Virgin Media will double the number of hours it throttles the bandwidth of customers who hammer its network day and night, changes to its traffic management policy have revealed.

The tightened regime means that between 10am and 3pm subscribers to its "M", "L" and "XL" packages will have their connection throttled for five hours if they download more than their full speed ration.

The decision follows recent regional testing of extended restrictions in London and the North West. Previously the brakes were only slammed on for five hours if limits were exceeded at any point between 4pm and 9pm.

Now, "M" customers who bust 900MB during the day will have their theoretical maximum download halved from 2Mbit/s to 1Mbit/s. "L" and "XL" users' usual headline speeds of 10MBit/s and 20MBit/s will be slowed by three quarters if they break daytime download limits of 2400MB and 6000MB respectively.

The download thresholds for the daytime throttling period are double those of the evening period, which also restricts uploads. We've reproduced Virgin Media's explanatory table below:

Virgin Media says that at current levels of demand, one per cent of its 3.8 million customers will be affected by the new daytime restrictions. In the evening, when ISP networks are under most strain, traffic limits are aimed at the top five per cent heaviest users


full story (and explanitory chart) http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/05..._restrictions/

James.

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Makes sence and is only fair I suppose, only thing is they are never clear about these limits when you take out new internet packages.

They all say oh we are unlimited, but what they hide from you is they have a fair use policy which actually does limit you on what you can do.

Same as anything they tell you your getting one thing but you really get something totally different. I hate all these confusing sale tactics and anything even slightly misleading should not be allowed IMO.

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That's true.. and the same with most (if not all) providers.

I'm pretty sure that Virgin Media offer a measley little 3 GIG per month fair usage, which frankly is pathetic. I could use that in a day if I was getting a 20mb connection speed

The details of their fair usage policy (monthly allowance) was on their website but I'm struggling to find the details now , ...it must be well hidden!

James.

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