BT: unlimited != unlimited
Submitted by tom on Thu, 19/02/2009 - 16:19
I have an 'unlimited' broadband connection from BT. So I used it to download some of my music off a server that I have in England, at the same time I was in the process of rebuilding a machine and so I had to download a lot of (free) software. I downloaded a few gigabytes, and now BT have throttled my connection, with an estimation of it being back to speed in 17 days time.
Clearly, I have been a victim of BT's 'fair usage' policy, which is anything but fair. I pay good money for this 'unlimited' connection, and I was simply putting it to good use.
How can BT possibly justify such a long throttle period? Why will no-one tell me exactly how the 'fair usage' policy works? How am I to know when I am going to be throttled? What is my daily download limit? Can I download 1GB per day like one sales representing told me? Or is it 3 like another said. Or do these people really not know what the policy is. Perhaps there isn't a policy at all, and its all just a prank some idiot in the 'technical' department is playing.
If BT feel they really do need to throttle someone, then how about they at least give some warning first? I, like many people, rely on my Internet for many things, and to be cut off like this, with no warning is not on. OK so they technically haven't cut me off. I can still use it, barely. The download is capped at 10k/s - and that is shared between the 5 other people I live with.
Has anyone else fallen prey to this scam? unlimited != unlimited.
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Comments
19th Feb 2009, 6:59pm
It's funny, I just wrote something today about Plusnet as they have a new product offering. One of them is the "unlimited" package, which is supposed to be truly unlimited, i.e. not subject to bandwidth shaping. As it's new I won't comment on it just yet, but I think many more will start offering this.
Some ISPs do warn users that go over limits, but that's normally users that go over a pre-defined limit. Your exchange may be a busy one, and this along with your usage patterns appeared to have triggered their packet shaping software to restrict your download speeds.
I'd say call BT saying that you'll leave if you don't get an adequate explanation. They may tempt you to stay with a better offer, who knows. There's lots of choice out there now so if you're not happy, i'd say look around.
19th Feb 2009, 6:50pm
Believe me, I have been on the phone to them! I have spoken with the site manager for BT here in Dublin, for several hours. All she, and anyboy else at BT will do is roll off a script to you. They are not able to tell you anything you don't already know, ie. you have been throttled. It took me several attempts and departments just to get an estimated date for when the throttle might be removed.
BT will not be swayed by threats. They simply don't care. The fact is that they pretty much have a monopoly here in Ireland, as the only company (that I know of) to offer a decent speed broadband. That said, their advertised speed of 24meg has never been reached here. The best I ever had was around 6!
2nd Aug 2009, 2:55am
I have just been the victim of being thottled by their fair use policy. During the long talks with them and the tech guys (which told me that i had been thottled in the past...without my knowing) they informed me that the fair use kicks in when you go over 100GB in a calander month. It flags up on their screen when you hit about 80GB. Your upload and download are combined which affects your total usage. So they admited to me that they don't really do unlimited downloads just like all other companies that use the fair use policy. Also, they admitted that they do limit EVERYONE between the hours of 4pm and 11:30pm for the peer to peer downloads only.
As far as i can see, we have all been sucked in by this fair use policy thinking that you just shouldn't download between the peek hours stated above, and apart from that you can download and upload what you like.
So from what i was told from the kind lady at BT..........
1) Keep your total combined upload & Downloads below 100 GB per calander month &
2) Don't bother trying to download from anywhere between 4pm and 11:30pm.
Therefore stuff their Fair Use Policy & their Unlimited Usage! We've all been misinformed as far as i'm concerned anyway. But i hope this helps you out.
2nd Aug 2009, 3:46am
Also i forgot to say that they restrict your usage from 8meg down to 500mb for 30 days if you exceed the 100 Gb in a calander Month. If you do the same the following month even with the speed restriction, they will consider cutting off your broadband completely.
However they do give one warning as soon as you hit the 80 GB barrier. After that the next e-mail you get is telling you that your restricted and giving a number to call to talk about it if you like.
