Broadband Cap Poll

L31mr0d

Ok since the caps on peoples BB connection seem to be a hot topic at the moment it would be good to see who exactly is affected by these caps.

Personally, I assume I go over the cap every month, but since i've never cared about it I never check, i just download when I want to download. I've never been charged anything extra or been contacted by any of my ISP's.

If you have chosen option 4, "Yes and i've been charged" can you give any details in regard to how much you where charged and who was the ISP

Mountjoy Mugger

I don't have a cap.

Sconsey

I don't have a cap either, might be worth adding that option to the poll?

L31mr0d

Yes, and i've been charged/warned for going over my cap

Mountjoy Mugger wrote: »

I don't have a cap.

crap, I can't add a poll option who are you with? maybe click "yes but don't get charged".

EDIT: Irish GrumPy, can you detail which ISP charged you for going over your cap?

Mountjoy Mugger

PM a mod. They might do it for you.

I'm with Smart, btw.

sicruise

IBB Breeze don't have a cap either

dunworth1

i have no cap

kaimera

Yes, and i've been charged/warned for going over my cap

Not 100% sure what my cap is actually.

BT LLU...when I ordered I was told 80gigs...posts here say 30gigs....online moniter says 30.

If it's 80, I haven't gone over it but I've blown thru 30 quite a bit.

L31mr0d

Yes, and i've been charged/warned for going over my cap

I'm interested to hear from the 2 people who got charged/warned. I've only ever heard of it happening once and that was someone who was on UTV, and this was years back around 2000 and he was using ISDN.

I'm sure people would like to know what ISP's are charging and what it takes to actually get charged.

JohnC.

Yes, but i've never been charged

I didn't go over my cap while I was monitoring it, but the monitor page hasn't worked for me for months, so I can't monitor it any more. I'm sure I don't go over it though.

byte

No cap here either, with Smart. That said, I don't think I download any more than 30GB per month.

Ricky91t

Yes, but i've never been charged

No cap for me
im on basic premanet package

mgsrocks

I'm still on a 56k modem and like paying by the minute

Im with eircom, went over it once and got charged an extra €8 on my phone bill. Went over it again a goood bit in febuary so im interested to see if they charge me.

Tought it was really unfair though, loads of people on here say they go over there cap by 10/20 GB every month and nothing happens, i go over it once and get penalised.

L31mr0d

Yes, and i've been charged/warned for going over my cap

mgsrocks wrote: »

Im with eircom, went over it once and got charged an extra €8 on my phone bill. Went over it again a goood bit in febuary so im interested to see if they charge me.

when did they charge you? Was it recently? Also did they give you a warning the month before they charged you?

mgsrocks

I'm still on a 56k modem and like paying by the minute

L31mr0d wrote: »

when did they charge you? Was it recently? Also did they give you a warning the month before they charged you?

It was last year, think june. No warning about it and it was the first and only time I went over the cap. Had only myself to blame, I saw my stats and knew I was going to go over but kept downloading things anyway. thought I'd get away with it but didn't

silvine

Yes, and i've been charged/warned for going over my cap

I'm with NTL and have gone over by a few gigabytes the past two months. No word on charges though.

mrplop

IBB DSL - No cap.

flogen

On the BT 2mb package which seems to have a 20GB cap - I've gone over that by a country mile this month but frankly hadn't been checking the link in a long time before now so can't say if I had before.

I'd imagine I have, given that my average monthly download (which I get by dividing the amount of months I've been connected by the total dl amount) is around 18GB, and I've never been charged or warned.

Will be interested to see if that changes this month. Hopefully it won't!

pcolan

What's a BB Cap???

P.S.
I'm with Smart, so ... :cool:

BaconZombie

Simple answer Move to Smart = NO CAP

christophicus

I'm still on a 56k modem and like paying by the minute

I'm with NTL and yes I used to go over the cap quite a bit. There was one time when NTL sent out letters en mass to everyone that went over the cap , warning that not to do it, but that seems to have been a once off phenomenon. And yes I did recieve the letter. I am positive that I have exceeded the 40 GB cap since then at least 10 times though and I have not heard from them since.

rav1410

Yes, but i've never been charged

No cap,

Net1, Wireless

tommycahir

Yes, and i've been charged/warned for going over my cap

Have Clearwire 1MB package and 10gb cap have gone through it a few times but there was no charges they simply dropped my connection speed down to dial up speeds.

