In a revised draft Memorandum Order on Minimum Speed of Broadband Connections, The National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) allowed broadband service providers to cap the daily volume data allowed per subscriber. With this move, NTC hopes that internet providers will finally improve their service reliability which is often the main complaint from consumers.
The revise MO mandates broadband service providers to disclose the minimum connection speed and service reliability on their advertisements, flyers, brochures, etc. as well as the maximum volume of data allowed per user per day.
I’m getting mixed reactions here. I kinda get the idea of bandwidth capping to improve service reliability but how would our telco strike a balance on what’s enough? Globe prepaid broadband via Supersurf already has a maximum cap of 800MB per day and I often use that up just from watching videos online. What if the connection is shared to multiple users like in a household? If one’s into watching YouTube videos, the other’s into online gaming, the other’s into downloading.. uhh.. Linux distros.. well you get the idea. And Smart’s mobile broadband is capped at 1.5GB per month! This will most probably kill P2P sharing.
That’s mobile broadband and now the capping will crawl into our homes. I’m happy with my PLDT DSL, it’s not speedy but it serves my needs well with little to no interruptions. However, I do share it with 3-4 other people and with this capping, I wonder how often I’d get disconnected for the rest of the day just when I have to turn something in late at night.
I guess there’s no such thing as unlimited now when it comes to broadband internet. Not unless you’re on those business plans which I’m sure shouldn’t be capped at all. For us home users, better have another broadband service as back up when this pushes through.
Thoughts?
[via Manila Times]
