I understood that "unlimited" meant all you can eat with a biggest pipe we can offer you for the first X Gb, and then we throttle "over the cap" usage for the rest of the billing cycle. Technically, you can keep using it, but at reduced speeds.
But in a slightly different domain, my broadband provider advertises "Unlimited XMbps broadband" but throttles after 1.5Gb. That's clearly not "Unlimited XMb/s" That's "1.5Gb XMb/s broadband with unlimited 300Kbps broadband". Yeah I know broadband speed is a big grey area, and they have all these getout clauses like service conditions etc etc, but when it comes right down to it the whole thing just feels like a advertising con.
Here in America advertised speed doesn't even have to relate to actual speed. "Unlimited XMb/s" means "You will never get more than XMb/s, and there's a cap, but you'll have to figure out what it is on your own. Don't worry, it's very large."
Has anyone tried suing? The figures so blatantly misrepresent the service provided that it seems like a shoe-in for a victory if you got enough people on board for a class-action.
Comments
I understood that "unlimited" meant all you can eat with a biggest pipe we can offer you for the first X Gb, and then we throttle "over the cap" usage for the rest of the billing cycle. Technically, you can keep using it, but at reduced speeds.
Makes sense.
But in a slightly different domain, my broadband provider advertises "Unlimited XMbps broadband" but throttles after 1.5Gb. That's clearly not "Unlimited XMb/s" That's "1.5Gb XMb/s broadband with unlimited 300Kbps broadband". Yeah I know broadband speed is a big grey area, and they have all these getout clauses like service conditions etc etc, but when it comes right down to it the whole thing just feels like a advertising con.
Here in America advertised speed doesn't even have to relate to actual speed. "Unlimited XMb/s" means "You will never get more than XMb/s, and there's a cap, but you'll have to figure out what it is on your own. Don't worry, it's very large."
At what point is this false advertising? I see it more like this:
1: Subject to a cap, don't worry it's large[3]2: We did the math, and it's theoretically possible, but you can get 60% of this speed[5]
3: 'Large' being defined as 'we won't tell you how big it is, or what happens when you go over. Trust us.'
4: Only at 3am when nobody else is on, with a brand new computer, fresh install of Windows, speed determined by loading http://google.com/
5: Subject to interplanetary alignment, some other conditions may apply.[4]
Has anyone tried suing? The figures so blatantly misrepresent the service provided that it seems like a shoe-in for a victory if you got enough people on board for a class-action.
Varying broadband speeds are why UK ISPs have to state 'up to X Mbps', since they can't guarantee the customer they will get the advertised maximum.
Unfortunately, this makes it easier for them get away with the 'unlimited' designation, since they're no longer promising you any particular speed.