MWEB Uncapped ADSL Feedback - Part 3

sparke said:
True, though at 100k customers its 3k abusers, I think they could keep up getting rid of them, presumably an influx as well
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Although we've been told only 0.55% of users have been throttled in the last two weeks, so the 3% figure does not apply. Even though it's only 0.55% (550 users) who are throttled, I guess their unthrottled usage is just so disproportionately high compared to other users, that it justifies throttling them.

What I'd like to see is a bandwidth distribution plot -- how many people download 1GB a month, how many download 2GB a month, etc. for each line speed.
 
SabreWolfy said:
Although we've been told only 0.55% of users have been throttled in the last two weeks, so the 3% figure does not apply. Even though it's only 0.55% (550 users) who are throttled, I guess their unthrottled usage is just so disproportionately high compared to other users, that it justifies throttling them.

What I'd like to see is a bandwidth distribution plot -- how many people download 1GB a month, how many download 2GB a month, etc. for each line speed.
Click to expand...

Huh? At 1 & 2GB resolution that plot would be maaaaaaasssive. I would plot it in groups of 10 or 20GB.
 
Fudzy said:
Huh? At 1 & 2GB resolution that plot would be maaaaaaasssive. I would plot it in groups of 10 or 20GB.
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sparke said:
Plot it every 10GB per mb, thus 30 bars, plot it before and after throttle
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Density plot, histogram, whatever :) If it's a density plot, it could be a smooth line, too. Either way, the point is I'd be interested to see what the distribution looks like for each line speed. What is the mean GB per month, for example.
 
Excuse my ignorance, but if premium packages get throttled, then whats the difference between preium packages and throttled packages?
 
Arksun said:
Excuse my ignorance, but if premium packages get throttled, then whats the difference between preium packages and throttled packages?
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Hi Arksun

The thresholds.

Premium is higher and Standard is lower.
 
I'm a little confused by all this. When I signed up for the uncapped service 2 years ago, it was sold to me as the account that lets you stream unlimited video, spend all day browsing youtube and whatever else you wanted to do online -- just what I wanted.

Looking at my past 12 months' usage, I've been averaging something like 370GB per month on my 4Mbps "Premium Uncapped" line. The highest was 470GB and lowest was last month at 180GB, but mostly it's pretty stable around 300-odd GB.

In these two years, not once have I received an email telling me that I'm using too much, or that I need to change my usage patterns. I take this to mean that MWEB's generally been happy with the way I've been using the product. And I must admit that I've been very happy with it.

This month, for the first time, the speed dropped dramatically (to the point that it's unusable) and I've just discovered all this nonsense about thottling. My account's connection status now reads "throttled" on myadsl.mweb. Now, admittedly, this month I did 450GB, which is more than I'd normally do. But I've not had a single bit of correspondence warning me that this might happen, or even that it had happened. I had to figure this out myself.

I'd like to prevent this happening again. So I have two questions:

1) Why was I not informed that I was about to be throttled.
2) Am I likely to be throttled again, given my usage patterns? If I stay under ~400GB, is there still a reasonable probability that I'll be throttled? If this is the case, then the "revised" product no longer meets my needs.

account_detail.png
speed_test.png
adsl_usage.png
 
Fudzy said:
I just don't get why they are happy with letting all users pay for the abuse by a few? Rather sort out those individuals.
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It seems you, like mweb, don't understand the uncapped business model, the profits from the majority of users who use a small amount of data per month is more than enough to cover the few that use a large amount of data, if ISP's cannot fathom that then they can go back to capped accounts only. Its obvious mweb wants to extract that extra revenue from charging low usage customers uncapped prices but does not want to deal with some users that will exceed the profitabiltiy threshold. Network management such as shaping is perfectly acceptable to keep the heavy users in line, fear and lies are not.
 
@ Mweb guy

My mweb mail address is either andries1812 or andriesvn at mweb. I don't use it so am not sure which.

I got a response from Mweb technical saying that they don't see any issues. Facebook is working now, but I can't browse to this site, mybroadband.co.za or to malwarebytes.org with the mweb account. I am on my afrihost prepaid account at the moment.
 
