BT Ireland Delux Broadband Cap way too Low!! Lets raise it!!

vibe666

y'know it's kinda bugging me that so many people here who are obviously broadband users are so resistant to the idea of trying to make things better for everybody and for the life of me I just can't understand why anyone would be against the various things regarding improvements to broadband in Ireland that are posted in these forums.

any time anyone says "it's not good enough", "it's not fast enough" "it's too expensive" or "it's too restrictive" or anything about the inadequacies of the broadband in Ireland the torches and pitchforks come out and I'm totally baffled as to why that is.

slave1

I got out of the habit of checking on this forum for a few months now, how is it the same topic again and again, who cares what the caps are, I've been with Eircom and BT for broadband for over 4 years now, my pc is never turned off, I've taken as much as 100gig a month and never a whisper, move on

vibe666

slave1 wrote: »

....my pc is never turned off, I've taken as much as 100gig a month and never a whisper, move on

ditto, but I think it's probably a symbolic thing, if it 'looks' better then people will start to see it as better.

the fact of the matter, as you say is that there isn't any charging for going over the cap at present BUT it doesn't mean that they aren't going to turn round in x months and start sending out over usage bills to people going over the cap.

Richard Dower

I have to say, 30GB a month is plenty...and i download alot of US tv shows and what not. The cap is not the issue...it's the high contention ratio and poor speeds. Peak times are a joke. Work on that before caps.

L31mr0d

Richard Dower wrote: »

I have to say, 30GB a month is plenty...and i download alot of US tv shows and what not. The cap is not the issue...it's the high contention ratio and poor speeds. Peak times are a joke. Work on that before caps.

yeah, my main gripe with the DSL connections is the contention. Between about 6 pm and 11 pm yesterday my line went up and down from 1Mb/s to 5Mb/s... then after about 11pm it shot right back up to 8Mb/s. I think most people won't notice it as they just assume the server they are connecting to is slow, but I know the servers i'm connecting to can sustain WELL past 8Mb/s. The only other explanation is the contention and other people using the line.

slave1

I've just been throttled by BT, the first time ever for exceeding my monthly limit, I sincerely hope that my posting above and throttling are a coincidence, according to speedtest my 2mb line is just 122 kb/s down, 210 kb/s up:(

Bohrio

slave1 wrote: »

I've just been throttled by BT, the first time ever for exceeding my monthly limit, I sincerely hope that my posting above and throttling are a coincidence, according to speedtest my 2mb line is just 122 kb/s down, 210 kb/s up:(

Well... you are probably not the first and you will not be the last!

briantwin

There is no way that you're 6kms from the exchange if you're an LLU cust and getting 8mb. No way. Anyway if the issue is internal wiring then you will need to get your own electrician out to check it out, but if the connection has been checked and the wiring redone and the issue still continuing, the onus is on the occupant "tusa" to get it sorted.
As for going over 30gb in 1 month with 3 users. Thats believable, but you have to be downloading movies and all sorts as well. Streaming TV i can see would do it, but you'd have to be watching it constantly. Which would give you no time to play your games etc......

slave1

I watch HDTV via a HTPC, eats my download limit, at a 20gig limit thats about 14hours of HDTV a month, you don't need to be downloading games/movies to exceed 20gb/30gb limits, if I wanted to download games etc I could take down my entire month's quota in under two days on a 2mg connection, quote BT themselves
"Find and download the latest shows or movies"

CuLT

slave1 wrote: »

I watch HDTV via a HTPC, eats my download limit, at a 20gig limit thats about 14hours of HDTV a month, you don't need to be downloading games/movies to exceed 20gb/30gb limits, if I wanted to download games etc I could take down my entire month's quota in under two days on a 2mg connection, quote BT themselves
"Find and download the latest shows or movies"

I think the most important point here would be that you're in a minority of people who use broadband that extensively.

Of course, I'd personally like to see better speeds and higher caps (not that caps have ever been an issue) but I'm really not all that pushed about it.

If some people are, then they'd best learn as much as they can, band together and do something about it (like IrelandOffline) and do something REAL about it instead of Internet petitions.

larkapal

Internet petitions may or may not work.

But surely if EVERY dissatisfied BT customer emails BT customer care with their complaints then someone HAS to sit up and take notice!

I was speed throttled yesterday for the first time after exceeding the 30GB limit. I'm down to 100kbs download. There was even a threat today, during a call to BT tech support, (I thought the low speed was just a fault.), of CHARGING me for the excess. I am furious with this. Especially as I received NO NOTIFICATION from BT whatsoever that I had exceeded any limit!

For me the difference is that as a music composer, arranger, recording artist and production engineer, the speed throttle affects my livelihood!

