Broadband Usage Allowance

I have recently been exceeding my monthly usage allowance of 40GB resulting in additional charges being applied to my account. I have never previously exceeded my allowance.
I wanted to gain a better understanding of what specific content being downloaded might be causing this so I called the Broadband Helpline.
The person who was based in India said that to give the information requested would be breaching Data Protection so I am no further forward.
I don't want to switch to an unlimited contract so am at a loss as to what to do.
Could someone please help ?

cherrington wrote:
So basically devices such as I Phones I Pads X Box 1 etc will all take maximum advantage of the download speed available thereby increasing usage ?
That is correct. Instead of standard quality video, it wiil select HD video on things like Youtube and iPlayer.
If you have than many devices in use, especially if you stream video, or do gaming, you will soon use up 40Gb.
If you upgrade in the same month as your excess usage, BT normally do not charge for that excess.
Keep a watch on the broadband monitor, on a daily basis, to see what you are using. Remember uploads and dowloads count.
If you are on a discounted deal, you may find that the amount of the discount, is applied to the upgrade price, for the remainder of your contract.
There are some useful help pages here, for BT Broadband customers only, on my personal website.
BT Broadband customers - help with broadband, WiFi, networking, e-mail and phones.

Similar Messages

Wifi at home/Broadband usage allowance

Can anyone tell me if when using a wifi device AT HOME does the usage come off your allocated broadband usage allowance?

johnfraser wrote:
Thanks for that but I am still not entirely clear. I have registered for bt wifi so does this mean unlimited usage even at home?
There is a fair usage policy here
http://www.btwifi.com/terms-and-conditions/fair-use-policy.jsp
You have to actually connect to your BT wifi SSID, and not the normal home hub one, to take advantage of this.
You can tell if you are connected to BT wifi, as it will ask you to login using your primary e-mail details.
There is a general info page here.
BT wifi help (was BTOpenzone)
There are some useful help pages here, for BT Broadband customers only, on my personal website.
BT Broadband customers - help with broadband, WiFi, networking, e-mail and phones.

Bt Broadband Usage Allowance

Does use of BTFON and BT Openzone count against BT Broadband usage allowance?

Many thanks for your speedy reply. It's good, and unusual, to receive an unambiguous answer.

BT Broadband usage allowance estimate.

Usage allowance, 1GB roughly equates to 5000 web pages or 50,000 emails, I might view 10 or 20 web pages in a day and send 3 or 4 emails. So I must have viewed 65,000 web pages or sent, wait for it, 650,000 emails

WatchdogTS wrote:
Been with BT BB for over 5 years now, never once went above the usage allowance, I rarely get the 7GB advisory emails, 4 in the last 12 months to be exact.
Now all of a sudden I am exceeding my 10GB allowance by miles, 23GB used in Feb 2012.
This is the good bit, according to my BT usage monitor I got the advisory email for 7GB on the 28th Feb 2012, note the date, 28th Feb. No email was received by me. Also on the 20th Feb 2012 I was supposed to get an email for exceeding my 10GB allowance by 13GB for Feb 12 on the 20th Feb 2012. Again no email was received, but it is logged on BT's usage monitor as having been sent.
Somehow I am supposed to have used 16GB of broadband acess in the space of 24 hours, 29 days in Feb 2012, advisory email for 7GB used received on 28th Feb 2012. £15.00 charge to go on my next bill..........like hell it will.
Explain that if you can BT.
Hi. Welcome to the forums.
Have you checked the online Spam folder in case the email went into there ?
Pardon me for asking as I'm not too certain about your dates. You've given details about an email for exceeding Feb 2012 on 20th Feb ? And also one on 28th Feb for going past 7GB ? Clearly they don't make sense to be in that order - or the one on 20th Feb is wrong.
As for the usage, is there anything you can think of that might have caused this extra usage ? The usual culprits such as skype video chat, catch up tv, online film streaming etc.
http://www.andyweb.co.uk/shortcuts
http://www.andyweb.co.uk/pictures

