As I recently noted, Verizon has told me they're in the process of notifying roughly 45 of their 5.8 million FiOS customers that they're using "excessive" amounts of bandwidth. While some users in our forums note they've been using in excess of 77 Terabytes each month (running a video streaming empire out of your bedroom will do that), Verizon says anything in excess of 10 Terabytes monthly can get you on their radar.
Another user
in our forums has shared
a copy of the letter Verizon is sending out to these users.
"We have recently become aware of extremely high usage on your account," the letter begins. "This extreme usage is in violation of the Verizon Consumer Online Terms of Service (TOS) and the Acceptable Use Policy (AUP)....If the excessive usage continues past September 1, 2013 on your FiOS Internet account, your service will be disconnected on September 18, 2013."
The letter proceeds to notify the customer that he can avoid disconnection if he moves to a FiOS business line, though as we just found out, those accounts are not exempt from excessive use warnings. Nowhere in the letter does Verizon provide users with any sort of detailed explanation of exactly how much bandwidth they consider to be "excessive."
"Practically speaking, the consumer user experience with Verizon’s broadband networks has no limitations," the company tells me. "However there are terms of service customers agree to and are expected to adhere to. When they do not those customers distort the concept of home service versus business services."
While the warnings are being sent to only a small portion of Verizon customers at the moment, it does leave one wondering how long it will be before Verizon decides to use these users to justify imposing caps and overages on residential FiOS usage. While Verizon has traditionally advertised the lack of caps as a benefit of their all fiber infrastructure over coax and copper, the company has long
chosen their words very carefully to leave the possibility of caps open sometime in the future.
