Let's hope this will be the end of the download limit!

[sabaku_no_gaara]

http://www.fortune500global.com/news...ownload-limit/

I don't know who wrote that article, but his english is horrible! I guess it's a machine translation of a Dutch language article, annyway to sumarise the situation:

In Belgium, you have a limited amount of bandwith you can use over a period of 30 days, then after 30 days the counter goes to 0 again (I for instance have 30 gigabyte), if you go over that limit within those 30 days, you will be placed on smallband by your provider (there are only 2 real providers in Belgium, Belgacom and Telenet) the smallband connection will render your internet speed to the amazing speed of 4/kbs. However you can allways buy extra bandwith or choose to be charged for the extra bandwith you use, (but the tarif they charge you is dependant on various factors wich I can't find in google or on the website of my provider).

The problem now is, that Microsoft had a service for their crappy console that allows the streaming of movies on demand, but this takes bandwith, lots of bandwith if you order a HD movie on demand. Telenet and Belgacom however also have the duopoly on Digital television in Belgium, and they have their own on demand services, wich are not restricted by the bandwith limit. So Microsoft has requested they remove the limit or make it higher. Both companies refused so Microsoft Complaigned officially claiming the limit is a form of croocked competition and now the Minister of Economy has ordered an investigation to see if the limits are a form of false competition and thus illegal.

(I hope my explanation was better then the article?)

Let's hope we get rid of the limits!

[Groundtotem]

Yeah i hope the limit will be removed for you guys because 30g is quite fast to reach.

[sabaku_no_gaara]

Yeah, when my hard drive crashed and steam had to redownload all my games I was at that limit real soon.

THe idea behind the limits is this: If they don't limit internet use, you'll get a small group of people who will use more bandwith then the average users and this small group will be responsible for a slowing down of the internet for the average user or they will cause instabillity, thus they install limits to keep it fair for everyone, and also they claim it helps keep piracy down

At least that's what those companies claim

[MathiasOfAthens]

Yeah, when my hard drive crashed and steam had to redownload all my games I was at that limit real soon.

THe idea behind the limits is this: If they don't limit internet use, you'll get a small group of people who will use more bandwith then the average users and this small group will be responsible for a slowing down of the internet for the average user or they will cause instabillity, thus they install limits to keep it fair for everyone, and also they claim it helps keep piracy down

At least that's what those companies claim

I can imagine it keeping piracy down quite a bit but downloading anything legitimate, what about public cafes or libraries, bet they reach their limit in literally hours. Anyway, the claim that keeping the limit low will somehow prevent average users from being manhandled, well your country, its what the size of New York city, and New York, much less, the whole US and Canada seems to handle no-limit bandwidth just fine.

[Snoopy]

30 GB? Damn, that has gotta suck.

In Western Canada (BC mainly) the main companies are pretty good. They are fast and have no download limit.

In Eastern Canada (Ontario), the companies aren't so great. Bell Canada will mess with you if you dare to use bit torrent (even if it is a completely legal download) and is slow. The only serious competitors are Rogers (which is about the same as Bell) and Cogeco (which is faster, but has a download limit of 60 GB). There are a couple indie places though, they are pretty good besides being slightly slower.

Though 30 GB? How are you supposed to live with that (at least if you have Steam and/or mod your games)?

[blackwatersix]

Damn. 30G?! I download (and delete) more than that in 2 weeks. O___O

No wonder my ex didn't want to use torrent.

[alhoon]

In Belgium, you have a limited amount of bandwith you can use over a period of 30 days, then after 30 days the counter goes to 0 again (I for instance have 30 gigabyte), if you go over that limit within those 30 days, you will be placed on smallband by your provider (there are only 2 real providers in Belgium, Belgacom and Telenet) the smallband connection will render your internet speed to the amazing speed of 4/kbs. However you can allways buy extra bandwith or choose to be charged for the extra bandwith you use, (but the tarif they charge you is dependant on various factors wich I can't find in google or on the website of my provider).

The problem now is, that Microsoft had a service for their crappy console that allows the streaming of movies on demand, but this takes bandwith, lots of bandwith if you order a HD movie on demand. Telenet and Belgacom however also have the duopoly on Digital television in Belgium, and they have their own on demand services, wich are not restricted by the bandwith limit. So Microsoft has requested they remove the limit or make it higher. Both companies refused so Microsoft Complaigned officially claiming the limit is a form of croocked competition and now the Minister of Economy has ordered an investigation to see if the limits are a form of false competition and thus illegal.

1. Microsoft goes the other way now it seems. It's usually Microsoft that gets sued.
2. 30 GB per month?! That would be good for 5 years ago (provided you don't download movies). Dragon age is what? 20GB? The same with ETW.
3. You can't mess with Microsoft. It has income around the GDP of a developing country.

[sabaku_no_gaara]

5 years ago it was 9 gigabyte, then later after petitions and complaignts it was 12.5 gigs and now since 2 years it's 30

[Groundtotem]

I think that i would manage with 70g per month, not less than that anyway.

[sabaku_no_gaara]

It's hard indeed, but apparently the group that goes over the limit and is in need of higher limits is marginally small

[Pickle_mole]

gov'ment lies^
time for a revolt

[Phier]

30 gig a month isn't enough for legal activities?

Damn thats a lot of porn you guys must be downloading.

[Groundtotem]

30 gig a month isn't enough for legal activities?

Damn thats a lot of porn you guys must be downloading.

[antares24]

30 gig a month isn't enough for legal activities?

Damn thats a lot of porn you guys must be downloading.

LOL HD porn videos would clog the internet, mark my words

either way, subscriptions with unlimited bandwidth should be the norm.

[Taxandrius]

Well, not only the download limit sucks, but the Internet law too...when some kids made death threats to a journalist, the government couldn't do anything about it ...

[Skullheadhq]

Why should they...

[sabaku_no_gaara]

Well, not only the download limit sucks, but the Internet law too...when some kids made death threats to a journalist, the government couldn't do anything about it ...

Really? When did that happen? What was it about, I missed that.

[Taxandrius]

Linda de Win in "de Slimste Mens"

[sabaku_no_gaara]

Actually, my subscription comes with 30 gigs

If you have the "basicnet" formula, your limit is 1 gig, if you have the "comfortnet" formula it's 4 gig. etc...

I have the funkyshake subscription

(yes the names are silly)

[Jaketh]

i like living in America downloading at 1.5MB/s with unlimited downloads