BROADBAND USAGE ALLOWANCE SCAM

I HAVE BEEN CHARGED FOR 'EXTRA' BROADBAND USAGE IN JUNE AND IT SEEMS I HAVE NO COMEBACK !
BT WILL JUST TAKE THE MONEY AND THAT'S IT AS FAR AS THEY ARE CONCERNED.
I CAN'T PROVE HOW MUCH I USED,
BUT MY MONTHLY USAGE AVERAGE IS 4.34 GB
I RECIEVED AN ADVISORY EMAIL FROM BT ON 1ST. JULY, WARNING THAT MY TOTAL USAGE
FOR THE MONTH OF JUNE WAS OVER 8GB.
NOTE !!....... THE IST. OF JULY !!????.
WHO DO I HAVE TO CONTACT TO GET MY MONEY BACK.
THE BROADBAND PHONE LINE HELP ONLY WANTS TO HELP ITSELF TO MY MONEY AND JUST SUGGEST THAT I UPGRADE
IT'S DISGRACEFUL

Hi rodneybark,
Welcome to the community and thanks for posting!
I'm sorry about this. Send us over your details and we'll look into this for you from here. Click on my username and under the "about me" section of my profile you'll see the link to get in touch with us.
Cheers
Robbie
BTCare Community Mod
If we have asked you to email us with your details, please make sure you are logged in to the forum, otherwise you will not be able to see our ‘Contact Us’ link within our profiles.
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If someone answers your question correctly please let other members know by clicking on ’Mark as Accepted Solution’.

BT Broadband Usage Allowance....Is it just me?

I'm not sure if I'm in the right place, but having looked at some other threads here, I hope I am.
I'm new to BT Broadband (I joined on the 26th Sept - 8 days ago). After just 4 days, I received an email telling me I'd used over 6GB of my 10GB allowance!! I'm not quite sure how this can possibly be the case since I've never had an issue about usage with my previous ISP, and especially not after 4 days. To compound the issue, the Usage Monitor now says that I've used 1.68GB in 48 hrs (1st - 2nd Oct) which is downright amazing since during those two days, we were hardly even home, apart from sleeping, and the most use the Laptop got was to place the Avon Order!
It would appear from reading other messages here, that, as a new customer, I may have been automatically 'Opted-In' to BT Wifi......(?), so perhaps this is causing an issue. Is there any way I can find out more about the detailed usage? I think I've now managed to 'Opt Out' of BT Wifi (it just said something about my request being processed in the next 24hrs).
Has anyone else had a problem like this, and can they confirm whether it was BT Wifi, or am I missing something else. At the moment, I'm feeling rather ripped off by BT, especially since I've just signed up to an 18 month contract.

BTWIFI does not count towards you usage and in fact many use BTWIFI when their actual usage ia getting near the max so maybe you should think again about opting out
if you go to your hub you should find usage figures there provided you have not switched it off or it has reset
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BROADBAND USAGE WITH YOUVIEW??

Does anyone know if YouView counts towards your broadband usage? BT Vision didn't but I hear that You View can rack up your monthly usage. Not mention on website of course?

Hi Sjf9712,
If you have to YouView through BT then no need to worry about your BT Broadband usage allowance - all BT Vision and YouView On Demand and Catch Up TV is exempt from your usage.
Thanks
Paddy
BTCare Community Mod
If we have asked you to email us with your details, please make sure you are logged in to the forum, otherwise you will not be able to see our ‘Contact Us’ link within our profiles.
We are sorry but we are unable to deal with service/account queries via the private message(PM) function so please don't PM your account info, we need to deal with this via our email account :-)

YouView Broadband usage

Hi,
After spending an hour on the phone going round in circles I thought I would try here, any help would be greatly appreciated.
My Mother has BT Broadband option 1 so has a 10 GB limit, which is enough for all she does.
She got BT vision installed around the 20th Feb - with the TV Unlimited option.
She then started using NowTV around the 26th of March.
Her Broadband usage has suddenly increased
Feb - Not over 10 GB limit
March - 20 GB
April - 41 GB
May - 40 GB
Broadband monitor page currently states:
You have used 42.48 GB this month and your average monthly usage is 7.09 GB.
You have also used 0.12 GB of YouView but because you have a BT Vision subscription pack this isn't counted against your broadband usage allowance.
The first time she got an email warning her she was above her usage I didnt worry as I seen the following link which stated there was a problem with the usage monitor and excess usage would not be charged:
http://bt.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/44084/c/348,1155,6239
She recently got an email stating they will be charging her an extra £35 for exceding her usage in April, and I imagine there will be another £35 for Mays usage.
She watches a lof of movies on it, especially NowTV but yet it states she has only used 0.12 GB of YouView!!!!
Looks a lot like YouView usage is being incorrectly counted and being charged for.
Any advice would be appreciated,
Geoff

