Is unlimited internet really unlimited?

[aneemeesedammai]

I have been using a supposedly unlimited internet wifi package form 3bb but after watching a lot of films on youtube the speed has plummeted to about 300kb/s. I think that eventhough it is supposed to be unlimited they have deliberately cut the speed to stop me downloading any more.

In some countries they tell you that your speed will drop if you exceed a certain limit of usage, but they are up front about it.
I think that 3bb have the same policy but they are hiding it.
This is of course illegal.

I can find nothing in any of their online documentation that says that "unlimited" doesn't mean just that. They do not say anywhere that they will cap your speed if your usage exceeds a certain a level.

They say my problem is a temporary technical difficulty but I am sceptical becasue another 3bb line coming into the home is at normal speed.

I think they have an unwritten and unpublished policy that caps people.

[PiPiFFS]

Every unlimited package that I know of in Thailand has an open fair usage policy of between 5 - 7 GB. Once you hit that limit your download speed is severely throttled. As you are in Thailand I would suggest that this is written openly in Thai and is not in English. Calling this illegal as in you could sue tells me you have a great deal to learn about living here

I think that after living here for a while longer you will see that what is illegal in your home country is common practice here

[aneemeesedammai]

thanks for the information.

But I couldn't care less what my idea's show you about how long I have been living here or how little I have to learned about the country.

Perhaps you are responding to an imagineary post where I asked "Tell me how much my knowledge proves that I haven't been in the country very liong"

My question was about capping and you answered it, for that I am grateful.

But for your superior condescension I am most definitley very ungratedul.

[muratremix]

Every unlimited package that I know of in Thailand has an open fair usage policy of between 5 - 7 GB. Once you hit that limit your download speed is severely throttled. As you are in Thailand I would suggest that this is written openly in Thai and is not in English. Calling this illegal as in you could sue tells me you have a great deal to learn about living here

I think that after living here for a while longer you will see that what is illegal in your home country is common practice here

You are clearly mixing 3G connection to fixed broadband.

3G packages have fair usage X gb to 7-9 gb per month yes. Broadband connections don't have such thing. However 3BB was throttling my usenet while I was in Chiang Mai for a few days, while this never happened to me in TOT or True.

So yes, 3BB can and will throttle your connection if you use too much bandwidth in 24 hours. However it should be back to normal the following day.

[aneemeesedammai]

thanx muratramix

So you are saying that for a domestic land line (not 3G/mobile) there is no "fair usage" limit.

It's been 2 days and it's still throttled to 300 kb/s (I didn't know it was called "throttling" - very graphic!)

It could come good soon I suppose.

[lomatopo]

This is of course illegal.

I'm guessing you have a 10 Mbps/512 Kbps/590 baht DSL line? Do you have a copy of the contract you signed?

Just re-read the OP and I missed the WiFi reference. I can almost guarantee the 3BB/WiFi ToS has terms restricting usage favorable to the company.

You should probably review your contract with 3BB. There are probably terms favorable to 3BB stipulating their ability to monitor and control what they deem as over-usage. Over-usage can be categorized over any number of time periods: hour/day/month.

Have you had this line for some period of time. Is this restriction a first-time occurrence?

I have no experience with 3BB, but we are getting two customer installs this week with 3BB FTTx; I'll review those contracts for usage parameters but expect the language will be fairly generic, along the lines of, "The company reserves the right to limit individual customer bandwidth in order to insure quality of service for all customers". Or they may have a published fair-use policy. I've seen some True Online fair-use wording which limits usage over certain periods, but have never run into this as a issue previously.

Edited February 18, 2014 by lomatopo

[aneemeesedammai]

"The company reserves the right to limit individual customer bandwidth in order to insure quality of service for all customers".

I'd have no defense against that!

It's the first time it's been like this.

I'll review the contract in detail. Thanks lomatopo.

[lomatopo]

It's the first time it's been like this.

Then it could indeed be a temporary technical difficulty. Don't forget, you're sharing that network with ~ 18 million AIS customers.

[Chicog]

You'd be hard pushed to find any ISP that doesn't do an "Unlimited" package without a fair use clause.

Essentially all it means is that they guarantee you a minimum amount of bandwidth at a fixed price.

My mobile "unlimited" is capped at 4Gb, my home ISP (a different one) is 60Gb, my MIFI backup (another different one) capped at 80Gb and so on.

