The limits seem priced about right for IP Stream, but I've been trying to find out some more info about the 'non chargable period' and priotisation and what effects it will have on speeds/ALT.
The major change to the new capacity management system is that customers who consistently use a lot more capacity than others such as to cause capacity problems and customers in respect of who Enta receive multiple complaints of network abuse will be given a lower priority by the ALT. Enta will provide a mechanism for customers and resellers to see if their connection is being subjected to such controls and details on what the customer needs to change in order to have these controls removed.
The new policy will still be operated through the existing ALT system but will operate on a per connection basis rather than in general across the whole of an interconnect node.
I'm still not sure what effect this will have on speeds during the non charging period. Theres some further info from
Jason, manager of UKFSN.
The interconnects will be monitored on a 24/7 basis and the top bandwidth users per day will be flagged on our systems (the actual percentage of high bandwidth users will vary from interconnect to interconnect). If a user is marked as ‘high bandwidth user’ 5 times within a 14 day period, then an alternative set of rules will apply to this individual user’s connection when the ALT is in operation.
The high bandwidth user’s speeds will be reduced as per the standard rules of the ALT however speeds will be reduced at intervals of 700Kbps as opposed to 500Kbps. To remove a ‘high bandwidth user’ marking the customer must remain out of the top percentage of high bandwidth users on their interconnect for 14 consecutive days. We will ensure that information regarding the status of any account is made available to our Partners and end users.
It would seem that pricing may be fair for the lower users, but how this will affect their heavier users Im unsure yet, its looking a bit like a 'bad boy pipe' situation for them.
No doubt more info will emerge at some point at what point users are slowed down, and by how much.
Jason says that a High bandwidth customer = top 5% of usage during non-chargeable period.
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Top % is a bit of a 'woolly feature' deployed by some other ISPs as there's no clear guidelines as to what is acceptable.
Top % surely depends what package you are on and paying for - but from some figures I have available from another ISP 90% of users across all accounts use less than 3GB, with the mean average being 6GB.
Drilling down further to their premier account which was much favoured by their heavier users - 90% still used less than 10GB.
Statistics and % can be a funny thing, but from the same figures, it surprising just how much the usage of the top heavies swings the mean average.
Whilst 90% across all accounts may do less than 3GB,
95% do 8GB,
........... and its only when you get to the top 1% that the figures really start to single out and show the heavies.
So it will be interesting to see how much Entas 'top 5%' use.