Broadband usage limit

[EmmaMay]

In the UK some ISPs limit the broadband usage and some offer unlimited, the ones who limit charge for going over the monthly limit, my question is why can't all ISPs offer unlimited, the ones who limit say it's impossible to offer unlimited. 

[You_are_a_cunt]

because they want more money.

And probably their infrastructure is ancient and can't handle high traffic loads

[Sakkura]

With no limits, some people will use their connection a lot, so the average amount of traffic on their network goes up. If their infrastructure can't handle the increased traffic, you get congestion problems.

 

That's the technical side. But the business side also factors in, because the question is why their infrastructure can't handle the increased traffic. That has to do with how much they spend on upgrades, and how much they oversubscribe their connections, and how much they charge the customers.

[Sir Asvald]

4 minutes ago, EmmaMay said:

In the UK some ISPs limit the broadband usage and some offer unlimited, the ones who limit charge for going over the monthly limit, my question is why can't all ISPs offer unlimited, the ones who limit say it's impossible to offer unlimited. 

Some can because they have their own lines (Such as Virgin Media). As for the other ISPs, they use BT's line, therefore they can't provide "unlimited" broadband and it'll cause so much stress on their infrastructure.  

[ShadowCaptain]

Normally its only budget packages that have limited usage, its mostly just a way to earn more money from people that are not paying much for their package

 

most mid or top tier packages have no restrictions 

[Naeaes]

It's all a trick to fish for more money. 

 

Either such an ISP is still using copper or wireless tech such as radio or satellites for their trunk lines which by todays standards is stupid but plausible given the economics. For non-fiber lines it might actually be the case that they simply can't provide limitless speeds and amounts of data for all their customers. If all their customers went all out on the usage, none of them would have a decent experience. In that case the extra fee serves as a deterrence.

It's also possible that the ISP has already invested in fiber and is already using it and hence having no trouble providing unlimited data to their customers now and in the near-future. They might really need the money to pay for the investments but nonetheless there's no technological reason to limit data.

 

If it was any other way, they'd simply block the usage all together. I worked for an ISP during their fiber-transition and I'll be the first to say that it's by no means easy or cheap to do the transition. But fiber is among the best investments looking ways to the future. They had a saying: Copper rots, fiber lasts forever.

[Sharon24]

here in israel there is no limit on the broadband...that sound to me a bit funny...

[Tosa]

huh, and I complained about one of my ISPs servers bottlenecking my ping by 7 to 16 milliseconds... I guess I should shut up and be happy I won't have to pay extra for those 843 GBs I've spent just this month.

[mcraftax]

2 hours ago, Naeaes said:

Copper rots, fiber lasts forever

Copper rots, isps don't give a f*** and we're all stuck here with last decade's speed

 

Edit: And they don't want to spend any money on even replacing the copper let alone upgrading to fiber.