lol its early, my speed on bt option 3 is rubbish during peak hours and i`m not really a heavy user.

[peterb]

That what i was tying to say lol its early, my speed on bt option 3 is rubbish during peak hours and i`m not really a heavy user.

I suppose it depends what you want to do. As an example, one form of traffic shaping might be to favour streaming videao over http traffic over p2p. It doesn't really matter if a p2p file takes 2 hours to down load or 3 hours, but you might be concerned if the response time to an http request took 20 seconds rather than 2. And you would be really miffed if your streaming video was delayed at all. However if a constant video streamer was continually hogging your ISP's bandwidth so your ping times were reduced, you might be keen to see their limit reduced.

The longer term solution is for the ISP to increase bandwidth availability - but that costs money and bandwidth demand will always exceed supply. Another solutuion is for ISPs to charge for different services or QoS to users (in some ways that already applies - ypou can pay more for an office max product that offers a less restrictive FUP, for example) or else you enter the whole 'net neutrality' debate that is exercising the USA at the moment. (To grossly over simplify the eebate, it more or less bolis down to "Should ISPs favour one supplier of content over another in return for payment?")

[Toole]

The traffic shaping can be pretty bad if you like using torrents etc. Mine go down to less than 10kbps downstream between 1pm and 3am every day, and sometimes the webspeed lowers to about ISDN speeds at times. You'd probably be better off with someone like pulse gaming.