No 300GB limit next month

The Times business section reports on page 41 that they have "learnt that BT" will abandon the 300GB limit next month, because BT have found that there is no need to slow down peoples speeds during peak times because of investment in the fibreoptic network.

Given that the two are nothing to do with each other I'll wait and see on this one.

Can't find it in the online version. Today's? Please can you give the reporter's name to search for, or the headline should do.

Hi RoberoS,

Page 43 of the online version of the version of the paper sorry.
Headline: "BT lifts internet download limit"
Reporter: Nic Fildes

Can't find on the main site though.

Utterly hopeless search . I always find the only way is by reporter name, but even that isn't bringing it up.

What do you mean by P43 of the online version (which so far as I can see doesn't have page numbers), as opposed to the Main Site?

I'm logged in and no way can I find it. However a few mins ago my paper version arrived, and yes, P43 of that.

As IgnitionNet says, garbage reasoning, but still possibly good news.

Edited by RobertoS (Tue 08-Mar-11 12:39:22)

I'd be happy with a 300GB limit, I use at most 180GB, but I predict that If I had the speed uplift then I'd be pecking close to the limit, particuarly with upload usage!

You can view online, just have to read, as it was paper printed link.

In reply to a post by Ignitionnet:

Given that the two are nothing to do with each other I'll wait and see on this one.

Surely that depends on which Fibre network they're talking about? If they've suddenly put WDM on all their backbone fibre it could make quite a difference!

I assume that they also would like to stop Sky saying that they are the only truly unlimited ISP.

Is it possible that the website can run a story and possibly get a comment from BT as the Times didn't quote a source.

It would most likely be option3 customers only, thus to encourage 1 & 2 to pay for 3. At least unlimited might be coming closer to its definition.

I guess the phone calls i had with Ian livingstion (CEO) team at BT head office helped
and emails

Edited by deleted (Tue 08-Mar-11 18:56:59)

In reply to a post by oddius:

The Times business section reports on page 41 that they have "learnt that BT" will abandon the 300GB limit next month, because BT have found that there is no need to slow down peoples speeds during peak times because of investment in the fibreoptic network.

The 300Gb limit will affect very few people, what Bt have to do is stop their traffic management before people even get to that limit.
It is just publicity, saying that we will not have a 300Gb limit will sound great, that is until people realise that Bt will still manage the traffic tightly.


Nothing will change, in fact it could be worse as it give BT more reason to shape.

If I`m honest can`t say the traffic management has effected me in anyway however I`m sure others will jump in here and say its effecting them. The only thing peeing me off right now is this blasted Homehub Anyway I`m digressing caps sounds good but I`m nowhere near the 300GB!!

Straight from the horses mouth

BT to scap 300GB limit

"Hi everyone



Yes, this is true! BT Total Broadband and BT Infinity customers will benefit from the removal of Fair Usage Policy (FUP) controls when they begin to be removed from April 2011. Once removed, heavy user customers will be able to download/stream as much as they wish without having their speeds restricted.



BT will remove the FUP controls currently applied to customers with �atypical� usage. Today atypical users are restricted at 300GB usage and account for less than 0.5% of the BT customer base. BT will not target any individuals with restrictions based on usage levels. However, we still have traffic management policies that will restrict certain applications / protocols, 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.



(Note that charges will still apply for going over limits on BT Total Broadband Options 1&2 and BT Infinity Option 1 but traffic will not be managed.)"

In reply to a post by DannyD12:

In reply to a post by Ignitionnet:

Given that the two are nothing to do with each other I'll wait and see on this one.

Surely that depends on which Fibre network they're talking about? If they've suddenly put WDM on all their backbone fibre it could make quite a difference!

Given the ISP BT Retail pay a fixed charge regardless of the underlying fibre optic network, the whole point of it is to ensure that the retail costs are protocol agnostic, this would make exactly no difference at all.

To me, that reads as,

Traffic managment will still be applied.
Option 1 and 2 (and Infinity 1 users) will be charged for exceeding their allowance.
The 300GB limit is removed for other customers.
No punitive "cap" applied to high users, apart from the traffic managment in point 1. (this is the only actual change)


Bearing in mind that BT already reserve the right to modify the traffic mgt as and when, it won't make a big difference - the P2P-type will be slowed as always.

Don't expect full-speed P2P around the clock - that's not what is on offer, according to that text.

