Have AOL started to throttle / "traffic shape"

[Miyazaki]

Hi,

Yesterday evening I noticed my bandwidth has gone from 2 mbit to 0.5

I tried to contact AOL, but couldn't get through and didn't want to spend all night waiting.

Late that night I noticed my bandwidth went back up to 2 mbit.

Today, at almost 6pm on the dot, my bandwidth has gone back down to 0.5

I have had AOL with no problems since last August, and am totally baffled.

I have looked in their T&C and haven't noticed any changes. The only thing I got was an email telling me I was due to be upgraded to a 4mbit connection.

Oh, the irony.

Can they do this? What would they say if I only paid them £6.50 per month instead of the £25.99 they expect?

[jezzer256]

I have noticed a similar problem with AOL recently too. I play Call Of Duty 2 online a lot, sometimes I'm playing on my server (hence I know the ping cannot be caused by the server or whatever) and my ping is 100+, other times it is normal at 20-40.

If you're gonna complain, please let me know how you got on! I recently got an email saying I'm getting a free upgrade to 2mbps, but at the moment I'm noticing bad speeds not improved ones.

Jez

[Miyazaki]

Are you on AOL silver then?

I am on gold, would want to be on platinum but the exchange here doesn't support it.

I am considering complaining, but when I think how many GB of stuff I have downloaded, i'm not sure I should

[WelshBluebird]

yep they have, this has been inplace since around mid january, and you should have been notified by email. Because of the change in the T&C's, AOL were offerering free migrations for those within a contract. The deadline for this was Febuary 1st.

This is part of the reason why I'm planning on changing ISP (and also I would never trust carphone warehouse with anything of mine)

[zAndy1]

See here:-

http://bbs.adslguide.org.uk/postlist.php?Cat=&Board=aol

Yes they're throttling down to 512 or 1Meg during peak hours (6pm till 11pm), I'm getting a MAC code and going elsewhere, browsing is useless during the evening now and streaming video is impossible, no way am I paying £30pm for that (I'm on platinum)

[Miyazaki]

Thanks for that.

Unfortunately I am tied in until August, but shall bid aol a swift farewell after then.

**** them.

[jezzer256]

That defnitely means I'm off from AOL. We're on AOL phone as well which is a bummer; hopefully a swicthover won't be too much hassle.

Please see my other post I'm about to create to discover the alternatives.

Jez

[Sinzer]

We have a similar issue on debate at Namesco.

Your "free" upgrade has come at a heavy price..... a lot of ISP's are experiencing this and it is due to Broadband Max which BT has introduced with no real consideration of network performance.

Your connection is a contended service both at the BT exchange level and your ISP, the problem is that BT have opened the floodgates and their exchanges cannot cope

[Knyght_byte]

Originally Posted by Sinzer

We have a similar issue on debate at Namesco.

Your "free" upgrade has come at a heavy price..... a lot of ISP's are experiencing this and it is due to Broadband Max which BT has introduced with no real consideration of network performance.

Your connection is a contended service both at the BT exchange level and your ISP, the problem is that BT have opened the floodgates and their exchanges cannot cope

BT were forced to open the floodgates by the industry.....so BT opened them. No one else thought to consider what might happen, and BT didnt have to mention it as people would just assume they were trying to block other companies from competing....

altho i find it amusing that they throttle them around that time, given that most people will be travelling or eating dinner or watching TV

i use BT Openworld, my speed does seem to go down a bit around 6-9pm but not by as much as you guys are suggesting on other ISP's.....

[wormvortex]

makes me glad I've got cable broadband

[Miyazaki]

I used to have blueyonder. The best internet experience IMO.

Would go back to them too, if we had cable around here

[WelshBluebird]

Originally Posted by Sinzer

We have a similar issue on debate at Namesco.

Your "free" upgrade has come at a heavy price..... a lot of ISP's are experiencing this and it is due to Broadband Max which BT has introduced with no real consideration of network performance.

Your connection is a contended service both at the BT exchange level and your ISP, the problem is that BT have opened the floodgates and their exchanges cannot cope

I don't think its necessarally down to the exchnages not coping. IMO, its more to do with the high cost per GB of bandwith that BT wholesale charge ISP's (and that includes BT's own ISP, under ofcom rules, BT's ISP has to be treated as another company when it comes to dealing with BT wholesale).