I just had a read through some old posts on here, I have had the same happen to me.
We had a letter arrive around the 10th of March
Code:
March 2009
Dear Mrs XXXXXXX
We're really pleased you're enjoying using broadband with Orange.
You'll remember, however, when you joined up, there is a Fair Usage Policy in place. Your average monthly allowance between December and January was 71.15Gb which is more than our fair usage limit. We have this limit to make sure all our customers enjoy the very best internet performance we can provide.
We would really appreciate it if you could lower your usage, especially within peak times (6pm-midnight) in line with our terms and conditions. The alternative is that we might have to cap your connection speed so that other customers don't suffer. Obviously we don't want this to happen.
Thank you in advance.
Kind regards
Customer Support
One week after receiving the letter. BAM We're capped between 6pm-12am Down to 512Kbit/s.
Living in a house with Three other people and multiple pc's.. Its not exactly practical. It means you arrive home after a hard day at work, wanting to relax..
Unable to play games, websites take ages to load, BBC Iplayer/Youtube continually rebuffers.
Video chat via MSN/Yahoo is all broken up. In other words, internet is useless.
Normally we get around 5.5Mbit/s Now lets do some calculations.
say we ran 5Mbit/s day and night for a month.. How many GByte would we capable of downloading. (Also something that is unclear from letter, as it says Gb not GB.)
5x60 = 300Mbit per min x60 = 18000Mbit per hour x24 = 432000 Mbit per day. Devide bits by 8 to get bytes 54000 Mbyte per day devide by 1024 to get Gigabyte. 57.2Gbyte times 30 days = 1716Gbyte per month.
So Running at an easy 5Mbit/s you'd be capable of downloading 1716Gbyte.
So presuming the 71.15 they list in the letter is GigaByte not Gigabit, We have succeeded in using 4.14% of the lines capacity.
So.. We never got a chance to DO something about our "excessive use" The letter we got was from 3 months back. And subsequently we have been capped without any notice.
The terms "unlimited" and "Fair usage policy" really need revising. Unlimited in our case would utilize around 4% of the obtainable monthly line capacity. If their fair use figure (which is never mentioned anywhere on their website, surprise surprise.. ) is 40GByte, it would be around 2% of the obtainable capacity.
I very much doubt that other customers might suffer... the network is fast enough to cope with this amount of throughput, especially if we are penciled in for a 8Mbit service. Not to mention I live out in the sticks, and not everyone has opened their eyes to what the internet is capable of!
It just really cheeses me off, we are now paying for a service, which judging by other members posts will be capped for another Three months.
The most frustrating part is it actually affects the VOIP line.. there is a huge delay in it and the quality of the line is somewhat similar to a piece of string between two tin cans.
Do we have a leg to stand on to cancel our contract?
Are there any other recommendable providers out there which offer a VOIP line along with 8mbit (our line only manages around 5.5) service and UNLIMITED downloads.. (I usually watch around 3 BBC Iplayer clips every night which is around 750Mbyte in total.)
Being responsible for a school network with 400 computers, keeping the internet on is my game. In the harsh realities of economics, bandwidth on a really good day costs around 1 US dollar or 70p a Gigabyte to provide before paying support staff, electric bills etc etc. If you're using more than about 20 GB a month you're costing the ISP money and other users have to subsidise your habits whilst you're eating their share of the bandwidth.
Try leasing an 8 mbit/s line, providing you're not too far from an Internet node you're going to find its not going to happen for much less than £1000 a month, seriously more than that if you're fetching it any distance (Its charged at fixed cost + £X00 per km per month and a lot of money goes nowhere). Then you share it out between 24 users like yourself (4.14%) and charge them £15 a month. It doesn't take a genius to notice they aren't going to stay in business long. They depend on a lot of people using a little to make a profit.
What would you do with serious drains on resources ? You can't afford to keep them. Its either playing mind games and sending out cosy letters or kicking them off outright. Either way doesn't do your credibility any good.
Then you get the Beeb encouraging everyone not to miss the unmissable and eat 250 mB watching an hour of last weeks soaps.....
