Need broadband? Ready to switch? Get fair, unbiased advice in a language you understand so you make the right choice.
Fair Usage - Ask Our Expert
If you’re having technical, service or supply problems, or just have a question you want answering, why not write to OurExpert@BroadbandChoices.co.uk
Michael Phillips is product director at BroadbandChoices.co.uk and can help with anything from contractual problems, to giving technical advice or telling you how to speed up those slow movie downloads.
Our expert says...
Unfortunately increasing numbers of people are finding that they have breached their fair usage agreement on an “unlimited” package - many of whom didn’t even realise such limits applied to them.
Fair usage applies so that cyber traffic is kept down at peak times, ensuring that everyone sharing the same connection - up to 50 people at a time - will all have a good user experience. But as we all increase our downloading and make use of sites like YouTube, the amount we download each month in going up.
Still, to exceed most fair usage policies you would have to be downloading a lot of data each month - you might want to look at the kid’s internet usage.
However, there have been complaints about the use of the term “unlimited” when referring to packages that do have a fair usage policy. These policies do vary so you should contact your supplier who should be able to advise you on how to avoid exceeding it.
If your combined family downloading continues to exceed the policy limits you should consider upgrading to a larger package, which you may be asked to do anyway.
While you might find a niche supplier that offers a truly unlimited package but none of the mainstream ISPs do. You’d be better off working out how much you download in a month - you can do this with our Broadband Download Monitor - and going for a more expensive, capped plan, or trying to reduce your downloading.
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