Freddie59

Yes, but i've never been charged

Can someone explain how you could even download 40GB in a month - if you're obeying the law?

silvine

Yes, and i've been charged/warned for going over my cap

Watching tv online, downloading game demos, buying games digitally etc. And you can download movies legally now too

JohnC.

Yes, but i've never been charged

BOFH_139 wrote: »

Simple answer Move to Smart = NO CAP

Not that simple when it isn't available:(

smellslikeshoes

Yes, and i've been charged/warned for going over my cap

Freddie59 wrote: »

Can someone explain how you could even download 40GB in a month - if you're obeying the law?

Very very easy if you have a family or multiple users, Kids watching Youtube can tear through bandwidth very quick. Buying games digitally also eats up bandwidth very quickly, as I type this I have a 6GB game downloading that I purchased digitally. I personally think that people who can stay under the smaller caps just aren't using broadband for what its capable of.

AlmightyCushion

Yes, and i've been charged/warned for going over my cap

smellslikeshoes wrote: »

Very very easy if you have a family or multiple users, Kids watching Youtube can tear through bandwidth very quick. Buying games digitally also eats up bandwidth very quickly, as I type this I have a 6GB game downloading that I purchased digitally. I personally think that people who can stay under the smaller caps just aren't using broadband for what its capable of.

Hell, my steam folder is at 10GBs, all the games in it were free downloads or free gift from people who bought the orange pack and had a spare copy of half life 2.

Sqaull20

Yes, and i've been charged/warned for going over my cap

Im on bt 3mb as far as I am concerned I have no cap, I have been going over 60gb every month for the last 2 years and never charged...

Cabaal

silvine wrote: »

And you can download movies legally now too

yes you can, itunes, bittorrent.com but both of them and other services can only be used in the states, what services are you referring to that can be used legally in Ireland?

dunworth1

why do they have caps there only putting people off getting broadband
its a waist of time

IBB NO CAP

WELL DONE TO THE COMPANIES THAT HAVE NO CAPS THEY CARE ABOUT THERE CUSTOMERS

JohnC.

Yes, but i've never been charged

Cabaal wrote: »

yes you can, itunes, bittorrent.com but both of them and other services can only be used in the states, what services are you referring to that can be used legally in Ireland?

Xbox Live. I see HD movies on there up to about 7GB. Also original Xbox games up to 6 GB and game demos can be 1 or 2 GB these days. Occasionally even more.

smellslikeshoes

Yes, and i've been charged/warned for going over my cap

dunworth1 wrote: »

why do they have caps there only putting people off getting broadband
its a waist of time

IBB NO CAP

WELL DONE TO THE COMPANIES THAT HAVE NO CAPS THEY CARE ABOUT THERE CUSTOMERS

Just because a company doesn't have an outlined cap doesn't make them any better. The Ambiguity of a fair use policy can be just as bad as companies who have a cap (which most don't enforce). The company with a fair use policy can basically decide what their cap is when it suits them. If in your case IBB suddenly decided that 5GB was as much as they wanted people to use on their unlimited service they would be fully within their rights to cut you off after 5GB while still calling it unlimited.

Nehaxak

I'm still on a 56k modem and like paying by the minute

IBB Breeze fixed wireless, 3MB, NO CAP ! So couldn't really choose an option from the poll to vote.

As for the comment on fair usage policy and that they could suddenly impose restrictions, that might be true (and would typically be a sentence quoted to me in the past from other Irish providers who do have a cap and are trying to explain what I would see as absolute unfair practice) but I've yet to see the FUP be imposed in such a way by IBB at least.

Marlow

Freddie59 wrote: »

Can someone explain how you could even download 40GB in a month - if you're obeying the law?

Just use Steam. It'll kill your cap in no time.

Airwire has no cap and no .. there's no fair policy statement either.

Where's the option for "I have no cap !!", please ?

Kind regards,
Martin List-Petersen
Airwire

PogMoThoin

Yes, and i've been charged/warned for going over my cap

As You can see from my stats, its very easy go over your cap,



I got a 6Gb game midway through the month run at night, Stumble Upon, the youngsters lookin at Youtube, all just casual usage. All torrents run at night only. Always at least one pc in the house on the go.

exiztone

I don't go over my cap (BT's 30GB), but I always have to watch myself. I think it would be fair for Esat to upgrade the 30GB cap to 80GB for their new 8Mb service!

Steffano2002

I'm still on a 56k modem and like paying by the minute

Never went over my Magnet cap (100GB I believe it was) but now I have NTL (5 people in the house, 7 computers) and every month NTL sends us a letter saying we are going over our cap... Never been charged anything mind you!

