I hadn’t noticed the update on the Orange.mu FAQ page because of the exams. Here it is:
1.11 Why have we introduced the "fair usage policy"?
We have introduced the Fair Usage Policy in April 2008 to ensure that all our Orange ADSL customers get the best possible and most reliable surfing experience.
Picture a motorway where you should be going fast, say at 90 km/hour. Now picture a few heavy container trucks rolling along the same motorway all day every day. It's obvious you will not be able to drive at optimum speed as you would have to share the road with those trucks.
This is similar to what is happening on our networks: those container trucks are the heavy users on our internet networks. They download very large files 24 hours a day and 7 days a week, leaving less bandwidth for the rest of you. And we think it's unfair that you should not be getting good speeds when you surf the internet because of a small number of our users.
i. How do I know if I am a heavy user?
Are you a big fan of peer-to-peer and continuously download large files? Then there is a great chance that you are a heavy user. For example, if you are an ADSL Home 512K customer and you download over 5,000 music tracks per month or more than 30 movies per month and keep on doing this type of download every month, then you would qualify as a heavy user. This type of download is a large amount by any normal standard of usage.
ii. How will the "fair usage policy" be put into practice?
Your FUP threshold, i.e. the amount of data that you can download will depend on the offer to which you are subscribed to. Monitoring of your downloads will be done on a monthly basis and if you exceed your FUP threshold over a period of 2 consecutive months, you will be subjected to FUP on the third month.
So, for example:
- you exceed the FUP threshold for your package during month 1 and 2
- during month 3, you again exceed your threshold, say on the 21st of month 3
- after the 21st until the end of month 3, you will be subject to speed restrictions
- at the start of month 4, your speed will be back to normal as long as you do not again exceed the FUP threshold
- if you are being speed-restricted quite often, then we will contact you and may advise you to move to another package that is more suited to your download needs
iii. What happens after I have been speed-restricted?
You will be moved back to normal usage the following month but you will be speed-restricted again if you exceed the set threshold. If we find that you are being speed-restricted continuously, we will contact you to propose a package more suited to your needs. Speed restrictions will depend on the package you are subscribed to
iv. What if I need to download large files without being speed restricted?
Then you should move to another package with a higher bandwidth. The fair usage threshold for a My.T 512K is higher than that of My.T 256K, which means you are allowed heavier downloads with My.T 512K than My.T 256K. This is applicable across the board for all My.T and ADSL offers as well.
v. what if I am not a heavy user?
Then you have nothing to worry about. Even if you downloading heavily for one month but not the next, you will not qualify as a heavy user. More than 95% of our subscribers are NOT heavy users.
vi. can I track my internet usage?
Go to My Internet Account on http://www.orange.mu/my-account to check your internet usage online. You will need to enter your ADSL login and password.
Original Fair Usage Policy can be checked out here.
1. The road traffic analogy
Yeah, it’s true that 5% of the long vehicles can block up the whole traffic… except that in Mauritius, there’s no highway. Mauritian Internet (with only SAFE) can’t be considered a highway, nor a main road where you can overtake, but rather the bumpy road through the sugarcane fields! (or as Inf penned it - the small lane that my dog dug near the mango tree!)
There’s no fast lane for supercars & neither there is a crawler lane for long vehicles. There is only a single village road, where even the large numbers of small cars cause traffic jams & where your maximum speed, regardless of any limit, is 10km/h.
2. Implementing the FUP
I don’t know WHY DON’T THEY REVEAL THE CAP LIMITS?!?!?!? The 3 month scheme seems OK, but how can anyone limit their downloads unless they know what’s their limit! I’m strongly suspecting that Orange will implement a flexible limit depending on the traffic usage. They won’t reveal the exact limit so that they can catch you unaware & throttle your connection! Revealing the limits would mean that everyone can play safe by being on the borderline - but without publicly announcing any limits, Orange can freely adjust them to suit their needs without facing any public backlash! What a monopoly!
3. Speed-restriction
That’s indeed a big concern! How are we going to be restricted? A drop by half-speed or will they axe it directly to dial-up?? Another loophole…
4. Tracking your Internet Usage
The site is http://internetaccount.orange.mu/
If your login is like XXXXX@tplus, remove the @tplus & use XXXXX as the username & the password remains the same. Again, no mention about the limits on the site.
WARNING: I’ve compared my usage by NetMeter with the one on the site… & as expected, the usage recorded by Orange is greater (by 50MB average). So be aware - do not trust your meter!
5000 tracks at 5MB per mp3 track = 25GB
30 movies at 700MB per movie = 21GB
So there you go… the limit for 512k is 20GB - which is incredibly low!
& given what section iv. suggests… this means that 256k is 10GB & 128k is 5GB???
Update: Limits revealed!!!
ADSL Home 128k = 10Gb
My.T 256k = 3Gb
(No comments! Evil Orange strikes again!)
Read more on:
Avinash's blog: What is a heavy user?
& Geekscribes: Orange FAQ Updated: More details on FUP?
News on Sunday have an article on the FUP. More on Geekscribes.net
Pics of the article:
Download the PDF here. Direct link to article here.