& lest there is any doubt this is how the Bt website defines it
YouView On-demand explainedAs well as Freeview and Catch-up TV, YouView gives you access to great on demand content including BBC iPlayer. Best of all, you no longer need to huddle over your laptop! You can enjoy watching your favourite shows on your TV.
As well as the standard players which come on your YouView box, you'll get access to BT Vision with thousands of hours of on demand content including Films, TV, Kids, Music and more. In fact, BT Vision has the largest video on demand library on YouView.
The best part is that providers will continue to add Players to YouView, meaning the content you have access to will continue to grow and change.
Subscription to Now TV costs extra.
close

YouView and broadband usage...?

Now that the 'Catch Up' TV services (iPlayer, 4OD, etc...) are not in the BT Vision section of the new YouView box, does using them now count toward my Broadband usage? It didnt count with the BT Vision box, but I cant find a reference anywhere to whether this has now changed.
cheers
mike

http://www.youview.bt.com/
"YouView is also available with any of our great BT Broadband or BT Infinity packages and with a BT Vision subscription all your on demand viewing (not just BT Vision programmes) is exempt from any broadband usage allowance - so you don't need to worry how much you watch."
So if you get a BT Vision subscription, even their £4 per month offering, then your YouView usage won't be counted against your broadband usage.

Very high broadband usage

The first month we got BT broadband was option 1 the 10GB package, I left my house for 2 weeks and the monitor was at around 6/7GB and with no one in the house and no one with access to it i came back to find it was now at 12GB, thought this was a bit odd...
Last month we upgraded to option 2 the 40GB package. Ended up watching lots of videos and things and by the end of the month it was at 45GB.
This month, it's 7 days in and the usage monitor is showing 12.87GB used, I haven't been doing anything other than browsing, no games, no videos, no downloads, nothing...
This surely cannot be correct and I'm still concerned about the first month when it hadn't been used by any one and it was still racking up the data.
One phone call said there was nothing BT could do to check, I think it's a bit odd that I have to pay for usage I haven't even used and for this month that it's so high already and I haven't even done anything!
Forgot to say I had a 20GB package a few years back and I practically used to live on my laptop, used to play xbox live for hours each day, watch a lot of videos, and download a hell of a lot of music and videos and I didn't exceed my limit once in 18 months..
Seems a bit odd to me...

If this is the first month you have gone over, the £5 for an extra unit of 5GB might be waived.
For more information visit www.bt.com/broadbandusagepolicy
The broadband usage monitor is accurate and is updated at 23:59 every night.
Uploads are also counted towards your 10GB allowance.
1) Make sure that you don't have any malware or virus on the computer.
2) Make sure your private Wifi network is encrypted otherwise other people might be suing it.
3) Make sure that there isn't a device in that is using the home that you didn't know was using the internet - Smart phones/portible devices can automatically connet to your wifi (if known) and can update software in the background without you knowing. Some devices will allow phone calls and texts to be recieved over wifi.
4) there are free usage meters that can be downloaded to see when and what is using the 10GB usage on your computer.
cheers
jac_95 | BT.com Help Site | BT Service Status
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Increase in broadband usage

I have been using BT Infinity 1 since July last year with no problems.
For the last two months I have been warned that I am using more than my allowance of 40G incurring extra charges.
I have no explanation for this.
Is it possible to retrieve my usage stats (as a graph) for the last twelve months from the BT billing platform.
Kathy

This link may help.
Why is my broadband usage so high?
I don`t think BT keep your usage stats for that long. Its best to check it on a daily basis, using the usage monitor on MyBT.
There are some useful help pages here, for BT Broadband customers only, on my personal website.
BT Broadband customers - help with broadband, WiFi, networking, e-mail and phones.