I depend on the ability to send and receive (legally obtained and produced) digital audio files and recording studio programs/updates, final productions etc. over the internet. These files can be quite large. I am unable to function in my job now because my internet connection is useless to me until April 1st when the download cap is reset, so I am told by BT tech support. That is FOUR DAYS with no ability to earn any income because of BT's unexpected and unnotified throttling of my download speed. And for this I pay their top whack of €60.00 per month!!!

It's ridiculous. Especially as BT's UK parent company (Also BT: British Telecom!!!) offers NO download limit to their users who are on the same "Option 3" broadband plan as me here in Ireland![

I am emailing BT at customer.care@btireland.ie for the attention of a MANAGER outlining my complaint and requesting they either get rid of the download limit like BT UK does, or at least double it to a more reasonable level considering the ability these days to download large files at high speeds.

A 30GB limit is antiquated!

In my opinion we should all FLOOD BT with our complaints about their low cap. Make your dissatisfaction known. And even threaten the cancellation of your account! If enough people do this it might get them to change their minds.

And if they don't. Leave them.

exiztone

I'm finding it difficult to stay under 30GB these days, even when I don't download too many... er... "linux ISOs"

80GB wouldn't be unreasonable!

Little-Devil

Why should they give you notification? Its your responability and not BT. They provide you with a service and you can use it how you like, but what ever package you have signed up for, im sure you would have noticed the 30G limit. if its that important buy a business package. You downloading that amount is probably affecting others who share your contention on the line. I would suggest you read the T&C again because that is what they will tell you. I'm quite suprised to hear BT have throttled users accounts. They have there reasons, you want to check the bill and make sure they have not charged you I doubt they will be to dissappointed if you cancelled after all you download 100G every month.

Larkapal if they throttled your account this month then im sure its going to happen the following month as well so you may have a choice but to cancel and move ?

I'm not defending BT or any other ISP, but i have read loads of post lately on boards of people who exceed the CAP set each month. I'm sure this would affect other people sharing the line they are on. I wonder if the likes of eircom will follow BT with this ?

Praetor

larkapal wrote: »

I am emailing BT at customer.care@btireland.ie for the attention of a MANAGER outlining my complaint and requesting they either get rid of the download limit like BT UK does, or at least double it to a more reasonable level considering the ability these days to download large files at high speeds.

A 30GB limit is antiquated!

In my opinion we should all FLOOD BT with our complaints about their low cap. Make your dissatisfaction known. And even threaten the cancellation of your account! If enough people do this it might get them to change their minds.

And if they don't. Leave them.

I am wondering whats your current usage?

slave1 was over 100 gb... you are requesting BT to double their usage to 60 gb... I have the impression that you are way beyond that limit so it wouldnt made any difference to you either

On their T&C its clearly states:

'Monthly Download Limit' means the maximum amount of download available for the Service provided as more particularly updated on http://www.btireland.ie/broadband. In the event that the Customer exceeds their Monthly Download Limit then BT reserves the right to charge for excess usage, suspend and/or permanently disconnect the Customer. Monthly Download Usage reports are available per user on http://broadband.iol.ie/usage/ - Please note usage information is only available to 12 midnight of the previous day.

So so far nothing wrong... I wonder if there is anyone here who has been throttled with a usage ~ 60 gb...

Now, I think its a very good idea to ask BT to double their CAP to 60 gB, until now, they have been very permissive and havent charged nor throttled anybody even when they were going way over their limit, even reaching levels of several hundreds gb.

But believe me, even if the cap was raised to 60 gB you would have been throtlled anyway I just dont think your usage is below 60 gb and remember, CAPs are not to prevent people to download ilegal stuff but to control their bandwidth and to avoid contention issues... among other things.

And as Little devil has said, you are suppose to monitor your usage and moderate it... so you cant blame anyone here but yourself, sorry if I sound hard but its true...

If you really need no CAP go for a business account... there are no caps there!

Oh and BT UK does have a CAP limit for their option 1 and 2, and they WILL charge you if you go even 1 gb over the limit, and its not cheap!

Its unlimited for their option 3 but Its cost 24 sterling per month.. that's about 38 euros without line rental....

Little-Devil

Praetor wrote: »

CAPs are not to prevent people to download ilegal stuff but to control their bandwidth and to avoid contention issues... among other things.

I think people in this country must remember that Eircom control everything so they sell the bandwidth with other ISP like BT/UTV/Smart/Digiweb etc. Thats the only reason why BT i would presume have a cap on accounts and also because they are the second biggest to eircom ISP in ireland so they need to control the bandwidth.

