On the BT website, it suggests that its Option 1 broadband package is "fast & reliable… cheap broadband at high speeds", and that among other things you can use it for "streaming up to 25 hours of iPlayer every month."
It's not true.
As the BBC has discovered, Option 1 customers who use iPlayer in peak times - that is, between 5pm and midnight - can't really use iPlayer.
Even if your connection speed is close to the advertised "up to 8Mbps", BT throttles video streaming in the evenings so the fastest speed you'll get is 896Kbps.
In the BBC's experience the actual speed was lower still: 700Kbps, which is completely inadequate for an iPlayer session.
If you aren't unemployed or self-employed, BT is choking your connection at the very times you're most likely to use it.
On the subject of iPlayer's bandwidth demands BT says "We believe there is a real issue that content owners like the BBC need to address."
Maybe there is, but there's an issue BT needs to address right now. Its advertising specifically says you can use Option 1 for iPlayer, and you can't.
Not just BT
BT isn't the only ISP who does this. Many ISPs use throttling to limit demands on their network, and while we understand the reasons for it - services such as iPlayer use massive amounts of bandwidth, and bandwidth costs money - we don't like the way many of them go about it.
What we need here is a little honesty. We have no problem with ISPs choking bandwidth on their budget offerings to keep the prices low, but we do have a problem with them burying any mention of such throttling in the tedious Fair Use Policy documents that nobody reads - especially when the throttling affects the very services the sales bumph is banging on about.
ISPs will argue - quite rightly - that broadband services are not all the same, and you shouldn't expect the same performance from a seven quid service as you'd get from a thirty quid one.
So perhaps they should stop advertising seven quid services as if they were as good as thirty quid ones. If the ad says iPlayer, you should be able to get iPlayer.
No ifs. No buts. And no speed bumps.
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Your comments (3) Click to add a new comment
f4780y
June 4th
3. I have been a BT customer for 3 years. Was over the moon to be getting between 7-8 meg most of the time. The performed some "engineering" works on our lines a couple of months ago, and now the hub will connect no higher than 448kbps (4.5 meg). Not only that, but I am an option 3 customer (heavy use admitedly), and now when they decide to throttle me, which they do when I go above about 25GB in a billing period, they throttle to something like 20kbps... FOR THE REST OF THE MONTH! I am sick of BT...
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asciismoke
June 4th
2. I have a similar problem, I'm too far from the exchange to get ADSL so I'm a captive audience to Virgin. I upgraded to the 20mb line when it was brand new because they promised me that on their top package there would be no caps or throttling.
Just recently I've started buying my games from Direct2Drive and noticed that when I hit about 2GB in a day I get dropped to about 300kb. I rang Virgin and they said that it was their fair use policy and that there was nothing they could do about it.
When I asked if I would still be limited if I wen to the new 50mb line they said the same limits existed for that service. so by my calculations if you paid the ridiculous price of £50pcm you'd get to use your 50mb line at full speed for a WHOPPING 4 AND A HALF MINUTES!!!
HOW IS THIS EVEN LEGAL?
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blue1million
June 3rd
1. throttled to 700kbs? i wish i had that! my "up to 2mbs" connection averages 15-20kbs! and costs more than £7. i-player and the like are but a distant dream for me and many others who seem to be getting a very raw deal indeed.
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