4 replies to this topic

[Libains]

I was simply wondering what people's opinions on fair data-usage policies were, and the way in which they are currently implemented.

Fair-usage policies apply to the two most common means of accessing the internet; broadband and mobile networks. In both cases, consumers are charged a base, one-off rate to use X amount of data in a month (a typical figure for a broadband connection is 40GB, and for mobile networks 750MB). Once this is exceeded, the consumer exceeds the fair-usage policy, and start to get hit quite hard by the provider. Most broadband providers are pretty decent in how they act, and their charges aren't too bad (about £1/£2 per GB over the limit). Mobile networks charge more, however, and that can be anywhere from £1-4 per MB over the limit.

So, do you reckon that fair-usage policies are a good thing? They obviously limit data usage to a degree, and result in what is probably a more balanced internet provision. On the other hand, people state that what is fair-usage for one person is not the same as for another person, and the offer of 'unlimited' data should be exactly that, and not essentially capped by the fine print.

[Ion Cannon!]

AJ, on 3 Feb 2011, 0:38, said:

I was simply wondering what people's opinions on fair data-usage policies were, and the way in which they are currently implemented.

Fair-usage policies apply to the two most common means of accessing the internet; broadband and mobile networks. In both cases, consumers are charged a base, one-off rate to use X amount of data in a month (a typical figure for a broadband connection is 40GB, and for mobile networks 750MB). Once this is exceeded, the consumer exceeds the fair-usage policy, and start to get hit quite hard by the provider. Most broadband providers are pretty decent in how they act, and their charges aren't too bad (about £1/£2 per GB over the limit). Mobile networks charge more, however, and that can be anywhere from £1-4 per MB over the limit.

So, do you reckon that fair-usage policies are a good thing? They obviously limit data usage to a degree, and result in what is probably a more balanced internet provision. On the other hand, people state that what is fair-usage for one person is not the same as for another person, and the offer of 'unlimited' data should be exactly that, and not essentially capped by the fine print.

I was under the impression that most broadband was pretty decent. My Zen connection at home tells you when your near to going over and you can then buy more bandwidth fairly cheaply which will roll into next month if you don't use it all. My Virgin connection at university has no limit, they just slow you down for a bit when you download alot, and I haven't noticed it happening more than 2x.

[n5p29]

well, I used to have internet connection like that when internet only available via home telephone line. you only have 1GB quota for a fixed price per month, when exceeded extra charges counted each bytes.
when the Facebook boom happen (and Blackberry trend afterward), there's an "unlimited connection" offering trend among the providers. but this "unlimited" means you have a hi-speed connection and given a quota, when the quota exceeded you still have unlimited access for the internet but your speed slowed down to a half or even a quarter of your original speed.

I know it's much better than before, but when on the reduced speed things are worsen in busy hours.
high connection traffic on the provider + reduced speed = DC'd so often = unproductive

I really want to move to better internet connection, but the only reason I stayed with this connection is because the fair price (for me). the current provider I'm using (the other providers too) also offers real unlimited package without quota limit, but it's really expensive for me.

in other hand, my Blackberry also have unlimited internet connection paid each week. but since it's only for mobiles, the speed is not as good as my computer's broadband connection. it also limits you so you can't download files bigger than 2MB each files.

[Wanderer]

Here in Finland they are just starting to put on limits on the usage of mobile networks. We don't have caps on broadband connections that are sold to us. Some schools do have a quota though. I have a 21/1 mb connection and it costs about 35 euros a month

[BeefJeRKy]

I am against Usage-based browsing simply because all the newest services require big downloads. If I want to watch an HD movie, I will have to download it from Netflix or the corresponding service. Streaming music also takes up more bandwidth. I shouldn't have to pay ridiculous amounts for my internet just because some people never do more than 500MB a month. I think that the best model is a tiered data plan where my bill would vary with how much data I consume in different tiers until after the final tier, I start getting charged per GB. Many mobile carriers are adopting this flexible data rate plan over the traditional data throttling or overage models, and they are proving quite popular in Canada at least.