Typically the ‘speed irrelevant’ model can also be applied to even lower usage levels, allowing for cheaper, if more restrictive (lower GB allowance), packages. This helps to improve choice, yet also makes everything more confusing.

What's my usage?

From this it should be possible to understand why it’s so important to know your own predicted consumption, but how? Firstly, forget about the descriptions (number of music track downloads etc.) that ISP’s may provide, they’re normally very far off the mark.

Realistically it’s not possible to accurately understand your usage until you’ve been surfing for awhile. Similarly, explaining speeds/consumption in detail would take time and confuse, so instead we’ll simplify.

If you merely wish to browse websites, e-mails, use multiplayer and or perform the odd download etc. then a service capped to around 3/5GB’s (a month) should suit. Those that know they download a lot of music, game demos, video/movie trailers or other bulk data sources might consider a 15 or 30GB cap just to be safe. Most never use even remotely close to 30GB.

Things to watch out for

Typically you can choose from one of the increasingly rare ‘unrestricted’ services around. However, it is wise to scrutinise the Terms & Conditions (T&C’s) of such packages, especially where ‘unlimited’ has been used in the promotion. Many ISP’s, such as Tiscali, hide a ‘Fair Usage’ policy away in the details. See this example from another provider:

The example above does at least mention its FUP outside of their main terms, but others will berry it deep within the T&C’s where few dare to venture, and ISP’s know it. The problem here is that most FUP’s fail to identify a specific level of consumption, thus the customer is left with no real practical basis with which to asses their expected usage against the ISP’s limitations.

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