Thousands of us are paying for unlimited broadband internet deals that are nothing of the sort.
Ever come across a deal that seemed too good to be true? For years, we've been seeing just that in the broadband market, with several service providers offering “unlimited” download packages that in reality are anything but. We take a closer look at the issue and urge you to help us fight back against the companies at fault.
Your stories
Gemma Buckingham came to us after consistently suffering from this problem after taking an 18-month broadband contract from T-Mobile that offered “unlimited browsing”. Unfortunately, what she didn't fully appreciate when taking the deal was that this was actually limited by a 2GB fair-usage policy.
While T-Mobile does not invoke any charges for exceeding this limit, it does reserve the right to restrict use at peak times for those customers who do. This has regularly happened to Gemma, who has found that her streaming and downloading speeds have been severely restricted in evenings, which, she says, often interferes with her freelance work from home.
And it's not just on broadband for your home that you can get caught out. Mobile phones are getting more and more sophisticated, to the extent that many now use them as their first point of call for browsing online.
Another member of the Confused community, Victoria Ellis, was attracted to what Vodafone advertised as unlimited internet, and had it included with her £25 monthly mobile contract. However, towards the end of her first month she says she received a text telling her she was approaching her maximum usage. By the time her bill came, she had incurred almost £15 in extra charges for overuse of her internet allowance.
Vodafone, along with most other major network providers, has now withdrawn its unlimited mobile phone deals, instead opting to advertise clear data limits. T-Mobile, however, continues to advertise an unlimited deal that is, in fact, restricted by a 1GB fair-usage policy.
Our campaign
We're calling on internet service providers and mobile networks to stop advertising their broadband deals as unlimited when they clearly aren't. Some providers are even refusing to even give a specified fair use limit, leaving customers unaware of how much they should be allowed to use.
O2's The All Rounder home internet package, for example, advertises unlimited downloads. However, in the deal’s terms and conditions, the company states:
"O2 does not specify a limit on monthly network usage. However if O2 feels that your activities are so excessive that other customers are detrimentally affected, they may give you a written warning (by email or otherwise). In extreme circumstances, if the levels of activity do not immediately decrease after the warning, O2 may terminate or suspend your services."
We want to see an end to this sort of practice, so that consumers can feel totally confident that they can use their internet freely – after all, if you believe you're paying for unlimited downloads, why would you curtail your usage?
What you can do
If you've signed up to one of these unlimited deals and agree that they are unfairly advertised, then contact your provider to complain.
All you have to do is write them a letter or email, calling on them to remove the fair use restrictions and telling them that these don't truly reflect an unlimited deal.
To help you out, we've linked to the customer service contact details of some of the UK's major service providers that have offered these deals – when you contact them - it may be useful to include your customer number and address in order to hasten any response.
Be
BT Broadband
O2
Orange
Pipex
TalkTalk (includes former Tiscali customers)
Tesco Broadband
Virgin Media
Vodafone
Whatever you hear back from them, share the responses with us and we'll aim to publish them and encourage the providers to treat their customers fairly.
Equally, we want to hear from you if you've had your internet use restricted or cut off, or if you've been charged for over-use of a supposedly unlimited internet deal. Drop an email stephen.jones@confused.com and share your stories.
