The ‘Fair Usage Policy’ Game

On the one hand, providers dangle the temptation of unlimited broadband usage before you. On the other, they hold up the ‘fair usage’ placard. So where exactly does that leave the user? The provider’s plea will be that he is trying to protect the regular user who can get stuck on the cyber highway if there are other heavy users who clog it up with heavy downloading. The question then is, is unlimited really unlimited?

The Fair Usage Policy means capping one’s use of broadband if there is a perceived over use. So unless you are sharing large files (peer-to-peer or P2P) or you are downloading music or movies everyday, you need not really fear being rapped on the knuckles by your Internet provider. However, you could find that because others are downloading a lot, the speeds could be throttled and there could be a slowing down of the connection. If you need to download any kind of file, you might want to try doing it at night when there is not so much of a slowing down like during the day.

The provider feels he is trying to be fair and not let a few users hog the bandwidth. It does make for slowing down of the speeds considerably if this happens so maybe it is fair to the regular or minimal user who also needs to have a chance to survive in the cyber jungle.

If you do exceed your limit, then the provider could get in touch and ask you to be more restrained in your downloading. However, if you feel that you haven’t and your usage patterns have been on the regular or lower side, then you might want to talk to the provider about it. If he isn’t willing to listen, you could bring this up with Otelo, the telecommunication industry’s watchdog. They look into all complaints by users and try to resolve them.

Most providers have the policy of capping excessive downloads even if the package is called an unlimited one. So maybe it’s just easier and more practical to accept it and try not to exceed the download limits that are suggested.