Tells no-one
Britain's
biggest broadband supplier has been throttling download speeds on its
cheapest package without telling anyone.
BT Broadband cuts the speed
users can watch video services like the BBC iPlayer and YouTube at peak
times. Some customers who thought they were signing up for an 8 megabit
per second package can have their speed cut to below 1Mbps.
A BT
spokesman denied it was throttling and was simply managing the bandwidth to
“optimise the experience for all customers”. It is not clear what the
difference is.
BT has said its speed limit is explained on its website,
on a page describing its Total Broadband Fair Usage policy. It said that
punters who buy the cheaper package will be limited to less than a Megabyte
at peak times.
However the move has angered the Beeb which said that
its popular iPlayer service was being stuffed up by BT's antics. It also
prevents many users from getting its high definition
service. Throtting takes place between 1700 and midnight.
BT has
also been ignoring complaints, according to the Beeb. It has a theory that
traffic which is being identified as iPlayer is being throttled, something
BT denies.