"Airtel Fair Usage Policy" Limits on Unimited Broadband!

[kalpik]

Come to think about it, limiting bandwidth isn't that bad either. ISPs have to pay according to per TB to the Internet Backbones & DNS servers. So, this way they pay the same amount to the DNS servers but make it available to many users. Think from the point of view of someone not among us & who is deprived of Internet so far.

They should make new cost rules. Rs 500+tax for 512 kbps with 40 GB cap & Rs 900 for 512 kbps unlimited.

Like I asked many of you guys before, what is it that you use internet this much for? I mean, come to think about me.....40 GB is also overkill, I don't download that much (not much piracy actually).

If you are a linux user who downloads new Distro to try, well,...then get an hold on what you use. I have seen many Linux users jumping to a new distribution even before they finish learning a distribution. You upgrade your application without looking at the change log, do you actually need that minor upgrade which comes out everyday?

If you are into beta testing, coding community etc, then pay a bit more & get better connection. You are a minority of people among airtel users.

Don't ask for unlimited resources, instead find how much work can you get out of limited resources. I still remember how much work my Senior in Delhi's office used to do on a 17" CRT which I wasn't able to do on a 19" LCD due to lack of knowledge.

What is happening is very easy to understand. ISPs don't want us to pirate much. How about a test? For the next 1 month, don't download any pirated content like a T.V show, Movies etc (unless U have some subscription). If you are into Linux distributions then before downloading a new application or distribution, sit, read the change log & see if you actually need it. To read news from sites like Engadget, use a RSS reader so that you can read all the news instead of going to the actual site. Now, put a bandwidth meter & see how much have u downloaded in 30 days.

We don't get speedy Internet on mobile phone, but if you know how to use the resources efficiently then even 120 kbps EDGE (typical vodafone speed in lucknow) is also enough. Browse using Opera Mini, use Opera mini for reading the RSS, Chat using Slick (too hard to type on a keyboard for long though) & see how it saves bandwidth.

You guys are lucky to have broadband today, some of us oldies uses to visit 3ds Max, Photoshop & Adobe premiere forums on Dial up once ., we used to study with far less leisure then you are having today. I remember, there was a time when I actually went to a library to gather information about Nuclear Fission reactor for my class 12 school project, how many of you do it now?

We ARE paying for *unlimited* connections!! If the ISP cannot support unlimited connections, its a lack on their infrastructure planning. Its not the fault of the user. I paid for an unlimited connection, ill use it 24/7/365. You want to implement caps, lower the connection cost. As simple as that.

 

[multi]

TATA indicom broadband has been doing it for quite some time. in a 256kbps conn the moment you cross 12 gigs you speed will come down crashing to 20-50kbps.
this happened for quite a few months on trot, n thats when i realized their jack assness.
i shifted to Rel wimax ...
the only difference with airtel is they v now announced it thru their CC

I am using their service from last 2 year , never got such forced throttle downgrade .

I am with 384 UL & my monthly UL + DL total comes around 195 GB /month & that too each month . Even before it was with 256 UL , I maxed out all , still not got degraded or even warned by them .

although I am not supporting it but look wht other world also getting it so stop whining

Since June, Time Warner Cable has forced Beaumont customers to choose from one of four monthly caps: 5, 10, 20, or 40GB. Pricing plans range from $29.95 a month for a 5GB cap and 768Kbps download speeds to $54.90 for a 40GB cap at 15Mbps. And if you exceed your cap, you're charged an extra $1 per gigabyte.
Time Warner announced the expansion of this "trial" during yesterday's quarterly earnings call, but it did not specify which cities would be affected.
Meanwhile, Charter has told Broadband Reports that it will soon update its Acceptable Use Policy to include "residential bandwidth consumption thresholds" - aka caps. Users whose service runs at speeds of 15Mbps or slower will be capped at 100GB a month, and those at 15 to 25Mbps will be capped at 250GB.


America's largest cableco, Comcast, now caps all its users at 250GB. And in November, AT&T rolled out a metered internet "trial" in Reno, Nevada. Pricing plans range from $14.99 for a 20GB cap on its 768Kbps DSL service to $55 a month for a 150GB cap on its 10Mbps service.

*www.theregister.co.uk/2009/02/06/charter_and_time_warner_bandwidth_caps/

and how about this Telstra Aussie monopoly ISP with same tactic

Gamer hit with $6000 Bigpond bill


WHEN Justin Cavanagh decided to play online games with his mates over the Christmas break he didn't realise his actions would cost him thousands of dollars.
Mr Cavanagh, 29, connected three computers at his North Gosford home so his friends could go head-to-head on the popular online World War II strategy game Battleground Europe.

But he exceeded his Telstra Bigpond 60GB ADSL2+ plan by more than 38GB.

Telstra's policy is to charge excess data at a rate of 15c per megabyte but, the company says, Bigpond customers are always sent email notification when they are nearing their download limit.

When Mr Cavanagh's next Telstra bill arrived it said he owed them $6041. A distraught Mr Cavanagh contacted Telstra about the massive bill and was told to send an email.

"It was a bit hard to send an email because they cut off my connection," he said.

When The Daily Telegraph contacted Telstra a spokesman rang Mr Cavanagh immediately and said the bill would be waived as "a gesture of good will".

*www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,27574,24942175-15306,00.html

 

[tarey_g]

wtf, no pdf file is viewable/downloadable. on that page, why these govt sites suck so much ???