23rd Feb 2009, 4:11pm
i have bt and from day one nothing but prob, they do alot of traffic shapeing, and share your speed, im on opion 3, its one big joke, the india call centres are full of brain died ppl its the weather its the air, there full of sh.t,broadband in the uk needs a big inprovment, and shame for us thats down to bt and there fat share holders.. fiberoptic will never happen with bt there to lazzey
23rd Feb 2009, 4:07pm
STAY AWAY FROM B.T
27th Apr 2009, 1:06pm
How long did your eventual restricted service last for and did you find out what the trigger limit was for them to pull out their fair use policy and put it in to play?
27th Apr 2009, 5:16pm
I was restricted for 22 days in total. The best guess I have is that the limit is 100gb in a 30 day rolling period... But who knows?!
30th Apr 2009, 12:26am
I have never been throttled on the amount of downloading but I'm seriously throttled on speed at all times. I pay for a T1 connection and I have seen downloads start at as fast almost 700 kbs. That very quickly becomes something under (often well under 170 kbs) with 180 being the best I ever get. It makes me so angry to know that the high speed is there and possible but I'm not allowed anywhere near it.
1st May 2009, 3:05pm
Its an outrage, I am a game beta tester and I rely heavily on being able to download large files quickly. Now I have been resticted for 18 days at download speeds similar to that of dial up, around 56Kbps. BT are gonna lose another customer at the end of this month. I've taken a look at plusnet and I think that they might be a great alternative.
1st Jun 2009, 7:51pm
If you are employed as a game tester then your internet connection can be established as a business expense\requirement and so you can take out whatever service you like and claim the tax back from the government therefire saving some money.
You could potentially get a nice fat fibre link for the same money you currently pay for your ADSL.
Just an idea...
6th May 2009, 12:56pm
BT are great.
My 18mth broadband contract runs out in a couple of weeks. Over a month ago, someone from BT rang to offer me a discount from £17.99/mth to £15.43 if I renewed in "August".
I politely declined and looked at O2's offer.
Asked BT for a MAC code so I could switch. A *week* later they emailed the code along with a £9.29 renewal offer.
I declined and ask if they could offer a static IP for the same price as O2 (£12.23).
A few days ago they rang me again to offer me the £15.43 renewal price and seemed genuinely surprised that I was not interested!
Over the bank holiday weekend I completed O2's broadband application form and received my welcome pack and router yesterday.
Last night BT replied to my static IP query with the same email about the MAC code they sent me 2 weeks ago.
BT are one of the most profitable companies in the world. Lord only knows how.
2nd Jun 2009, 11:08pm
BT are an absolute joke of a company! i moved to my flat 1 year ago and took out bt unlimited broadband up to 8mb . for the first few months i was getting 8 sometimes 9mb download. All of a sudden it dropped to 2mb then 1mb and now its 0.22kb. the highest it reaches now is 3mb but thats between 3am and 8am in the morning! ive tried calling the call centre where no one talks the english language or can understand a word you have to say. all you get is someone reading of a script in broken english telling you to reset your hub. they know what their doing, reeling people in with unlimithed download offers then capping the line after a few months. i even called level 2 support in newcastle! this was also a complete waste of time. its pathetic. im not giving them another penny from now, so well se how long it takes for them to get an english speaker on the phone to chase that up. joke joke joke joke joke
27th Jun 2009, 9:11pm
BT did this to me, i entered into a 18month contract, (unlimited) i was happy with my download speeed. then my router rebooted and then the speed was capped at 1Mb.
I phoned them up saying this is not fair, as i am paying £25 per month, they removed the cap but said if i go over 100Gb again then i would be capped.
I said i wanted to cancel as i am not happy, they said to cancel, i would have to pay £280.00
Maybe the only option is to get a court order to release me out of the contract. but then i suspect BT will just cancel my phone line as a resault,
29th Jun 2009, 2:13am
I have bt and from day one nothing but prob, they do alot of traffic shapeing, and share your speed, im on opion 3, its one big joke, the india call centres are full of brain died ppl its the weather its the air, there full of sh.t,broadband in the uk needs a big inprovment, and shame for us thats down to bt and there fat share holders fiberoptic will never happen with bt there to lazzey...
6th Jul 2009, 4:12am
It appears no ISP service is unlimited even if you pay big bucks for it. 'Unlimited' is just a promotional gimmick to sell more but actually there is restriction on the bandwidth or usage after a certain limit is crossed. This is to ensure their business remains profitable.
