No more "Fair Use Policy" on Orcon unlimited plans

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freitasm

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#137926 13-Dec-2013 15:05

Just received:

Orcon scraps Fair Use policy on unlimited plans

Orcon today removed the Fair Use policy from its unlimited plans.

CEO Greg McAlister says the move signals the ISP’s intention to have a truly ‘all you can eat’ offering.

“We have been selling our unlimited plan for more than a year – it’s our biggest seller, and best plan. While we initially included a Fair Use policy, we have never used it, so the time is right to remove it and signal to people that they can really fill their boots online.”

McAlister says that some Orcon customers use up to 9TB of data a month – and he’s OK with that.

“Unlimited is unlimited – it’s what first world internet should look like.”

In October Orcon joined forces with Kim Dotcom, one of New Zealand’s most prolific internet users, to smash New Zealand’s restrictive data caps and fight the plight of third world Internet in New Zealand. Since then, the company has seen the demand for their uncapped plans soar.

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#952337 14-Dec-2013 20:45

Holy hell, how do you store, or have time to watch, 9TB every month???

Lorenceo

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#952375 14-Dec-2013 22:50

If you have 50mbit up it wouldn't be difficult to move 9TB in a month I think. Hurry up Chorus. :(

Jarno

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#952393 15-Dec-2013 00:26

Whenever Orcon says something like "one user used over 9000 last month and we didn't cut them off" I'm going to assume it is Kim DotCom.

If you do something like keep a bunch of 24-hour news video channels streaming, or remote monitoring some highdef security cameras, then I can imagine getting to that level of usage.

michaelmurfy

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#952403 15-Dec-2013 01:41

Jarno: Whenever Orcon says something like "one user used over 9000 last month and we didn't cut them off" I'm going to assume it is Kim DotCom.

If you do something like keep a bunch of 24-hour news video channels streaming, or remote monitoring some highdef security cameras, then I can imagine getting to that level of usage.

Kim Dotcom has Fibre, I don't see him as the type of guy who would be on ADSL plus his mansion is not in a UFB zone.

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NonprayingMantis

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#953415 17-Dec-2013 00:09

http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/digital-living/30007484/orcons-truly-unlimited-ad-irks

seems like the real reason might be this, can't be a coincidence surely?

Orcon's "truly unlimited broadband" advertisement featuring Kim Dotcom has been pulled after a complaint to the Advertising Standards Authority was upheld. The ASA found the ad had a high level of ambiguity and the statement was likely to deceive or mislead the consumer. The advertisement screened about 6.20pm on October 12 and featured Dotcom talking about "Third World broadband". Orcon could provide a "truly unlimited" service, it said. The ad failed to mention how Orcon's fair-use policy allowed for temporary drops in download and upload speeds due to customers on "truly unlimited" plans downloading data in excess of Orcon's estimates, the ASA said The point of contention was around the word "truly" and whether or not Orcon's service reflected this. Orcon said the use of the word "truly" in describing Orcon's unlimited plan was in reference to its policy that it did not restrict the data speed for its unlimited customer below that of the data speed for its customers that have capped data plans. The ASA said Orcon's fair-use policy, which allowed for charging for extra use, even if that use was excessive, was a limit and, therefore, contradicted the claim of offering "truly unlimited broadband". The advertisement was ordered to be removed.

I guess you can't claim something is unlimited but then have small print all about how you are allowed to put a limit on it, even if you never actually enact that policy

Zeon

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#953416 17-Dec-2013 00:35

TBH I think its proven that the model doesn't work. It's not much different to the electricity market and unless you own generation capacity, you generally don't give everyone and his dog unlimited power unless they buy X% of that capacity.

Speedtest 2019-10-14

FireEngine

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#953441 17-Dec-2013 07:08

Zeon: TBH I think its proven that the model doesn't work. It's not much different to the electricity market and unless you own generation capacity, you generally don't give everyone and his dog unlimited power unless they buy X% of that capacity.

What do you base that statement on? Proven by whom?

