We investigate the common misconceptions surrounding unmetered use

What's Heavy Usage?

Provided you're only surfing 70-80 hours / £14.99 PM (Est: 2.5hr per day) then few ISPs could realistically justify removing you from their service because you're within the economic boundaries. However there's still an important misconception to resolve - Maximum Daily Usage.

How can a provider working by said economics technically only support 2.4 hours usage per day and yet have a max daily usage policy of anything from 5 to 12 hours for the same 24 hour period? The answer is that they can't, indeed if everybody on such an ISP were to surf 5 hours per day you'd quickly see problems.

So what does this mean? Maximum usage is often abused by customers thinking that surfing just under the daily limit will keep them safe, which it can do for a short while, yet not all providers would tolerate it.

Much of this is again the ISPs fault, if usage limits and recommendations aren't more clearly explained then people will simply take them at their word and why not? After all, how many ISPs make it clear that you can't surf just under the maximum each day? Not many, we don't doubt.

Normally the above is an issue ISPs, even the most credible, like to sweep under the carpet for the usual 'competitive' reasons. In the past providers have moaned about heavy usage and yet the reality is that such ISPs only have themselves to blame.

If providers were clearer on the package offer itself, NOT JUST THE SMALL T&C PRINT, then many would be justified in the extreme actions they're often forced to take (kicking customers etc.), as it is they're often not and seem eerily surprised when the usual backlash begins.

To date PlusNet are one among a small group of provider's able meet the above criteria, the vast majority don't and should do. Simply stating the maximum or recommended usage isn't enough, they need to be openly and clearly explained outside of the T&C's.

What The ISPs Say

While writing this article ISP Review was able to call on the help of some senior representatives from various ISPs such as Cloud-Nine (C9 - closed), Firenet, Vispa, PlusNET, 123 ISP and V21/Free24-7. What better way to help improve the understanding of ISPs than to ask them directly?

Starting out with the survey (highlighted earlier), we wanted to know what ISPs thought of the way most people appeared to expect 300+ hours per month from a provider charging £14.99 PM. C9 was clear, "It is just NOT economically possible to provide 300+ hours per month based on current FRIACO pricing!"

[Print Page | Next Page (4)]>>