Define a Fair Usage Policy

[ikonia]

There have been a few posts latley dicsussing broadband and download limits etc etc.

Some of these have been more than fair comment, others are tending to be on the more unreasonable side.

eg: I want an umlimited account, that runs at 8mb, that allows me to leave Bit torrent running 24x7 for £10 per month


What do people think a fair usage policy should be and a rough cost.

For example - lets break it into 4 or 5 catagories. (feel free to add or reomve a catagory I'm just laying out an example)

Average Home User Broadband package
High usage Home user Broadband package

Business Broadband package
Internet Based Business Broadband package

[Splash]

I'd be interested to see what comes up here... To me a fair usage policy is one that is clearly set out in plain English ON THE SALES PAGE (ie before you actually sign up) - if it's there and understandable I don't really think anyone can complain about being locked into a contract with an unfair usage policy, and I think this is one of the biggest problems with the current ISP market is this lack of clarity.

This is why I chose my current ISP - they were clear up front about their peak and off peak hours, and my allowances therein. No packet shaping or anything like that, I can use my allotted bandwidth how I choose and when it's gone it's gone. If I need more download allocation in one month I can pay extra for it, but I'll be surprised if I ever get anywhere near 330Gb in one month...

[zulander]

I think ythe biggest problem with "fair use policies" is they very often seem to be in favour of the ISP's in general most are very confusing (because they have had bits tacked on when ever they feel like it). The ISPS need to make the language they use clearer and easier to understand - but they dont in main because they might screw a few quid out of someone.

Really the cap or d/load limit should be clear as should penalties for going above this. Pricing should also be easier to understand. Not such a problem for "plain" ISPs but ones that offer phone packages as well tend to get confusing quickly.
Unlimited should mean unlimited not unlimited but dont download after 6pm because every bugger else wants to and we cant have that because we cant afford* to buy a new central.
Any changes to a fair use policy should be forward to the user and these changes should be in clear english not legal crap. Pipex used to be very good at changing the FUP and u would never know unless u checked and the page wasnt even very easy to get to on the website.
Any restrictions on use:> times, amount of data sent recived, should be clearly stated so people can make an informed choice.
Contract length should be easy to find.

Basically all the facts of the service should be listed clearly and understandably with as little jargon as possible i always get the feeling your not being told the whole story by isps so they can get even more cash out of u. Its like dealing with the proverbiale 2nd hand car dealer

*For afford read well we could but that would cut our million quid profit margin and we cant have that

[ikonia]

well a days gone by on this, and I thought I would have got a little more response, simpley due to the ammount of gripes on the topic of late.

Doesn't look like anyone is going to put their money where their mouth is.

Be really interesting to hear from one of the posters that had really negative views on their ISP, just to see how far their requirements where different from the policy

[Parm]

I'd say I'm an average to high home user and here's my view.

It's not the FUP as a whole that bothers me, it's what the ISP offers overall. As those above have mentioned, so much of it is unclear and so much of it is in the smallprint you really don't know what you're getting into a lot of the time.

When I say I'm an average to high user, I should expand on that. I use my broadband a lot of the time, I'm always surfing the web on my PC, my brothers iMac or on a wireless device. I use the Xbox 360 and do a fair amount of online gaming and often use it to download game demos and such from Live. My brother uses iTunes on his Mac from time to time, but again, nothing excessive.

The trouble I had with Pipex was that my connection was being throttled quite severely which I felt was slightly unjust. During the evenings particularly my connection speeds would really drop. As a result I enquired about upgrading my £35 2mb connection to a newer and cheaper £25 8mb connection, although I was able to make that upgrade, it meant entering a new 12 month contract. I didn't want to do that in case my speeds were still throttled.

I've since moved to NewNet and I'm on an 8mb package now and find I actually achieve speeds of between 7mb and 8mb which is great. NewNet actually advise me that it's rare for a user to achieve speeds that close to the 8mb rating. NewNet offer their service with a monthly transfer limit of 50Gb (including both upload and download) but they have no fair usage policy. This for me is fantastic, I've never been close to the 50Gb, I reached 23Gb one month so I haven't even managed half of my limit. What's really pleasing though is that there is no throttling, when I do need to download something, it downloads very quickly and I get great speeds.

Unfortunately for me, NewNet are upping their prices next month and my current package will rise from £22 to £34. That's quite a big jump so I'm currently on the lookout for another ISP as mentioned in my thread over here: http://forums.hexus.net/showthread.php?t=87676

So, to cut a long story short. I think an ISP should do one or the two, they should have a fair usage policy OR a bandwith cap. If you want to have unlimited downloads, fair enough but be prepared to have your speeds limited. If you want to have great speeds all the time, be prepared to have a transfer limit.

