It's funny, when something like this happens you think you are the only person it is happening to. It's only when you create something like this blog that you begin to see the fury and rage that people have towards this unfair practice by Internet providers.
When I first started writing this, I thought that there were a few people affected by it. I put a posting in the forums at http://www.thinkbroadband.com and http://www.ispreview.co.uk; not only did I get a lot of comments, all supportive I may add, but there were over 4000 views.
Having read through the posts and getting a lot of really good advice by the way, I am wondering whether the way to go for other people is to get a class action going against some of these Internet providers.
The thing that causes the people most problems is the secretive way that the ISP's go about setting an FUP. For example, in my own case, I did not know what the fair use limits were until I had exceeded them and received the letter telling me that I was being punished; and I use the word punished carefully.
The time has come for the regulator, OFCOM, to put things right. He should outlaw fair use clauses and force the Internet providers to publicly disclose their limits. Some ISP's, including the one I am moving to later this month, advertise freely what upload and download limits they allow. Unfortunately, this honesty puts them at a commercial disadvantage to those ISP's who claim to have "unlimited" broadband offerings whilst stating that they are subject to a "Fair Use Policy".
If ISP's offer unlimited broadband contracts, but then put Fair Use anywhere after it, they are lying. So, go ahead, have a look at the unlimited broadband offerings out there and spot the tell-tale asterisk or bracketed comment, because it will be there.
Countdown to proceedings - 3 Days
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