Network Management

It is a concern that BT can reduce our bandwidth without warning, even for Option 3 users, in order to provide service for more customers. Customers in rural areas who suffer a low bandwidth at the outset are hit proportionately much harder by this policy.

BT is not alone with this policy; Virgin Media does the same and probably others.

BT states this policy as follows:

"BT continuously monitors network performance and reduces the speed available to very heavy users (typically less than 1 per cent of all customers) during a given month to ensure that the service received by other customers is not impacted through extremely heavy usage by a minority of people.

Customers who are classified as very heavy users will experience significantly reduced speed at peak times (typically 5pm-midnight every day but these times may change depending on the demand on the network) for a period of 30 days, or for as long as very heavy use continues. This applies to customers on all Options. Option 3 allows unlimited downloads and uploads within the monthly rental price, so Option 3 customers will not be charged for over-use. However, this does not preclude BT from reducing your speed if you are a heavy user in order to protect the experience for the rest of our customers.

We may need to vary the policy from time to time to ensure the best possible experience for all our customers. This site will always be kept up to date with the latest information."

Furthermore BT inspects what we are downloading and treats it differently, again in order to serve more customers:

"Peer-to-Peer (P2P) refers to certain applications that enable files and program sharing between groups of people logged on to a P2P network. Because they use uploads and downloads and are often left running 24/7, they consume significant bandwidth, even when being used by just a small number of customers. Because a lot of P2P traffic is not time-critical, eg, downloading TV programmes or movies for later viewing, we treat P2P traffic differently from time-critical traffic (such as surfing, streaming or internet telephony) and apply speed restrictions to all P2P traffic at peak times. We manage these restrictions daily depending on the demands on the network, but typically they will be in place 4pm - midnight on weekdays and 9am - midnight on the weekend."