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Comment RSSLife is Like A Box Of Rum Filled Chocolates. And My Internet Provider Kinda Sucks.
5.10.07 # 21:46 # Adventures in Real Life # 2 CommentsDid you ever pick up some fast food, drive all the way home, and then open the bag and find out you have someone else’s crappy food order?
Did you ever read some fine print, and then accept it, only to realize later that you didn’t even come close to deciphering the lawyer language and you are now stuck with your decision?
It turns out I either misread some fine print or completely missed it when we signed up for our internet provider. We have satellite internet, which isn’t as fast as cable or DSL, but is a lot faster than dialup. It also costs us a fair amount.
The dealer who sold us the subscription told us downloading was unlimited, and the different plans that were available just determined how fast you could receive data. They got it partially correct. Apparently, we also have a "Fair Access Policy" program monitoring us, and it uses a constantly shifting algorithm and data combination to determine whether or not we are ‘fairly’ using the system, or if we are abusing it by downloading too much. If we are in the wrong, we have our bandwidth restricted, for up to 24 hours.
Sometimes in the evening, our internet speed really drops. It could be that we have exceeded our ‘fair’ share of the available resources. And no one can give me an answer of exactly what that might mean to me in particular. Does that mean 3 UTube videos in a row? How about a 32MB operating system update? Can I browse through a bunch of blogs really fast or do I need to read slower so I don’t gum up the works? How in the world can I make sure I don’t run afoul of the Fair Access Policy? It all sounds just a little too vague to me. It’s like a law where the police could give you a speeding ticket based on the amount of traffic and time of day, and there is no set fine, no set speed limit. But you can’t see the other drivers on the internet highway, so you just have to guess.
"Unfortunately, many of these subscribers are not using (name of service) for it’s intended purpose." I thought giving access to the internet and everything on it was the purpose of an internet provider. And I am annoyed with the dealer for not explaining the policies a little better for me.
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Sounds like it’s time to change providers! That sucks a big one.. and not in a good way either.
Guys, you’ve been tagged.
How peculiar. That ISP doesn’t sound a good one.