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Does Your ISP Throttle Your Bandwidth?

Scott Wilkinson  |  Sep 16, 2011

A few weeks ago, Home Theater editor Rob Sabin posted an editorial about the growing number of Internet service providers that throttle the bandwidth of any subscriber who sends and receives more than a specified amount of data. Typically, the limit is 150 or 250GB per month, which seems like a lot—until you stream a few high-def movies and perform cloud-based backup of your entire hard drive, after which you find yourself slogging along at dial-up speeds or paying much more for your Internet access. With some ISPs that are also content providers, such as telecom and cable companies, accessing their content does not count toward the limit, but venturing outside their ecosystem does.

Does your ISP engage in any of these pernicious practices? If so, I'd love to know what your limit is and what happens when you exceed it. I encourage you to leave a comment with these details.

Vote to see the results and leave a comment about your choice.

Does Your ISP Throttle Your Bandwidth?

COMMENTS
applebyter's picture
Submitted by applebyter on September 18, 2011 - 11:54pm

In Australia I'm limited to 100GB, on what would be considered a quite expensive plan compared to North American plans. If I exceed 100GB in a month then I'm throttled down to 64Kbps! I do have unlimited access to content provided by my ISP, but other than an occassional download I rarely use their content.

LONELY WOLF's picture
Submitted by LONELY WOLF on October 31, 2011 - 4:48pm

comcast chopped my connection every time when i download high volume of data

likix3's picture
Submitted by likix3 on March 5, 2024 - 1:05am

Telecom and cable companies, who are ISPs that also function as content providers, frequently have restrictions that allow you to access their own material without going over your data limitation, but viewing content from outside their ecosystem may duck life. Concerns over fair competition in the internet sphere and net neutrality might occasionally arise from this approach.

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