Suddenlink Reactivates Broadband Meter, Fee-Based Usage Policy
MSO Taps NetForecast to Verify the Accuracy of its Broadband Meter
By: Jeff Baumgartner
Multichannel News
Jun 3 2013 - 2:58pm
http://www.multichannel.com/distribution/suddenlink-reactivates-broadband-meter-fee-based-usage-policy/143629
Suddenlink has restarted a policy that charges extra when cable modem
customers exceed their monthly usage allotments three times, a decision
that comes nearly a year after the MSO suspended the policy while it
reviewed the accuracy of its bit-counting meter and looked to hire a
third-party to validate it.
Suddenlink suspended the policy in August 2012 after some customers
complained that the measurements on their individual router logs didn’t
match up with the Suddenlink-provided meter on some occasions.
According to Suddenlink’s updated broadband usage policy page, the MSO
reinstated its usage allowances for residential Internet accounts in
most service areas as of May 2, 2013. DSL Reports first reported of the
policy change on Monday.
Suddenlink’s updated allowance plan policy notes that the MSO's
broadband usage meter has been reviewed by NetForecast, the same third
party that monitors the accuracy of Comcast’s broadband meter.
Suddenlink said NetForecast found that the MSO’s current system “reports
usage within plus or minus 1% of actual usage. In the interest of
fairness, we doubled that margin of accuracy for the purpose of this
program, which means we do not consider an individual account as over
its allowance until the measured usage is more than 2% over.”
By way of example, Suddenlink noted that a customer with a 250 GB
monthly allowance would not be counted as exceeding the threshold unless
his or her monthly usage exceeded 255 GB, as measured by the MSO’s
broadband usage meter.
Under the new plan, monthly allowances will be 150 Gigabytes for
customers who take services that offer maximum download speeds of 10
Mbps or less, 250GB if the max download speeds are between 10 Mbps and
30 Mbps, and 350GB per month for customers that take tiers offering
downstream speeds of 30 Mbps or greater.
According to the policy, customers who exceed their monthly allowance
plan the first time will be sent to a notification Web page, where they
will be directed to tell Suddenlink how they want to receive future
notification (via Web browser or e-mail), enter their account number,
and then save that information.
Suddenlink will send future notifications when the account reaches 80%
of the monthly allowance and again when it exceeds 100%. Customers who
exceed their monthly allowance a third time will be subject to a usage
fee that will bill $10 for every bucket of 50 GB consumed.
“These plans should be more than sufficient for 99 percent of our
customers,” Suddenlink noted, adding that customers who require more
bandwidth should consider upgrading to a commercial account.
Word of Suddenlink’s change in policy comes on the same day that Cable
One announced it would eliminate its broadband usage fee policy starting
next week as it adds two faster broadband tiers and rolls out bigger
monthly usage caps.
Among examples of other MSOs that have rolled out or tested policies
similar to Suddenlink’s, Comcast is trialing usage-based broadband plans
in Tucson, Ariz.; and in Nashville, Tenn., and Mediacom Communications
has rolled out its usage-based plan commercially.
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