back to article UK big five carriers bin wired broadband download quotas for as long as we're all stuck indoors

The UK's big five telecoms companies have lifted data caps on all current fixed broadband services to ensure residents get the internet they need while locked down to prevent the spread of coronavirus. BT, Virgin Media, Sky, TalkTalk and O2 agreed to remove all data allowances on current landline broadband after talks with the …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I didn't know any of the wired broadband providers even had quotas.

    1. Hans 1
      Devil

      They dished quotas years ago, this is all PR.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        No, the packages for people on low incomes - BT Basic (15GB) and similar from other operators - all have data limits.

    2. Neil Barnes Silver badge

      No, no, they're not quotas

      They're just fair use consideration for other customers.

      /me looks around for sarcasm icon, fails to find one.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    1. druck Silver badge
      Unhappy

      Re: Keep Calm

      Can't see a free option on that font.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Keep Calm

        Helpful Hint: Click on where it says "Download".

  3. wolfetone Silver badge

    So when Labour called broadband an essential, the Tories scoffed at it. Now that the shit hits the fan, it turns out it is essential?

    Who knew.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      It's digital Soma.

      1. Kane

        It's a Brave New World.

        1. Sgt_Oddball
          Pint

          That certainly explains..

          Why I haven't been sober for a week.

    2. IHateWearingATie
      Stop

      There's huge difference between 'essential' and give it away for free.

      The Labour proposal (free broadband for everyone) was a waste of public money and was rightly scoffed at.

      1. Boris the Cockroach Silver badge

        As I remember

        Labour were offering free broadband as an essential service (especially since so much government/welfare/medical stuff is shoved onto the internet) but their definition of broadband was 2mb down/100 k up

        You wanted faster/better you paid for it..

        But hey... lets just mindlessly repeat the daily (m)wail labour bad , tories good , labour bad, tories good

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          As opposed to the general topic on these forums of tories bad, labour good, tories bad, labour good?

          1. Boris the Cockroach Silver badge
            IT Angle

            My actual opinion during the last election was Labour bad, tories worse

            Both parties(actually all of the parties) have lousey people in charge, so we end up with bozo the clown, and old man corbyn...

            Maybe kicking the lawyers* out of parliment and having a wide cross section of society stand for government would give us better leaders.... but then maybe not

            *75% of MPs are/were lawyers.... which means they should be able to come up with better laws that cant be challenged in court... but strangely dont

            1. attackcat

              If laws didn't need so much challenge and explanation in court how would you expect their lawyer mates on the outside to make their living?

    3. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

      "So when Labour called broadband an essential, the Tories scoffed at it. Now that the shit hits the fan, it turns out it is essential?"

      It still doesn't appear to be free, which is what Labour were calling for.

  4. Phil O'Sophical Silver badge

    U-turn?

    I don't quite see how removing quotas and adding new packages is a u-turn on plans not to make home visits for installation & repair.

    1. Pascal Monett Silver badge

      Re: U-turn?

      Yeah, that certainly came out of left field.

    2. Nifty Silver badge

      Re: U-turn?

      This is to avoid the need to have someone come visit you to open the access panel and flip the enable unlimited data switch.

  5. John Doe 12

    Stupidest Idea EVER!!

    So now all the selfish heavy downloaders will have nothing to stop them from swamping the networks. Anyone who agrees with this policy must also agree that the supermarkets remove the limit on bulk buying I guess?

    I have personally known the hoarding downloader type who grab anything and everything "because it's there". I remember when one particular colleague ran out of disk space so just deleted gigabytes of zipfiles which he never even bothered to unpack or do anything with.

    Already I have seen people moaning that they are struggling to work from home while at the same time all their kids are watching different things on Netflix at full HD quality. Not everyone lives in the city centre with gigabit fibre connections yet they all assume they can do what they want and some kind of black magic makes it ok :-D

    1. Steve 53

      Re: Stupidest Idea EVER!!

      Few packages are actually have download limits, and it's unlikely the tiny fraction of users who have these packages (We're talking tight budgets here) are the sort of users who will suddenly download tonnes. Hell, we're probably talking about people with just a bit of DAS.

      Probably not a problem...

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Stupidest Idea EVER!!

      "So now all the selfish heavy downloaders will have nothing to stop them from swamping the networks. Anyone who agrees with this policy must also agree that the supermarkets remove the limit on bulk buying I guess?"

      Why? Food is a physical product which must be manufactured, packaged and stored. Network bandwidth is instantaneous and cannot be stored. Swamping the networks would require deliberate co-ordinated effort by lots of people to even make a dent in availability.

    3. simonlb Silver badge

      Re: Stupidest Idea EVER!!

      They are removing quotas, not stopping traffic shaping and throttling.Do try to keep up.

    4. Jimmy2Cows Silver badge

      Re: Stupidest Idea EVER!!

      The selfish heavy downloaders are already on unlimited plans. Not that there's anywhere near enough of them to create the problem you imagine will exist.

      People unable to work from home effectively because their kids are all watching different HD/UHD streams isn't a network issue. It's mainly a parenting problem (yes I know WIFI interference and local contention), but still mainly a parenting issue). Tell the kids work is more important and they need to lower their quality settings. Remind them they won't be able to watch Netflix if there's nothing to pay the bills with. If they still won't drop the quality, do it for them. If they turn it back up again, remove their devices for a while. It ain't rocket science.

  6. Steve 53

    Interestingly, A&A (one of the few premium ISPs who have download quotas) beat ofcom to the punch by about 3 weeks. They're keeping quotas, but topping people up as needed. Seems to strike a decent balance between helping people with unusual traffic patterns due to Covid and keeping people accountable for their usage.

    One of the few providers who beat themselves up if they have any packet loss due to congestion... But of course it needs subscribers who are invested in that idea as well.

  7. Usermane

    And sky could increase the speed of its obnoxious "cheap" broadband.

    1. Usermane

      3 thumbs down, maybe sky shareholders.

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