BBC not happy with BT internet speed restrictions
BT Broadband, Britain largest broadband service provider has limited the download speeds of some of its cheaper packages. According to a BT spokesman, the move was “in order to optimise the experience for all customers”. However, many broadband users have accused BT of reducing the speed without sufficient warning.
Particularly, BT Broadband has reduced the speed at which users can watch video content on sites such as YouTube and the BBC iPlayer. During peak times, a customer with a connection speed of up to 8 Mbps could have it reduced to 1 Mbps or lower.
The BBC expressed concern that the restriction of download speeds would affect the viewing experience for many visitors to its site.
Depending upon the user’s connection speed, the BBC iPlayer operates at speeds of 500, 800, 1500 and 3200 Kbps. BBC sources claim that BT’s policy might force users to lowest bandwidth service, which would result in a less than satisfactory experience for the viewer.
According to statement released by the BBC, the users who stand to be affected the most would be those who are used high-quality content and that this would result in a serious throttling of traffic for the iPlayer site.
BT on the other hand, claims that their speed limit policy, called Total Broadband Fair Usage Policy, is fully explained on their website. A clause in the policy states that in the Option 1 product, video streaming speed is limited to 896 Kbps during peak times.
USwitch.com, a price comparison site, mentioned that BT was not the only internet service provider whose fair use policies are difficult to locate on their websites. Steve Weller of USwitch.com said that providers who have a traffic management policy generally hide their terms on their websites, in an effort to make it difficult for the users to get out of their contracts.
