| Xplornet is adding CAPS to their traffic management policy! We signed up with Xplornet with a supposedly UNCAPPED service (as advertised). Soon after, a message appeared on our "myxplornet" page, where they send you updates, which I am posting IN FULL underneath, as it does not appear on their public web page. People need to know up-front what they are signing up for, and what Xplornet is doing at the moment is a bait-and-switch tactic. In summary, they are introducing DAILY and MONTHLY caps, which put your account in something they term "recovery mode", in which you wlll experience speeds of 300 kilobits/s (37 kilobytes/s) for days on end until your account has "recovered" from the "overusage".
Let that be a clear warning to anybody thinking of switching to Xplornet.
NOTE that the information posted below is in stark contrast to their current stated traffic management policy, which is posted here for people to compare to the information I've posted underneath. The information under the link is from our myxplornet.com page, accessible ONLY to existing clients, which means that Xplornet is in effect keeping the policy secret in order to sign up new clients and then switch the policy from under them.
Old traffic management policy: »www.xplornet.com/legal/xplornet-···icy.aspx
NEW TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT POLICY:
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Expedience
Our goal is to ensure that each Xplornet customer receives fair and consistent access to the Internet. A small percentage of customers are responsible for a disproportionate share of data usage on our network. To minimize the impact that heavier users might have on the experience of other Xplornet customers, we have implemented a Fair Access Policy. Our intent with this policy is to affect the fewest customers while helping maintain the best speeds for the majority of customers.
On your package, the Fair Access Policy operates only during peak hours (between 8am and 1am local time). During this time, our network subjects traffic related to applications that are considered non time-sensitive (such as peer-to-peer file sharing, news groups, and online data storage) to a peak transfer speed of 300kbps download and 100kbps upload.
Starting March 1st , 2011 the Fair Access Policy on your platform will include the peak-hours rules mentioned above, but also some rules related to daily and monthly bandwidth allowances. If you exceed your daily or monthly allowance, your service will go into “Recovery Mode”. While in Recovery Mode, your speed will be restricted to a maximum of 10-25% of your normal maximum speed.
When you exceed your daily allowance, Recovery Mode will continue for a minimum of 12 hours. At the end of twelve hours, the system will reevaluate your usage over the prior 24 hours. If that usage is below the daily allowance, Recovery Mode will end and your speed will no longer be restricted.
Similarly, when you exceed your monthly allowance, Recovery Mode will continue for a minimum of 5 days. At the end of 5 days, the system will reevaluate your usage over the prior 30 days. If that usage is below the monthly allowance, Recovery Mode will end and your speed will no longer be restricted. In short, customers who were relying on actually having their advertised speed for streaming video or other such "time sensitive" applications will find their service unusable very quickly.
Expedience Daily and Monthly Bandwidth Allowances as of March 1st 2011:
*Note: The listed packages are Xplornet’s standard offers. Depending upon your region, your package may have a different name. However, your Fair Access Policies will be consistent with the service packages of the same speed configurations above.
Service Pkg//Max DL Sp//Maximum UL Sp//Daily Bandwidth//Monthly Bandwidth
Zip ............300 kbps ....100 kbps ............200 MB ............10 GB
Zoom ........1.5 Mbps ....500 kbps............. 500 MB ............20 GB
Xpress .......3.0 Mbps ....600 kbps ............1 GB ................40 GB
Xtreme .......5.0 Mbps ....800 kbps ............2 GB ................60 GB
Small Biz ....3.0 Mbps ....600 kbps ............1 GB ................40 GB
Medium Biz 5.0 Mbps ....800 kbps .............2 GB ................80 GB
Big Biz .......5.0 Mbps ....1.2 Mbps ............2 GB ................100 GB
In addition, we will be introducing a dynamic congestion management policy . This dynamic policy will respond to congestion in a part of the network by identifying those users in that part of the network who are consuming the most bandwidth and reducing their speeds to approximately half their maximum speed for a period of 15 minutes. At the end of 15 minutes, if congestion in that part of the network continues to be an issue, the system will once again calculate which users have been consuming the most bandwidth in the prior 15 minutes, and implement the speed restriction on that newly-calculated set of users.