I've had the same problem except Orange didn't send me a letter. One day the internet was ridiculously slow between about 17:00 and 24:00. Then a few months later I got a letter saying that because my usage was less they would reinstate my 8Mb line.
Luckily my contract was near the end so I have just phoned up and cancelled it. The guy on the phone said the cap was 50GB. I pointed out that it wasn't unlimited then, and that the fair usage policy was very vague. He said that it was mentioned on the hompage! A quick google search (site:orange.co.uk 50GB) shows this to be untrue. I have no problems with a cap so long as the ISP is upfront about it. Also there is no way with Orange to check your usage.
Pluggy is right on the money, this data stuff isn't cheap.
An average of over 70Gb over two months is a massive amount of data. I'm a pretty heavy downloader but I definitely consider a 50Gb fair usage policy cap to be fair considering the costs invloved.
Quote:
So presuming the 71.15 they list in the letter is GigaByte not Gigabit, We have succeeded in using 4.14% of the lines capacity.
You're forgetting that the lines entire capacity is being shared by an average of about 100+ other people
I know this is now an old thread but I ran into the exact same thing.
I received the letter saying basically behave or we will cap you, and we were capped. This got my back up as I was not informed so I am now in the process of finding out exactly what the fair usage policy limit is.
Now, and bear with me, we have an unlimited allowance subject to fair use. 40Gb is what a large number of people believe that limit is. WRONG ! but RIGHT !
Yes, I am confused too.
I emailed Orange to tell them if they cannot give me a fair usage limit and also a link to this information on the Orange website I will be going to Trading standards for not supplying what they said they would.
If they cap you and you do not know the fair usage limit it is EXACTLY the same as the police saying you can drive as fast as you want but within reason. You do 20mph and the police tell you you were going to fast. But they never told you how fast you are allowed to go so is this fair? NO.
Now this leads me on nicely to Orange and their Crapness !!
I email having my rant and rave. They reply with this example:
Quote:
The End User Speed Control (also known as EUSC) is where a line speed
restriction of 512kbps is applied to a customer's line during peak hours
(18:00pm to 12:00am, 7 days a week).
This restriction targets customers who are in breach of our Fair Usage
Policy, i.e. downloading over an average of 5Gb of data in two
consecutive months at peak times. This congests the network and heavily
affects the performance of our internet service for other broadband
users, at peak times.
Below is an example of a customer that would be speed controlled:
April May
Overall 52Gb 49Gb
Peak time 8Gb 7Gb
The following customer would not be speed controlled. Although they have
a higher overall GB usage their usage at peak time has remained below
5Gb:
April May
Overall 80Gb 90Gb
Peak time 4Gb 3Gb
So 5Gb is the Fair usage limit during peak hours yes ? And the 40Gb monthly limit does not apply at all.
So I emailed back and said:
Quote:
Thank you Nichola for you speedy reply and all of your answers on my
concerns.
The only issue and large concern I have left now is where on the Orange
website site does it state that 5Gb is the fair usage allowance during
peak hours? Since my cap has been lifted I may have already downloaded 5Gb through my 4 computer family as I have never seen any reference to a 5Gb
limit.
I am not here to argue with you or Orange about it's fair usage policy
but just ask that, now you have personally made me aware of the peak limit,
you reset my peak usage to 0Gb so I can start a fresh safe and put in place
limits within my household to prevent the 5Gb limit being reached.
I look forwards to your reply and a link to the Orange website with
reference to the peak usage limit.
So I got back this:
Quote:
Thank you for your email.
I have looked into this for you and on checking your account, You are on
the home select this fair use policy on this account is 40Gb down load
policy.
Subject to availability and minimum term 18 month contract. Unlimited
usage subject to Fair Use Policy.
By accepting our Terms and Conditions, you agree to be bound by this
policy. Please see below the terms relating to the relevant service you
have subscribed for.
Home Broadband
Why have one?
Well it's designed to make sure your broadband service is fast and
reliable whenever you use it.
Some of our broadband customers use file sharing software and download
large files like music and videos. This uses up lots of network capacity
leaving less available for you. If they're doing this at peak times, it
could mean that the speed of your broadband service will be affected.
Am I likely to be affected by the Fair Use Policy?
