Fair Access Policy

Some Internet service providers implement a system of bandwidth management called Fair Access Policy with the stated purpose of preventing users of a broadband connection from overusing bandwidth. The limit is often on a daily or monthly basis, and varies substantially. It usually includes both the upload and download bandwidth (total bandwidth). If the limit is exceeded by the customer, either a warning may be given, or some sort of cap on the download/upload speed for a specified amount of time.

With the advent of P2P file sharing programs such as BitTorrent which allow the downloading (and uploading) of extremely large files (with some torrent downloads exceeding 50GB) customers of these ISPs may have to monitor their own bandwidth usage in order to prevent exceeding their limit.

HughesNet [http://www.hughesnet.com] uses the Fair Access Policy (FAP), to control bandwidth usage. Their current maximum plan for "Large business" is 1,250 MB in a 24 hour rolling period. Their plan for "home" use is 200 MB. If you exceed your plan's usage in any period of 24 hours (excluding 3AM to 6AM, every day) (also this is not reset at any time) your internet's speed will decrease to slower than the speed of dial-up for 24 hours. HughesNet does not offer warnings about when you approach your limit either (even though they track hourly use which you can see online). [http://legal.hughesnet.com]

However, claims of a bandwidth crunch are disputed. [http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20071227/124634.shtml]

ee also

Net Neutrality, a proposal which would outlaw Fair Access Policies.

According to an article in THE WEEK in August, 2008, a case against COMCAST was decided by the FCC in favor of NO FAIR ACCESS POLICIES ALLOWED!

No to Internet rationing (copied from THE WEEK, August 2, 2008)"Internet service providers cannot ration service to heavy users of the Internet, the Federal Communications Commission ruled this week. The FCC said that Comcast, one of the largest Internet service providers, broke the law when it slowed the transfer of video files among a group of its customers to ensure that other customers had adequate bandwidth. The FCC ruled that Comcast had no right to act as Internet traffic cop."