Bandwidth caps: Are they really that common?

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isomeri

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Poll Bandwidth caps: Are they really that common? (392 votes)

My internet contract is capped and it affects my behavior. 28%
My internet contract is capped and it doesn't affect me. 12%
My internet contract is not capped. 55%
It's just a series of tubes. (Show the answers) 6%

I feel like bandwidth caps are a topic which I've not come into contact with before last year. As consoles have started to increasingly embrace the digital age, the internet's been full of people complaining about the sizes of downloadable games, patches and so on. Apparently around the world, especially in Australia and the USA, broadband providers put caps on the amount of traffic each customer is allowed per month.

As someone lucky enough to be living in Finland, with 100Mb unlimited broadband readily available for less than 20 euros a month, the concept of caps like these sounded ridiculous to me at first. But after a full year of following the conversation around this it seems like bandwidth caps are becoming an increasing problem for many gamers. Even if people buy games physically they are often mandated to download a sizable patch which takes a chunk out of their monthly allowance.

I guess I just want to hear all your experiences regarding this matter, especially regional differences. Had you heard of data caps before last year? Does your provider impose data caps on you?

PS: I'm aware that polls are currently broken, but decided to try my luck anyhow.

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Nasar7

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In the US I currently have 50mbps internet with a monthly data cap of 250 GB. It's not enforced though, I've gone over the cap a few months and you are not penalized in any way. Yet. I'm sure they are analyzing data trends to figure out how much they can screw us in the future.

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isomeri

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@nasar7: What are the theoretical ways in which "they" could punish you? Demand you pay more extra month, drop your speed or what? 250 gigs does sound like quite a lot but I've honestly got no idea how much I go through each month taking into account all the HD video I consume through Netflix, Giant Bomb, news sites etc.

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kewlsnake

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In Belgium, I have a bandwidth cap of 100 gig and it affects my behavior. I am using the cheapest option available though (Basic Internet). The reason I haven't switched to something more expensive (Internet 60) is because for the longest time I could pay double the price for twice the speed (30 mbps -> 60 mbps) but still have the same bandwidth limit of 100 gigabyte, making it pretty pointless. Now that changed to 150 gigabyte which isn't great either. For the same price I can use the slower internet + buy additional volume which would give me 30 mbps and ~200 gigabyte as a cap.

If I pay roughly thrice the price of the slower internet, I can get "unlimited" download (internet 160) with the caveat of fair use policy which allows the internet provider to limit my speed to a crawl when I reach between 300 gigabyte and 1.5 terraybte of monthly download.

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nophilip

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I'm in Michigan and I've got 25 mbps internet with no cap.

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jay_ray

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#5  Edited By jay_ray

@isomeri said:

@nasar7: What are the theoretical ways in which "they" could punish you? Demand you pay more extra month, drop your speed or what? 250 gigs does sound like quite a lot but I've honestly got no idea how much I go through each month taking into account all the HD video I consume through Netflix, Giant Bomb, news sites etc.

If nasar7 is similar to me then the ISP would include data overage charges on the next bill, I think mine is $1 per gigabyte. But like him my cap is not enforced. I do know a lot of people in Canada with a 60 GB cap and is enforced. That is basically one or two modern games if you download them and if you stream anything you are screwed.

Edit: I also pay a crazy amount for my internet/tv package which is probably why my ISP does not charge my overages.

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Make_Me_Mad

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The only non-capped Internet service available where I live, which is currently in Rural Texas, is 1 mbps. Yeah. 60 dollars a month. It's the best option around, sadly, because the others have better speeds at similar prices but also come with caps as low as 20 to 25 gb a month. Going over that leads to paying up to 15 dollars for each individual additional gigabyte of data. Others simply cap your speeds when you hit your monthly limit, taking that oh-so-appealing 6 mbps speed down to around 0.5 mbps until the next billing period.

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jaycrockett

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When I got my new computer I redownloaded a bunch of MMO's and things off my steam library and found out there is a cap. Comcast's cap is 300 GB, and it is $10 per 10GB after that. However I had 3 "courtesy overages" or something so I wasn't charged. I doubt I'd ever hit that again in a month, and I'm quite sure Comcast would waive it anyway if you called and complain.

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bombhasbeenplanted

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I'm in the UK and my ISP is Virgin Media, I'm on an 152Mb uncapped connection. I've been with them since their infrastructure was known as Comcast/NTL (Late 90's). I don't know if caps are that common over here, though I did have a look around for another ISP when I moved house a year or so ago, I looked at Sky for example and at the time their service was capped so it was a no go.