Question about broadband usage

Hello
I recently joined up to BT Total Broadband option 1 and was wondering if someone could help clarify some things on the usage of 10GB and subsequent charges if you exceed.
Is the "per month" based on a calendar month or the billing month?
The reason I ask is because they recently sent me two emails:
One on 1st Sept saying: "We thought you'd like to know that, so far in August, you've used more than 7GB of your 10GB monthly usage allowance for your BT Total Broadband Option 1 service."
Then one on 4th Sept saying: "We thought you'd like to know that, so far in September, you've used more than 7GB of your 10GB monthly usage allowance for your BT Total Broadband Option 1 service."
This is slightly confusing. My billing date is the 23rd of the month. Does this mean that as of 4th Sept I had used over 7GB of my usage since 23rd Aug until 22nd Sept?
I've not had any emails from BT since but their fair usage policy says "If you exceed your monthly usage allowance your service won't stop working; advisory emails will be sent to your BT primary email address if you reach 80 per cent of your usage allowance each month and further notification if you then exceed your allowance in a particular month."
Their emails said "over 7GB" which isn't necessarily 80% but is this what they mean? I've not had any emails about exceeding my limit but the above from their policy seems to suggest I should. I expect if I'd used over 7GB since 23rd Aug to 1st Sept, I've probably exceeded the 10GB allowance by now!
Can anyone clarify how it all works?
Also, if I decided to upgrade to option 2, do they start my 18 month contract all over again?!
Many thanks!
Allan

the usage period is calendar monthly nothing to do with renewal dates
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Broadband usage suddenly rocketed - can anyone hel...

Hi All
We are on Infinity1 so have 40GB/month broadband usage. We typically use 15GB per month. The main use is internet surfing, EMail etc. We have 2 iPhones and 1 iPad.
Just after Christmas, we got a second iPad and a smart TV. We watched a single HD film on the TV through Amazon Prime (Red2 - think it's a couple of hours long). I was off work for a week and did a lot of surfing, but we haven't downloaded any other TV and have spent less than 1 hour streaming YouTube.
We have now exceeded our 40GB limit and are incurring penalty charges.
I'm pretty annoyed as the second warning EMail ("you have reached 38GB") was received last night, and looking at the usage monitor online, we had already clocked up 41.69GB and that was a 24hours out of date anyway.
I don't see why we've used so much bandwidth. We streamed a single HD movie (say this was 5GB) and maybe we are surfing for 30 mins per iPad in the morning, and 2 hours per iPad in the evening, with the phones downloading EMails etc through the day when we're home. I did also have some windows updates download and install yesterday, but the damage had already been done so it won't be due to that.
Our contract is up for renewal in April so I don't want to switch to unlimited broadband right now as it will lock us in for another 12 months. Where is our high usage coming from? It doesn't make sense that we're on track to use 3x what we normally use and the only difference is a single streamed movie and one more iPad which is used for a small amount of surfing.
Can anyone help please? Normal settings apply to the router and I'm happy the security is ok (ie the neighbours haven't hacked into our wifi!)
Many thanks.

You can upgrade to unlimited at any time, you do not have to wait untill the end of your contract.. If you have gone over your allowance, and upgrade before the end of the month, any excess usage charges are waived.
http://bt.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/36401/~/how-can-i-upgrade-my-bt-broadband%3F
If you were on a discounted package, you may find that the amount of discount will be subtracted from the upgraded package.
You can also try Customer Options on 0800 800 030
They are very helpful when it comes to upgrades, and will usually give you the best deal.
There are some useful help pages here, for BT Broadband customers only, on my personal website.
BT Broadband customers - help with broadband, WiFi, networking, e-mail and phones.

Re: BT Broadband Usage Incorrect?

