UTV's Fair Usage Policy

cian1500ww

Just had a look at UTV's fair usage policy:

UTV Internet’s Fair Usage Policy is designed to make sure your broadband service is quick and reliable
whenever you use it.
A very small number of customers use Peer to Peer or file sharing software, which constantly sends and
receives video and other very large files, throughout the day. This type of activity uses a lot of bandwidth
and can significantly reduce the speed at which other customers can access the internet during peak
hours. Approximately 1% of customers use more than 30% of the available bandwidth during peak
hours. We don't believe this is fair to the vast majority of our customers.
This fair usage policy automatically identifies the very small number of extremely heavy users and we
reserve the right to manage their bandwidth only during peak hours (6pm to 11pm Monday to Sunday),
to protect the service for all our other customers. Outside peak hours, the use of the internet by these
heavy users is unaffected.
We think this is the fairest approach. It protects the quality of service for the vast majority of our
customers when they most use the service, while at the same time allowing the extremely heavy users
to continue to send and receive without restriction outside of peak hours.
How do I know if I will be affected by this?
If you don't use Peer to Peer or file sharing software it is unlikely you will ever be affected by this Fair
Usage Policy. If you do use Peer to Peer or file sharing software, all we ask is that you use this software
considerately and send and receive large files outside of peak hours.
If you are affected, we will contact you by email to let you know that your usage at peak hours is
excessive and is affecting other customers. The email will be sent to your specified email address and
will contain simple advice on how to reduce your usage.
If your usage is still excessive, we will contact you again by email to ask you to reduce your sending and
receiving of large files during peak hours. If your usage still remains excessive during peak hours, we
will contact you a third time to advise you that we will be restricting your bandwidth during peak hours
for the good of all other customers. This restriction will only apply during peak hours and there will be no
restriction at other times of the day.
How can I manage my usage?
Simply ensure that any file sharing, sending and receiving of large file is done outside of peak hours.
What happens to customers who are affected by the Fair Usage Policy?
During peak hours, customers affected by the fair usage policy will share bandwidth with each other and
will be separated from other customers. The amount of bandwidth available for affected customers to
share, will be at least as much as for those customers unaffected by the policy.
The speed affected customers experience when downloading at peak hours will therefore depend on
what these customers are doing. If they are all web-browsing and reading emails, they will experience
normal broadband speed. If on the other hand they are using Peer to Peer or file sharing software they
will experience slow broadband speed. Outside of peak hours, no restrictions will apply.

And I was wondering what amount would a person need to be downloading to be regarded as a heavy user ?

ardmacha

If you are affected, we will contact you by email to let you know that your usage at peak hours is excessive and is affecting other customers. The email will be sent to your specified email address and will contain simple advice on how to reduce your usage

Whatever the limit is, the sending of an email is a much more reasonable approach than BT who seemed to be cutting people off without warning.