In reply to a post by shtu:

To me, that reads as,

Traffic managment will still be applied.
Option 1 and 2 (and Infinity 1 users) will be charged for exceeding their allowance.
The 300GB limit is removed for other customers.
No punitive "cap" applied to high users, apart from the traffic managment in point 1. (this is the only actual change)


Bearing in mind that BT already reserve the right to modify the traffic mgt as and when, it won't make a big difference - the P2P-type will be slowed as always.

Don't expect full-speed P2P around the clock - that's not what is on offer, according to that text.

I don't use P2P and 90% of my downloads are after 9pm... The main thing which was stopping me from taking up Infinity was the throttling of the connection down to 2mb during peak times for the next 30days when you go above the 300GB limit (even when the 300GB is downloaded at offpeak times)

I would have stayed with VM but the upstream upgrades are happening after August 2011 and one reliable source informs me that it may not happen till March 2012...so .....

Cue rage from users of other ISPs.

They'll have to find something else to cry about now.

In reply to a post by Johnct:

I guess the phone calls i had with david livingstion (CEO) team at BT head office helped
and emails

Who?

He's Trigger out of Only Fools

"Alright Dave".

I had phone chats with one of the main people at head office with regards to FUP and limits ,plus speed cuts so it worked after all

So, who is David Livingstone? Someone you met when you got lost on your travels?

He is the CEO of BT ! i guess you got lost on reading the messages !

Since when ...

As I deal with the CEO of BT on other issues, it is certainly news to me.

you must mean Ian Livingston

So, who is David Livingstone?

Ian Livingstone I presume...

In reply to a post by ggremlin:

So, who is David Livingstone?

Ian Livingstone I presume...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/living...

In reply to a post by orly:

Cue rage from users of other ISPs.

They'll have to find something else to cry about now.

Not really, because Bt still have traffic management and that was one of the problems I had with Bt, I did not go over their 300Gb limit, but I did come close twice.

I just had a look at my usage over the last six months and the highest is last month for some reason at 56Gb, so the 300Gb limit is not a issue for me.

What is the issue is their traffic management it affected me almost everything I did, I thought it was suppose to affect P2P only.

I found that I had problems with Iplayer, youtube , even chatting to someone on Skye would be a problem sometimes. Websites would slow down to a crawl in the evening and forget listening to a radio station.


The sync speed was okish, but the actual speed was way below the sync speed most of the time apart from say 2 in the morning.


So the chance of me going back to BT is pretty slim, after all I would be paying more for less. I am happy with what I got, true unlimited, no traffic management, a better sync speed and most of the time the actual speed matches the sync speed as well as it can after overheads

Your statements don't match up... you have said you did not go over the 300GB and you came close twice and then you are also saying that 56GB was the highest you did..

I don't know the history about the issue you had but unless BT had throttled down to 2mb or you had a faulty router, I doubt you would experience these issues...

Are news groups traffic shaped in any way?

Easy to confuse node congestion with traffic mangement, and I believe even if below 300GB you were still managed.

True, but then almost all users on BT would have complained about traffic management on iplayer etc

In reply to a post by olisun:

Your statements don't match up... you have said you did not go over the 300GB and you came close twice and then you are also saying that 56GB was the highest you did..

I was with BT broadband for around 20 months, I had a 18 month contract because I went for their Bt broadband anywhere. In those 20 months I got close to 300Gb twice.
I changed over to ADSL24 in May last year, according to the usage report for the last six months I have not gone above 56Gb. I very much doubt if I have gone any higher than that the 4 months before that. the usage history is only for the last six months.

I don't know the history about the issue you had but unless BT had throttled down to 2mb or you had a faulty router, I doubt you would experience these issues...

Router was ok as I also tried my old speedtouch and as I said it was not so much the sync speed, but the actual speed, so unless the router was blocking it then the router have nothing to do with it.


Don't tell me what issues I have had or not have had. Bt went from okish to disgusting considering how much I paid for the service. I suppose the other people who I know that got rid of Bt also was imagining the problems they had?

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

Easy to confuse node congestion with traffic mangement, and I believe even if below 300GB you were still managed.

I could cope with that, but then someone who was on a different ISp but still uses BT 21CN system did not have the same problem, well not as bad anyway and they only live down the road. I am not 100% sure, but I think that if it was node congestion it would affect other people with a different ISP.

