Avoid JT Broadband Overage Fees

Don't pay JT extra for something that every other ISP here includes for free. Posted 9 June 2012

I read an article from Thursday’s JEP with a mixture of amazement and amusement. The story, titled “JT raise fees on broadband over-use” told of JT Global’s changes to their policies on what they call a “monthly broadband allowance”.

The article states that 80% of the customers are on the 2Mb plan, 30% regularly exceeding their ration of 10GB/Month data usage. If this was the 90’s these numbers would seem sensible.

There are three main ISPs in Jersey. Jersey Telecom (now JT Global) are the only one with this limit, and are the most expensive of the three. This important point was conspicuously absent from the story. If you are on JT’s broadband at home or your business, it’s time to switch. Even if you are locked into a term contract, it may be cheaper to pay the penalty and switch, depending on how far along you are.

I sent a friendly email to the reporter, Lucy Mason, pointing this out. I’ve not received a reply. That’s disappointing, but the JEP reporters I’ve written to in the past have been quick to reply, so maybe she’s just too busy.

Some 5,000 letters were sent out warning subscribers who had gone over this artificial monthly limit. I’d like to see JT drop this unusually low cap on data, and bring their prices in line with the competition. Failing that, I’d like to see everyone who got one of these letters drop JT’s service and switch to one of the other two ISPs here immediately. It makes no sense to continue overpaying for a basic service. JT’s prices and policies simply aren’t competitive. They exist because most subscribers are too lazy to switch or challenge their ISP.

To limit 80% of your customers to 10GB/Month seems unreasonable to me. There is a small loophole where you can use data between Midnight-8AM without any limits, but this isn’t meaningful to me. I shut my computer off and go to sleep at night like most people.

If you are confused by all this, take an hour one day this week and read through the three Internet providers websites and decide for yourself which one works best for you. You should know that switching is easy, you just log in to your modem or router and change a username and password. You don’t need to change or upgrade any equipment. The physical network to your house or business is the same no matter who you choose.

Vote with your wallet people, vote with your wallet!