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By Neil Hawkins
Senior Staff Writer
Wednesday, 26 May 2010
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HOW many times have you been told 'life's not fair'? Well here at ChooseISP.co.uk we're egalitarian folk and we like to see everyone get a fair deal, especially when it comes to their broadband connections.
Fair usage policies are commonplace nowadays, faster connection speeds have resulted in massive amounts of data being downloaded every hour of the day and night.
This vast amount of traffic is managed by broadband providers in a variety of ways.
Some are upfront about their traffic management whilst others prefer to be more cloak and dagger so which is yours? Keep reading to find out.
Virgin Media Cable Broadband: 10am - 3pm and 4pm - 9pm
Virgin Media broadband deals are all notionally unlimited but only their up to 50Mb XXL broadband doesn't come with a fair use policy.
The policy was adjusted last year to take uploading as well as downloading into account and now affects the top 3% of heavy broadband users on the Virgin Media service.
Basically, between 10am and 3pm:
- Size M customers can download 750Mb
- Size L customers can download 1500Mb. And,
- Size XL customers can download 3500Mb
You can download twice that in the evenings between 4pm to 9pm.
Once these limits are reached, connection speeds are cut by 75% (so if your speed is 10Mb, 2.5Mb). These reductions last for five hours, even if you exceed the limit 10 minutes before peak time ends.
This policy has got come in for some stick from Virgin Media customers because the new restrictions on uploads affects users who watch a lot of on-demand TV or play games.
That said, most users should be totally unaffected by this policy but overstepping the mark just once during peak times could see your connection speed cut.
This is a little unfair on users who download the odd rental film every now and so even though Virgin Media's peak hours only last till 9pm the large cuts in connection speeds means our verdict is UNFAIR.
Orange Broadband: 6pm - 11pm
Like most other providers, Orange Broadband says that as long as you don't use file sharing software or download large files then you'll be fine.
If you do use these programs then do so outside of peak hours of 6pm to midnight.
Even if you follow these guidelines, though, you may find yourself on the end of a warning letter.
There are reports that Orange Broadband warns users who consistently download large amounts - 40+ Gb per month - whether they download outside peak hours or not.
This isn't really made clear in the fair use policy on the Orange website and could be more explicit.
Due to the fact that Orange Broadband limits bandwidth on its unlimited packages to relatively small amounts we declare that Orange Broadband's policy is UNFAIR.
BT Total Broadband: 6pm - 11pm
BT Total Broadband's fair use policy is quite vague but essentially the company limits heavy users and peer-to-peer software during peak hours.
BT does not specify when peak hours are but we can make an educated guess on the above judging from reports from customers.
However, they do specify that usage of the Vision+ box, BT Digital Vault and BT Broadband Talk won't be subject to fair use.
Looking at reports from customers it seems that they BT do dish out the occasional wrist-slapping and reports of those on capped deals being asked to move up are widespread.
All in all, it isn't too draconian and we therefore rate it FAIR.
TalkTalk Broadband: 6pm - 10pm
TalkTalk Broadband's fair usage policy is similar to BT's in that it consists of a fairly vague paragraph hidden away on their website.
What we managed to garner from it is that TalkTalk are throttling the top 0.5% of users but they estimate that only those who download "well in excess of 100GB" will be affected.
There's also a clear process if you go over the limit starting with a series of warning emails and ending in your connection being permanently throttled during peak times.
We do wish they'd define what they mean by 'peak times', though.
Here at ChooseISP we thing TalkTalk could explain itself a bit better but just manages to remain FAIR.
O2 Broadband and Be* Broadband: No specified times
What can we say; O2 Broadband and Be* Broadband run on the same network and have the same policy. But boy what a policy!
Essentially they are very relaxed about it, particularly Be* who have a reputation for amongst their customers as the best broadband provider for heavy downloaders.
The exception to this rule is O2 Home Access broadband their non-LLU product which recently admitted that although the deal says unlimited going over 40GB could lead to a slow down.
"Most O2 customers use less than 10GB a month," O2 say, "aim for that and you'll be okay."
Don't let that warning affect your judgement on other 02 broadband deals - they're well and truly, FAIR.
Plusnet broadband: Traffic Management
When it comes to being open and honest about how your broadband will be affected by your usage Plusnet are the most thorough provider out there.
That means no fair use policy (all their deals are capped) but they do get a gold star for prioritising VoIP, VPN and gaming traffic.
As long as you pick your Plusnet broadband is to suit how you use the internet we'd call that well and truly FAIR.
To sum up...
All the broadband providers with over a million customers have to have some kind of fair use policy in place otherwise the quality of service could be affected at busy periods.
The trouble comes when they are not up front about their policies leaving you, the consumer with a raw deal.
If you want a fast connection which is truly unlimited then go with one of the smaller companies such as Be Broadband, otherwise steer clear of file-sharing software at peak times or you could find yourself slowing down!
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