Also if it was Node congestion, it would not become fine after a certain time, about 2am it was fine, and that was all the time, now and again it would be fine after 10pm,

It was if Bt is saying ok not many people on now we will allow them to have full speed.
I can cope with traffic management, but sometimes it is just over done, Bt must be learning from Plusnet

So you were NOT on Infinity ?

I am guessing, they will be...

John Petter, BT Retail consumer managing director, said: �The controls were put in place originally to ensure atypical users did not affect the experience of other users.

No individual controls

�However, atypical users account for less than 0.5 per cent of our customer base today and - 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.

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

In reply to a post by olisun:

So you were NOT on Infinity ?

Here? you got to be kidding, I am shocked that we got LLU here, I was even more shocked when Sky unbundled our Exchange.

We may get fibre in the year 2020 and that is if we are lucky.
I would not use Fibre at the moment anyway, prices would need to come down and get rid of traffic management, what is the point in having all that speed and find you can't use it because the ISp thinks you are using it too much?


I just realised this is about Fibre, not normal broadband.
it is 100Gb on option 3, ADSL, I wonder if that will go as well.

Edited by zyborg47 (Wed 09-Mar-11 14:25:37)

In reply to a post by krazykizza:

John Petter, BT Retail consumer managing director, said: �The controls were put in place originally to ensure atypical users did not affect the experience of other users.

No individual controls

�However, atypical users account for less than 0.5 per cent of our customer base today and - 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.

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

No individual controls, they will do it for everyone

In reply to a post by zyborg47:

No individual controls, they will do it for everyone

As far as I can see, the only thing that changes is the removal of the "naughty step", ie, the all-protocol restriction for exceeding 300GB.

Personally, I find the traffic mgt. less intrusive than it once was, probably a combination of the technology improving, and it's use becoming a bit more refined, plus better caching of popular content.

The quote was from the Intranet

Node congestion - each ISP has control to some extent i.e. how much they buy, so the Wholesale network may not be the bottleneck always.

Also WBC has had various bugs affecting kit that seems to target people.

Old hands will remember the old 34Mbps BT Central, where one half of it could be congested, but the other fine. Well WBC I suspect is not seeing the same thing but its own variations of this sort of problem.

In reply to a post by zyborg47:

In reply to a post by olisun:

So you were NOT on Infinity ?

I just realised this is about Fibre, not normal broadband.
it is 100Gb on option 3, ADSL, I wonder if that will go as well.

It isn't about fibre. It is about ADSLx as well.

In reply to a post by shtu:

As far as I can see, the only thing that changes is the removal of the "naughty step", ie, the all-protocol restriction for exceeding 300GB.

Personally, I find the traffic mgt. less intrusive than it once was, probably a combination of the technology improving, and it's use becoming a bit more refined, plus better caching of popular content.

i suppose it depends on how fast a speed you got int he first place, when the sync speed is pretty low to start with and then Bt reduce the actual speed even lower, then it become unusable

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

Node congestion - each ISP has control to some extent i.e. how much they buy, so the Wholesale network may not be the bottleneck always.

Also WBC has had various bugs affecting kit that seems to target people.

You mean it is rubbish. that is the best way to describe it. when a system that is suppose to be better than the system it replaces knocks down peoples sync speed then something is wrong. Doubly so when a system from another provider does a better job.

Old hands will remember the old 34Mbps BT Central, where one half of it could be congested, but the other fine. Well WBC I suspect is not seeing the same thing but its own variations of this sort of problem.

So in other words Bt are useless and have no idea what they are doing?
something i have said for years.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

In reply to a post by zyborg47:

In reply to a post by olisun:

So you were NOT on Infinity ?

I just realised this is about Fibre, not normal broadband.
it is 100Gb on option 3, ADSL, I wonder if that will go as well.

It isn't about fibre. It is about ADSLx as well.

ADSLx have a 100GB limit, not 300. we will see if VBt removes that, well I won't as every month for the last 5 someone I know have changed from BT, most are going for Sky now.

Agrees totaly when they first rolled out the traffic management sytem it was very poor and restricted everything, the only thing i find "managed" now is p2p and torrents at peek times and well i can live without these during peek periods i simply set my torrents to go over night and they are down the next morning. My understanding of this aanouncement is simply go over the 3oo gig mark and you wont have your speed capped to 1 meg during peek periods as used to be the case previously.

nope its 300 gig on adsl as well

yes allthopugh they are faster than p2p during peek periods