Usage Caps and Notification

Terry asked the following question:

I would like to know how people are going to be notified if they are close to their cap? It would be nice if I received an email saying I was close and needed to stop (downloading) for a while, rather than getting a large extra charge on my bill.

I think that's a very fair point.  As I've said in previous posts, we don't have any specific plans at this moment to implement caps.  But I also said that we are watching developments on that subject where Bend Broadband and Time Warner have announced their specific policies.

Because usage patterns are growing so rapidly, most ISP's are forced to consider an alternative policy to the one-size-fits-all charges. 

Since we at Insight don't have any specific plans on caps at this time, I can't tell you what our policy will be for those who approach their limits, should we ever decide to implement them.  What I can tell you is that I am impressed with the policy that others have used during a transition to usage charges where a grace period would be offered.  The ISP notifies customers if they have gone over the total allowable usage level in the base rate for a few months but doesn't charge for it.  That way, people will get a sense about how much bandwidth they are using before getting charged.  Then they can adjust their usage patterns if they want to avoid extra charges. 

I also am supportive of those ISP's with caps who notify customers when their monthly usage is approaching their base rate limits so they can cool it for a while if they prefer not to pay the overage charges.

Again, this is a very hot topic for some of you who do a lot of downloading and I don't mind dealing with your questions head on.  As I said, for now, we don't have any plans to change to our billing policy in the near term future but we are keeping a watchful eye on usage patterns and policy announcements of other ISP's. 

We'll keep you posted.

Comments

[John B]

Caps are crap. If you want raise prices to keep caps away. We customers pay enough already in my opinion.

[Jon H]

It seems to me that implementing caps is precisely the opposite of what ISPs need to be doing. Slowly but surely, things that we've been used to keeping on our local machines are moving to the internet. Web apps are becoming richer, and people are streaming movies from Netflix. Reading pages online to kill time has turned into watching videos on Youtube. Customers' data transfer needs are growing, and fast. In this environment, deciding to restrict the amount of data that we can send and receive is insane, and doubly so if we're being restricted based on a quantity we can't check. The day Insight implements caps (if ever, and I hope this day doesn't come) is the day I look for another company to get my internet access from.

[ARGO]

If there's Caps or metering then shouldn't unused bandwidth roll over?

[steve s]

This is just another way to make more money for cable companies. This has nothing to do with one customer using more than another. The cable companies are making a profit with High Speed cable now. They want to make more. I think if they want to cap our speed we should cap income. We grant them permission to operate in our community. If they want to increase our cost this way we should limit their income. We will not take this without a fight so, study on.

[Matthew G]

Caps are just another way for ISPs to drain money out of customers, and the only benefit to the ISP is based on the fact that ISPs over-sell their grid, with the assumption not everyone will be on at the same time. Caps are going backwards technology wise, not forward, as it will return to the days of AOL/Compuserve/Progidy networks.

I've been a happy customer of Insight for over 8 years now, with all the packages, and all the frills. I go out of my way to brag about how great my ISP is to my friends. With that said, should Insight ever implement caps, I will drop all of my services the same day and spend my money elsewhere.

Love the blog, keep up the good work, and please don't force me to go somewhere else.