When "unlimited" wireless broadband means "you download porn"...

[Player-X]

When "unlimited" wireless broadband means "you download porn"...

Verizon offers an "unlimited" wireless data download service. It is, apparently, not all that unlimited. Specifically, it's limited to five gig per month. After that, you get fined $175 and your account is cancelled.
Writes Robert X Cringeley, clearly unhappy: "The people who cancel your account are in the security department and don't know how to answer your questions, they just know how to accuse their customers of downloading pornography."
Cringeley, longtime columnist for ZD and now a PBS blogger, says: "How much Internet service is 'unlimited' Internet service? If you are a user of Verizon Wireless's Broadband Access wireless Internet service, unlimited means five gigabytes per month or less. The company is quite specific in its advertisements that the service is for unlimited e-mail, web surfing, and corporate intranet use, but not for downloading music or videos or running servers."
But how does he know about the porn accusation?
"Now here's the part of this story I find especially interesting: Verizon doesn't look at packets or protocols to determine if you are improperly using bandwidth, they just look at total bytes transferred," says Cringeley.
He reckons if you go over five gigs they have no way of knowing whether you were doing email or logging on to http://www.czechmytits.com/ - they just press the "kill" button. The fine, he says, is an "early termination" charge, so they terminate you, and collect the dosh.
Appeal? Nope. "Verizon's position is that using more than five gigs per month is impossible without violating their terms of service."

I have a feeling that most of us would go over the limit in under a week

[jonc2006]

clock me at 10 minutes

[cloudsBro]

Saying its unlimited and then saying 'limited to 5 gigs per month'. On top of that, a hefty fine of $175 dollars??? Its stupid...

[BigIg]

Web browsing huh? What if I view content heavy websites? (i.e.: 2+ MB per page, as in, alot of flash).


And corperations could use 5GB very quickly.


Can anyone say FALSE ADVERTISING?

[jonc2006]

False Advertising.

[Metalmurphy]

Wow I can't remember the days i was limited to 4GB per month xD.

Right now i have a 52GB limit of international download and i still pass over it now and then

[ChankastRules]

This is why everyone loves internet in Sweden we have true unlimited fast speed connections

I'm not a heavy downloader but my friend reached a TB and was proud about it

Besides it's always been like this, never any limits.

[ruler88]

WTF.... 5GB d/l limit?? I'll go over limit in 2 days

[leo9986754]

I remember reading something like that before. I think it was with a case of those a bit better than dial-up, but below DSL/Cable speed internet. Technically can you sue for something like that?

[jonc2006]

high speed dial up. two words that were never ment to be.

Originally Posted by leo9986754

I remember reading something like that before. I think it was with a case of those a bit better than dial-up, but below DSL/Cable speed internet. Technically can you sue for something like that?

im not lawyer (someday i hope to be) but if the have mislead you and you WERENT aware of that stipulation, then yeah you could at least get a hearing for the charges for be void.

[leo9986754]

I bet that they did write something about this in the contact but fail to ever tell their customers

[cowfez]

"The company is quite specific in its advertisements that the service is for unlimited e-mail, web surfing, and corporate intranet use, but not for downloading music or videos or running servers."

"Verizon's position is that using more than five gigs per month is impossible without violating their terms of service."

I'm also not a lawyer, but I doubt very much that supposition of violation of terms can be written into such an agreement. Or, more precisely that it can be legally upheld.

[cel123]

my friend has wireless broadband and he downloaded all of illusion games...that lucky bastard

[dpence]

What about people who stream music and such....5 GB is nothing....
bet they get a lot of negative press and end up changing that... most people will not limit themselves in that way if they have other choices

[Player-X]

I am on Roadrunner and there has not been any limits that I am not aware of and my 3 cousins download a hell lot of stuff off my connection.

This is why we need Net Neutrality.

[dynamicVoidMain]

Hah, you guys from overseas (particularly the US).

In Australia our best connection available (AVAILABLE!) is 1.5mbps and even if the plan says it is unlimmited it usually is capped in under 20gigabytes!

[Player-X]

Back in Malaysia the only broadband is only 1M/512K but has no cap

[dynamicVoidMain]

well malaysia is like a third world country, this is Australia and it has crap all interent...

[CKemu]

256KB/s Down | 33KB/s up - No download / upload limits, on 24/7 if I want l33ching away like a skanky ho'. tad pricy though £23.99 p/m, but the connection gets upgraded soon to 512kb/s / 128kb/s

[Coolsvilleman]

What if you download alot of game demos. Or what if you transfer large files for work through e-mail. There are a million wasy in this day and age to exceed 5gb/s in a month without downloading video or music.