'Throttling' Broadband Provider Sued In Australia

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."

Comments

Throttling to 28.8 Kb/s.

[Animats]

If you don't subscribe to Optus's "premium" tiers, your service can be throttled to 28.8 Kb/s. From the Optus price list:

'yes' DSL Basic 200MB

• High Speed Data Allowance: 200MB
• Speed Limit if High Speed Data Allowance Exceeded (kbps): 28.8
• Monthly Access Fee (from 15 April 2009): $49.95

'yes' DSL Unlimited

• High Speed Data Allowance: 12 GB
• Speed Limit if High Speed Data Allowance Exceeded (kbps): 64
• Monthly Access Fee (from 15 April 2009) $91.95

Yes, they really call it "unlimited", in the same table with the limits. That table isn't easy to find. You have to go through three web pages, then download several Word documents

That's their DSL service. Their cable service has similar tiers and terms, but slightly different pricing.

Re:Throttling to 28.8 Kb/s.

[kaptink]

Those access fees are quite high compared to some of the competition. Possibly why they are using dishonest advertising to trick people who dont know or care that much into using them instead. Just looking at broadbandchoice.com.au shows several providers offering 150gb for $90 a month. A bit more than 12gb. Worth looking at this comparison http://bc.whirlpool.net.au/bc/?action=search&state=any&class=0&type=res&pre=3000&cost=100&speed=512&upspeed=0&ip=1&contract=99&upfront=999999&needhw=yes&conntype=1&conntype=4&conntype=5&sort=0

Re:Big deal

[David Gerard]

The ACCC are quite popular in Australia because they actually make companies behave.

They're the reason you can't enforce DVD region-locking in Australia, for example. (DVDs are still often sold region-locked, but players can play any region.)

Limited ISPs

[kangsterizer]

In germany there's an ISP called kabeldeutschland that claims 100mbit down 6mbit up (its cable + fiber behind).
Except from 6pm to 8am you get less than 1Mbit up/down on every protocol except HTTP. Everyday, no matter how much you downloaded or not (there's no download cap actually).

Quite sucky and probably borderline legal. They documents only say "up to" of course with no mention of the enforced 100k/s limit depending on the time of the day.
Their marketing material however, compares their 100mbit versus the 16Mbit of traditional DSL like the best thing since sliced bread. Except the traditional DSL provides 16Mbit on every protocol internet supports regardless of the time of the day, and is therefore much better. (and cheaper!)

Re:I see no problem with this

[theaveng]

Your numbers are out of date, and here's the latest from that website

Mbit/s
11 US/Russian Federation (tie)
10 E.U.
9 Canada
8 Australia
7 China
4 Brazil
3 Mexico

Re:They have 100Mbps broadband here?

[Netshroud]

Optus' 100Mbps plan is what they call the "Optus Premium Speed Pack". An extra AU$20/mo on almost any Cable plan, plus a new DOCSIS3.0 modem, and you'll be chewing through your monthly quota about 5 times as fast. Then they throttle you. If you get the more expensive Fusion plans (the 'Unlimited' ones) the throttling speed is 256kbps. They try getting away with that because 256kbps is the minimum speed to technically be 'Broadband'. ACCC, attack!