All about excessive usage

Standard, Premium and Pro packages.  You can download or upload as much as you like each month – within reason. Like most other broadband providers, we have a policy on fair use. The policy is there to stop people overloading the system. And slowing it down for everyone else. You won't have any problem downloading films and music or watching videos online. But if you download large files at peak times every day, we might ask you to cut down. And if you keep overdoing it, we could close your account.

Access. There’s a monthly download limit of 20GB if you joined on or after 14th July 2010. If you joined before this date, there is no limit on monthly network usage. But if we feel that your activities are so excessive that other customers are detrimentally affected, we may give you a written warning (by email or otherwise). In extreme circumstances, if the levels of activity do not immediately decrease after the warning, we may terminate or suspend your Services.

The Basics. If you’ve signed up to The Basics package, there’s a 20GB monthly usage allowance. If you use more than 20GB in any month, we’ll give you a written warning (by email or otherwise). In extreme circumstances, if the levels of activity don’t decrease in line with our instructions after the warning, we may terminate or suspend your Services.

The All Rounder & The Works. You can download as much as you like up to a fair usage limit of around 100GB for the All Rounder or around 250GB for The Works. If you exceed these limits, or we feel that your activities are so excessive that other customers are detrimentally affected, we may give you a written warning (by email or otherwise). In extreme circumstances, if the levels of activity don’t immediately decrease in line with our instructions after the warning, we may terminate or suspend your Services.

How do we measure your usage on The Basics, The All Rounder and The Works packages?

We monitor your usage every billing month. You can get an indication of how much data you’ve downloaded (apart from our Access product) in your online account ato2.co.uk/MyBroadband. There are also hints and tips for keeping down usage that can be accessed from here, and on the help section of our Website.
I've been told to use less broadband. What should I do? 
Try to download and upload less. Here are some activities that use a lot of bandwidth:

• Peer-to-peer software (like BitTorrent).
• File sharing programs often run in the background without you knowing. So turn off the 'auto start' setting. And if yours lets you set a maximum download speed, choose 'low'.
• BBC iPlayer: use the newest version – it uses less bandwidth.
• What else is going on in your house? Is someone else overdoing it? Ask everyone to use a bit less.

If you need further information on controlling your usage, go to:http://www.o2.co.uk/broadband/usage/