Is unlimited broadband actually unlimited?

Question

I have virgin media 60meg unlimited broadband and i have been hammering the downloads like downloading ps3 games from the playstation store, i am getting parinoid about getting overcharged but i am unlimited.
Is it well and truly unlimited?

Answer 1

Most Internet providers impose limits on the amount of data you can download before they charge you overage fees or throttle your Internet speed to a crawl.



Unlimited Internet is a term often used to market Internet, cell phone and web hosting services. Very seldom does it actually mean unlimited. What the providers do is add what is known as a "Fair Usage Policy". The effect is that you are either throttled to a crawl or charged extra for monthly bandwidth that exceeds the providers predetermined limit. This limit can be very small for satellite or mobile broadband Internet plans.



For Virgin Media, their term for fair usage is "Subscriber traffic management".



From the Virgin site:

"We want all our customers to get the best possible broadband service. That means speedy downloads for all customers – not just a few. When someone is downloading and/or uploading a particularly large amount of information over a long period of time, it can slow down the broadband speed for other users in their area who might just be checking their email or browsing the web. That’s why we occasionally moderate the speeds of customers who are downloading and/or uploading an unusually large amount." http://help.virginmedia.com/system/selfservice.controller?CMD=VIEW_ARTICLE&ARTICLE_ID=3103&CURRENT_CMD=SEARCH&CONFIGURATION=1001&PARTITION_ID=1&USERTYPE=1&LANGUAGE=en&COUNTY=us&VM_CUSTOMER_TYPE=Cable



Good Luck...

Answer 2

all ISPs have something called a fair use policy, it basically means that although your connection is unlimited if you are over using it like in the daily gigs range they will probably start to throttle your connection as you will be affecting the other users on your line. they will not charge you any more.

Answer 3

As you will discover there are a form of a chance perspectives. a at the same time as in the past, at the same time as connections were infrequently above 500 kbps and month-to-month value became over 29.ninety 9 for that connection, there have been some who kept their computers operating 24x7 and utilising document sharing were actually passing tens of GB a month. later on, some ISPs charged slightly more beneficial and set no limits (eg Zen, for his or her a million Mbps and a pair of Mbps connections). even if, maximum uk ISPs wanting to have limits, or a "honest Use coverage" (FUP) because at the same time as speeds went larger, there became the chance that some ought to (ab)use the relationship and keep it operating 24x7 yet now able to receive a minimum of 10 cases the volume of archives as became a chance 5/7 years in the past. you'll discover that your ISP slows down your connection, (so it continues to be lively, yet a lot below complete speed) or merely stops site visitors (except you pay a in accordance to GB value for more beneficial archives). at the same time as uk on line (portion of Easynet crew, previously it became all offered to Sky) became first providing ADSL with their own equipment in exchanges, they set an higher decrease of 500 GB a month (yet now I anticipate that's lots decrease). once you've 'deep wallet' you pays for a corporation account at about 80 pounds a month and characteristic an quite limitless account. some would have got here upon they don't get any proceedings from their ISP for months, yet when the corporation ameliorations its perspectives on what's monetary, the heaviest clientele would get a marvel at any time, and be requested to leave. One ISP used to have 3 or 4 distinct debts with increasing expenditures and lengthening allowances. the right one became referred to as "limitless" yet they instantly did a U-turn and set a month-to-month archives move decrease at the same time as DSL Max grew to grow to be available... with an "as a lot as 8 Mbps" connection, the quantity of archives will be tremendous each and each month (and with out any limits the expenditures for the ISP ought to get very extreme if a large - or perhaps small - percentage of clientele were "extreme"). As suggested, once you've "deep wallet" you're ok... 80 pounds a month seems fairly extreme to me although. i have no longer considered any factor out of limits on the Claranet off-top account (won't be able for use from 0800 to 1800 Mon-Fri yet that's no longer a prooblem for those wanting to move a lot of archives all nighttime and over weekends, too).