Nduimiso said:
It seems you, like mweb, don't understand the uncapped business model, the profits from the majority of users who use a small amount of data per month is more than enough to cover the few that use a large amount of data, if ISP's cannot fathom that then they can go back to capped accounts only. Its obvious mweb wants to extract that extra revenue from charging low usage customers uncapped prices but does not want to deal with some users that will exceed the profitabiltiy threshold. Network management such as shaping is perfectly acceptable to keep the heavy users in line, fear and lies are not.
Click to expand...

I think you have your opinion on how the uncapped business works. Correct me if I'm wrong but ISPs pay a flat or wholesale rate on the pipe that comes into them, this hasn't got a cap but the only way to charge for the traffic is to use GBs rather than Mbps, this means there is always a break even point, beyond that is it's not profitable for them to provide the service. AFAIK they pay the same amount whether the traffic is used for Web browsing or torrents, it's the ISPs job to ensure that legit uses take priority hence the port shaping.
 
JAmBer said:
I'm a little confused by all this. When I signed up for the uncapped service 2 years ago, it was sold to me as the account that lets you stream unlimited video, spend all day browsing youtube and whatever else you wanted to do online -- just what I wanted.

Looking at my past 12 months' usage, I've been averaging something like 370GB per month on my 4Mbps "Premium Uncapped" line. The highest was 470GB and lowest was last month at 180GB, but mostly it's pretty stable around 300-odd GB.

In these two years, not once have I received an email telling me that I'm using too much, or that I need to change my usage patterns. I take this to mean that MWEB's generally been happy with the way I've been using the product. And I must admit that I've been very happy with it.

This month, for the first time, the speed dropped dramatically (to the point that it's unusable) and I've just discovered all this nonsense about thottling. My account's connection status now reads "throttled" on myadsl.mweb. Now, admittedly, this month I did 450GB, which is more than I'd normally do. But I've not had a single bit of correspondence warning me that this might happen, or even that it had happened. I had to figure this out myself.

I'd like to prevent this happening again. So I have two questions:

1) Why was I not informed that I was about to be throttled.
2) Am I likely to be throttled again, given my usage patterns? If I stay under ~400GB, is there still a reasonable probability that I'll be throttled? If this is the case, then the "revised" product no longer meets my needs.

View attachment 79945
View attachment 79947
View attachment 79949
Click to expand...

The problem is your last 30 days since the throttling was introduced. Yes it was free for all service for a long time, unfortunately the bean counters at MWeb have found that they either sell at a loss, let the abuse of a few affect all users or introduce this current throttling system. The way that MWeb has handled his has been appalling to say the least, the fact that the limits seem to be proven while the ISP is mum on them should have their marketing/PR person looking for a new job. The throttling system itself should have 'open times' to allow users to reduce their throttle limits easier.
 
JAmBer said:
I'm a little confused by all this. When I signed up for the uncapped service 2 years ago, it was sold to me as the account that lets you stream unlimited video, spend all day browsing youtube and whatever else you wanted to do online -- just what I wanted.

Looking at my past 12 months' usage, I've been averaging something like 370GB per month on my 4Mbps "Premium Uncapped" line. The highest was 470GB and lowest was last month at 180GB, but mostly it's pretty stable around 300-odd GB.

In these two years, not once have I received an email telling me that I'm using too much, or that I need to change my usage patterns. I take this to mean that MWEB's generally been happy with the way I've been using the product. And I must admit that I've been very happy with it.

This month, for the first time, the speed dropped dramatically (to the point that it's unusable) and I've just discovered all this nonsense about thottling. My account's connection status now reads "throttled" on myadsl.mweb. Now, admittedly, this month I did 450GB, which is more than I'd normally do. But I've not had a single bit of correspondence warning me that this might happen, or even that it had happened. I had to figure this out myself.

I'd like to prevent this happening again. So I have two questions:

1) Why was I not informed that I was about to be throttled.
2) Am I likely to be throttled again, given my usage patterns? If I stay under ~400GB, is there still a reasonable probability that I'll be throttled? If this is the case, then the "revised" product no longer meets my needs.

View attachment 79945
View attachment 79947
View attachment 79949
Click to expand...


