There are mixed messages going around about Qwest’s policy and approach to excessive use of our Internet network. While less than .002 percent of Qwest High-Speed Internet customers are impacted by our policy, we’d like to clarify a few points.
First and foremost, Qwest does not block any lawful Internet traffic and does not use rate-limiting or throttling to enforce its excessive use policy. We want to be clear about that.
It is our responsibility to deliver the best Internet experience to all of our Qwest High-Speed Internet customers, which is why we have to make sure we manage it properly. This is why the subscriber agreement that all Qwest High-Speed Internet customers agree to outlines the excessive use policy, which you can read at:
The policy says that customers agree to not use Qwest’s broadband network excessively. So, what does “excessively” mean?
Qwest equates “excessive” to:
• 300,000-500,000 photo downloads in one month
• 40,000 to 80,000 typically sized MP3 music downloads in one month
• 15+ million unique e-mails each month
• Online TV video streaming of 1,000-3,000 30-minute shows each month
• 2-5 million Web page visits (approximately one every second, 24 hours per day)
These examples are approximately hundreds of times the normal use. If a customer does achieve this level of usage (clearly, difficult to do), he or she will know. Qwest will contact the customer several times, in different ways, and we will work closely with the customer to help reduce usage or migrate to a more appropriate service designed to meet his or her high-bandwidth needs.
Online activities and Internet use is constantly evolving – we know that. As a broadband company, we want customers to use and enjoy their Internet, and it’s our job to deliver the best Internet experience we can.
- Travis
Qwest Product Director