'Throttling' Broadband Provider Sued In Australia 130
destinyland writes "Optus has been severely throttling users who exceed a download quota, according to ZDNet — down from 100Mbps to 64Kbps — and it's drawn attention from federal regulators. Optus's ad campaign promises 'supersonic' speeds, and one technology blog notes that the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission 'isn't happy about Optus' sensationalist claims, which it's sure breaches the Trade Practices Act.' Australia's trade commission called the practice 'misleading or deceptive,' and the broadband provider now has a date in court next month, the second one since a June hearing over 'unlimited' voice and data plans that actually had usage caps."
Title? (Score:3, Interesting)
shouldn't it be "provider" and not "provided?" the difference is subtle, yet profound...
Re:They have 100Mbps broadband here? (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm having trouble finding any reference to a 100mb/s plan on either Optus' site or whirlpool.net
As for throttling once you've used a set amount of data, that's pretty much standard practice... it's not like they hide it.
ISPs, sell yourselves on _service_! (Score:5, Interesting)
With all the negative press these "limited-unlimited" plans have been getting both for cell phones and internet providers, I would think that a marketable slogan might now be:
"Due to the laws of physics, we aren't unlimited, but we'll do the next best thing and make it easy for you to monitor your usage and judge how much you are spending on bandwidth!"
It would be nice to have an ISP that attains success by being honest instead of by lying to their customers.
It seems the "unlimited" thing seems like such a good sell that every ISP feels the need to offer it, even when they can't actually handle the traffic. What ever happened to not selling things you can't offer?
(The corollary of SNL's "Don't Buy Things You Can't Afford.")
Re:ISPs, sell yourselves on _service_! (Score:3, Interesting)
It seems the "unlimited" thing seems like such a good sell that every ISP feels the need to offer it, even when they can't actually handle the traffic
Certain words and phrases are simply irresistible to certain mindsets, even when those words and phrases have long since ceased to have any real meaning. They just can't help it: they're so steeped in dishonesty that they don't really see any other way. If the law does come down on these people and force them to fix their advertising, I'm guessing it will be just as painful to these types as having all of their teeth root-canaled simultaneously.
Re:They have 100Mbps broadband here? (Score:3, Interesting)
As for throttling once you've used a set amount of data, that's pretty much standard practice... it's not like they hide it.
I don't mind caps and/or throttling , but only when it is clearly advertised as such. E.g. in my case there is a 50Gb cap, and it is very clearly present in the description of my plan when I signed up for this. Nor was it advertised to me as "unlimited" at any point before or during purchase.
IMO, any use of the word "unlimited" in conjunction with that is blatant fraud, and should be prosecuted as such.
Re:Big deal (Score:4, Interesting)
Two completely different cases here.
ISP's in Oz cant throttle p2p connections, they can only throttle entire connections and this must be advertised with the service. ISP's in Australia are dumb pipes, doing any kind of throttling or port blocking without the customers knowledge is illegal. That being said, throttling (the entire connection) after a certain cap has been reached is completely legal as long as it has been advertised (customer knows when signing up for the service).
This complaint is because a customer feels that Optus has misrepresented their service in their advertising, not because Optus is throttling (in plain English, Optus was caught lying). As other posters have mentioned the ACCC (Australian Completion and Consumer Commission) our competition watchdog is quite popular and does work, albeit a little slowly.
Re:Big deal (Score:3, Interesting)
And they tend to come with a sheet on how to unlock them.
Mind you, they seem to have paid no attention to region-locking of computer DVD players.