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ISP Review investigates broadband usage limits |
 Not a few days later and both Tiscali and Freedom2Surf had followed suit, all offering a similarly restrictive service. Suddenly consumers were scared again, fearful that the once advertised flexibility of broadband could end up as a victim of profit hungry ISP goliaths. However, the reality may be somewhat different. What the people think.. One of our readers, Eeknay, echoes that “once caps are introduced to any type of Internet service, the experience fades rather quickly. You become frustrated, you have to "manage" your surfing, and when you're going to download that Windows Update, or the latest (but huge) gaming demo (UT2004 was around 150MB I think...) that's 15% of BT's "Basic" quota gone in about an hour. Pathetic.” Reader Keith Calder takes an even stronger stand, stating that “The very idea of broadband in the first place was to be unmetered, always on. However things are again going backward. My opinion is, there should be no caps, as once they start it wont be long until we see all packages with a limit imposed.” Suffice to say that there’s no shortage of people with comments against capping, so how about those in favour of it? Reader Akbray offers up one semi-positive perspective: “Personally, I think capping could be a good thing, if used sensibly (which I have no doubt it won't be). It would mean being able to get rid of the 'if you use the Internet excessively, we will kick you off our systems, but we ain't telling what constitutes excessive use' clause that is standard practise at the moment. The flip side risk is that caps imposed will be too restrictive, and will be used to force people onto higher-priced contracts. Given that it's the ISPs who would set the caps, this is too big a risk. On balance I prefer the status quo.” Web Buddy’s opinion follows a similar line: “I think that, providing the Cap is reasonably high, say around about 30Gb a month for a 512Kbs account, it is not unreasonable. There is probably no other way of curbing those that abuse their account.” In fact many seemed willing to
accept such restrictions, provided they’re not TOO strong and
allow broadband use to remain flexible. One key difficulty is the lack
of trust people have towards their ISPs, fearing that one change could
lead to a landslide of restrictions. [Print Page | Next Page (3)]>>
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