Fair Use Policy

††The Scotnet Fair Use Policy (FUP) is guidelines which help to ensure that no single user compromises the performance of the broadband network for others.

Broadband networks are designed based on industry standard usage statistics for typical home and business users. This means that we can estimate the likely load on the network throughout the day and provision enough capacity to ensure that we can meet users’ demand. If a customer transfers significantly more data than a typical user, they may load the network to a point where the overall quality of service is affected.

If you regularly transfer more than 200GB of data (home user) or 400GB of data (business user), you may breach our fair use policy. These limits are more than double the average usage of a UK broadband subscriber, so most customers are unlikely to breach this policy.

Figures stated are per calendar month.
Significant quantities of data transfer are typically caused by:

1) Downloading/streaming large quantities of online TV content.
2) Significant online gaming.
3) Permanent connections to remote cameras or media servers.
4) Corrupted software updates.

If you are unsure about how much data you are transferring, please visit the My Account page and select the ‘Monitor My Usage’ link.
The Usage Monitor displays total transfer for the month, past 24 hours and past 3 hours, together with all previous complete months. This tool will help determine how much data is being transferred and when.

If you are transferring significant quantities of data and risk breaching this policy, there are steps you can take to mitigate this risk:

1) Download/stream online TV content in standard definition, not full HD, as this will transfer less than a third of the data.
2) Schedule large downloads to happen overnight where possible – note that data transfer between midnight and 7am is not counted by our systems.
3) Switch off ‘autoplay’ on applications like Facebook and Youtube.

Breaches of this FUP may result in the following action being taken:

1) Request to upgrade to a more appropriate package.
2) Additional charges for excessive transfer.
3) Rate-limiting of transfer speeds.
4) Withdrawal of service.

Note that no sanctions would be taken without prior discussions with our customers and an attempt to resolve this
issue.
If you would like to discuss this further, please call us on 0333 370 4444.
Scotnet Support Team.