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Stop the Broadband Con


smithyandco

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http://www.stopthebroadbandcon.org

 

It's a petition run by Virgin Media against false advertising... A little ironic, but possibly worth signing!

 

 

 

I've just signed up to Virgin Media... I'm on the 50mb service (that's very, very fast porn downloads for simple folk) and fair enough I get 55-60mb off-peak and around 40-45mb peak times.

 

When I signed up they said the 50mb service is completely unlimited, no fair use policy unlike other ISPs, download hundreds of GB's daily if you want... When the terms and conditions came, it basically said if you download too much we'll send you nasty letters. (so that's where the irony comes from... Virgin Media is a LIMITED, UNLIMITED service).

 

They also provide a 5mb upload speed as an upgrade from the usual 1.5mb on the condition that you are allowed to upload 6GB daily between the hours of 3pm and 8pm (unlimited rest of the time) after which your upload speed is dropped to 1.5mb for 5 hours. - This I don't mind, they were up front about it... and to have a 5mb upload speed for 6GB a day is very handy for FTP'ing stuff to works server!

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Im bright enough to know NO Isp doesn't have a fair usuage policy.

Is the link to the petition or the false advert?

I knew that... But they did their best in convincing me they were different.

 

The link is the petition :thumb:

 

 

Clearly shows the policy here http://shop.virginmedia.com/help/acceptable-use.html

Its there on the site like most others.

Most if not all have an unlimited download plug and all have the policy in place.

I can't see how signing a petition against something they have already told you can change anything?

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IIRC Virgins 'fair use policy is only for peak times, my parents have the 20mb package and ahve never had any issues for usage.

 

Sky's current unlimited package has no cap/fair usage, I read the terms and conditions and have also abused it for months without any e-mails or letters about it.

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pointless pertition.

 

you'd essentially have to prove what the term "unlimited" means in essence to win the argument.

 

the word itself is a nonsense for starters..... nothing is unlimited or atleast can be proven to be unlimited so therefore the word referres to nothing in particular and has no real contractual value by itself.

 

Instead when the word "unlimited" is used in any legal form (such as a binding contract) its overall meaning has to be established by the user of the word within that form, which means that if you signed a contract with your isp with the word "unlimited" used in reference to bandwidth or donwload limit, somewhere in that contract will be the guidelines to establish what that term describes.

 

In essence placing a limit upon the word "unlimited" within their own references.....its that limited usage of the word that you agreed to upon signing the contract which contained it, the argument their is therefore obviosly in favour of the provider.

 

or i other words,

 

its the responsibility of the person signing the contract to know entirely what is contained within the contract.

 

or further simplified,

 

You excepted that the isp wouldnt supply a unlimited service despite the use of the word and therefore waved your right to dispute its use.

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IIRC Virgins 'fair use policy is only for peak times, my parents have the 20mb package and ahve never had any issues for usage.

 

Sky's current unlimited package has no cap/fair usage, I read the terms and conditions and have also abused it for months without any e-mails or letters about it.

 

 

Yes it does.

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IIRC Virgins 'fair use policy is only for peak times, my parents have the 20mb package and ahve never had any issues for usage.

 

Sky's current unlimited package has no cap/fair usage, I read the terms and conditions and have also abused it for months without any e-mails or letters about it.

 

 

Yes it does.

 

 

PeeWees correct, I currently use their 20Mb broadband package and can confirm they have a well structured fair usage policy writen into the agreement section of the contract signed to accept the provider..... I know.... I read the things I have to sign before signing them (its called common sense)

 

what I don't understand is why any household would ever need a such high download limit or speed.... I cant get more than 9Mb speed on current BT lines which are rated for no higher than 5.5Mb despite the 20Mb top speed stated and likely wont get anywhere near the top speed till march next year when networks in my area are upgraded.

 

However

 

My xbox plays flawlessly online.

 

I can download a 1.6Gb film in less than 10minutes (dependant on seeds obviously)

 

I can download music faster than I can type the title.

 

and streamed imaging is clear and without stutter or lag.

 

that's with 2pcs, 1 laptop and my sons Wii online all at the same time.

