sblaze
join:2003-08-14
Cochran, GA
 ·WildBlue
| FAP: is it 70 or 80?
Is it 70% or 80% we are supposed to get our speed back? I could swear the last time I got FAPPED it was restored at 80% or maybe that's just what I want to remember?
I just got off the phone with Customer Service and they said once I hit 69% my speed would return. Like I said though... I could swear that it used to be 80! Since I'm sitting at 74% right now... I sure WISH it was 80! |
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Earth Signal
Earthsignal
Premium
join:2002-10-03
Burlington, IA | You should get a warning email when you reach 80% of your FAP limit and you get restored to full speed at 70% after you have been FAPPED. |
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Spice300
Premium
join:2006-01-10
| reply to sblaze
The rule used to be that your speeds would be restored when both your download and upload usages dropped to 80%. On Aug. 1, 2007, wildblue changed the restoration usage to 70%. Wildblue or my NRTC sends me a FAP warning only about half of the time when my usage rises above 80%.
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Value Pack, beam 31, Riverside gateway |
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sblaze
join:2003-08-14
Cochran, GA | Anyone know why they changed it from 80% to 70%?
Thanks for the info so far guys. |
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Spice300
Premium
join:2006-01-10
4 edits | For the first 6 months after Wildblue was launched ending January 1, 2006, Wildblue reset our FAP meters to zero at the first of every month. Presumably the reason they have made the punishment harsher is to further limit the customers who use their Internet connections heavily allowing them to pack more customers onto spot beams to make more money.
The following is an explanation from Wildblue about why they changed it for enterprise customers as posted by wanderingman on June 13, 2007. Presumably the same reasoning applies to residential customers.
quote:
WildBlue Enterprise Solutions is going to revise the Fair Access Policy on July 1, 2007.
See the attached new policy.
There are two main changes:
a) Instead of having their service terminated after repeated violations, customers will NOT be terminated but will be limited to email and websurfing (via blocking of certain ports) in addition to being in a reduced speed status (128 kbps/28 kbps).
b) We are changing the criteria for allowing customers to return to normal speeds from the reduced speeds (128 kbps/28 kbps) after a FAP violation. It used to be that when they hit 80% of their Monthly Usage Threshold, they would return to normal speeds – that is being reduced to 70%.
The goal of these changes is to NOT terminate customers who are repeated FAP violators – which is a positive for your customers and protects any investment you have made in those customers in the form of subscriber acquisition costs or other marketing & sales costs.
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Value Pack, beam 31, Riverside gateway |
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sblaze
join:2003-08-14
Cochran, GA
·WildBlue
| Thanks Spice...
Wildblue sure is full of it aren't they! I figure I'll share my Customer Service experience with you all this go around on my FAP Violation.
The other day my usage was back down at 73%. I called WB CS and talked to "Courtney". She was very nice and I explained everything to her and asked her was the uncap % 70 or 80%? She informed me that it was 70% but that my modem would not reset until 69%... in fact... "Once you hit 69% your modem will reset and you will have full speed again."
Ok first of all... I think that's kinda cheap as hell. If they are going to do that then it should be 71% so my modem will "reset" at 70%!..
So after like 3-4 friggin days of my usage sitting at 73%.... it finally drops to 70%. First off there is almost no chance in hell my bandwith was that stagnate 30 days ago. I try to watch at least one 2-300MB video at netflix a day... so I maintain somehow or another I got screwed there (even if I didn't). Sometime late last night my Wildblue Pulse's bandwith usage showed me at 69%....
So 8am this morning I call WB CS.... I didn't catch the CSR's name... but man oh man I can think of a descriptive adjective to name her. One of the highlights of our conversation... and hand to God people I'm NOT making this up... she informs me that once you violate your FAP.... your modem speed will never return to full speed and it will stay that way until you use your, "one time FAP removal." At this point... I inform her I've been a customer for 3 years, "I KNOW HOW IT WORKS!" I wasn't rude and I didn't raise my voice. She puts me on hold and again I swear to you... I'm not making it up... when she comes back she reads me the FAP paragraph about when the speeds are suppose to return at 70%!!!!!
She asked me did I want to use my one time FAP removal and I said no. I got off the phone as quickly as possible with her and called back.
WOO HOO I got Courtney again.... Courtney was again nice and explained to me that there was nothing she could do... that it should reset sometime in the next 24 hours and that I shouldn't waste my one time removal over 24 hours wait time (duh)
What I'm curious to know... is are they blowing smoke up my wazooo... cuz it sure feel like it! FYI.... modem still hasn't "reset"... even after a reboot or two of it....
This type of business practice just feels wrong to me... |
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Spice300
Premium
join:2006-01-10
| This is the first I ever heard of the "one time FAP removal" rule. Maybe WB created the rule to be nice to new customers who do not understand the FAP and over indulge themselves with their new Internet toy.
Oops, I forgot about the 24 hour wait. More precisely the speeds are supposed to be restored within 24 hours after both the upload and download usage drop below 70%. If WB is rounding the numbers to the one's digit, then one might not have the speeds restored until the FAP meter reads 69%. However, the rule that is programmed into their computers probably makes the download restoration thresholds 5,250 MB, 8,400 MB and 11,900 MB respectively for the three packages. The software may check the FAP criteria only once per day which would explain the waiting period.
Occasionally the FAP meter makes mistakes by not adding the usage to the meter causing there to be no subtraction the following month. According to my Fapzilla and netstat data that happened to me early last month. If the 3 or 4 days that your FAP meter froze included November 30, a partial explanation would be the end of month flat line. WB's FAP meter stops adding and subtracting usage on the 30th and 31st of the month giving us a free-for-all for those days. If you are interested in the details, read FAP Flap Follow-up.
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Value Pack, beam 31, Riverside gateway |
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