Someone once told me, “Malaysians are as kiasu (selfish) as Singaporeans”. And I can’t help but agree to it in certain situations I’ve been in. Plus, I’d like to admit personally, I myself don’t like abiding to certain limitations. One of it being; limited Internet download capacity.
However, everything happens for a reason and every action has a reaction. From my discussion with the PacketOne staff, I’ve come to understand why the fair usage policy is inserted and practiced in Internet providers – not only Malaysia. But, how much do you think our capacity should be limited?
What’s the fuss about having the fair usage policy?
The misconceptions of the policy if you overused your upload/download limit was (and still is) subscribers assume the providers will:
- Disable/Prevent/Ban you from using the Internet service.
- Slow your Internet to a crawl.
- Blacklist you as a consistent heavy user.
The above are some of the misconceptions whenever we start talking about the fair usage policy. However, through the discussion with PacketOne staff we’ve been briefed what is the fair usage policy really about and how it’s being implemented by providers – PacketOne, at least.
What the fair usage policy really means?
Well, the discussion brought up a lot of topics and here are the answers in short:
- It’s to NOT target BitTorrent users/heavy users. And Billy emphasized, P1 doesn’t discriminate P2P.
- It’s to ensure fairness for all users – everyone can browse the Internet without problems.
- The 20GB is the HIGHEST ceiling limit compared to other wireless competitors.
- If you hit the 20GB limit, you can still go online but priority given to other users who’s not reached their 20GB.
- Billy also explained, VPN services may not overcome the throttling as Wimax is hardware based – I asked if overriding the throttle via BolehVPN is possible.
- Fair usage to P1 is managing the bandwidth of users to keep customers happy.
For people in marketing, you may have realized instead of limitation, the word; manage, was used. Realistically, I’m still not all happy with the idea of limiting my bandwidth.
However, if PacketOne (or any other provider) can do a better job managing the users bandwidth than you know who then I’m all for it. Though, the moment it’s limitation starts affecting my experience, you bet I’ll be one of the few talking about it.
Especially when it makes customers say something like this:
If I am paying RM268 for a 4MB line and they limit it to 1MB so that other users get a fair share of the bandwidth, then what the hell they charge me for the amount?? If their infra cannot cater for heavy usage then don’t offer different packages at different prices…
Source: Richard
Therefore, I hope providers think it through before introducing any packages aimed at heavy users. We don’t need another issue as the above.
…hmm, I have nothing to say about this fair usage policy because I have no choice but to use Screamyx. Hopefully P1 will cover the whole Klang Valley and I will switch, :D
at home, I am paying for my 512 streamyx line (yes, I am still not using more than that because I do not use for downloading purposes) and yet I did not get up to the par… at some point, loading blogs take ages… =(
why not have them to push different packages for different users? unless they are not able to ‘pipe’ their line?
I hope they can kick start soon so that consumer have alternative to choose from =)
I’ll be getting my P! in the coming weeks. Let’s see how it goes
Lisa, from what I heard, they listened and indeed they’re coming up with a package specifically for heavy users. However, casual users would fine the 1.2 and 2.4 more than sufficient. ;)
Danesh, dude, please do let me know about the performance man. I want to game online without sharing my Streamyx. LOL!
I googled ‘Fair Usage Policy’ and two Malaysian ISPs’ websites turned up on the first page, and top 3, no less. Now what does that tell you? (This page was second btw)
Well, I wouldn’t be able to give a definitive answer to your question as I’m not sure what was it you were searching for, Al. However, assuming it’s related to my post then I’d say the awareness of the fair usage policy is improving. :)
P1 W1MAX offers a 15-day Service Satisfaction Guarentee and you can sign up at any roadshows and resellers. But the problem crawls up when you want to return the bulky modem. If you are in the Klang Valley area, you need to go to Packet One HQ at Jalan Templer, Petaling Jaya. Why can’t subscribers be allowed to return the modem to the nearest reseller???
Good one, Ginger bread. I too didn’t know you’re not allowed to return the modem to only the reseller. Though I’ve a hunch P1 can’t guarantee will the person/company dealt with remains a reseller. They’re quite aware of the quality of service delivered by their resellers. Thanks to social media. :P