Steffano2002

I'm still on a 56k modem and like paying by the minute

PogMoThoin wrote: »

As You can see from my stats, its very easy go over your cap,



I got a 6Gb game midway through the month run at night, Stumble Upon, the youngsters lookin at Youtube, all just casual usage. All torrents run at night only. Always at least one pc in the house on the go.

Is there such a utility for NTL subscribers actually?

mrplop

Cabaal wrote: »

yes you can, itunes, bittorrent.com but both of them and other services can only be used in the states, what services are you referring to that can be used legally in Ireland?

American Itunes vouchers work here.

2Shae

Yes, and i've been charged/warned for going over my cap

my cap 10gb, last month i did 82gb, month before 75gb, roughly on sinced i joined eircom bb in june last year, ive been doing 7 to 8 times my cap every month and ive never had a call, email, warning or overcharge.

It depends on your area i was told once when i called eircom, if alot of people on your exchange are downloading over their limit they will send out warnings or charge extra, the exchanges can only handle so much was her responce.

Praetor

People dont seem to understand the importance of a CAP. It prevents people from overusing a service and affecting others.

Now, dont wanna hear people saying that IBB has no caps or that Smart has no caps, of course they dont, IBB will offer unlimited download knowing that, at the moment, they cannot compeete on download speeds and Smart, well, they barely have customers! Lucky you if you are one of their them! Why do you think they promote no contention policy..

Big companies like Eircom or BT need to enforce CAPs. BT is actually way ahead of Eircom in what regards to international traffic and that its going to cost us all.

If you want no caps go for a business account or if you are lucky try with Smart or similar companies. Otherwise, if people dont moderate their usage we will all end up paying for it.


The problem is not when you exceed your limit by 10 gb or 20gb or even 30gb, there are people exceeding their usage on more than 100 gb and up to 700 gb per month.

Sure that, in an ideal world there should be no caps, but we have to deal with what we have and, at the moment, usage must be monitored and controlled, overusing it will pay up.

Marlow

Praetor wrote: »

Big companies like Eircom or BT need to enforce CAPs. BT is actually way ahead of Eircom in what regards to international traffic and that its going to cost us all.

Companies like Eircom and BT double-cap you: first on contention and then a cap on top of it !!

The contention tells already, how much they oversubscribe the bandwidth available and that's the difference between business and residential accounts.

If they cap you on top of that, it's rip off. It's either to get rid of "unwanted" users or to be able to charge you extra, when it fits'em.

/Martin

PogMoThoin

Yes, and i've been charged/warned for going over my cap

Other countrys like France, Germany & Sweden have providers that offer symmetrical broadband and no caps.
I don't believe there should be a cap. You pay for the bandwidth, why cant they give it to You. Why being Irish do we always have to lag behind and get ripped off,

Bohrio

Marlow wrote: »

Companies like Eircom and BT double-cap you: first on contention and then a cap on top of it !!

The only way to prevent contention is to cap people.

So you are basically contradicting yourself.

If Eircom you have contention issues is mainly for two reasons, exceeding the amount of customers that the exchange can handle (could happend but rarely) and usage abusers.

As I have said many time, if you download 30 gb per days basically you are using 40% of the total bandwith 24/7, and the people sharing your line will call complaining of contention, if you are restricted then that 40% its gone and people will start enjoying a good service.

Bohrio

PogMoThoin wrote: »

Other countrys like France, Germany & Sweden have providers that offer symmetrical broadband and no caps.
I don't believe there should be a cap. You pay for the bandwidth, why cant they give it to You. Why being Irish do we always have to lag behind and get ripped off,

Lets be real, they are way ahead of us. As it has been said this is what we have and there is nothing we can do about it. If you want to compare Sweeden users can enjoy speeds of over 60 mbps, same as japan and other countries. In fact, not long ago I saw a guy in sweeden with a connection over 20 gb

I dont see anyone complaining of Eircom/BT/UTV/Smart being slow just because a friend of yours in japan is getting 120 mbps... we know what we can get and we accept it. We all know that eircom and bt can offer speeds up to 24mb and we know they will offer it when they feel ready or that its necessary, its all marketing and we accept it.

Its just a matter of time, and remember you can get a 1:1 contention package if you want to, business package for ex.

Marlow

Bohrio wrote: »

The only way to prevent contention is to cap people.

So you are basically contradicting yourself.

Actually, I'm not !!

On the basic eircom package you've got 1 mbit/128 kbit, which is rate adaptive (might be slower, if you're further from the exchange), has a 48:1 contention AND a 10 GB cap for download/1 GB cap for upload.

