Sky Broadband has removed its fair usage policy on most of its packages, thus becoming the first Internet Service Provider to offer truly unlimited downloads.
Although many ISPs offer “unlimited” broadband downloads, many will implement a “fair usage policy” which restricts those users considered to use an excessive amount of bandwidth. Users who regularly practise P2P (peer to peer) file sharing are most likely to fall into this trap. ISPs take various measures to prevent their customers using excessive bandwidth, such as restricting broadband access, reducing download speeds ant peak times or even cancelling their subscription altogether.
But now Sky Broadband has told customers they can download as much content as they want at any time, without worrying about speed capping or data charges. Previously Sky customers had to stick to a fair usage policy of 250GB downloads per month.
The company has reassured customers that enough space has been made available to accommodate the changes. A spokesperson said that Sky decided on the change after several customers complained that commercials were misleading because they advertised their broadband service as being “unlimited” when in fact downloads were restricted.
Earlier this year, the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) ruled that Vodafone remove an advert offering “unlimited” mobile internet access, when in fact they employed a fair usage policy of 250GB a month. The ASA also received complaints about Virgin Media when they advertised download speeds of 16Mbps but imposed speed caps on its heaviest users.
However, a spokesperson for Virgin Media called Sky’s claim to be the first ISP to offer totally unlimited broadband ‘empty rhetoric’, and said that Virgin Media already had an unlimited without a fair usage policy.
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