BT scraps fair use and allows downloads without restrictions

[V_R]

BT has announced that it will remove the fair use policy on its fibre broadband packages, meaning that Total Broadband and Infinity customers will be able to download as much data as they want.

This gets rid of previous limits on broadband downloads, which applied even for customers with "unlimited downloads", as if they downloaded more than 300GB they were limited by speed restrictions.

However, the telecommunications company has said that a "traffic management" policy will still be in place, which restricts certain applications such as P2P "when the network is busy".

"As BT continues to invest in the network and network bandwidth we can now remove these restrictions and ensure the experience of the wider customer base," said Mayuresh Thavapalan, General Manager of Consumer Broadband at BT Retail.

"On completion there will be no individual user controls targeted at atypical users on our BT Total Broadband and BT Infinity products."

BT Infinity is the company's new fibre broadband service which claims to offer speeds of up to 40 Mbps

Source: uSwitch

 

[muckshifter]

I'm on total BB

 

[floppybootstomp]

Roughly translated it seems that BT now recognise that a majority, rather than a minority, of their customers now understand exactly what's going down so they are making noises to suit.

Whether they keep their promise or not is an entirely different matter.

Virgin, for instance, insist they don't throttle.

But they do.

 

[Ian]

That's good news, even for other BB networks as it may force them to follow suit

I can't wait to get fibre broadband, the max I can get (even in the city centre) is 6MB.

 

[V_R]

Its good news, but take note of this bit...

However, the telecommunications company has said that a "traffic management" policy will still be in place, which restricts certain applications such as P2P "when the network is busy".

So what they are really saying is "Yes download as much as you like, but if we think its too much we will throttle you."

 

[Ian]

From what I've read on The Register, BT just throttle P2P during peak times - which doesn't seem too bad to be honest. Should mean that normal downloads, video, gaming, browsing etc... are still nice and zippy, but those that do want to download P2P on-masse will need to do so off-peak to get high end speeds.

I just hope if they do throttle, they make the policy clear.

 

[V_R]

Yeah thats right, i've read that too. Thing is, aren't MP games on the Xbox and other consoles P2P? As is MW2 on the PC! I wonder if that effects that too...

 

[Ian]

Thing is, aren't MP games on the Xbox and other consoles P2P? As is MW2 on the PC! I wonder if that effects that too...

Very good point... if those are bundled in with P2P then that doesn't seem fair.