If you don't use file sharing software or download large files from the
Internet it's unlikely you'll ever be affected by this policy. If you
do, all we ask is that you do so considerately, perhaps by downloading
outside the peak hours of 6pm to midnight. Don't forget that media
streaming, including the streaming of internet radio using devices such
as Orange's own Liveradio, contributes to your use of bandwidth and may,
if left permanently on, cause you to be in breach of this policy.
What will happen if my use is very high?
If you only occasionally have very high usage, we're unlikely to be
concerned. If it is happening regularly, we may either have to reduce
the transmission speed of your broadband while we continue to keep an
eye on your usage, or suspend your service and/or possibly close your
account.
If you have any further queries then please do not hesitate to get in
contact with us again.
Kind Regards
Tracey
Broadband Support
So I am just as clueless as I was when they capped my line. 40Gb - 5Gb unlimited - who knows.
I have replied again asking them to supply the link to the fair usage limit which is set for peak hours. If this does not happen I will speak with Trading Standards to see what they have to say.
I will keep you updated if you want on Orange's "I have no idea" policy.
I'm sorry to learn you were given the incorrect information in the
previous email from Tracey. Please accept my apologies for any
inconvenience caused.
The correct information was given by Nichola with regards to not
exceeding the 5GB during peak hours.
There's a Fair Usage Policy within our Terms of Use, however, it doesn't
state what the usage allowance is. This is currently under review.
If you've any further queries then please don't hesitate to get in
contact with us again.
Kind Regards
Sarah
Broadband Support
So here is the truth (For the UK Anyway). DO NOT download a total of more than 4.99 GB each month between 6pm - Midnight for 2 months running or you will be capped.
My cap lasted 3 months and it was a killer. It was not worth having the internet at all and I was not warned I was being capped.
Download as much as you want in the daytime though and OH YES, I am doing that !!!
I read with interest about your usage cap as we received a letter today about our speed being capped for using 6.1gb over the october to november month.
We have got the broadband with them due to our mobile phone contract, but like you, were never told about the exact limit. My dad does spend sometime on youtube in the evenings and myself and fiance spend time doing our university work and playing on xbox live but thats it. It seems harsh capping it as out first warning when I have read others being way, way over. But also our connection quality is so poor! It regularly needs resetting and is slow anyway.
Thanks for this thread (and site). Great to get some solid information on this problem. Hopefully I can add a bit more clarity from my experience.
Minor rant begins. Thank you for bearing with me. I've just received the letter too, for 5.75GB usage in Oct/Nov. I've been in touch with Orange about this and received the usual bland response, filled with poor grammar, spelling mistakes and no actual information. They wouldn't tell me how long I'll be capped for or to what level (I didn't get any warning and this forum indicates I'm about to enjoy a 1/2 meg service for the next 3 months!) but they did write this;
"All our unlimited usage packages, are all subject to our fair usage
policy, regardless of the subscription price. Customers have unlimited
usage in accordance with our fair usage policy at off peak times,
however, any customer using over 5Gb in peak times on a regular basis
will be subject to a speed restriction."
So there's the 5GB figure in print. I'm not against fair usage policies but it's the lack of transparency that's the issue here. Also, 5GB seems incredibly unrealistic. I smashed through that barrier just using the iPlayer, the PS3/Wii online, youtube, occasional internet Radio, online shopping/browsing, email and (running out of ideas) itunes? Who wants to watch the iPlayer at 2am to avoid this happening? I'm boringly old nowadays and, therefore, at work all day and I tend to sleep nights so I really don't use the connection outwith peak times. The point is (and there is a point) that I'm a fairly average domestic user. 5GB does not reflect normal usage for a modern household in an age of streaming media. It certainly should not be called "unlimited". It would appear that Orange are happy to take our money to provide a so-so service (with hilarious customer service, I'll post my emails up here sometime) but take disproportionately punitive action if you actually use their mis-advertised service. Just my observation.
I advised I would be leaving their "laughably outdated service" and they didn't seem to care (not sure why I thought they would). Disappointingly, I spoke to a BT adviser and they weren't willing to discuss their fair usage policy with me. Has my bluff been called? are they all as bad as each other? Can anyone direct me to a credible alternative ISP as, after years of devoted & patient service since the Freeserve days, I've finally had it with Orange.
