ISPs Still Confusing 'Limited' & 'Unlimited' Have their marketing cake and eat it, too... Thursday Sep 20 2007 11:04 EDT Bell Canada yesterday took the wraps off an unlimited EVDO wireless broadband data plan that costs $75 Canadian ($74 US) per month. Canadian law professor Michael Geist notes that the company's fine print for the new unlimited plan technically prohibits you from doing, well, anything that might actually really use unlimited bandwidth: quote: You shall not use or allow others to use the Service or your Device if such use:•consumes excessive network capacity in Bell's reasonable opinion, or causes our network, or our ability to provide services to others, to be adversely affected; •is for multi-media streaming, voice over Internet protocol or any other application which uses excessive network capacity that is not made available to you by Bell; •is to operate an email, web, news, chat or other service.
Here in the States, Verizon Wireless offered an "unlimited" service with a similarly restrictive EULA, and didn't bother to tell anyone the service had a 5GB monthly cap. Users would sign up for the service, then receive one of these letters telling them their service was to be terminated for excessive use. After several years of complaints, Verizon finally made the 5GB cap clear and stopped using the word unlimited in marketing materials. |
|
I love itThese companies are digging their own graves.
Sprint here, auctually does give what they advertise. I have Sprint EVDO, this billing peroid, I've just hit 75 gigs down, 5 gigs up. Thats legitimate traffic for my business. Even asked at the store before purchasing last spring, if my bandwidth demands would be a problem, and they told me no, however, Voice comes priority, so if a tower was getting nailed with too many users, it would just drop me down to the 1xRTT Network, but I would not loose connectivity. That is awesome service! | |
| | 3 edits |
Re: I love itsaid by Anonuser:it would just drop me down to the 1xRTT Network, but I would not loose connectivity. That is awesome service! I doubt it would step you down to 1xRTT but they may simply prioritize voice higher than EVDO at the tower. No one has ever reported they have been stepped down to 1xRTT. Sprint EVDO seems to be the heavy favorite over at evdoforums.com. Looking forward to WiMAX/EVDO combo coming next year. I already dumped my cable modem for EVDO and don't miss cable at all. It's not as fast but good enough for me. And no need to search for hotspots as it (or 1xRTT) works anywhere there is a voice signal, even roaming. WiMAX will be more able to compete with cable/DSL. With the exception of those who really want/need very high speeds, more people will eventually dump landline broadband for EVDO/WiMAX like many dump landline phones for just cellphones. Landline phones are more reliable but most would rather have the mobility of cellphones than the highest quality. The same will happen when WiMAX becomes ubiquitous. Sprint/Clearwire are currently the only ones with enough spectrum to pull it off. Verizon has a limitations because they don't have enough spectrum and have a much higher users per tower ratio. | |
|
yabos join:2003-02-16 London, ON |
yabos
Member
2007-Sep-20 1:09 pm
So what's the use for it then?"is to operate an email, web, news, chat or other service." There's not much else if anything you can even do with the service if they think they can ban you from doing those above things.
I guess they really just want us to give them $75 per month and not actually give us anything for it. | |
| | RARPSL join:1999-12-08 Suffern, NY |
RARPSL
Member
2007-Sep-20 2:11 pm
Re: So what's the use for it then?said by yabos:"is to operate an email, web, news, chat or other service." There's not much else if anything you can even do with the service if they think they can ban you from doing those above things. I think that the "operate" refers to running a Server not accessing one. IOW: You can send/receive Email, Browse the Web, Send/Receive USENET NEWS, and Chat. | |
|
3 edits |
SadOFF TOPIC:
What really strikes me about this story is not the fact ISPS love to play the unlimited game. It's the fact that this country has been so F'ed up over the last seven years that 75 Canadian is equal to 74 US. I went to canada 13 years ago and got 1.35 Canadian for a dollar. I went back last year and got 1.15 Canadian for a dollar.. Now its 1 Candian Dollar to 1 US (in news right now). First time since 1976!!.. Sigh.... Can things get any worse in this country... apparently so.. just look at the housing market and everything else.
Back on topic:
Unlimited is a game ISPS all over like to play. They love to toss around the word and then throw arbitrary caps around. If anyone had the nuts to fight them, they would win. You can't rent someone a car and try to hit them for excessive mileage if you don't state the driving limits. ISPS are trying to do just that. They state unlimited or leave it open ended, but then try to toss users who exceed some figure. These companies seem to think their customers are dumb. Stating in the TOS that you can limit or get rid of a customer for usage, while advertising otherwise, won't hold water in court. My guess, any court with 2 brain cells will read their unlimited claim, and ask how they wish to cap in a contradictory manner. What would allow you to kick a user for excessive usage, if you state unlimited? Hence, ISPS have themselves in a catch 22. All it will take is a good lawyer and a few class actions to solve this matter. However, if these isps were more open and stated these numbers, instead of trying to hide them in the shadows, life would be a lot easier for all. Then again, this would take from their bait and switch marketing on "unlimited". | |
| |
LSJ
Anon
2007-Sep-20 5:34 pm
logical capsWhy don't ISPs just have an advertised cap that normal users would never go over, but if someone goes over this cap they are given a slower speed for the rest of the month but with no cap limit on the slower speed. Still, the ISP could still give you a higher speed when you went over your cap if they had no reason not to, or give you a limit when other customers would be slowed down. | |
| |
MaBell is Back
Anon
2007-Sep-20 5:53 pm
It's Bell's Way ot the Highway...is for multi-media streaming, voice over Internet protocol or any other application which uses excessive network capacity that is not made available to you by Bell;
I guess that cuts out 3rd party phone providers like Vonage and ViaTalk and the rest...
Did someone bring up the network neutrality issue? | |
| packetscan Premium Member join:2004-10-19 Bridgeport, CT |
Theft Through Deseptive MarketingThis is simply theft as described as a bait and switch. Here is a link to wiki on the subject. » en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ba ··· d_switch. Now the classics, an advertisement would offer a 100GB hard-drive on sale for 99 dollars only to get to the store when it opens to find they sold out but they have another 100GB drive in stock for only 129 dollars. -in this case the customer was at the store when opened no one before him on that day bought a drive. So this tells us the store advertised something it couldn't/didn't want to deliver. The same is happening in the ISP industry. You are offered unlimited packages and find out after the fact that indeed there is a limit. For the most part ISPs push these cases off as virus activity which in turn means the user is "abusing" the network and the ISPs acts. The Next time anyone is capped they should contact the attorney general for your state. As you are being offering and paying for something that simply isn't being delivered. Listen.. Unless people start to complain to the correct Representatives and Officials these practices will continue and it can only get worse. | |
| | pfak Premium Member join:2002-12-29 Vancouver, BC |
pfak
Premium Member
2007-Sep-21 2:29 am
Re: Theft Through Deseptive MarketingJust a reminder: Canada does not have states, we have provinces. | |
|
| |
|
|