FiOS customer uses 7TB of data per month, receives ultimatum from Verizon

While Verizon promotes its FiOS Internet product as a service that “doesn’t cap usage in any way”, it appears as though the company does, in fact, have its limits. 

These limits were discovered by a customer who has been using 7TB of data per month for several months in a row. This excessive use of data earned him a letter from Verizon that stated his broadband will be disconnected unless he rein in his “excessive usage.” 

“If this excessive usage continues past May 31, 2015 on your FiOS Internet account, your service will be disconnected on June 15, 2015,” the company wrote to its customer.

For what it’s worth, the subscriber pays Verizon $315 a month for the company’s 500mbps plan. 

“If you break it down it accounts to a single 24 hours of usage at the full 500Mbps, or 20Mbps for a continuous 30 days,” the user told DSLReports. “My usage is irregular and usually spikes up and down and sometimes the connection will sit idle for a day or two at a time. It makes me curious why 500Mbps is even offered if just using a whopping four percent of that connection is prohibited.”

The subscriber went on to add that his unusual Internet usage is “largely thanks to volunteer web crawling projects like Seti@Home,” which shouldn't violate Verizon's rules.

A look into Verizon’s terms of service states that residential users may not “host any type of server” and may not “generate excessive amounts of email or other Internet traffic.” It appears as though that in this particular instance, the subscriber in jeopardy of losing his service is being targeted because of the amount of data he’s using, not the type of data. Still, there’s nothing in the terms of service that exactly defines what counts as “excessive.”

Verizon’s letter to its customer recommended “that you check to see if your computer or other device has any peer-to-peer or file sharing software on it. You should also contact any others who have access to your Internet service and discuss the notification with them. If you have a wireless router, Verizon recommends using the strongest network encryption compatible with your network devices to prevent others from accessing your connection without your permission.”

The letter concluded that if the subscriber wishes to remain a Verizon customer but cannot rein in the amount of data he’s using, he should consider looking into a business-class plan. 

Via ArsTechnica