ISP Review investigates broadband usage limits

What the ISPs say..

We’ve explained the issue and highlighted customer opinions, but what do the ISPs have to say? Tiscali’s Director of PR & Communications, Jody Haskayne, seems like as good of a place to start as any, given that they’re one of the providers offering such a service: “Tiscali's view is that it's all about choice and value. We now have six broadband options from entry level broadband at £15.99 a month to 1Mbps at £29.99 and four options in between, and all our products are extremely competitively priced.

Our experience is that affordability and choice has proved very attractive to the new customers coming to Tiscali and now we have extended that further. You don't get this sort of choice from our competitors.”

Tiscali clearly points toward ‘choice’ as an important consideration. Provided there’s an array of services, some limited and some not, then all you’re really dealing with is an option as opposed to the overall restriction of all services.

So what about actual (real-world) data consumption? Do ISPs see a justification for stronger restrictions? Thankfully two providers were able to shed some light on this. Firstly Silvermeads Stephen Craggs sets out the extreme end of the problem: “We certainly have no plans to introduce any limits on our ADSL services, and are just about to remove the limits on our satellite services.

In our opinion, limits shouldn't really need to be in place anywhere – over 99% of our members use a steady 4 to 6Gb a month which is easily manageable. It's the just the exceptions that try and download 200Gb a month that need to be dealt with - but not to the cost of all members.”

Vispa Internets Managing Director, Martin Pitt, states: “Capping I can understand, but 25-30GB a month (per 512k increase) would seem more inline with costs at the moment, for us anyway.”

Finally, Telewest’s head of Internet strategy, Jon Hurry, offers up a somewhat careful assessment (FYI – Their 256Kbps package has a 750mb per day usage ‘guideline’): “With the introduction of a lower speed broadband internet service Telewest Broadband has steered clear of imposing a strict cap. Instead, with our blueyonder broadband 256k service, we have introduced usage guidelines which give consumers the information they need to decide which tier of broadband service will suit their needs. The service is aimed at surfers who want a continuous connection that doesn't tie-up the phone line, at a more affordable price than standard 512kb access.

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