Hi JAmBer

At the beginning of August we made the decision to implement an automated speed limiting system which would curb the behavior of a very small percentage of excessive users on our premium products. These users are affecting the quality of our network and using unreasonable amounts of bandwidth for the product they are paying for.

At the time we made a best effort to identify the users most likely to be affected by this change, based on their recent usage patterns, and sent out communication advising them of the change.

It is possible if your usage has significantly increased recently, or you do not make use of your MWEB mailbox, that you would not have received this communication.

However if your account is in a throttled state then it means that you have exceeded the acceptable usage thresholds and will need to operate at the reduced speeds until your average usage falls back into acceptable levels.

Previous discretionary methods such as sending warnings to excessive users have not proved to be effective in managing this behavior and enforcing our AUP will automate this.
 
MWEB Guy said:
Hi JAmBer

At the beginning of August we made the decision to implement an automated speed limiting system which would curb the behavior of a very small percentage of excessive users on our premium products. These users are affecting the quality of our network and using unreasonable amounts of bandwidth for the product they are paying for.

At the time we made a best effort to identify the users most likely to be affected by this change, based on their recent usage patterns, and sent out communication advising them of the change.

It is possible if your usage has significantly increased recently, or you do not make use of your MWEB mailbox, that you would not have received this communication.

However if your account is in a throttled state then it means that you have exceeded the acceptable usage thresholds and will need to operate at the reduced speeds until your average usage falls back into acceptable levels.

Previous discretionary methods such as sending warnings to excessive users have not proved to be effective in managing this behavior and enforcing our AUP will automate this.
Click to expand...

Hey guy

Your AUP affects EVERYONE on Mweb not just the heavy users. The notification should have gone to all. You basically just admitted to everyone here that you are contravening the CPA. Im taking screenshots of your post, thanks
 
Fudzy said:
The problem is your last 30 days since the throttling was introduced. Yes it was free for all service for a long time, unfortunately the bean counters at MWeb have found that they either sell at a loss, let the abuse of a few affect all users or introduce this current throttling system. The way that MWeb has handled his has been appalling to say the least, the fact that the limits seem to be proven while the ISP is mum on them should have their marketing/PR person looking for a new job. The throttling system itself should have 'open times' to allow users to reduce their throttle limits easier.
Click to expand...

Here's the thing .... As informed business packages cost more but are unlimited ...let's not get into the semantics of shaping and throttling. The standard and premium packages are throttled. I agree with Fudzy, there should be open times. What I don't agree with, is that MWEB can't or won't define a limit. This means they decide when to limit you service :wtf:. If MWEB Were to take the moral high ground and sell their packages as soft capped, give a reasonable idea of quota before throttling and maximize their bandwidth to the advantage of the consumer ie open times, would go along way to restoring confidence.
 
MWEB Guy said:
Hi JAmBer

At the beginning of August we made the decision to implement an automated speed limiting system which would curb the behavior of a very small percentage of excessive users on our premium products. These users are affecting the quality of our network and using unreasonable amounts of bandwidth for the product they are paying for.

At the time we made a best effort to identify the users most likely to be affected by this change, based on their recent usage patterns, and sent out communication advising them of the change.

It is possible if your usage has significantly increased recently, or you do not make use of your MWEB mailbox, that you would not have received this communication.

However if your account is in a throttled state then it means that you have exceeded the acceptable usage thresholds and will need to operate at the reduced speeds until your average usage falls back into acceptable levels.

Previous discretionary methods such as sending warnings to excessive users have not proved to be effective in managing this behavior and enforcing our AUP will automate this.
Click to expand...

Shaping > Throttling no matter what.
 
rakabos3 said:
Hey guy

Your AUP affects EVERYONE on Mweb not just the heavy users. The notification should have gone to all. You basically just admitted to everyone here that you are contravening the CPA. Im taking screenshots of your post, thanks
Click to expand...

Hi rakabos3

There have numerous post about our AUP that we have enforced and if you've been following the threads you would have noticed the above have been mentioned many times.

Yes, it affects everyone but not if you manage your usage.

http://mybroadband.co.za/news/adsl/89837-mweb-uncapped-adsl-claims-win-at-asa.html
 
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