Depsite promises of unlimited downloads, most broadband providers’ smallprint say they will penalise or disconnect customers using their connection to excess.
And with the growing amount of TV-on-demand available on the internet, using a high amount of Gbs each month is easily done.
For example,
AOL– ‘excessive online behaviour may result in termination of customer accounts withoutnotice’
BT –‘very heavy users may have theirbandwidth ‘restricted’ during peak time’
Toucan –‘unlimited downloads’…but restrictedto 1Gb during peak hours
Virgin Media –‘usage not at a reasonable level maylead to disconnection of service’
The question is, is this fair or should “unlimited” mean unlimited?
Aaaah the small print!!!! Bt states that if you are a heavy user, you may have your bandwidth restricted during peak times. I have just signed up and I openly admit I have been a very heavy user it my first month. Since BT are a communications company, I was expecting a communication to warn me about my downloading behaviour, yet instead, I seem to have been capped at not much better than a 56k dial up speed at all times. I complained, only to be sent cut and pasted template answers on how to remove spyware from some idiot on the other side of the planet. Why can’t they simply email you to say ‘calm down’, instead of having me waste my time with their inept complaints department. They are currently running a line test to further waste money and rescource. All I ask for is honesty and COMMUNICATION!!!
I’ve just moved from umpteen trouble-free years with NTL (aka Videotron > Nynex > Cable & Wireless > NTL > Virginmedia) to Orange, solely because NTL still can’t provide broadband on their cable network to most of the largest Southern city (Southampton).
I chose the Orange “unlimited” package AND WHAT A MISTAKE I MADE! - The 8mb has a maximum of 2.5mb; the email address they insist on is about a foot long; the “support” service is rubbish (clueless Asians who can’t be understood); the Livebox is incapable of receiving calls on the BT number it’s connected to; the Livebox is also incapable on handling more than one phone!
I have now been told by Orange that I have to leave one phone on the Livebox’s “Talk” (which can make “free” Orange calls but can’t receive BT calls) and connect the house phones to the ADSL filter (BT) - (which can make expensive BT calls but can’t make “free” calls) so the whole package is the opposite of what was promised and is virtually useless to us.
I am now investigating whether to go back to NTL (but with a broadband-capable BT line) or whether to use another provider who provide the services they promise on one REN4-capable line.
I have just moved from umpteen trouble-free years with NTL (aka Videotron > Nynex > Cable & Wireless > NTL > Virginmedia) to Orange AND WHAT A MISTAKE I MADE !
The 8mb speed I have paid for is 2.5mb maximum; the Livebox is only capable of handling one phone instead of four; the Livebox can’t receive calls from the BT line it’s connected to; and I have just been told that I must leave one phone connected to the Livebox (to make “free” “Talk” calls - but I won’t be able to receive calls on our 24 years old number any more) and connect the house phones to the ADSL filter - so the house phones will receive calls but making calls will be at BT’s expensive rates (so there’s no point in having the so-called “free” phone package anyway)!
I am now investigating whether to go back to NTL (but with a BT/Telewest package) or whether to find another provider who can provide a REN4 line that does what they promise. - BE WARNED! ! !
What are the allowances on Virgin Broadband?
Unlimited Downloads
Virgin Broadband offers unlimited usage on all our broadband packages, which is great if you like to download music and movies or just don’t want to worry about monthly allowances or caps. However, if you download a lot, you need to know that we operate an Acceptable Use Policy where we’ll contact you if your usage begins to affect the service for other customers.
we will see!
not sure who to believe nowadays as we all seem to be getting conned, these companies should have to stick to their terms for a set period as we do with their contracts.
why cant broadband be like freesreve when they first bought out unlimited. how can a 30gb fair usage be put on when you can download that on 8mb in just a few days
take a look at this site and you might understand…….what all the fuss is about….
http://allyours.virginmedia.com/html/internet/traffic.html
Nozzle I dont like the comment you made about asians, I also have a rubbish connection with orange and the customer service is rubbish true, but there is no need for racist slur. Customer service does not depend on your age, race or creed, rather it depends on the training, resources and personality of the person you are speaking to.
Im really flooking peed off with Virgins so called fair use policy, they say they dont throttle your connection well oh yes they dam well do, if I download around a gig or so the connection throttles back so bad it time outs all the time and only reaches dial up speeds yes dial up, my 56k dial up modem is faster than my 8meg connection when throttled its a dam joke and its on me @ £20 month for this crap, ive asked for a mac code and im moving it, so Virgin can sod off !!!!!!!!!
I joined Virgin in November 07 and i signed up as they offered an unlimited service.
After 8 months of use i never once noticed my connection being throttled and was able to download at full speed all day and night but the other day i upgraded to the 4mb which is now 10mb and i have never had such a slow connection in my life!
When i do a speed test most of the time it comes back as 887 to 912 kbs due to ti being throttled.
I called virgin the other day and they said it was cos i was downloading too much so i stopped runing p2p software to see if my connection still got throttled and it did!
I only downloaded 15 mp3’s today and by 4 o’clock my connection was crawling along like a slug so the traffic management is b/s they throttle you regardless of what you download in terms of gb’s.
Same problem here, as soon as it hits 4pm bang! - 10-12kb download speed, most web pages time out, cant even read my emails. Phoned them up today and was told “Oh you seem to be on the throttle list”.
On weekends i will download a few films (the reason i have broadband and my rapidshare account) i dont constantly download but im told its excessive to download 2gb of files on my 8MB Unlimted broadband. I am supposed to be getting a call back from a supervisor (Yeah Right..)
I had this problem months ago, i ran up to complain my speed was pathetic and they sent me to BT’s speedtester website (which wouldnt load) so when i called back to see if hey had my results “Oh no sorry it doesnt look like you completed the test” , “No i couldnt cos you said to do the test when my broadband was playing up”, after i called back it was fine again for a week, then they dropped me back down. (must have taken me off the throttle list temporarily)
Im gonna call again tomorrow and get my MAC code - Virgin broadband can ******!