Bandwidth Cap

I just recently found out that my ISP has a bandwidth cap. The cap is 70 gigabytes in a 30 day time period. I have gone over it recently by 20 gigs lol. I am up over 90 gigabytes upload/download in the past 30 days. My ISP sent me a warning email saying if I don't go back under 70 gigs within 30 days they will cut my speed down from a 5000/1000 kbps line to only 4X faster then a 28K modem.

Was wondering if anyone here has a bandwidth cap with their ISP as well and if they have had any problems to please share their experiences!

Wow, that sucks. I've got 20Mbps download/2Mbps upload unlimited.

[edit on 3/16/2007 by djohnsto77]

Originally posted by djohnsto77
Wow, that sucks. I've got 20Mbps download/2Mbps upload unlimited.

My ISP say they offer "unlimited" but there is one of those clever asterisks beside it saying "*Access reserves the right to limit usage in cases of network abuse."

Downloading too many files is network abuse.... give me a break...

Originally posted by CPYKOmega
Downloading too many files is network abuse.... give me a break...

Which ISP do you have?

Access Communications. Here is their website if you are interested. www.accesscomm.ca...

Do you have any other options, or is that the only game in town?

If you can get access from someone else, you can always leave (or just threaten to leave) and get a better deal. I'm on my 3rd ISP now. It's bundled with my cable and phone.

I have a 6GB cap. luckily its more of a guideline than an enforced cap, i usually always go over it by a gig or two.

Seriously how on Earth can you go over a 70GB cap? Id love to have that bandwidth.

Originally posted by Edn
I have a 6GB cap.

luckily its more of a guideline than an enforced cap, i usually always go over it by a gig or two.

Wow I feel sorry for you. The thing that gets me though is when you sign up it says your account is unlimited. Not any caps. They don't even tell you about the cap unless you go over it or hear about it from a friend or online somewhere.

It makes me wonder why there is such wide range of caps. I was reading online that Comcast has a 200GB cap... yet other places have caps as low as you and even lower.

Unlimited does not mean 70 gigs a month.... it means UNLIMITED meaning if I wanted to I should be able to download the theoretical limit of 625kb/sec for 30 days straight. Meaning I should be able to dload 1.62 Terrabytes a month if I wanted.

They should at least tell you about the cap when you sign up.

I think most people can tell you when it comes to the internet there just no such thing as unlimited, I tend to be very cautious with anyone that offers unlimited anything because its an impossible statement to keep.

They probably did tell you about the cap when you signed up but it was most likely in minuscule writing thats impossible to read without magnifying the screen.

Broadband in the UK just isn't very good. The BT lines are decades old the majority of places cant get more then 4MBit down there line and you tend to get what you pay for so if you want something half decent you have to pay out for it.

This is a pretty frequent issue with satellite ISPs like Wild Blue. I haven't heard much about terrestrial based ISPs having a cap issue. I did notice that your ISP is a "community owned cooperative" which probably affects the way they do business. I'm guessing you probably don't have any other broadband option in your area. Cooperatives are usually created to service an under served area. And those areas are typically underserved because there isn't enough population density to attract a big player.

In other words, you're probably stuck. 70 gigs is a load for 30 days. Do they offer an opportunity to upgrade your service level to increase the cap?

When I signed with my ISP I had a cap of 4GB (international), if I am not mistaken.

Some time after they upgraded it to 10GB and after that to 30GB. Since last year, sometime in the middle of the year, they decided to give unlimited bandwidth until March 31, 2007. I am hoping they keep it uncapped, its better to be able to download at ease without the worry of not going over the limit.

In my case, if it pass the limit I have to pay an extra by every 100MB over that limit.

For what I have read, there seems to be a tendency for the companies that offered unlimited access to start to limit it.

Originally posted by yeahright
I'm guessing you probably don't have any other broadband option in your area.

Actually I have one other option at the current moment. Sasktel. I could switch to them if I wanted to, but I think I will stick to Access as I have been with them for 5+ years and I have to admit that 70 gigs is plenty. I have had absolutely no problems with them up until now. One reason I will not choose Sasktel is they are a sort of monopoly here in Saskatchewan. They fought hard in the courts to try and prevent Access communications from offering telephone land line services. This is pathetic seeing as they were the only company that offered telephone land line based services in my area up until a few months ago.

To answer your question I am pretty sure that the 70 gig cap applies to every single level of service. So even if you have a business 7mbps line the cap will still apply to you.

I'm on a 25gig cap here in OZ. Only once have I come close to going over, I think I had 1 gig to go.

I think what they mean by unlimited is that sure you can download as much as you like but if you go over your limit your speed is reduced to dialup speeds.

So technically you do have unlimited file downloads just not at full speed if you go over.

I agree that it's unethical to call it unlimited though.

At least here in Portugal, where it's normal to have download limits, when they say it's unlimited it is really unlimited.

And my ISP as granted unlimited downloads until December 31.

Good news to me. I believe my house will be upgrading its broadband to 4-8MBit/s and a 50GB cap soon

Originally posted by Edn
Good news to me. I believe my house will be upgrading its broadband to 4-8MBit/s and a 50GB cap soon

I just upgraded to an 8MB DSL connection, let me say you're gonna love it

I'm still on the 25gig cap though so I've been budgeting my downloads so to speak.

I find it funny how if you upgrade to a 8mbps line the ISP still enforces a 25gig cap. I think that is just plain pathetic. If your speed increases don't you think your ISP should increase your bandwidth cap?? Thats the kind of thing that ticks me off.

Originally posted by CPYKOmega
I find it funny how if you upgrade to a 8mbps line the ISP still enforces a 25gig cap. I think that is just plain pathetic. If your speed increases don't you think your ISP should increase your bandwidth cap?? Thats the kind of thing that ticks me off.

Yeah I agree and I find it more than a little annoying myself, having said that my ISP does offer some higher download limits with the 8MB connection.
However it's just a bit pricey for me at the moment, they did say that the prices would be coming down so I figure I'll just stick with what I have for now.

What modulation are you on? i.e. what broadband/cable technology.

In OZ we have reasonable internet.

im on a DSL2+ modulation

Originally posted by Selmer2
fresh router log

'___' Status Up
Operational Mode ADSL G.Dmt
Upstream 1024 kbps
Downstream 23302 kbps
Noise Margin (Upstream) 10.0 db
Noise Margin (Downstream) 8.5 db
Attenuation (Upstream) 12.5 db
Attenuation (Downstream) 23.5 db

what is with my router?

ADSL G.Dmt?