ADSL and cable customers who believed industry heavyweight Telstra had sold them an "unlimited" service are soon to face imposed limits and charges for additional usage.
Telstra announced the revised Freedom Plan to users late yesterday -- restricting data download to three gigabytes per month with additional downloading attracting a hefty fee of 18.9 cents per megabyte.
The industry ombudsman received a stream of complaints last night and this morning.
"This service was referred to as an 'unlimited broadband' experience and they [Telstra] advertised widely for customers," one user told ZDNet.
"However, it seems after a month of numerous email server problems, the solution to improve the service has been to now set a limit to this 'uncapped' traffic limit and set a 3 gig monthly limit. Whilst this may seem a lot to some, and indeed it may be fine for a lot of users, it means that many of us will have to think twice before enjoying a streaming video or radio service."
Telstra staunchly denied that its Freedom Plan was ever sold or described as an unlimited service and claims it is simply responding to a "strong request" from customers to have a defined limit.
"It was never unlimited usage, it was always a service that had an Acceptable User Policy," Telstra spokesperson Stuart Gray told ZDNet. "Customers were all the time saying 'what is your limit?'."
Telsta defines five percent of users as "excessive users" -- downloading in excess of 10 gigabyte per month.
"They were using it [the network] the way they thought it could be used," Gray said, but "it couldn't sustain that level of usablility".
However, Telstra denies that network troubles are the reason behind data restrictions, saying its trying to improve services to the majority of customers on a shared network.
Telstra refuted the allegation that it's profiteering from the revised plan, saying it's an attempt to make it "a viable service as opposed to a service that was costing us money".
"I think people have been believing that it doesn't cost us anything to transmit data," Gray said.
The additional usage fee will "cover the cost of data transmission," he added.
Telstra declined to divulge how many Freedom Plan subscribers it has but said it anticipated some would opt to change carriers on the back of the announcement.
Users who chose to cancel their existing service with Telstra will not incur termination fees, according to the telco.
Alternatively, Telstra advised disgruntled customers to move onto a volume-based plan and pay for capacity, thereby "putting money back into developing the network"
When asked if it would consider rolling out a higher capped plan, Telstra said that if there was demand for that kind of service "there's no real reason we couldn't introduce that".
"We did anticipate that excessive users would be angry," Gray said. However, "85 percent of customers are well below the three gigabyte limit -- they'll see an improved service."
The Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman has confirmed that Telstra is within its rights to slap a price cap on its "unlimited" ADSL and cable plan.
"It appears Telstra has complied to the terms and conditions of its contract," a TIO spokesperson told ZDNet.
"If customers can show that they don't believe Telstra has then we'll look into it," she added.
The ACCC said it has received complaints on the issue and is currently examining it.
As an affected ADSL customer I think this stinks. I doubt that I use the 3GB but frankly as an IT Professional I may need to download large files to do my job.
When I signed up the plan was unlimited, I'm now stuck in a plan which limits me for another 17 months.