10 December 2009: Customers probably hear the phrases 'Fair Usage Policy' (FUP) and 'Traffic Shaping' banded about by the media but do they actually know what they mean and the effect they can have on broadband speeds and service reliability?
We believe the use of FUP and traffic shaping can be misleading for customers and therefore do not implement either of these practices. In this article we explain what they mean and explore the impact on broadband services where they are in force.
Fair Usage Policy (FUP)
A FUP is in effect additional T&Cs that may apply restrictions to "unlimited downloads" and means that many "unlimited" services are not what they appear to be.
Most contracts for unlimited broadband packages will include an FUP. A FUP will state a rate of usage, determined by the ISP a customer signs up to, that they deem to be unacceptable. If you hit this rate ISPs tend to:
- Slow down a customer's speed
- Apply a charge for exceeding the limit
- Actively manage a customer's service along with other heavy users
For persistent heavy users the ISPs may try to make the service seem so unattractive that the customer chooses to leave of their own accord.
All our packages have usage allowances which are clearly stated when a customer orders the service. Customers can therefore choose up front the product they require depending on how they intend to use their broadband.
We will email customers when they have used 50%, 75%, 90% and 100% of usage. Customers can check their usage at any time on our customer portal or by calling customer services on 0845 058 9000. If necessary, customers can easily purchase more usage to tide them over until the end of the month. Thanks to our one month contracts customers can also upgrade to a different product at any time – it doesn't even have to be at the end of the month.
Please follow this link for more information on managing your usage allowance: http://www.zen.co.uk/support/broadband/usage-allowance-faqs.aspx.
By having usage allowances on our service we are being up front and honest rather than hiding them in an FUP.
Traffic Shaping
This occurs when demand is too high for an ISP's network capacity - generally at peak times e.g. between 17.00 – 20.00. The ISP restricts or "traffic shapes" the speed of individual customers' Internet connections to accommodate everyone. So whilst a customer is still able to use their broadband the performance will fluctuate, sometimes quite dramatically, resulting in slower speeds and an unreliable connection.
To better explain this we will use a car analogy:
Imagine the access to the Internet as a motorway and the motorway is managed by an ISP. When everything is running smoothly cars, i.e. broadband users, are travelling down the motorway at a steady 70mph with all 3 lanes open. If the motorway becomes congested at rush hour i.e. lots of users trying to use their broadband at peak times, the ISP will look at what the car is being used for, i.e. as a broadband user this could be email or P2P, and force the car into a slow lane or even prevent the car from going onto the motorway at all. This way the ISP is able to ease the congestion until rush hour is over.
It goes without saying that, not only are we honest and up front about the usage allowances on our packages, but we would never implement traffic shaping either!
Investment in the network
Capacity is basically all about investment in the ISP's network infrastructure. If the ISP has built in excess capacity a customer's service will not suffer when the network is at its busiest.
Excess capacity in an ISP's network, however, means that at less busy times it has unused capacity and is therefore under utilising the network and ultimately this could be viewed as lost revenue.
Being transparent and placing caps on our products helps us to measure demand and build a network that can cater for all our customer's requirements and build in excess capacity so that we can provide reliable speeds and quality of service.
Our mission is to provide the best ISP service in the UK
We are proud of the awards we win for the reliability and quality of our service. We recognise that in order to maintain this high level of service we need to continue investing in our network and maintain our policy to always be up front and honest with our customers.
Recent Ofcom research clearly showed that most ISPs are traffic shaping at peak times but further research needs to be done to fully assess the extent of this practice throughout the day. Although we would not introduce traffic shaping we feel customers need to be aware that with some ISPs they are not getting the service they were promised.