24/03/2006

BT serves notice on 'excessive' broadband users

BT Broadband is to pull the plug on thousands of download hogs as it cracks down on "excessive" use.

A small percentage of users, less than 0.2%, of the company's 2.3 million broadband users are regularly exceeding their accounts download limits, which is dependent on the subscription package.

BT has sent out letters to over 3,000 of the few thousand users who have been targeted in the crackdown on breaches of the account guidelines and who have failed to respond to requests to contact BT.

The rogue customers have been warned that their broadband service will be terminated in March unless they pay for the additional downloads.

BT declined to comment on how many users were already being cut off, but have said that in keeping with established guidelines users who occasionally exceed their limit will not be affected.

Customers regularly exceeding the limit of their broadband download package, currently between 2GB and 40GB, will be offered the option of taking a package more in keeping with their usage pattern.

BT said that the company has to pay for the bandwidth consumed by its connection network, and that while the percentage of users exceeding the limits was quite small, unless action was taken, the excessive use by a few users was in danger of pushing up the cost for all users.

(SP)

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