Comments on: Broadband Caps Affecting One Million Brits

By: AT&T Trials Tiered Broadband in Nevada - GigaOM

AT&T Trials Tiered Broadband in Nevada - GigaOM — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 22:17:38 +0000

[...] PM PT Comments (0) Following in the footsteps of Time Warner Cable, Frontier Communications and several U.K internet service providers, AT&T unveiled a tiered broadband service in Reno, Nev., on Nov. 1. According to a Friday [...]

By: AT&T Trials Tiered Broadband in Nevada - GigaOM

AT&T Trials Tiered Broadband in Nevada - GigaOM — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 22:17:38 +0000

By: ferre kun

ferre kun — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 09:29:01 +0000

“Fair-Use” Resource Agreement. This is generally what they use to cap the unlimited services they offers. Just like the shared webhosting, there are ISPs that relies on shared accounts services. This is what they don’t state. Meaning, if there’s more users using the service, they’ll cap the bandwith according to numbers of users using it, to spread the bandwith evenly.

Well I can’t say it’s worldwide or all ISP are doing this, at least this is what happen in my country :p
even when my isp stated that they have managed to provide ‘up to’ 100Mbps service, all I can get on almost every hour is up to 70 KBps only :p and there’s nothing I can do about it, the reply I get only “there’s a problem on the network” or “the stated service is as it is, and it’s not 100MBps, but ‘up to’ 100MBps”, or “it’s peak hour, so it’s usual thing”, etc.

just sharing ;)

By: Dominik

Dominik — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 21:49:16 +0000

I still don’t understand how these companies can advertise “unlimited” yet maintain a cap that isn’t expressed until you’ve gone over it.

Isn’t this the exact same concept of a store like best buy performing a “bait and switch” which is a form of fraud?

By: ad

ad — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 16:47:06 +0000

Too many internet users are either passive or do not see the real threats of broadband caps.

By: Lebat

Lebat — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 15:52:17 +0000

Talk about false advertising, how do they get away with this?

By: Ted Murphy

Ted Murphy — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 14:37:08 +0000

Absolutely right — the ISPs should be forced to publicize any limitations on their broadband offerings. That includes caps and any throttling issues. This should be regulated, with penalties and supervision. Tell me who to call, who to email, where to sign on that one.

And I should be able to see how much bandwidth I’m using. I called Cablevision for a heads up on that, unavailable.

I don’t mind paying for extra bandwidth. But these hidden stratagems and vigilante actions are killers.

By: Stacey Higginbotham

Stacey Higginbotham — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 13:31:24 +0000

spg, good point on the potential to abuse the enforcement of discretionary caps.

By: spg

spg — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 13:29:14 +0000

i see two big issues here:

1. it should not be allowed to advertise ‘unlimited’ and than have a cap.

2. these are also enforced on a discretionary basis. this can result in being very unfair to consumers. i believe not only should the cap be advertised but also enforced on a consistent basis(i make it clear that i prefer no cap at all). we should know what it is that we are buying. services should stop operated when the cap is hit(unless we elect to pay overages) for all users. as it is certain users are selected to have there accounts canceled while other may be allowed to continue exceeding their caps.