"Detrimental Use of your Broadband Connection" - Second Warning!

[blenky]

In October last year I received an email stating that a large amount of data was being transferred over my connection and that it was having a detrimental effect to users in my area. To be fair I was guilty of heavy use so like a good boy I set up my download software to throttle back from 50Mb to 15Mb if I was downloading between 9am and 9pm.


Today I got another email saying that my broadband activity is still having a detrimental effect to users in my area!


Can VM really claim I’m in breach of the AUP when I’m only downloading at 15Mb?

[MovedGoalPosts]

Is it just downloading or upload too?

[blenky]

Originally Posted by Rob

Is it just downloading or upload too?

Just downloading

[qasdfdsaq]

Most ISPs budget for their users consuming on average 3% or less of their available bandwidth at peak times. The fact that you're 30% - or at least ten times more than average means yes, they can hit you with detrimental use letters.

Technically, they can hit you with a detrimental use letter for whatever usage level they want, but in practice it's not how fast you download but how much you download during peak times. VM say on average, letters are sent out to those downloading more than 350GB a month during the day. That's 4.4% the theoretical maximum of your connection, so still several times over what is budgeted for.

[blenky]

Originally Posted by qasdfdsaq

Technically, they can hit you with a detrimental use letter for whatever usage level they want, but in practice it's not how fast you download but how much you download during peak times.

But the email makes does not refer to how much I d/l at peak times but says

"Unfortunately, it looks like your broadband activity is still having a detrimental impact and therefore you are in breach of our Acceptable Use Policy."

So VM are claiming that d/l at 30 % of my max speed is having an adverse impact to other users and THAT is why they are threatening to take further action.

Also my usage is not 30%, but 30% at the times I am d/l - which is not the entire 9am - 9pm period! Other times it will be 0%.

[love2learn]

I've had this letter once before also. Can anyone tell me what times it's ok to max my connection out? I'm not happy with their AUP, but they're the only company offering fibre optic in my area, so I have to lump it till BT eventually sort my area out.

[techguyone]

I must be such a light user it's unreal. I almost never go over 30 GB/Month. In fact looking at my records which go back over several years my max is : 63.6GB in Dec 08

How the heck can someone use 300+ GB in a month? I don't even think I've got 300 GB free disk space to store whatever I'd d/loaded, let alone have the time to look at it all.

(My 63 GB high was with 2x users running SL continually, plus hefty P2P d/loading at the time)

[haydnwalker]

Originally Posted by blenky

But the email makes does not refer to how much I d/l at peak times but says

"Unfortunately, it looks like your broadband activity is still having a detrimental impact and therefore you are in breach of our Acceptable Use Policy."

So VM are claiming that d/l at 30 % of my max speed is having an adverse impact to other users and THAT is why they are threatening to take further action.

Also my usage is not 30%, but 30% at the times I am d/l - which is not the entire 9am - 9pm period! Other times it will be 0%.

As has previously been quoted, it isnt the SPEED you download at, but the AMOUNT OF DATA TRANSFERRED over the connection during those times.

Why don't you change your download patterns to 9pm-6am or something, which is out of peak times...?

[love2learn]

Originally Posted by techguyone

I must be such a light user it's unreal. I almost never go over 30 GB/Month. In fact looking at my records which go back over several years my max is : 63.6GB in Dec 08

How the heck can someone use 300+ GB in a month? I don't even think I've got 300 GB free disk space to store whatever I'd d/loaded, let alone have the time to look at it all.

(My 63 GB high was with 2x users running SL continually, plus hefty P2P d/loading at the time)

If the user should, let’s say download all the seasons of a few popular TV shows... then they could feasibly go over 300GB per month. And with HD content on the rise, it's even more likely to exceed that amount. The service should be advertised as limited during peak times, unlimited off peak. That would be fair and transparent. The problem is the whole industry uses the term "unlimited" too loosely that it requires the industry terms to be regulated more effectively.

[haydnwalker]

Or he/she could go to an ISP that has transparent limits

[Kymmy]

Originally Posted by techguyone

I must be such a light user it's unreal. I almost never go over 30 GB/Month. In fact looking at my records which go back over several years my max is : 63.6GB in Dec 08

How the heck can someone use 300+ GB in a month? I don't even think I've got 300 GB free disk space to store whatever I'd d/loaded, let alone have the time to look at it all.

(My 63 GB high was with 2x users running SL continually, plus hefty P2P d/loading at the time)

1gb = about 20 minutes of HD content (720p) so 300gb is only 100 hours of TV

Also if a BR film is downloaded at 1080p then that's about 10gb+ on it's own

[haydnwalker]

Originally Posted by Kymmy

1gb = about 20 minutes of HD content (720p) so 300gb is only 100 hours of TV

Also if a BR film is downloaded at 1080p then that's about 10gb+ on it's own

Which is why I very rarely download HD content SD is perfectly adequate for my eyes

[love2learn]

Originally Posted by haydnwalker

Which is why I very rarely download HD content SD is perfectly adequate for my eyes

In your case, the service is absolutely fine for your usage habits. We were answering the question of how someone could go over 300+ GB. That's how they could go over it m8.

I personally like Virgin Media's internet service. I just don't like the traffic shaping when they advertise it as unlimited. Sure they say they allow you to download as much as you like. But they also send warning letters out to people who try to do exactly that. So in my opinion, that's not clear and transparent advertising of a product.
I would love to move to another provider who doesn't traffic shape and doesn't send warning letters out when their product is advertised as unlimited. But unfortunately the location of my house allows me only 3Meg broadband over BT's aging copper wire telephone network, so I'm stuck with Virgin until the Government eventually force BT to allow competitor’s access to their Fibre to the Cabinet network.
With that said I wouldn't even go to BT Infinity (FTTC) if it was available at my local exchange as they have an unofficial 300GB usage limit on their "Unlimited" infinity product. Which they don't advise in the terms and conditions at all, but openly admit over the telephone if pushed. After which, they throttle and traffic shape the connection.
I think its pointless offering higher and higher internet connection speeds when eventually they are all traffic managed. "It's like giving an excited kid a cake, but telling them they aren't allowed to eat it all."

[blenky]

Originally Posted by haydnwalker

As has previously been quoted, it isnt the SPEED you download at, but the AMOUNT OF DATA TRANSFERRED over the connection during those times.

Why don't you change your download patterns to 9pm-6am or something, which is out of peak times...?

Of course I can do that but you miss my point. There is a lot of useful info in this thread about ISP budgets of 3%, peak d/l limits of 350GB month etc. My point is that I was unaware of any of this as is not advertised or part of the AUP as written.

My email only makes reference to my usage having a 'detrimental impact'.

[jb66]

So how many letters do you get before "action" is taken