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Bollard

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In the UK you only get capped if you buy dirt cheap broadband. Then the caps are like 25GB a month. That is insane.

Sky are offering Fibre at 38Mb with a 25GB cap for £10 a month (plus line rental). I can't imagine what's the point of paying more to get fibre to have a cap that means you can't use it!

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deactivated-63b0572095437

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I technically have a cap, but it's never enforced. I've download a terabyte in a month without even an email telling me to chill out. I asked and they said they don't throttle under an circumstances, which I don't believe. But I've never been throttled before.

I have Cox in Las Vegas, NV. On the contract my cap is 400GB (combined up/down). My speed is 150Mbps down, 20Mbps up (closer to 40 when I test it).

They only give warnings. The only consequence listed is that you may be suspended while they investigate (to make sure nothing fishy is going on) if it happens often. You can go over without throttling, extra charges, etc.

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MEATBALL

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#11  Edited By MEATBALL

I live in Australia and have an internet cap of 500GB, it's a decent amount but it does limit how much I watch/download, particularly in a household with other gamers (not to mention other media consumption).

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TheManWithNoPlan

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#12  Edited By TheManWithNoPlan

I have a monthly cap of 150gb, but it's only ten bucks for another 50 if I go over. Not really that big a deal for me.

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alistercat

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#13  Edited By alistercat

In the UK data caps are the norm, and are not very generous. I got in on an unlimited package a long time ago but somehow the more modern packages seem far worse. They will throttle you if you go over, and even if you're unlimited you can get throttled if you use more than they like.

I also only get about 700kbps if I'm lucky.

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volemaulder

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I'm in the UK with a 38Mbps Sky Fibre Unlimited (no caps). It really makes no sense to have a 25GB/month allowance on 38Mbps lines, but there must be a substantial number of people getting them, if they're still selling them, no? Maybe it's a way for parents to limit their kids' internet use, I dunno. I can't imagine those 10 pounds off the unlimited price is an actual selling point.

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lebdath

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I live in the corn fields of Illinois so I am unable to get most internet providers. I currently get 3Mbps but have no cap. Not that I could download a huge amount anyway with that speed.

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winsord

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#16  Edited By winsord

Here in Canada, I've got a 275GB monthly cap on a 55Mbps connection (with a $1 per GB overage charge). If given free reign, I'd absolutely destroy 275GB, but most months it's not that hard to limit myself to it. I tend to have to wait for the beginning of the next month to download a game (especially now that they all seem to be at least 20GB, with current gen titles usually closer to 40GB), and I watch most videos at 480p. It's bad enough that I actually use a program called "BitMeter", which runs a locally hosted service that keeps track of upload/download bandwidth for local network cards. It'd only cost $10 more per month to upgrade to the 'unlimited' 55Mbps plan, but it's already so expensive and I'm not the one footing the bill at the moment. The only statement regarding usage on the unlimited plan is "Must not exceed a reasonable usage limit", which I'm not entirely sure of what "reasonable" is considered to be (is 500GB unreasonable, is 1.5TB unreasonable, is 10TB unreasonable, etc), though I assume it has more to do with "don't run a business/server on our home internet plans" than a real throttle threat.

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tuxfool

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#17  Edited By tuxfool
@bollard said:

. I can't imagine what's the point of paying more to get fibre to have a cap that means you can't use it!

People who only care about TV and older people.

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l4wd0g

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I have a 350 gig cap w/ cox. It's usually not a problem but it can be. Streaming GiantBomb/Netflix/Amazon etc use a lot of data. 350 gigs is realistically 5 games in a month. I've gone over a few times and received an email or two but because I'm not using torrents they seem OK with it.

It's the reasoning for a cap that's dumb. It's not like the Internet is a well that will run out cats and boobs. it's not like the unused data is going to some Internet reservoir.

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AlexW00d

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@tuxfool said:
@bollard said:

. I can't imagine what's the point of paying more to get fibre to have a cap that means you can't use it!

People who only care about TV and older people.

Why on Earth would you pay more to get fibre if you only cared about TV? That's the least logical thing ever.


And I don't have a cap, thankfully, 'cause I usually use on average about 400gb a month just on my PC, no idea how much it'd be with all the devices in the house.

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Telexen

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#20  Edited By Telexen

300GB cap on a 50mbps line with CableOne. They don't charge for going over, they just say they reserve the right to cut my connection or require me to upgrade to a 60mbps/400GB or 70mbps/500GB line if I go over frequently. I've gone over 300GB every month the last 6 months, but only last month when I hit 402GB did I get a warning.

