On a topic close to my heart - the use of the word "Unlimited" to describe what is in effect a very much limited account.
There has been a petition to the government requesting that they stop ISPs from using the word "Unlimited" when describing packages that do indeed have limits or caps.
The Government has now responded.. which IMHO opens the floodgates for many more ISPs to abuse the term "Unlimited".
Source
www.pm.gov
Qualifying an 'unlimited' claim with a fair usage policy in the small print of an ad is allowed as long as it really is fair and not misleading. For example, if 80% of domestic customers fall well within the limit specified by a broadband provider and the remaining 20% fall outside of it, perhaps because they are using a domestic package for business use, then it may be considered a reasonable claim.
This is disturbing news - with the vast majority of users using less than 4GB - does this now mean that anything much above this can be "unlimited". As more and more less techy users come onboard and sign up to adsl, the average usage seems to be in decline.
As an example usage figures obtained from my own ISP would indicate that
50% of adsl users consume less than 2GB per month.
80% of users use less than 6GB.
90% use less than 10GB
When you think that my own ISP doesn't particularly attract the n00bs, then the figures for say BT,AOL etc are going to be lower than this.
A step backwards me thinks... and a disincentive to those ISPs that do try and be open about any limitations on their products.
Which package would you buy -
One with a cap of 10GB or one showing "Unlimited".. when in actual fact the unlimited one may actually offer less :/