Hong Kong mobile operator CSL will slow network access for high-bandwidth users – the first in the territory to openly do so.
It says 5% of its customers account for more than 50% of the bandwidth consumed by all of its customers on its HSPA+ Next G network.
The Telstra-owned carrier said in a statement that it had altered its Fair Usage Policy to allow it to choke off the bandwidth to “serious abusers” on its Next G network.
“Only abusers who may impact the experience of all our customers by using a very high amount of bandwidth will be affected by our policy,” said the CSL statement, issued on the eve of the four-day Chinese New Year holiday last Friday.
It said it had found “a small percentage of users were effectively using a disproportionate percentage of the total data being used on the network through the use of bandwidth intensive non-time sensitive applications.”
It had also discovered an upsurge of “potentially illegitimate use” of peer-to-peer applications.
It added: “[W]e are the only network operator in the market who has acknowledged the enforcement of our fair usage policy, despite the fact that such action is common practice by mobile network operators. What we have tried to do that is different is to let the customer know how this can affect them. We encourage other operators to do the same.”