My only other choice is CenturyLink, which I've tried, so I'm stuck with this limit. I now download GiantBomb videos on my unlimited Tmobile line to my phone and then stream them to my AppleTV.

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Muerthoz

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@telexen: That's the same internet plan I have. Along with the emails suggesting that I upgrade to the next highest plan, I have also had the a Terms of Service "reminder" load a couple times when I opened a new browser window.

They made things worse by switching the cable to a digital signal, requiring a cable box if you want to watch TV. You get 2 basic boxes free and have to pay for extra boxes and pay more if you want DVR. So, on the TVs that arent connected to a box, were going to be watching a lot more streamed movies/shows and using up even more data.

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MikkaQ

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I'd say it's a pretty common practice here in Canada. We pay a lot extra to avoid the cap, so at least that's an option for my household. Before it was 60GB and I had 200 dollar internet bills every month since it was 2 bucks every GB we went over. Yikes!

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ichthy

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I'm capped at 250 down and 250 up, which is a lot better than most Canadian providers. I ended up hitting my upload cap one month (accidentally left a torrent running for three straight days), which would have either resulted in paying extra for more bandwidth ($5 for every 20 GB) or slowing down my speed. Luckily when I called customer service to ask for my account password to actually pay for more bandwidth they just reset my cap. So yeah, would recommend Novus if you can get it.

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Sessh

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I'm in Austria, getting about 30 Mbps (out of a max of 75) without any cap for 25€. Caps used to still be a thing until 2 or so years ago but then pretty much went away for every big provider here.

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monotreme

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I'm in Australia 3Mbs with a cap of 200gb at 90$aus per month with Telstra. When I exceed my limit as I did as a result of the steam sales my speed is slowed to 256kbps. I do however have 3 "top ups" per year that I can use to restore the full speed for the remainder of the billing month for no extra charge. It sucks but there aren't many options here.

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bobafettjm

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Here where I live there is one company that has DSL and one company that has cable. The cable internet is not only overpriced, it also has really low caps with really high overage charges. I used to use them until I got sick of getting close to my cap halfway through the month and having to hold off on doing much of anything until the next.

Of course now that I use this DSL, it is significantly slower and I have had nothing but issues with it. Both of these companies are pretty terrible.

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TrafalgarLaw

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How are caps still a thing in 2015?

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tuxfool

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@alexw00d said:

Why on Earth would you pay more to get fibre if you only cared about TV? That's the least logical thing ever.

If you have FTTC or FTTH you don't really pay more if it is already there. Plus you have capacity of more IPTV streams, than DSL.

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FrostyRyan

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I dread the day I finally move out into my own apartment and have to probably deal with a cap.

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TerrorCupcakes

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I have a 250 GB cap at 40 mbps down. I pay $90 a month, and an additional $35 for uncapped. Fuck Atlantic Canada.

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mrfizzy

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Im in Australia and I have 10mps capped at 100gb a month. If I go over that they slow it to 256kbs. It doesn't really effect me that much but it will start to as huge downloads for games become more and more common.

The reason that Australians suffer this perhaps more than others is simply low population over a large area. We are physically almost the size of the US but we only have 22 million people. That means infrastructure costs us a ton of money.

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mason20

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#32  Edited By mason20

Yeah, caps are completely bullshit.. I live in Alberta in the country and because of that I was forced to pay $50 a month for only 10 gigs or pay around $90 a month to have them increase the cap to 50 gigs... Utter garbage to deal with because if I go over the cap they charge an extra $10 per 1 gig. Fucking highway robbery.

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fisk0

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#33 fisk0  Moderator

Internet over mobile networks in Sweden still tend to have caps, I think even more cell networks use it now than a few years ago since using the Internet on your phone or tablet has gotten way more popular than it used to be. Makes some sense since there's limited capacity in both connections and throughput on the towers, but I don't know of any cable/fiber/landline based connections that have done that since the late 90's. So, yeah, the idea of caps for non-mobile network connections in 2015 sounds pretty ridiculous here.

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Andorski

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In California with 75Mbps/75Mbps up/down using Verizon FiOS. I pay $50/mo for it and have no cap; seems like a decent deal for US internet provider standards.

I have no idea how people get by with any bandwidth cap. I'm fairly certain that I download terabytes worth of data a month.

