What is a Monthly Download Allowance?

In the small print of most broadband deals you may notice something called a data cap, or download usage, or data allowance, or any combination of the three. If this is a slightly baffling concept to you, then it will be worth reading on, as understanding its meaning will be key to getting the best possible broadband service that suits your needs rather than limiting or exceeding them.

A data usage allowance or download cap is basically a monthly restriction that is imposed on your broadband connection by your internet service provider (ISP). They will be able to monitor your connection and tally up how much you are surfing, downloading, gaming and streaming. This all adds up over time and if your connection has a data allowance, you may not be able to exceed it in a given monthly period without incurring consequences. Not every ISP has the same policy with regards to download usage, so it is worth reading up on your prospective provider’s regulations before you commit.

Your download usage will typically be measured in gigabytes, which is also expressed as GB. Some will have as little as 1GB download usage per month, whilst others can have 20, 40 or even 100GB allocated to your account. A single gigabyte is the equivalent of about two hundred music tracks, or a single standard definition movie. A 10GB monthly data allowance will allow you to watch up to fifteen hours of online video, although you will have little space left for day to day browsing if you will be using your connection so intensively. Usually it is safe to assume that if you want a larger monthly allocation of download usage then you will need to pay for a more comprehensive package, but there is an alternative and that is to choose a so-called ‘unlimited’ broadband deal.

Unlimited broadband deals have been around for a while now and they are still relatively misleading to the uninitiated. Basically most ISPs that offer unlimited services promise not to put a monthly limit on the amount of data that you download, so in theory you can browse, game and stream as much as you wish to without hitting an artificial limit. However, in reality your internet use will be subject to the conditions of something called a Fair Use Policy. This is a form of download usage monitoring that ensures that you do not use your internet connection in a manner which the ISP deems to be inappropriate or unfair on other users.

In essence you will be required not to use your connection for data-intensive purposes in peak evening periods. In some cases there may even be a clandestine download usage cap built into an unlimited package in a way that is not immediately obvious. Most ISPs say that a majority of customers who sign up for an unlimited package will never need to worry about the Fair Use Policy, with only a few very heavy internet users being affected. If you breach the fair use policy or your download usage allowance, your ISP could slow down your connection speed so that you can do little more than send emails and browse the internet at a snail’s pace, so it is worth reading up on the particulars of your deal.

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