There is nothing illegal about it, they just bury it in the small print.

All of them drop down to a slower speed when the limit is reached, but there is no extra charge. On two of them I have the option of carrying on at full speed and paying one testicle per gigabyte downloaded or something.

Edited February 18, 2014 by Chicog

[muratremix]

I also noticed 3bb wifi just now, I thought it was 3bb adsl.

In that case, you are getting what you paid for. They can't let you use all the bandwidth for 100 baht a month

[Bantex]

Even unlimited internet usage is limited to 24 usage per day !

Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect Thailand.

[KittenKong]

You'd be hard pushed to find any ISP that doesn't do an "Unlimited" package without a fair use clause.

Essentially all it means is that they guarantee you a minimum amount of bandwidth at a fixed price.

My mobile "unlimited" is capped at 4Gb, my home ISP (a different one) is 60Gb, my MIFI backup (another different one) capped at 80Gb and so on.

My home cable connection is not capped in any way. International bandwidth is throttled daily from about 6pm through to late evening, but that's all.

[Crossy]

I've not managed to get anywhere near a cap (if one exists) on my TOT WiNet connection.

[Chicog]

You'd be hard pushed to find any ISP that doesn't do an "Unlimited" package without a fair use clause.

Essentially all it means is that they guarantee you a minimum amount of bandwidth at a fixed price.

My mobile "unlimited" is capped at 4Gb, my home ISP (a different one) is 60Gb, my MIFI backup (another different one) capped at 80Gb and so on.

My home cable connection is not capped in any way. International bandwidth is throttled daily from about 6pm through to late evening, but that's all.

Yes, I can get fully unlimited packages here but they run at about $500 a month and I don't need the internet that badly.

[JetsetBkk]

I have 3BB ADSL.

This is what happens to me, at exactly midnight:

They throttle me during the day, probably because I've gone over some limit or other and then, when the new day starts, off we go again.

[JetsetBkk]

[Chicog]

I have 3BB ADSL.

This is what happens to me, at exactly midnight:

3bb 4.JPG

They throttle me during the day, probably because I've gone over some limit or other and then, when the new day starts, off we go again.

I've never heard of it being throttled on a daily basis, actually makes quite good sense really.

[KittenKong]

My home cable connection is not capped in any way. International bandwidth is throttled daily from about 6pm through to late evening, but that's all.

Yes, I can get fully unlimited packages here but they run at about $500 a month and I don't need the internet that badly.

I have no idea about that. I pay about 7000B/year and my package is not capped in any way (apart from the daily international throttling at peak times previously mentioned). Within Thailand there seems to be no throttling at all.

[Chicog]

My home cable connection is not capped in any way. International bandwidth is throttled daily from about 6pm through to late evening, but that's all.

Yes, I can get fully unlimited packages here but they run at about $500 a month and I don't need the internet that badly.

I have no idea about that. I pay about 7000B/year and my package is not capped in any way (apart from the daily international throttling at peak times previously mentioned). Within Thailand there seems to be no throttling at all.

Sorry, when I say "here" I mean the sandpit, and that's a 10Mb connection.

Edited February 18, 2014 by Chicog

[muratremix]

I have 3BB ADSL.

This is what happens to me, at exactly midnight:

3bb 4.JPG

They throttle me during the day, probably because I've gone over some limit or other and then, when the new day starts, off we go again.

I've never heard of it being throttled on a daily basis, actually makes quite good sense really.

You should start using broadband instead of 3G, then you'll see metering!

[cheeryble]

I'm wondering if a policy like this is their only defence against people taking a connection and then subdividing and selling it on to say a hundred sub-subscribers....

Sent from my iPad using ThaiVisa app

[aussieinphuket]

if its speed V cost you are looking at i installed TOT fibre optic cable at around thb1,500 per month it works fantastic and no issues watching streamed movies.... speed is excellent..

no buffering while trying to watch a movie...

only negative point is if you don't have it close by and TOT must pull a cable to your residence this can be a little costly though all in all it was only about thb15,000 and i never

have breakdowns/excellent speed... if you can get a few to share the cost this might be your saving grace....

but once the cable is pulled the distance to your residence TOT can anytime connect others onto this line. if they have done this to mine i have seen no slow down at a lll and i have

had this for more then 2 years now...

[Ghostnigel]

thanks for the information.

