[1st-mile-nm] CenturyLink to Impose Usage Caps in Feb.

[Richard Lowenberg]

 CenturyLink to Impose Usage Caps:  150 GB for Slower than 1.5 Mbps, 250 
 GB Otherwise

 According to the CenturyLink web site:

 http://qwest.centurylink.com/internethelp/eup.html

 Excessive Use Policy (EUP)
 CenturyLink™ High-Speed Internet connects customers to the people, 
 things and information important to them. Whether downloading music or 
 photos, watching videos or TV shows online, e-mailing or any number of 
 other activities, CenturyLink High-Speed Internet, is fast, reliable, 
 and full of features to help customers navigate the Internet.

 The majority of CenturyLink High-Speed Internet customers make great 
 use of their service and comply with the CenturyLink High-Speed Internet 
 Subscriber Agreement. An extremely small percentage use their service 
 excessively, or at such extreme high volumes, that they violate the 
 terms of their CenturyLink High-Speed Internet Subscriber Agreement. 
 While this high volume use is very rare, CenturyLink is committed to 
 helping these customers find a high-speed Internet solution to better 
 meet their needs.

 CenturyLink is announcing the following Excessive Usage Policy (EUP), 
 which will become effective in February 2012:

 CenturyLink's EUP applies to all residential high speed Internet 
 customers and is only enforced in the downstream (from Internet to 
 customer) direction. Video services provided by CenturyLink PRISMT TV 
 are not subject to the usage limits. The policy has the following usage 
 limits per calendar month:
 • Customers purchasing service at speeds of 1.5Mbps and below, have a 
 usage limit of 150 Gigabytes (GB) of download volume per month.
 • Customers purchasing service at speeds greater than 1.5Mbps, have a 
 limit of 250GB in download volume per month.
 There are no overage charges or metering fees for usage as part of the 
 Policy.

 CenturyLink will weigh variables such as network health, congestion, 
 availability of customer usage data, and the line speed purchased by the 
 customer as factors when enforcing this policy. Our EUP is application 
 neutral. It only looks at the total usage (bytes transferred) over a 
 defined period of time independent of protocols, applications, or the 
 content that is generating the excessive usage.

 Those customers that are found to have exceeded these limits and are 
 subjected to EUP enforcement will receive a notification from 
 CenturyLink (via a web message, email, or phone call), will be informed 
 of the usage limit on the service, and will be advised of alternatives 
 to consider in order to maintain their High Speed Internet service. This 
 may include migrating to a higher speed if available or to a business 
 grade data service that better fits their bandwidth usage.

 Customers who repetitively exceed their usage limits after being 
 notified may have their service discontinued.

 View questions and answers (PDF) about the Excessive Use Policy (EUP) 
 linked to on the web site.


-- 
 Richard Lowenberg
 1st-Mile Institute
 Box 8001, Santa Fe, NM 87504
 505-989-9110 / 505-603-5200
 www.1st-mile.com
 rl at 1st-mile.com