Joined BT in July what a mistake broadband is slow and connection lost everytime the phone rings we have never had any problem in the past and now this from BT ...........
Reminder: Usage Allowance
Dear Customer,
This email is to advise you that last month you exceeded the usage allowance for your BT Total Broadband Option 2 service.
Your current monthly usage allowance is 40GB.
Your total usage for last month was 139GB.
Additional usage is charged in units of 5GB, at £5 per 5GB. Based on your usage last month a charge of £50 will be applied to your next bill.
This is daylight robbery

pickle13 wrote:
Joined BT in July what a mistake broadband is slow and connection lost everytime the phone rings we have never had any problem in the past and now this from BT ...........
Reminder: Usage Allowance
Dear Customer,
This email is to advise you that last month you exceeded the usage allowance for your BT Total Broadband Option 2 service.
Your current monthly usage allowance is 40GB.
Your total usage for last month was 139GB.
Additional usage is charged in units of 5GB, at £5 per 5GB. Based on your usage last month a charge of £50 will be applied to your next bill.
This is daylight robbery
Hi. Welcome to the forums.
If the connection is lost every time the phone rings, there are a few reasons for this. Typically you need to make sure that every phone (including fax machines, extensions, skybox or other "nornal" phone equipment) has a filter attached. Interference from faulty power adaptors for those items can cause this failure too.
Can you give an indication of your type of usage and how many devices yu have connected ? Streaming TV (e.g. sports) can use up to 1GB per hour.
However there have been reports of new accounts where the usage is very high. I can't recall the outcome of those individual cases.
http://www.andyweb.co.uk/shortcuts
http://www.andyweb.co.uk/pictures

Broadband usage high and jumping in usage

Hi
I've been with BT for 6 years at my current address and I had this exact problem back in 2014. It is now happening again. - It turned out my on Demand service was being counted to my broadband usage!!
I took up Netflix (as the On Demand servcies being withdrawn) on the 5th of May, I received the You View box on the 8th May and set it up over that weekend. Sine then my usage has jumped, but I had not realised this until I received an email to say I'd used 6GB of my 10GB allowance.
I checked the usage monitor on 22nd May and my usage was 6.77GB. I telephoned on the 24th May as my usage was showing 7.11GB. I have changed my wireless password and have done everything BT has asked. This morning 6.30am I checked my usage and it showed 9.5GB used! As I've had to come to work I have not been able to telephone you. I've just logged into my account (10.50am) and my uasage is now 10.36GB!!
My average usage is about 3.25GB p/mnth. Nothing has changed except for the new You view box and this weekends usage is impossible! We were away from the house during the day coming home in the evening, only watching some Netflix. It is just myself and my partner. My PC has been turned off since Thursday and my Chrome book was turned on, on Sunday Morning to change my wireless password, then off again. Our mobiles connect to the BT wifi hot spot and not our hub.
I am hoping your going to tell me that something similar is happening and you (BT) are going to fix this and reverse all charges as I have received an email to say I am now going to be charged for this excessive use. Please help as this is very worrying!

I have started with the BT you view box a few months ago and have taken on Netflix with BT when I took on the contract. Since then my broadband usage has rocketed and is going way over my 20gb usage allowance. However I am not using my laptop or other devices much and in fact less than I have done for some time. The only reason for this must be that the netfix usage is being added to my general broadband usage. In some cases this was adding on 2 and 3 gb per day when no other devices were being used at all . BT had promised to call me and had even sent me a text telling me when the call was coming ....but it didnt happen. I have now done an experiment for the first week in June were I have not used the you view for netflixs or on demand at all but continued to use my laptop for emailing etc as per normal. this has shown my usage as only 0.23gb. Clearly there is something wrong and the you view box usage is 'leaking' and being counted in my general broadband usage. I am very unhappy about this as I was sold the benefits of using the you view box on demand services and netflix on the basis that its usage did not count towards my bills. I have never had netflix before so there isnt any confusion about it previously being used by me. Niether have I used it on any other device ....its all been through my BT box .....and I dont want to be charged for it. If any of the ondemand and netflix is being put onto my broadband I was obviously miss sold the device in the first place. Whenever I call the customer service helpline I get different answers and am told that someone will call me back ...they never do ...check your CS phone tapes of my calls and you will see.
looking at the community forum I can see that I am far from unique with this problem .
Can someone call or communicate with me to solve this asap it is of great concern to me.

Broadband Usage Allowance

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