29th Jul 2009, 6:23pm
Ok, so whilst sharing accomodation it is a common problem to find that everyone you live with uses the internet for a variety of things (watching films/tv, streaming music, playing a number of online games).
As technology goes the common thing nowadays specially for a lot of people who play games is digital downloads, my math maybe wrong here but if you live in a household where 3-4 people play games and buy games on a regular basis, watch video and buy music and film downloads...
How is it possible for a company such as BT to claim to offer an Unlimited Broadband service? (yeah I know with a specific "Fair Usage" capacity)
The problem arises when they can not provide the maximum speeds they advertise, and not only that but they will cap your download rates if you for example "watch too much digital TV" that is simply not provided by them (NOT BT vision) or buy and download too many games?
As a simple example lets say a household was to buy 10 copies of various games that will take up on average 7GB space each, all this in a month. That would be around 70GB of downloads.
Add to this the fact that people will watch a variety of shows using the BBC's own Iplayer, but this household may have a number of HD televisions so, why watch standard definition programmes when you can just watch the HD content? O_o
So taking into account the BBC's own bandwidth meters we are told the speed necessary for this will be above 1mbps (so there is no constant chopiness) lets say you watch on average 4 maybe 5 hours of tv per day (this is just one tv... one person)
I think your downloads are getting pretty high by now...
But wait your household also has access to IPods/Itunes O_O An average of 10-20 albums per month (no feat, not for anyone who really likes their music)
On average each album has lets say 7-10 songs, each song encoded as a normal MP3 is an average of 5MB.
That is another 0.5-1GB average for one person per month.
We've not taken into account any browsing or online gaming bandwidth...
By the end of a month your downloads will be reaching around 100GB or more...
From BT's own fair usage policy pages:
http://bt.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/bt.cfg/php/enduser/cci/bt_adp.php?p_faqid...
According to ofcoms own report:
http://www.thinkbroadband.com/news/4014-ofcom-finally-publishes-final-br...
The broadband speeds offered by BT are much lower than expected and I am pretty confident a lot of people will pay for their so-called UNLIMITED package so they can get the maximum speed available and they can have the luxury of not worrying that they have a 10-20GB a month cap.
But then, even if you do pay for this extra service and complain to BT themselves that you are still not being provided with the right speed and your package should not cost you this much...
You will receive e-mails telling you to stop being naughty and using their bandwidth so much or else they will slow you down...
How is it possible for them to offer such a service when a user can easily go above 100GB in this case...? If their so-called unlimited downloads have got a very clear limit, why is it possible for them to advertise this service as unlimited? even if they add small print that basically tells you their Unlimited value is simply up to them to decide as and when they want to.
I would love to see some feedback on this, as at the moment it seems a hot-topic and I know a number of people being affected by it.
18th Aug 2009, 1:16pm
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21st Aug 2009, 3:10am
I have just had a lengthy discussion with BT today regarding the FUP and all you get is mindless little morons that have been programmed to spout out bullsh*t and lies to cover up the fraud and deception that is being used to line their pockets. Its no use contacting offcom, They will favour BT before the public, anytime. I personaly feel that my speed is being stolen and then sold to someone else, and 100gig does not mean "unlimited". I think its time to move on to sky, Iv,e worked it out that if I pay the money to sky that I pay to BT quarterly, then I would get the full monty from sky. At the moment, I pay BT around 160 to 180 per qtr and dont have sky tv. Time aswell to try a petition on facebook to convince the rest of the country that there are greener pastures out there?. Dennis.
18th Sep 2009, 3:49pm
I completely agree with your points. You are paying good money for a service which you are not receiving. At best one can describe this is as BT using small print to make cost savings. But this should really be classed as a breach of the Trade Descriptions Act. "Unlimited" only m
Tom, have you switched broadband providers? If not, see if O2 are unbundled in your area. I understand they don't throttle, are competively priced and have great support via a freephone number.
18th Sep 2009, 3:42pm
Sorry my first paragraph got truncated. I wanted to say "Unlimited" only means one thing, or at least it should do!
18th Sep 2009, 5:44pm
Yes, I have switched broadband providers. I'm now using Chorus NTL and have been very happy with the level of service I get from them. They managed to offer me 24 meg business broadband for less than bt were giving me 6 meg for! And, I don't have to deal with shitty foreign call centres as I have my own account manager and his mobile phone number :) Screw BT.
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