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 GuspazGuspazPremium,MVM
join:2001-11-05
Montreal, QC
kudos:16 | 2*30 = 60GB. The monthly cap is 100GB.
It appears to be impossible to even use your monthly allotment on many of these plans...
Let's look at their slowest tier, 300Kbps downstream.
You have a 10GB monthly cap, and so you should be able to use 333MB per day. Let's say you time yourself according to that, so you hit 200MB of usage about 14 hours into the day, at which point you're reduced to 10% (30kbps) for the next 12 hours.
This means in your first day, you can download a total of 332MB; one meg short of your 333MB cap, but let's say it's close enough.
The following day, you start with 2 hours of reduced speeds, getting you about 26MB in your first 2 hours. Now, they say the recovery mode might continue longer than 12 hours, but let's assume it doesn't. You now have the goal of consuming your remaining 307MB in the 22 hours that remain. 12.5 hours later you'll hit 200MB total for the day, and get throttled.
Now you've got to transfer 133MB in 9.5 hours, while the maximum possible is 125.
End of day 2, you've used only 325MB... It gets worse from there.
If you play by the rules and try to use only 333MB per day, you will never be able to fully use your monthly cap.
If you don't play by the rules, and just try to max out your connection, you'll hit 200MB in 90 minutes, and presumably you'll be stuck in recovery for longer than 12 hours since you're still over your limit, so you'll get 297MB more, or 497MB in that day.
So, you see? Their new silly throttling plan *ENCOURAGES* users to burst as high as they can, contributing to congestion, because it's the only way to even use up their monthly cap.
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Developer: Tomato/MLPPP, Linux/MLPPP, etc »fixppp.org |
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 andybPremium
join:2003-05-29
SW Ontario
kudos:1 | reply to xplornetbad
I looked at them a few years ago and they had caps then.Much lower also.It still sucks but better than before |
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| reply to xplornetbad
"In addition, we will be introducing a dynamic congestion management policy . This dynamic policy will respond to congestion in a part of the network by identifying those users in that part of the network who are consuming the most bandwidth and reducing their speeds to approximately half their maximum speed for a period of 15 minutes. At the end of 15 minutes, if congestion in that part of the network continues to be an issue, the system will once again calculate which users have been consuming the most bandwidth in the prior 15 minutes, and implement the speed restriction on that newly-calculated set of users."
This must be the best peak-shaving policy I've ever seen. It's not great, but it seems rare for an ISP to implement a policy based on...wait for it... actual congestion! |
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DavesnothereNo-BHELL-ity DOES have its Advantages
join:2009-06-15
START&Cogeco
kudos:6
4 edits | reply to xplornetbad
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I fully agree that a 'BAIT & SWITCH' policy is wrong in several ways, for ANY type of good or service.
Considering that Xplornet typically pressures people into signing 3 year contracts in order to get the quoted monthly prices, and to reduce install costs, there are going to be SOME UNHAPPY CAMPERS if this new policy applies to those who signed one in the past.
"This new info should be posted on the PUBLIC part of their site, Your Honour !" - These words no doubt will be uttered in a courtroom soon.
BUT, having said all of this (above), I will state for the record that the THEORY (though not the exact numbers they will be using) of Xplornet's new network traffic management plan ACTUALLY ARE MORE FAIR THAN WHAT BELL DOES !
What I mean (for example) is that their 'Dynamic Congestion Management' (see their final paragraph) is to done based on ACTUAL TRAFFIC on their network (rather than the daily throttling of some data types continuously for all subscribers for some arbitrary period of hours like BELL has been doing), and with a re-evaluation performed every 15 minutes, it makes the THAT part of their idea is not so crazy after all, at least in theory.
But in practice, Xplornet is responding VERY LATE to a condition of GENUINE CONGESTION on their network, which has been troubling them and their subscribers anywhere from moderately to severely for some months (or years) now, unlike the IMAGINARY CONGESTION of the BELL network.
Xplornet's new but tardy idea DOES MAKE SENSE IN PRINCIPLE, except that since their network is currently so extremely oversubscribed that it will be difficult for them to justify the benefits of the new policy to enough of their subscribers, as too many will be labelled as excessive users in the execution of the new rules. |
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 GNca GeorgeGorillaNET Wireless BroadbandPremium,VIP
join:2008-07-12
Minden, ON | Years Dave. At least three.