 

[abhi1301]

^^^^^^ Well it's viewable atleast from IE6 .. can't abt other browsers( don have any in office)

@ MUlti : I bet they are well informed bout the download cap

 

[tarey_g]

Ah, works with IE6. but still wtf ! here i am struggling with my site to work with multiple browser and these govt sotes dont give a damn abt that.

read the PDF and this is what Aircrap has suggested

Also the service providers should be free to implement fair usage policy and restrict the
few bandwidth huggers’ from the pack who deteriorate the experience of the majority
normal users

Direct link to PDF *www.trai.gov.in/WriteReadData/trai/upload/ConsultationPapers/167/Bharti.pdf

 

[comp@ddict]

Wicked, 105 views when I saw, and 104 Replies!!!!!!!

PS-Hate AIRTEL for this!!

 

[red_devil]

@above : looks like you dont know the digit forum theorem : Views = Replies + 1

 

[comp@ddict]

LOLz, but this is crap. Just when I thought about getting an UL, it's not UL anymore, atleast half of it.

 

[mehra.rakesh]

Come to think about it, limiting bandwidth isn't that bad either. ISPs have to pay according to per TB to the Internet Backbones & DNS servers. So, this way they pay the same amount to the DNS servers but make it available to many users. Think from the point of view of someone not among us & who is deprived of Internet so far.
.......................................

DUDE ,,,No offense but r u russian or something ???? coz even they don't use ""bandwidth rationing"" and u went gr8 lengths supporting this move.......

anyway had my share of laugh for today .... Unlimited Plans subject to limits of 2 gigs only !!!!!!!!! JAI HO

 

[gaurav_indian]

I don't have a major problem with some data cap if they reduce the prices. But if they continue with the same prices then I may better kick em in teh arse and move to some other ISP.

MTNL mein aapka swagat hai.

 

[SunnyChahal]

^^
ussi se toh bhaag ke aaya hun. I'm thinking of getting TATA 115 Kbps dialup. At least it's unlimited.

 

[Ecstasy]

We ARE paying for *unlimited* connections!! If the ISP cannot support unlimited connections, its a lack on their infrastructure planning. Its not the fault of the user. I paid for an unlimited connection, ill use it 24/7/365. You want to implement caps, lower the connection cost. As simple as that.

Exactly, why should we pay the cost of "Unlimited Plan" and have caps on it. Best to lower the price of the plans and then introduce this stupid policy of theirs.

Btw, if its really a govt. order/policy then i think MTNL will also soon follow it and the rest as well. :/

 

[joyceanblue]

if they want to implement something like "fair usage" its fine with me, i got no problem.. but at the same time i want to see a little transparency in airtel's policies as well. i mean are they losing money in broadband business? while rest of the world is giving speed in mbps at the same price and that too unlimited plans, they are still stuck to 256kbps and they want to cap that too? so for some weird reason completely unknown to me and my fellow members here , providing broadband is more expensive in india for isps than rest of the world? i just want to know the real reason behind it. fine if they are losing money they have every right to do that. no one is in a business to lose money.. but if they just want to exploit this horrible horrible condition of broadband infra and providers and they want to suck their customers dry, i got a problem with that. what we need is a mass protest, a large no. of ppl moving to mtnl or tata or any other isp

 

[VD17]

You have to give it to them, you know... these people really know the nuances of the english language well... They have set such a perfect precedent for a thing called IRONY by capping unltd plans and calling it "fair usage policy"

ps: you wont believe how badly i'm restraining myself from putting in some "flowery" words in my text...

 

[Faun]

^^Yeah Fair Usage Policy for Technically Challenged people in front of daredevil government

 

[vaithy]

1.If the Govt issued any such order, BSNL and MTNL have to implement it first, then only afterwards private players followed.2.So far no such order exist /received by BSNL. If what Airtel people are saying true, and BSNL receive such order later, it has two choice. It had to lower the price of say UL (home)750 / or give a discount of 20 or 30% to the customer who has not exceed the limit prescribed by them. Instead of lowering the price this is the easiest part to be implement. In such way both parties will be a satisfied users. Thus they who want to download unlimited can continued to do so long. Both some users may prefer to take the discount when they are not having any demanding downloads with them.

with regards,
vaithy

 

[kalpik]

I completely agree with this guy.

Whoa, what's going on with Airtel here? Have they lost their mind??

So they get Rs.999+tax and PROMISE me unlimited usage @384kbps right? Now how in the hell do they figure that I "abuse" (or, "hug", to use their term) bandwidth when I am using what I was promised?
Is it just me or could it be that they are backing down from their claims? Godamned Airtel must've known what plans their infrastructure can support before promising a speed and not make promises(I mean the TOS) they can't keep.

OK, **it happened. We have a relatively short data cap beyond which we will experience a speed cap. Now comes another interesting part of pro-rating.
That is, if I am going to be limited to speeds belonging to a plan lower than mine, how about charging me at the rate for that plan for the duration of the bandwidth limit? For example, if I reach my 25GB cap at the middle of the month, then, shouldn't my bill be for ((15 days * rate_of_384kbps_plan)+(15 days * rate_of_256kbps_plan)) ?
If there was a network failure for a considerable amount of time, we can ask for downtime credit, can't we? Perhaps we ought to demand credit for the 128kbps bandwidth that we "lost" (384 minus 256), huh?

 

[comp@ddict]

So is BSNL better or MTNL? I'm planning on a 512KBPS or 1MBPS UL plan. Max I can shell out is Rs. 1700 a month though.

 

[Ecstasy]

Whatever people say/write on forum i doubt if Airtel people will give a sh1t about it..

 

[kalpik]

Whatever people say/write on forum i doubt if Airtel people will give a sh1t about it..

They do! they have taken down all references of fair usage policy from their website.. Im also bugging them constantly by sending them mails asking about the policy.