Hi, what a similar story to mine, coincidently the same month too!
I too will probably leave Orange, I have been looking at other providers, such as Sky as they have a max package which does have fair use, but only if you download film after film but they send you an email when you are getting near the excess limit. We said that we had this happen due to using 6gb and the customer services person laughed lol
BT also has a cap at around 100gb a month apparently, but i am unsure which package this is.
I use the internet much for the same reasons as you, but for the 360 not ps3 I dont think our speed cap has started yet, if it has, well its no different to always eg slow!!
I have been reading this thread with interest and have also had the pleasure of being capped after downloading 7.65GB during the month of Oct and Nov. I cant find anywhere a stated 5GB limit on the website.
I was warned a year ago and left it alone they capped me for a while and then it went back to normal speed,if i dont download during peak hours will they restore my speed to what i am paying for? (8mb)
If the limit is really 5GB over the peak hours then that is really absurd as a limit. Did some napkin math of a family who typically have at least 1 person using the connection from 7pm-10pm for online gaming every day. Calculated it with a very low estimate of bandwidth usage of 128kbits per second. That family would go over the limit every month purely from this gaming habit. Hardly class that as excessive use.
I assume this isn't the case or I'd have gone over the limit every single month since I got the package! 5GB total in one month for the period 6pm-midnight is unbelievably easy to blast through. In fact you wouldn't even be able to use X-Box Zune service to stream a single HD movie in peak hours without going over that limit. It would also restrict you to watching at most 5 movies a month with the Sky Player streaming service.(Seriously no-one would really want to wait till 2am to watch a movie when they are used to watching them after dinner or before going to bed).
To me that would indicate that their service is not fit for purpose and should be advertised as such.
e.g.
"This package should only be used for browsing text based web pages with no embedded video and for emails with attachments of less than 1MB. Oh, and for the love of god, please don't use any online video streaming service like Sky Player of iPlayer. This is the biggest\best package we'll offer. Enjoy your quality Orange service!"
well i have had emails too and from their customer service dept this week,and they can't seem to grasp the fact that they don't publish this 5gb limit so how can we abide by it.
Does anyone know of their offical complaints procedure? as i am getting nowhere with their customer service.
Yeah I've been having problems with Orange lately. I haven't had a warning letter from them (yet) but I'm extremely worried that I might get one soon since I'm pretty sure I've been using more than 5GB a month between 6pm and 12am lately.
As far as I was aware, up until recently it was just a rule of 40GB per month.
You're all right though - the fair use policy is just a joke - what sense does it make? It makes no mention of any fixed limit and doesn't even mention the time limit in the FUP - so in theory you're not agreeing to it if it is not mentioned in the FUP when you sign up.
I'm glad that it's now unlimited between 12am-6pm which is fine and I will adjust to that, but it's a pain that I'll probably get capped for something I didn't even know about!
Thought I would post a quick update. Sorry if its a bit long lol
Decided to ring up Orange to cancel and get the MAC code. After speaking to a few different people I finally got through to the right department, the others couldnt do it because we had a speed cap in place or something.
The most interesting thing for me was that we received the letter on the 19/12/09, yet our speed had already been capped at the beginning of December!
Also, the letter said that it would review our usage and then return it to normal speed- not quite, in actual fact we are capped for two months which is stated on their system.
One person that I spoke to had quite an attitude problem about us cancelling, but she seemed to accept it when I told her that their usage was so low for a family of 4- 2 of which are university students and so need a good internet connection. Plus their internet is very unstable and slow, needing to be regularly reset. Funny thing is since december time, when the speed cap started, we havent needed to reset it lol
The other lady I spoke to recommended that we searched on google for a tool that will measure our bandwith or something- but 'orange doesnt support this'- doesnt surprise me. But she was more than happy to give me the MAC code, saying a lot of people leave when the limitation is applied.
We are waiting for BT to activate now, their 'unlimited usage' is actually 250gb fair use- but like we are going to use anything like that amount Unfortunately the Sky package we liked isnt offered in my area yet but hopefully BT wont give us any problems!
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