Geo |
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colinp
join:2007-08-20
Mountain, ON | reply to xplornetbad
I can't remember the last time I was able to get 300kbps consistently, so I'm going to download, youtube and netflix like a banshee and maybe my connection will go up?
Ha, not bloody likely. |
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bt
join:2009-02-26
canada
kudos:1 Reviews:
 ·Start Communicat..
| reply to Duuuuude
said by Duuuuude :This must be the best peak-shaving policy I've ever seen. It's not great, but it seems rare for an ISP to implement a policy based on...wait for it... actual congestion!
It's better than the blanket throttle from Bell/Rogers/etc, but check out what Primus does on their own equipment for something even better:
Primus does not set specific bandwidth limits or speed restrictions for any traffic. When congestion occurs, traffic that is not prioritized, such as the traffic of resource-intensive applications, is slowed as a result of time-sensitive and priority traffic being prioritized. |
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bt
join:2009-02-26
canada
kudos:1 Reviews:
·Start Communicat..
| reply to Davesnothere
said by Davesnothere:BUT, having said all of this (above), I will state for the record that the THEORY (though not the exact numbers they will be using) of Xplornet's new network traffic management plan ACTUALLY ARE MORE FAIR THAN WHAT BELL DOES ! That would be because it's actually meant to address congestion issues. The numbers are definitely a bit wonky, but the structure is closer to addressing congestion than a simple monthly cap and static throttle.
How they're going about putting it in place is pretty much the way all the majors went about it though. And that's not a good thing. |
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| reply to bt
said by bt:It's better than the blanket throttle from Bell/Rogers/etc
Not blanket? Did you read it?
During this time, our network subjects traffic [...] (such as peer-to-peer file sharing, news groups, and online data storage) to a peak transfer speed of 300kbps download and 100kbps upload.
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bt
join:2009-02-26
canada
kudos:1 | I read it, but apparently not close enough. |
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DavesnothereNo-BHELL-ity DOES have its Advantages
join:2009-06-15
START&Cogeco
kudos:6
4 edits | reply to DSL_Ricer
said by DSL_Ricer:....Guaranteed shitty torrent speeds from 8am to 1am? Sign me up ! [/SARC]
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AND what's more, after 1AM, when Peak Hours end, one of 2 things will happen :
1) Xplornet's network, being as severely oversubscribed as it is, will SELF-LIMIT anyone who tries p2p during 'off-peak' hours, to a STILL unsatifactory speed,
AND/OR....
2) Many of those peeps may still be in the PENALTY BOX for exceeding one of the other limits of their plan earlier on, and will not receive an equal share of whatever 'Off-Peak Bandwidth' is available, of course subject to the constraints already in place due to #1. |
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| This is the most ridiculous traffic management plan I have ever seen. Boycott em. |
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 XoX
join:2003-08-19
Qc, Canada | reply to xplornetbad
They are pathetic at best...
I do not know where they operate but are they alone offering Internet around there? At least it seem like it because the cap are a joke... 2 Go a day for the 5 mbit plan... |
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bt
join:2009-02-26
canada
kudos:1 Reviews:
·Start Communicat..
| said by XoX:I do not know where they operate but are they alone offering Internet around there?
They are a rural provider, so quite often they are the only provider. Bell/Telus/Rogers sometimes have cellular-based offerings, but other than those it's Xplornet or dialup. |
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XoX
join:2003-08-19
Qc, Canada Reviews:
·TekSavvy DSL
| said by bt:said by XoX:I do not know where they operate but are they alone offering Internet around there?
They are a rural provider, so quite often they are the only provider. Bell/Telus/Rogers sometimes have cellular-based offerings, but other than those it's Xplornet or dialup. If they are alone that explain the low cap bullshit since people can not go any where else beside dial-up... So it's a mini Bell  |
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| reply to xplornetbad
Xplornet are the best of rest but quite poor. I am on the large biznet package and while it is usable, that is it. I can't game, rent movies (Apple or Netflix) and run into VPN issues as well. Evenings and weekends are horrid.
