Sign up with Googlekarlzoller
Member
- Joined
- Nov 13, 2011
- Messages
- 21
Since Axxess and Afrihost have switched over from IS to MTN there have been a few teething problems (understandable). Most of these seem to have been sorted out. One thing that I did not like about the switch was that Axxess had changed their acceptable use policy from the star rating system (a policy used by IS) to a system where your connection is set to "managed" from when your data transfer exceeds the average, from which point on all HTTP download and P2P traffic is throttled.
I understand the need for an AUP - I support it, it prevents abuse of the network. However we are now in a situation where Axxess (and by extension Afrihost), may abuse their AUP. There is no transparency on what the average is - we simply have to assume that they are telling the truth. Both Axxess and Afrihost have boasted that the MTN network exceeds the IS network in terms of the capacity available to them ... yet, throttling seems to be happening at excessively lower usage than previously - this is an issue I had last month, see rant here: www.eternalthought.co.za/?p=179 . Already this month my account is managed even though my average daily transfer is just over 1GB. Once my account was managed last month, it was kept so for the rest of the month even though it is supposed to be relaxed when usage drops to average again. The degree of throttling has also become excessive - whereas in the past I have experienced Steam downloads being throttled to about 50KB/s (on a 1Mbps uncapped account) during busy network times, it seems now that throttling is being done down to 15KB/s (still on the 1Mbps account) even during quiet network periods. Any argument taken up with them simply receives a response referencing the AUP, which one cannot argue since legally according to the AUP they can throttle you down to 1KB/s - as long as you have a connection it seems fine with them.
This is blatant abuse of the AUP by Axxess. I am currently analyzing the section of the Consumer Protection Act that deals with fair terms and conditions - it is looking promising. I believe consumer should not stand for being bullied by service providers. I would like to here everyone's thoughts on this.
I understand the need for an AUP - I support it, it prevents abuse of the network. However we are now in a situation where Axxess (and by extension Afrihost), may abuse their AUP. There is no transparency on what the average is - we simply have to assume that they are telling the truth. Both Axxess and Afrihost have boasted that the MTN network exceeds the IS network in terms of the capacity available to them ... yet, throttling seems to be happening at excessively lower usage than previously - this is an issue I had last month, see rant here: www.eternalthought.co.za/?p=179 . Already this month my account is managed even though my average daily transfer is just over 1GB. Once my account was managed last month, it was kept so for the rest of the month even though it is supposed to be relaxed when usage drops to average again. The degree of throttling has also become excessive - whereas in the past I have experienced Steam downloads being throttled to about 50KB/s (on a 1Mbps uncapped account) during busy network times, it seems now that throttling is being done down to 15KB/s (still on the 1Mbps account) even during quiet network periods. Any argument taken up with them simply receives a response referencing the AUP, which one cannot argue since legally according to the AUP they can throttle you down to 1KB/s - as long as you have a connection it seems fine with them.
This is blatant abuse of the AUP by Axxess. I am currently analyzing the section of the Consumer Protection Act that deals with fair terms and conditions - it is looking promising. I believe consumer should not stand for being bullied by service providers. I would like to here everyone's thoughts on this.
