If you are subscribing to any broadband services in India make sure you check their FUP or Fair usage policy, if applicable. There are however, some broadband services in India like the MTNL Broadband (Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited) that do not have a FUP.
FUP is what the customer care or the agent will not talk about so it is your responsibility to check and make sure before your get any connection. But what exactly is a Fair Usage Policy and how does it affect me?
What is Fair usage policy (FUP)
In simple words the FUP (Fair Usage Policy) means that even though you may subscribe to an unlimited broadband plan say for example 512 kbps unlimited per month, and if your usage is very high and crosses a certain cap as decided by the broadband provider your connection speed will then be reduced to 256 kbps for the remaining month.
Why are Broadband providers implementing FUP?
If you have a 512 kbps unlimited connection for a month and say for example you use the services for a full month, 24 hours a day, you will be using a lot of bandwidth. Now imagine many consumers doing the same. This will stall the whole network which is not up to date, resulting in drop in connection or slow connections. The broadband service providers are not able to handle too many simultaneous users and neither do they have advanced/ upgraded technology to do so, hence they have come up with the FUP crap.
Furthermore they want to earn more money by fooling the consumers with a higher plan but in fact giving less bandwidth if usage is more, at the same time using their old outdated network and not investing for an upgrade.
So if you pay say Rs. 750 for a 512 kbps unlimited connection for a month with FUP terms, after few days if your usage is more you will be running on a 256 kbps speed for the rest of the month yet you have already been changed Rs. 750 for the whole month @ 512 kbps.
The Indian Broadband service providers are not honest. They could have kept the cap limit (usage) and then charged the customer for 256 kbps when their connection is slowed down.
There is a lot of competition in the broadband market so next time any unlimited scheme excites you make sure you check the FUP, you may not be getting what you are being shown.