Most users don’t have ‘Unlimited Broadband’
By Asavin Wattanajantra in Editorial
Posted in ISP, uSwitch, broadband, internet on
Around nine out of ten (86 per cent) of broadband users do not understand the limit of their services, according to uSwitch.com.
There are a total of 13.7 million customers who either wrongly believe that they have an unlimited broadband service or do not know what their limit is. In the last year one million consumers nearly reached or exceeded their usgae limits in the last year alone.
The only provider that has launched an unlimited service is Sky which has removed a fair usgae policy, but more than half (56 per cent) or broadband providers are using unlimited in their promotion yet still enforcing limits.
Broadband usage is growing in this country. Applications such as the BBC iPlayer and Channel’s 4oD is gobbling up bandwidth. However users still run the risk of having their services limited, suspended or terminated if they go over usage limits.
Tim Wolfenden said that suppliers shouldn’t class their packages as unlimited if they were not. He said: “With so much reliance on broadband, having the service disconnected could feel to someone as serious as having their electricity cut off.
He added: “As providers aren’t choosing to be fully transparent about this ussue, people need to be savvy when choosing their broadband packages and pay close attention to the small print.”
Strangely the Advertising Standards Authority allows providers to describe services as unlimited even if there is a fair usage cap, as long as it is in the small print. Most consumers aren’t going to do this though.
Tag cloud
Most commented posts
- Ten reasons why people are leaving MySpace
52 comments
- My Michael Jackson blog post
- Ten reasons why World of Warcraft is better than Second Life
- Facebook user arrested for poking somebody
- What should the staff writer have as his smartphone?
- Beware of hacked Facebook applications
- Ten funny sightings on Google Street View
- Twitter didn't actually get hacked - Google did
- Microsoft sues firm for instant messaging spam
- Joining the sheep - I'm getting an iPhone
Highest Rated Blog Posts
- Ten tips to avoid your satnav driving you over a cliff (100%)
- Does unfiltered internet 'disturb children'? (100%)
- The brain-controlled laptop computer (100%)
- Why Twitter is a better news tool than Digg (100%)
- Apple and its obsession with secrecy (100%)
- Twitter isn't for teenagers? It's common sense. (100%)
- Farming and becoming a Godfather with Facebook (100%)
- Orange and the iPhone - competition is a good thing (100%)
- Bendy phones straight out of the future (93.4%)
- How Pirate Bay sticks two fingers up at the industry (80%)


