UK users to be capped from August

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viceroy

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I've just gotten an email from my brother who currently has a 1mbps zero cap account.

as from the 1st Aug, they will have a 30gig cap and one they hit their cap they face this

In the unlikely event that you exceed your monthly usage allowance (remember these are more than enough for the vast majority of users) the speed of your connection will be reduced to 150kbps until the start of the next month, when you monthly usage allowance will be reset.

If you exceed your usage allowance you will have three choices; you will be able to continue to surf and download at a reduced speed of 150kbps - that's still three time the speed of dial up - for the remainder of the month, or you will be able to top up you usage allowance on bt.com by purchasing additional capacity at £1.95 per 1GB unit, or alternatively you may wish to consider upgrading to a higher usage capacity package.
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Thats the way to do it. Telkom : take note (talking to the air :p )
 
is that just for people who use BT as their ISP? or does this apply to ALL broadband users in UK?
 
most broadband providers here implement a soft cap. Which results in them sending you a letter to "cool it a bit" if you exceed your usage by spectacular amounts.

The hardcap (as mentioned above) is being implemented by most broadband providers (cable, adsl) in the latter part of this year, but as far as I can tell this will be for the scaled dependig on yoru account type.
(example thumbsuck figures to explain) 512 adsl, 10gb hardcap, 1mb adsl, 30gb hardcap etc etc. The higher priced accounts (8mbps adsl, 3mbps cable) will be capped, but at a stupid amount, e.g. 500gb a month to entice customers to sign up for those accounts, which provide a higher profit.

So, in marketing speak, they implement a hardcap, so people realise how much they use and buy a higher speed/higher priced/higher profit account. On a ratio basis, not many customers abuse the service, so the more people they can get onto the higher speed accounts, the more money they make (and behind the scenes continue to write letters to the leechers asking them to cool it down).

Effectively, if you abuse a 5gb hardcap by 1gb per month, they will try move you to a 10gb hardcap account, and as we are creatures of habit you will end up using 6gb of your 10gb allocation, which means more profit for them. Well...thats the way they are thinking.....
 
werner said:
most broadband providers here implement a soft cap. Which results in them sending you a letter to "cool it a bit" if you exceed your usage by spectacular amounts.

The hardcap (as mentioned above) is being implemented by most broadband providers (cable, adsl) in the latter part of this year, but as far as I can tell this will be for the scaled dependig on yoru account type.
(example thumbsuck figures to explain) 512 adsl, 10gb hardcap, 1mb adsl, 30gb hardcap etc etc. The higher priced accounts (8mbps adsl, 3mbps cable) will be capped, but at a stupid amount, e.g. 500gb a month to entice customers to sign up for those accounts, which provide a higher profit.

So, in marketing speak, they implement a hardcap, so people realise how much they use and buy a higher speed/higher priced/higher profit account. On a ratio basis, not many customers abuse the service, so the more people they can get onto the higher speed accounts, the more money they make (and behind the scenes continue to write letters to the leechers asking them to cool it down).

Effectively, if you abuse a 5gb hardcap by 1gb per month, they will try move you to a 10gb hardcap account, and as we are creatures of habit you will end up using 6gb of your 10gb allocation, which means more profit for them. Well...thats the way they are thinking.....
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..that said an uncapped account still only costs circa £20
 
AFAIK, Bulldogdsl provide uncapped services on all their lines. Anyway 30GB is more than enough for most users and you can get about 15GB for what we pay for 10GB...but it's much cheaper (no line rental)
 
At least, UK users have experience of the 'freedom' with their broadband in the past.
I don't think we will ever experience that 'freedom' in SA. :(
 
I dunno about this - I seriously doubt that there will ever be wholesale capping in the UK - there is simply too much demand for uncapped services and what were naive consumers are beginning to discover the 'con of the cap'.
 
reech said:
I dunno about this - I seriously doubt that there will ever be wholesale capping in the UK - there is simply too much demand for uncapped services and what were naive consumers are beginning to discover the 'con of the cap'.
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I agree sort of - I think that they will rather try to sell reduced rate capped accounts to those who dont need an uncapped account. Much of my family there uses Virgin Broadband which is capped simply because they dont need more than the 3 or 6gb allowed atm.
 
the topic title is misleading, this is only certain broadband players, liek with BT you never could download 100GB or anything, my cousin was cut off for doing 17GB in 2 weeks before, he switched to tiscali and he does a good 60GB a month now
 
Franna said:
A 30GB monthly cap is very decent - Telkom take note!
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I dont think Telkom will see it like that.. What they will see is the fact that others are also capping, and state that whee just following expected international trends. Not the fact that they are capping way below standards and charging 3 times as much for 1/3 of the service
 
They said last year that they will start implementing capping so it should come as no surprise. Why is he using BT though??
 
...should be no ted that most of the UK services are completely unshaped too...
 
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