The rate adaptive-ness, fair enuff. But beyond that, either it should be uncontended and then they could apply the CAP OR they can contend it and then there should be no CAP.

By applying all of these, they are basically selling you neither speed nor bandwidth. That's nearly as bad as a fair policy deal.

/Martin

Bohrio

Marlow wrote: »

Actually, I'm not !!

On the basic eircom package you've got 1 mbit/128 kbit, which is rate adaptive (might be slower, if you're further from the exchange), has a 48:1 contention AND a 10 GB cap for download/1 GB cap for upload.

The rate adaptive-ness, fair enuff. But beyond that, either it should be uncontended and then they could apply the CAP OR they can contend it and then there should be no CAP.

By applying all of these, they are basically selling you neither speed nor bandwidth. That's nearly as bad as a fair policy deal.

/Martin

You dont seem to understand. 48:1 means that your line is share with another 47 users (max).

Using 80% that 1mb bandwidth (which is possible) at a transfer rate of 80 kBps you will have a monthly usage of ~207 GB.

to go below your cap your average transfer rate should be ~4 kBps

So there you go! You get what you are paying for. Go for a business pacakage 1:1 or 10:1 contention. Also, Eircom business starter package if I remember correctly, although it has the same contention it offers no cap.

By not moderating your usage you are affecting all other customers.

What we all want, no caps, no contention, its at the moment, not possible.

Not in Ireland

Marlow

Bohrio wrote: »

You dont seem to understand. 48:1 means that your line is share with another 47 users (max).

Using 80% that 1mb bandwidth (which is possible) at a transfer rate of 80 kBps you will have a monthly usage of ~207 GB.

to go below your cap your average transfer rate should be ~4 kBps

So there you go! You get what you are paying for.

I exactly understand. It's RIP off. Just to mention it to you, I'm running an ISP myself and I know exactly what I'm talking about.

Bohrio wrote: »

Go for a business pacakage 1:1 or 10:1 contention. Also, Eircom business starter package if I remember correctly, although it has the same contention it offers no cap.

Eircom Business is 24:1 contention, which is still a joke.

Bohrio wrote: »

By not moderating your usage you are affecting all other customers.
What we all want, no caps, no contention, its at the moment, not possible.
Not in Ireland

It is to a greater extend, than what DSL providers like Eircom and bitstream products are offering.

Kind regards,
Martin List-Petersen
Airwire

Bohrio

Marlow wrote: »

I exactly understand. It's RIP off. Just to mention it to you, I'm running an ISP myself and I know exactly what I'm talking about.



Eircom Business is 24:1 contention, which is still a joke.



It is to a greater extend, than what DSL providers like Eircom and bitstream products are offering.

Kind regards,
Martin List-Petersen
Airwire

Well then you should know why you charge your customers on a 4:1 package 300 euros per month while an eircom 1mb package is ~10 euro per month. The closest thing you have is a 512 kbps line with a 20:1 contention for 30.25 euro.

Eircom can offer 24:1 (IP products) and 10:1 (ATM products) for business. Unfortunately IP/VC 1mb Products (IPCONECT) are all 48:1 with the exception of Swift VC Plus (24:1)

Like you already know, if you want quality you have to pay for it, like Airwire

Marlow

Bohrio wrote: »

Well then you should know why you charge your customers on a 4:1 package 300 euros per month while an eircom 1mb package is ~10 euro per month. The closest thing you have is a 512 kbps line with a 20:1 contention for 30.25 euro.

Because price is not all about bandwidth. It's also about service. A residential product is not considered suitable for resale, it has only dynamic IP and you might have to wait a day or two longer, if an onsite service call is needed.

Bohrio wrote: »

if you want quality you have to pay for it.

Sure, but that wasn't the point here. The point was that combining CAP's, contention AND rate adaptiveness for this sake is rip off.

Bohrio wrote: »

And also, Eircom can offer 24:1 (IP products)

Yes. I've seen their 24:1 products in Tuam (business). You get max 2 mbit out of a 6 mbit DSL.

Bohrio wrote: »

and 10:1 (ATM products) for business. Unfortunately IP/VC 1mb Products (IPCONECT) are all 48:1 with the exception of Swift VC Plus (24:1)

This was not a discussion on business products. It's a discussion on CAPs on primarily residential products. CAPs aren't needed, if you have your network in order. Contention is sometimes needed, depending on the deployment infrastructure, that you use.

/Martin