I would like to know if it is all BT customers who go over there cap are getting throttled or is just a certain few who download 100G?

ps: come on bolton

slave1

didn't know the business accounts had no cap, 3mg business account with BT for €40/month and no cap does not sound bad, hmmmmm

Little-Devil

slave1 wrote: »

didn't know the business accounts had no cap, 3mg business account with BT for €40/month and no cap does not sound bad, hmmmmm

€40 a month :eek:. I had 2MB with eircom and it was €50 i think? I always think you need to pay that bit extra for a good service weather its broadband or cars or a clothing label, basically you quality and expect reliabilty.

I really dont understand people who run a business on home internet package, they should be really getting advice from the Sales department from ISP's before they commit to a contract or work out how much usage they they will use downloading/uploading.

slave1

It's not clear whether that €40/month includes VAT or not and I assume it does not include line rental, because I'm with BT already I can't change over online, I need to phone my account "manager", well if getting through to BT is anything like it used to be..........

Little-Devil

If its a business package then every company has a "account manager" as someone who is the account holder and has authorization to cancel or change your account as and when they please, in your case that will be you :-).

Davey Devil

I'm on 50 GB's downloaded this month with a 30 GB cap and have not been throttled. Does anyone know at what point the throttling kicks in?

Praetor

Little-Devil wrote: »

I think people in this country must remember that Eircom control everything so they sell the bandwidth with other ISP like BT/UTV/Smart/Digiweb etc. Thats the only reason why BT i would presume have a cap on accounts and also because they are the second biggest to eircom ISP in ireland so they need to control the bandwidth.

I would like to know if it is all BT customers who go over there cap are getting throttled or is just a certain few who download 100G?

ps: come on bolton

Hello!

Ok, in case of BT its not exactly correct. BT owns their own international circuits and also they rent their own bandwidth to other companies such tiscali or whoever. So it is a little bit BTs responsibility to adecuate their bandwidth to their customers needs but bandwidth cost money and the issue must be that they are not willing to pay for extra bandwidth when the problem can be sorted by restraining a few customers going over the limit.

Congestion its Eircom's responsibility and that is something that BT or any other provider cant do anything about.

This is probably a test to see how things work out on sort term basis.

I have been told that apparently they will only throtte people who reach a certain amount of gbs, It seems that they are just punishing or throttling their top abusers, but if this doesnt solve the problem they might decide to cap everyone who exceeds their limit. But this is just a thought, of course

Oh, and someone said something about threatening them of leaving if they dont agree to raise or remove the CAP well, put it this way, who do you think wins if all customers who have been throttled decide to leave? I have seen people here saying that they have reached 50, 60 and even 80 gb and havent been throttled (yet), now, lets say that they are only throttleing people who have gone at least over 110 - 120 gb (i think Slave1 had downloaded more than 100 gb so lets work from there), how many do you think there are? 40, 50, 100? Well, if they all decide to leave and go to a different provider (please let it be eircom) then who do you think will win? I tell you who, all other BT customers!!!

Little-Devil

Praetor wrote: »

BT owns their own international circuits and also they rent their own bandwidth to other companies such tiscali or whoever. So it is a little bit BTs responsibility to adecuate their bandwidth to their customers needs but bandwidth cost money and the issue must be that they are not willing to pay for extra bandwidth when the problem can be sorted by restraining a few customers going over the limit.

Praetor, the point i was trying to make was that we know Eircom control everything do with lines and bandwidth in this country and until the goverment do something that will always be the case. BT are second to eircom when it comes to providing customers with broadband in this country, the second biggest isp. The way i see it is that eircom sell the bandwidth to BT who then sell it to smaller ISP's like UTV/Smart/Tiscali because they have so much probably. The reason they are probably throttling accounts now is because its affect customers nationwide and they are probably thinking why buy more bandwidth for there customers when they can inforce the CAP by throttling accounts and sending out a statement.

My two cents are if they are throttling accounts to have downloaded 100G or more and not accounts who go over by a couple of gbs then they probably have a list of customers who are abusing the service.

Praetor

Little-Devil wrote: »

Praetor, the point i was trying to make was that we know Eircom control everything do with lines and bandwidth in this country and until the goverment do something that will always be the case. BT are second to eircom when it comes to providing customers with broadband in this country, the second biggest isp. The way i see it is that eircom sell the bandwidth to BT who then sell it to smaller ISP's like UTV/Smart/Tiscali because they have so much probably. The reason they are probably throttling accounts now is because its affect customers nationwide and they are probably thinking why buy more bandwidth for there customers when they can inforce the CAP by throttling accounts and sending out a statement.

Little Devil Eircom doesnt sell bandwidth to BT, BT buys it from other ISP most likely outside ireland. Remember that its international bandwidth and those companies are not likely in Ireland.

