DSL usage: when will they care?

December 5, 2006 5:46 AM

Do I need to worry about my DSL provider pulling the plug on me for bandwidth consumption?

During the past month I've downloaded about 80 GB of DVD content from Digital Archive Project using the eDonkey p2p client. Do I need to be at all concerned about my DSL provider turning off service because of bandwidth usage? Or would they do something tamer like throttle my bandwidth or call to warn me? Or would they not even really care?

I know it's a what-if scenario but I'm more curious what is the norm for heavy Internet users on DSL. Is my usage having an impact on neighbors, or am I just making a small dent at the telco's central office?

FWIW I'm in the U.S. on DSL and my provider is Embarq (used to be Sprint/Sprintlink). I'm actually in a very small city away from a metro area, so I can see Embarq having some concern over how much usage there is on those pipes.

posted by calhound to computers & internet (4 comments total)

This stuff tends to be pretty hard to predict. You could call them and ask, but don't expect to get a good answer. You could look in your Terms of Service contract to see if any monthly limits are defined.

In my personal experience, though, I've only had one friend using Comcast have anything happen. He was a very, very heavy and constant downloader. His provider contacted him at least three times, throttled him, he switched his modem out, and they throttled him more. Only after many back and forths did they cut him off - and then it was reinstated after more discussion.
posted by odinsdream at 6:02 AM on December 5, 2006

I can offer an experience from Germany and a metropolitan area, where a friend of mine who was up- and downloading vast amounts of data was contacted by the provider and offered money to switch to another service.

As far as I know they didn't throttle his connection.
posted by Glow Bucket at 6:30 AM on December 5, 2006

As others have said, the short answer is "it depends on your ISP." Comcast, for example, has definitely been known to smack their users down for excessive consumption (even those users who signed up for supposedly "unlimited" usage plans). Other ISPs, such as Speakeasy,* are far more lenient/forgiving.

So call your ISP and ask. If they won't tell you (and they might not), check out Broadband Reports* to find other Embarq users in your area who might be able to help you figure it out.

*IANAS (I am not a shill.)
posted by somanyamys at 7:01 AM on December 5, 2006

I'm surprised Comcast didn't try to upgrade odinsdream's friend to Comcast Workplace, their SOHO service. It's double the price but the TOS are much more generous, and it's competitively priced with Speakeasy's 6/768 service.
posted by kindall at 9:46 AM on December 5, 2006