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ichthy

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@mason20 said:

Yeah, caps are completely bullshit.. I live in Alberta in the country and because of that I was forced to pay $50 a month for only 10 gigs or pay around $90 a month to have them increase the cap to 50 gigs... Utter garbage to deal with because if I go over the cap they charge an extra $10 per 1 gig. Fucking highway robbery.

Holy shit. I knew Canadian internet was bad, but that's insane. I'm downloading Wolfenstein: The New Order right now and that game alone is 44 GB.

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Quarters

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#36  Edited By Quarters

I think I have a cap between 150-250 gbs now. I live in Arkansas and get about 7 Mbps on average. I'm not even that rural. I'm in a town of about 20,000 or so.

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Karkarov

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Depends on where you are. People in rural areas can get bent over hard because their only options are okay speed with complete crap caps and insane price, or fair price with no cap but joke speed.

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spazmaster666

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I used to have internet through Suddenlink (it's pretty big in some areas of Texas and other southern states) and it capped my bandwidth to 250 GB per month. Other than that I've never had my bandwidth capped. I currently use TWC and while it's not the greatest ISP in the world, I'm not currently bandwidth capped (on a 100 mbps line).

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Nasar7

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@jay_ray: Yeah I assume my ISP reserves the right to throttle the speed or charge for overages. I believe on their data cap faq they suggest upgrading to the next higher tier speed if you are often hitting or going over the cap. And yes, I also thought 250 GB sounded like a lot but it goes by quickly with HD streaming and downloading current gen games.

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Wemibelle

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Give it a few more years and I'm sure it'll become more common. My area is small, with not much reason to institute data caps, but they added one to our plan in the last year. It's bullshit, since caps only exist due to poor infrastructure and ISPs wanted to milk customers for more money, but I have no other options if I want cable in my area.

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Evilsbane

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#41  Edited By Evilsbane

Lower East Coast (Literally just got an upgrade to this last week) 20MB Dual-Bonded DSL with no cap.

Ping is low and its very consistent with a 2MB upload.

Been running off 10MB for a long time was 56k as late as 2005.

It isn't the fastest but its pretty cheap and since we've dealt with shit for so long, 20MB is like a dream.

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damodar

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Australia, 1Mbs, 75gb cap, shaped to 56k if I go over.

*drops mic*

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Brendan

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I chose an unlimited package but most packages from Cogeco (my local provider out of southern Ontario, Canada) are capped.

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Twisted

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I'm in Austalia on ADSL2+ with no cap for $60 a month. We've been on this plan for like 6 or 7 years now. Before that we were with the biggest company (Telstra) and paid the same but for only 12gb a month. It was garbage. But that's what happens when you let monopolies rule for so long. Caps are still very common here, but plans even from the bigger companies are a hell of a lot better than they used to be, though still shitty.

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mason20

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@ichthy: Yeah, It's a real shame because Wolfenstien has been a game I've wanted to play in it's max settings but... I'm not willing to give up an entire month of internet to play it. Same goes with the PS4 and Xbox One. I'd pick the new consoles up if it didn't seem that the games not only had large patches but an initial download while you install. But, thankfully as Xbox has stated before they a console for us lowly people and that's the 360.. -sad laugh-

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monetarydread

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#46  Edited By monetarydread

1Mbs with a 45gb cap for $60 / month. The connection is terrible, but they have never complained when I go over my cap by 100gb. Plus, two years ago my options were dial-up or satellite, so I don't mind too much.

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deactivated-64162a4f80e83

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infinity Bt 80mbps no caps at all a nd they never throttle

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tescovee

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Business class, no cap. 75/75. Wow, if i had some of the restrictions that I read on this forum, I would literally move. These ISPs should be held to task, they make cash hand over fist without investing in infrastructure. Yet people bitch about games having huge patches, fuck that noise; the people you should be complaining to/about is the internet providers.

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DualFace

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The real question should've been:

How common is throttling? Because it's everywhere in America. Every ISP does it. Do. Not. Think. They. Don't.

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isomeri

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@fisk0: Yeah the last time I updated my data plan I noticed that some 3G and 4G providers have started to use caps. The people over at Sonera would have had a cheaper plan for me, but a 100 gig cap was something I wanted no part of even if it is just for my phone.

I see a lot of people here who live in rural areas and have less favorable choices offered as a result. I think this is somewhat understandable if not completely shitty nonetheless. Luckily in this country the government has forced providers to offer contracts of a reasonable speed and price in rural areas.

@mason20 said:

Fucking highway robbery.

I like this analogy.