Telkom's LTE Acceptable Use Policy.

Item: Telkom
Rating: 2
Author: Marco M

Hello Telkom, This is in reply of the Acceptable Use Policy email that I received from Telkom. Being someone that works in the Telecommunication industry, I just want to set the record straight by saying that I understand that the High usage application can interfere with the Quality of Service (QoS) of other subscribers. Here is a snippet from the mail: “Examples of customer behaviour which may compromise Telkom’s network performance include causing network congestion, running excessive concurrent internet sessions or accessing excessive bandwidth intensive protocols such as peer-to-peer." "Restrictions which may be app**** by Telkom in terms of the Telkom LTE AUP include, but are not limited to, throttling a customer’s throughput speeds and / or shaping a customer’s bandwidth to limit the use of bandwidth intensive protocols and applications.” "Telkom would hereby like to make you aware that your usage behaviour is compromising Telkom’s mobile broadband network performance. Your usage in July was regarded as being excessively high." ========================================================== Now this is where my problem lies. Telkom, you want to shape me or disable my internet connection because of my apparent excessively high usage on the Uncapped LTE package. When the contract was signed, these were the conditions agreed by Telkom and myself: According to the T’s & C’s: http://www.telkom.co.za/about_us/download/SmartBroadbandUncappedT&Cs.pdf Point 6: The SmartBroadband Uncapped Wireless service shall be offered at full speeds (no time limit applies) for all traffic types except bandwidth intensive protocols or applications which shall be at full speed between 12am – 6pm if within the 50GB cap. Once a subscriber reaches the 50GB cap the bandwidth intensive protocols or applications shall be throttled to 128kbps speed for the rest of the month. Full Speeds shall resume at the beginning of the next calendar month Point 7: The SmartBroadband Uncapped Wireless service will offer uncapped data for all traffic types except bandwidth intensive protocols or applications which shall be capped at 50GB Point 8: Bandwidth intensive protocols or applications are defined as Bit torrent traffic downloaded via Peer to Peer, Application to Application, Application to Server, news servers Protocols ( NNTP) From telkom website: http://www.telkom.co.za/today/unlimited-broadband/ "Examples of customer behaviour which compromise Telkom’s network performance include, for example, causing network congestion, include running excessive concurrent internet sessions or accessing excessive bandwidth intensive protocols such as Peer to Peer and news servers protocols (NNTP). In the event of such behaviours, Telkom reserves the right to terminate the account of a SmartBroadband Uncapped Wireless customer whose usage is continuously affecting Telkom’s network performance." ========================================================== So it was agreed that Telkom is allowed to shape the Bandwidth intensive protocols or applications are defined as Bit torrent traffic downloaded via Peer to Peer when it reached the 50GB threshold. Thats fine. I barely ever use P2P applications. All of my bandwidth is being used on streaming applications like Netflix and Showmax and the occasion Gaming on Steam. So Telkom, you cannot shape me or disable me for using the service I pay for and use it in such a manner that was agreed to on the contract. So if you are still adamant that I have been using the service incorrectly that is breaching the contract I signed then I would like to request a Bandwidth by Protocols report (also known as a Protocol Breakdown report) from you DPI devices, i.e. the Sandvine so we can see if we have been using too much P2P bandwidth. Thanks, Unhappy Customer (Marco)

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