In fact, Eircom probably buys some of its international bandwidth from BT. Tiscali network, cogent and many other similar networks sell bandwidth to for example, Eircom BT, Smart, Digiweb.... Its not the tiscali you are thinking of

Lets put it this way. This is the way it works from the moment that broadband is provided to you by your ISP until it reaches the internet.

Customer's router, adsl travels through the telephone line (that belongs to Eircom) until it reaches the Exchange. At the exchange after the telephone and DSL are splitted at the MDF (main distribution frame), normally more than one, especially if you are on LLU, it will arrive to a DSLAM (could be own by Eircom if its normal bitstream or to BT or Smart for example, (BT if you are on LLU2). From there Eircom or the DSLAM owner will assigned your line to a already predetermined contention (48:1, 24:1, 10:1 or whatever) and then through out a series of ATM switches it will reach your ISP (there is much more here but there is no point explaining it as it will mess things up).

Now, if you are on a LLU product from the DSLAM to Internet it will all belong to the ISP (BT, Smart, Eircom) but if you are on a regular Bitstream product it will still be Eircom. Then it reaches your ISP and then your ISP points you towards the outside world... now is when BT, Eircom and other ISP will buy their own bandwidth from other providers not in Ireland, I think for ex that Tiscali is in England but I am not sure as there are many others, BT probably owns some of the bandwidth it uses...

Its a more complicated than this but I suppose you ger a rough idea...

My two cents are if they are throttling accounts to have downloaded 100G or more and not accounts who go over by a couple of gbs then they probably have a list of customers who are abusing the service.

Looks like that might be right... now, to be honest its funny the way some people react, some of them accept it and realizes that though its annoying its the way it is, some others, well, they blame it on BT or whoever and they threaten to cancel and leaving. I am not one of them and I am sorry for people like slave1 who at least accepts thats the way it goes.

On the other hand I think they should be giving the option to buy more gb as some people do need extra bandwidth...

We shall see

Little-Devil

Praetor wrote: »

Little Devil Eircom doesnt sell bandwidth to BT, BT buys it from other ISP most likely outside ireland. Remember that its international bandwidth and those companies are not likely in Ireland.

In fact, Eircom probably buys some of its international bandwidth from BT. Tiscali network, cogent and many other similar networks sell bandwidth to for example, Eircom BT, Smart, Digiweb.... Its not the tiscali you are thinking of

I still i am correct that eircom being the largest provider is this country does sell some bitstream to other isp in this country. BT sell it to utv/smart ( practically BT if you ask me ). I did think eircom may buy some bandwidth internationally but not all it.

Praetor wrote: »

This is the way it works from the moment that broadband is provided to you by your ISP until it reaches the internet.

I dont need tutorial lesson on how broadband works, but thank you. Is it just me or do you seem to know a little too much a certain isp :rolleyes:

Blindpew

They are throttling people all over the place now just to save bandwidth. They will then offer an 8mb download package to people who want to ping themselves and brag about how fast their connection is but never download anything. Caps in my opinion should only be used to stop pregnancy or worn on the heads of bald men. They have no place in a broadband package.

overuse.jpg

Praetor

Blindpew wrote: »

They are throttling people all over the place now just to save bandwidth. They will then offer an 8mb download package to people who want to ping themselves and brag about how fast their connection is but never download anything. Caps in my opinion should only be used to stop pregnancy or worn on the heads of bald men. They have no place in a broadband package.

overuse.jpg

They are only doing it to people how have exceeded their usage a lot...

For ex, how much was your last months usage?

irishshogun

Its very easy to go over the cap, saw my speeds were crap and went here to see if it was a local issue, saw the link to the download viewer and got a bit of a shock:
I teach ICT and get a lot of Video work sent to me for assessment, but Jebus!

March Summary
You have exceeded your download limit for this month!
Your usage has been throttled due to overuse.
Logins 59
Offpeak Traffic 28671 minutes
Peak Traffic 10272 minutes
Data uploaded 30.29 GB [32524810304 bytes]
Data downloaded 154.50 GB [165889411470 bytes]


Guess I need a no limit service, is there one out there?

AlmightyCushion

Smart if you can get it. Enter your number into the line checker here (http://smarttelecom.ie/) to see if you can get smart.

irishshogun

AlmightyCushion wrote: »

Smart if you can get it. Enter your number into the line checker here (http://smarttelecom.ie/) to see if you can get smart.

Is Smart as good as it looks? no limits on a 15 meg line, looks very tempting,
better check for a smart thread

AlmightyCushion

Search for smart on here, the only bad thing you'll see is the fact that they aren't in every exchange in the country.