I tried working out a separate solution but got no support from suppliers.
D |
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1 edit | reply to xplornetbad
Here is the old Xplornet Wireless traffic policy. It took Xplornet 4 1/2 years to publish and it only lasted for one year before it got made back into a hidden policy on throttling. Unless of course, you know the proper questions to ask support when inquiring about Caps and Throttles.
But the new version is also still in violation of the CRTC ruling on full disclosure of traffic management practices(It's not available to the general public without jumping through hoops to get there, be a customer or know what questions to ask of support and still not get a proper answer).
And the »www.ccts-cprst.ca/en/ also now wants all service providers to join now. But Xplornet still has not joined, even though they easily qualify.
.......Old version......
What is Xplornet's Fixed Wireless Traffic Management Policy?
The Traffic Management policy that applies to Xplornet fixed wireless Internet access service is based on the amount of data you can send (upload) and receive (download) in a given session. A session is the time it takes to complete an activity like downloading a web page, downloading a song or uploading a photo. You may burst up to the top package speed for a certain period of time. Once you reach the predefined usage limit, you will continue downloading or uploading at a sustained speed until the activity is completed.
Each of our service packages has a usage limit. When you exceed the limit of your package, the download and upload speeds will be reduced to 20-40% of your package's top speed. This speed reduction is dependent on which package you have.
Most basic Internet activities such as web browsing, text based email, online banking and social networking seldom trigger the Traffic Management policy. Some more intense Internet activities like downloading a song or streaming video may cause the Traffic Management policy to take effect.
Examples
Below are two examples to help you understand how the fixed wireless Xplornet Traffic Management policy works.
Example #1 - Downloading software:
You are on the Xpress package (top download speed is up to 3.0 Mbps) and you want to download the latest version of Adobe Reader which is 31 MB. The first 3.5 MB will download at the maximum rate capable with the customer's modem and the remaining 27.5 MB of the file will download at the sustained rate of 700 Kbps. Once the software has finished downloading, the Traffic Management policy will reset before a new session begins.
Example #2 - Downloading a song:
You are on the Zoom package (top download speed is up to 1.5 Mbps) and you want to download one 4 MB song. The first 1.5 MB will download at the maximum rate capable with the customer's modem and the remaining 2.5 MB will download at 600 Kbps. Once the song has finished downloading, the Traffic Management policy will reset before a new session begins.
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Consumer Rights is more than just a suggestion. |
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| reply to Dialdn
I'm an ex-SimplySurf subscriber also in the Carp area. I've had Xplornet for just over a week (3.5Ghz, 3Mb) and it's pretty poor. The news about caps makes the situation more depressing. I tried a Rogers hub for a week and have to say it was quite good. The problem is the cost. I'd pay the price and go month by month if I knew something else was coming but it doesn't look like anything else is. |
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DavesnothereNo-BHELL-ity DOES have its Advantages
join:2009-06-15
START&Cogeco
kudos:6
3 edits | reply to zalternate
said by zalternate:Here is the old Xplornet Wireless traffic policy. It took Xplornet 4 1/2 years to publish and it only lasted for one year before it got made back into a hidden policy on throttling. Unless of course, you know the proper questions to ask support when inquiring about Caps and Throttles.
But the new version is also still in violation of the CRTC ruling on full disclosure of traffic management practices(It's not available to the general public without jumping through hoops to get there, be a customer or know what questions to ask of support and still not get a proper answer).
And the »www.ccts-cprst.ca/en/ also now wants all service providers to join now. But Xplornet still has not joined, even though they easily qualify.... -
[rant]
Sounds like Xplornet execs attended the BSCAP (BHell School of Communication Avoidance Practices).
If you have seen the dozen or so threads about Bell's most recent unannounced 'MAT' (Modified Algorithm Throttling) experiments, which have been posted and active last week in 3 forums here (this one, TSI, and Bell), it becomes self-evident that BHell wrote the book on Non-Disclosure of activities which negatively affect their clientelle.
[/rant]
BTW, the OLD Xplornet policy which you posted struck me as not all that bad, compared to some parts of the current one, bearing in mind that I believe I understand (and have posted above) the reasons why I think they wrote up the new policy, and my predictions about its near-term effect. |
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