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HamishMacEwan

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#953451 17-Dec-2013 07:30

Zeon: TBH I think its proven that the model doesn't work. It's not much different to the electricity market and unless you own generation capacity, you generally don't give everyone and his dog unlimited power unless they buy X% of that capacity.

It's completely different to the electricity market.

For a power company, the product, power, is generated by the operator, is finite, and can be exhausted.

You consume electricity.

For an ISP, the product, content, is provided by the customer and is infinite.

You don't consume bandwidth, you occupy it.

http://protopage.com/Hamish.MacEwan

Nebbie

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#953613 17-Dec-2013 11:26

Oh well.... I guess the SCE's will be tuned more to shape p2p more in during the peak times.

The "Fair use policy" was a waste of space, I have yet to hear any case of anyone being charged extra on a unlimited plan across any RSP.

Shaping is the way to go, most RSP's use some sort of shaping these days some better than others.

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#953615 17-Dec-2013 11:33

Good news anyway.

mattwnz

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#953636 17-Dec-2013 11:57

Nebbie: Oh well.... I guess the SCE's will be tuned more to shape p2p more in during the peak times.

The "Fair use policy" was a waste of space, I have yet to hear any case of anyone being charged extra on a unlimited plan across any RSP.

Shaping is the way to go, most RSP's use some sort of shaping these days some better than others.

They call it traffic prioritisation these days, a more pc way of describing it.

FireEngine

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#953641 17-Dec-2013 12:06

Doesn't matter what you call it, the Orcon network currently has NO traffic shaping, not even on P2P.

Regards FireEngine

Zeon

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#953650 17-Dec-2013 12:14

HamishMacEwan:
Zeon: TBH I think its proven that the model doesn't work. It's not much different to the electricity market and unless you own generation capacity, you generally don't give everyone and his dog unlimited power unless they buy X% of that capacity.
It's completely different to the electricity market.

For a power company, the product, power, is generated by the operator, is finite, and can be exhausted.

You consume electricity.

For an ISP, the product, content, is provided by the customer and is infinite.

You don't consume bandwidth, you occupy it.

The power for an ISP is bandwidth and it is most definitely finite.

Speedtest 2019-10-14

mattwnz

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#953654 17-Dec-2013 12:20

NonprayingMantis: http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/digital-living/30007484/orcons-truly-unlimited-ad-irks

seems like the real reason might be this, can't be a coincidence surely?

Orcon's "truly unlimited broadband" advertisement featuring Kim Dotcom has been pulled after a complaint to the Advertising Standards Authority was upheld. The ASA found the ad had a high level of ambiguity and the statement was likely to deceive or mislead the consumer. The advertisement screened about 6.20pm on October 12 and featured Dotcom talking about "Third World broadband". Orcon could provide a "truly unlimited" service, it said. The ad failed to mention how Orcon's fair-use policy allowed for temporary drops in download and upload speeds due to customers on "truly unlimited" plans downloading data in excess of Orcon's estimates, the ASA said The point of contention was around the word "truly" and whether or not Orcon's service reflected this. Orcon said the use of the word "truly" in describing Orcon's unlimited plan was in reference to its policy that it did not restrict the data speed for its unlimited customer below that of the data speed for its customers that have capped data plans. The ASA said Orcon's fair-use policy, which allowed for charging for extra use, even if that use was excessive, was a limit and, therefore, contradicted the claim of offering "truly unlimited broadband". The advertisement was ordered to be removed.

I guess you can't claim something is unlimited but then have small print all about how you are allowed to put a limit on it, even if you never actually enact that policy

I wonder what other companies who offer unlimited broadband are going to do, if they have fine print. But from reading the news story, I read it that it was because the used the word 'truly', but then had a fair usage policy that could potentially charge for excessive usage.

Beccara

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#953661 17-Dec-2013 12:25

Doesn't matter what they say, $99/$129 for 30/100mbit and no fair use clause is asking for ~$600-2000 worth of bandwidth to be used 24/7, It may work for now whilst users on average are using less but good luck when average use is 500gb+

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