But I couldn't care less what my idea's show you about how long I have been living here or how little I have to learned about the country.

Perhaps you are responding to an imagineary post where I asked "Tell me how much my knowledge proves that I haven't been in the country very liong"

My question was about capping and you answered it, for that I am grateful.

But for your superior condescension I am most definitley very ungratedul.

Well said, totally agree with you...it needed to be said, some people think because they've lived here longer, they think they have a God given rite to put people down, just to make them feel superior...t***ers

[lomatopo]

I'm wondering if a policy like this is their only defence against people taking a connection and then subdividing and selling it on to say a hundred sub-subscribers....

Every ISPs ToS/AUP, that I've ever read, strictly prohibits re-sale.

Nearly every ISP has an Acceptable (or Fair) Use Policy, you may need to ask for it. It can be generic re: acceptable levels of activity, or it can be precise. Most seem to be generic, and they tend to allow a month or two of excessive activity before notifying customers, while others actively manage things like P2P throughout a daily period, while potentially prioritizing applications like VoIP or gaming.

Every ISP has limited aggregate upstream and downstream bandwidth, along with peering flow challenges which need to be managed.

Every ISP manages their bandwidth differently, but they have to do this in order to maintain reasonable quality of service level for each customer.

"Unlimited" means different things to different people, but in regards to ISPs, bandwidth and usage it generally means that you pay a fixed price each month regardless of how much bandwidth you consume - unlike nearly any other "utility" - so more about volume than speed per se, but ultimately both your speed and pre-defined excessive volumes may subject to restrictions.

[iamariva1957]

Unlimited means just that unlimited... within reason and within normal operating/usage conditions (in simple terms). The usual, as I understand it, is around what they can handle (upstream and downstream). However, you have to remember that that too fluctuates. Being a 3BB customer as well I know what you are dealing with. But blame the infrastructure for that more than anyone else. Listen to Lamatopo's post. He is right on the money.

[sniffdog]

Not sure about BB, but True has limits. They depend on your package and are represented by a throughput per hour.

[peterb17]

Maybe it depends on how much you pay? My 3BB package is 1594 Baht a month- quite expensive. I download loads, mainly British TV, usually all in HD- so could be 20GB in a day.

I have never experienced any problems, speed is not bad, a 2GB file takes about 5 mins which is perfectly acceptable.

[orpheus454]

You'd be hard pushed to find any ISP that doesn't do an "Unlimited" package without a fair use clause.

<snip>

All of them drop down to a slower speed when the limit is reached, but there is no extra charge. On two of them I have the option of carrying on at full speed and paying one testicle per gigabyte downloaded or something...

... with lifetime limitation of 2 Gb...?

[aneemeesedammai]

My 3bb 10mb package contract seems to allow them to throttle me, more or less whenever they can get their hands round my throat.

It says

Service conditions

The company reserves the right in case the connecting speed is lower than advertised due to network limitation factors.

The company reserves the right to grant service, considering network and technical limitations.

Seems they can cut whoever's speed when and where they like and the only way to challenge them is to have a level of technical expertise comparable to their own.

I suppose market pressure is the only thing that inhibits them.

If I was less cynical I might say that they just can't guarantee trully unlimited downloads so they have to cover themselves.

I wil upgrade.

And thanks for the support Ghostnigel.

The other pertinent contract details are

Download1

10MB and upload is 512k
Cost
The price is 631.30 Baht per month including Vat.
The connection can support 1-2 computers at a time.
If permission to borrow to pay for insurance, equipment, Router 1 Port 100 Baht.
ADSL Router 1 Port WIFI 650 THB or ADSL Router 4 Port WIFI 999 THB (Price Include VAT)

Edited February 19, 2014 by aneemeesedammai

[lemonjelly]

thanks for the information.

But I couldn't care less what my idea's show you about how long I have been living here or how little I have to learned about the country.

Perhaps you are responding to an imagineary post where I asked "Tell me how much my knowledge proves that I haven't been in the country very liong"

My question was about capping and you answered it, for that I am grateful.

But for your superior condescension I am most definitley very ungratedul.

Well said, totally agree with you...it needed to be said, some people think because they've lived here longer, they think they have a God given rite to put people down, just to make them feel superior...t***ers

over sensitive newbies reach for wet wipes at the farang word and lack of hobnobs in local 7-11...