 

what more do I or 99% of households want?, I don't need to download films 24/7 and cant see why anyone would need to use that much of a limit anyway?

 

people should stop whinging about getting something that in all rationality they will never use.

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i work for an ISP (i wont mention any names as they are sneaky b*stards but we will just say it is one of the market leaders), the amount of customers seen that have been mis-sold due to shitty advertising and sneaky shitty small print and Ts and Cs that no average joe can really wrap their heads round is massive, the amount of people we get who have been promised by sales that they will get 20 meg when realisticly you need to be within about a mile from your local exchange to actually get full speed, 8meg broadband petters out after about 5 miles
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i work for an ISP (i wont mention any names as they are sneaky b*stards but we will just say it is one of the market leaders), the amount of customers seen that have been mis-sold due to shitty advertising and sneaky shitty small print and Ts and Cs that no average joe can really wrap their heads round is massive, the amount of people we get who have been promised by sales that they will get 20 meg when realisticly you need to be within about a mile from your local exchange to actually get full speed, 8meg broadband petters out after about 5 miles

 

 

Id have to say in defence of my own isp that their call centre policy seems quite fair toward their customers.

 

On agreeing to their 20Mb unlimited package, the day after one of their operators called and asked me if I wouldnt be better suited to a lower priced package due to the fact that my local phone network wasnt theoretically capable of supplying me with more than a 5.5Mb speed and I therefore wouldnt benefit from the higher speed and more pricey package and would ultimatly be paying for more service than I could currently get.

 

The call was neither required or solicited by myself as Id been fully aware of my areas bandwidth restrictions and was infact simply pre-empting my areas upcoming network upgrade.

 

Thats not to say I wasnt suprised and grateful that my Isp was looking out for my own interests despite it not being required of them.

Edited by shawdreamer
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Im assuming the op is more concerned with download amount not speed though.

 

 

aye I can see that......but just wtf amount would a average household have to download in a month that would trip the ISP's attention.

 

I just cant think of what can be legally downloaded over a month that could do it?

 

maybe if you took into account illegal downloading of pirated films and audio then yer you could push it over the fair usage limit....but you cant exactly complain via a petition that your ISP is stifling your illegal activities now can you?

 

so that leaves maybe business reasons....in which case shouldn't the user consider purchasing a business specific ISP for a more professional package rather than clogging up the bandwidth allocated to general users?

 

dont get me wrong Im not saying that all people who use their current general purpose ISP package for business aswell as pleasure should cease using it for business purposes, by no means, I myself use my own in that fashion.

 

but lets just say that the business usage requires a mass downloading limit, in those circumstances maybe a non general purpose package is a fair option.

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When I was about to leave Virgin for sky the guy on the phone talked me through my recent usage. I questioned weather they had a fair usage policy and if I'd ever been a victim of the "throttling of bandwidth" and he told me that they do have a fair usage policy, but I had never been subject to throttling even though I regularly exceeded the fair usage. He said that for that very month (this october) I'd gone over the limit already and it was only the second day of the month (I didnt have dozens of 4GB ISOs downloading at the time, honest)

 

He said they'd never throttled me because I live in a quiet area and there isnt a lot of demand for the bandwidth here so they let me get away with hogging it.

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IIRC Virgins 'fair use policy is only for peak times, my parents have the 20mb package and ahve never had any issues for usage.

 

Sky's current unlimited package has no cap/fair usage, I read the terms and conditions and have also abused it for months without any e-mails or letters about it.

 

 

Yes it does.

 

 

 

no its doesnt.. unless your on sky lite or connect and they both clearly tell you what your limits are anyway on the webiste and also in the small print...

 

 

Sky Broadband: Monthly usage caps: Everyday Lite – 2GB; Connect – 40GB & subject to Traffic Management Policy. Maximum upload speed: Everyday Lite and Unlimited –1.3Mb; Connect –448Kb. Speed you get depends on factors including distance from the exchange and line quality. See sky.com for more details and our Usage Policies.

 

if you have the unlimited package there is no cap at all and i had that confirmed by a friend who works for sky before i signed up.

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