I do feel for the ISP's though, it's got to hurt the network when you have filesharers who leave P2P programs on 24/7 uploading and downloading at max speed. It's just a shame that the rest of us users get hit by countermeasures meant for them.

[ikonia]

great post, good on you.

thanks

[manwithnoname]

I'm on NTL 2Gb costs £8.50 pm (already had phone and TV with NTL) and I don't thing there is a cap. I don't download much or play online games just spend too much time on this forum, browsing websites no none of these are image intensive - and a bit of online shopping.

I was on dial up, I only got broadband because my company pay for it, in return 'I have connect to the company systems the odd night to sort out a few issues', don't worry it not a charitable act they pay through nose for it

I'm not sure how much I use a month, when I log on to the company's systems there is lots of traffic. Out of interest can I see anywhere how much data has been transfered in the month, my router and PC are turned off when I am out so I cannot look there - it resets the counters on power up.

If I was paying for it I, I could not go back to dial up, I sure I could live with 1Mbit (as I did not notice I was given a speed upgrade for nothing a while back). So 'Average Home User Broadband package' for £10 pounds please and you can cap it at 1GByte a month to make sure it cheap. That's all assume I'm not accessing the company's systems at all.

If it was just broadband and no bundle discount I'd be smarting if I had to pay for than £10.

[Splash]

Surely 2Mb?

[manwithnoname]

Surely 2Mb?

I'll take 10Mb if I'm not paying for it . If I'm paying for it I'll happerly take something slower and accept a download cap if I can get it to £10 pm, 1Mb will do.

[chuckskull]

Personally my only criteria for fair is the terms being spelled out clearly when you're handing over the cash.

If it says unlimited, it should be UNLIMITED, that seems to be the major sticking point right now.

I don't know about anyone else, but if i pay extra for unmetered access I don't expect to have to be considerate of others during peak times etc. I don't want unlimited broadband between midnight and 6am. I didn't pay extra to have to wait until the wee hours of the morning to download big files. Equally customers using cheaper packages shouldn't have to suffer to make space for higher bandwidth connections.

I cant think of any other service where a company would expect similar. When you book into the penthouse of a hotel they don't expect you to stay in a 2star room in the afternoons because other guests would like some time in the penthouse.

It's the ISP's/BT's responsibility to make sure they can provide what was offered.

[geezerone]

... To me a fair usage policy is one that is clearly set out in plain English ON THE SALES PAGE (ie before you actually sign up) - ... This is why I chose my current ISP - they were clear up front about their peak and off peak hours, and my allowances therein. No packet shaping or anything like that, I can use my allotted bandwidth how I choose and when it's gone it's gone. If I need more download allocation in one month I can pay extra for it, but I'll be surprised if I ever get anywhere near 330Gb in one month...

Errm, are you entirely sure about the packet shaping - does the term 'Ellacoya' ring a bell?

[Splash]

Assuming you're going by my profile which I haven't changed of late... I moved from Plusnet to Aquiss about 6 weeks ago, and things have been fine since - I'll change my profile tomorrow if I remember (bit drunked now)

[Splash]

I'll take 10Mb if I'm not paying for it . If I'm paying for it I'll happerly take something slower and accept a download cap if I can get it to £10 pm, 1Mb will do.

I meant as opposed to 2Gb, as per your post...

[geezerone]

Assuming you're going by my profile which I haven't changed of late... I moved from Plusnet to Aquiss about 6 weeks ago, and things have been fine since - I'll change my profile tomorrow if I remember (bit drunked now)

Ahh, that would explain it! A lot are considering the move since BT are courting the takeover of PN

[Lakeuk]

Problem I see with FUP is that the ISP never stat what they are, the first most people will find out is when they get the letter that they've gone of the FUP limit of XXGb but they don't stat what is to someone who hasn't broken the FUP - which to mean gets me worried that they could move the goalposts

[Jay]

BT business have a 100GIG Month Limit but you have to be over it a few times before they cap you. What annoys me is that they don't warn you and there is no way of finding out what their cap actually is unless you go over it!

I think that a FUP should be just that Fair.

If I am using the internet at peek times using P2P constantly then I would expect to be warned.

If I use it for multiple small downloads but its used 24/7 then surly (as a business line) they should release that this is just general use.

If you go over your limit you shouldn't have to phone and have some guy in India tell you that you have been capped, I expect an email at least!

The FUP should be there to protect the user but its not, its there to protect the business who offer what they can't actually provide. When i orderd my line was true unlimited but about 9 months in they decided they no longer wanted to be unlimited and added a FUP. ( I found this out after I was capped)