Australia @aussie.zone dylanTheDeveloper @lemmy.world 1y ago

Belong ISP Updating Their Terms, Maybe Dropping Third Party Modem Support And Speed Throttling

(straight from email)

• We're adding a term to make sure our customers use equipment that complies with relevant standards.

• We are adding a right to slow your service if we reasonably believe you’ve breached our Acceptable Use Policy.

• We're adding more definitions to what we consider ‘unfair, unreasonable or inappropriate use’.

• If a customer treats our people in an abusive or threatening way, we may end the interaction and – in extreme cases – we may stop offering our service to them altogether.

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I was having another look in detail and this paragraph at the top of customer service terms are worrying

'We occasionally make changes to our General Terms.

If we think a change will have a negative impact on you, we’ll make sure to notify you at least 30 days before the change takes effect.

If you don’t accept a change, you can also cancel your service, no questions asked. Just let us know and we’ll get it sorted before the change takes effect. We’ll also refund any unused portion of your monthly charges and waive any termination fee.'

In the email they wrote 'We’re adding more definitions to what we consider ‘unfair, unreasonable or inappropriate use’.'

So whatever they're gonna add is probably gonna be bad

https://www.belong.com.au/go/privacy-and-terms/general-customer-terms?utm_source=sfmc&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=CP_SM_TermsUpdate_20231010&utm_term=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.belong.com.au%2Fgo%2Fprivacy-and-terms%2Fgeneral-customer-terms
- This is just a response to the UCT changes going live in November. Every big corp in Australia is going to be making changes like that.
Nothing wrong with only supporting compliant/certificated modems.

2 and 3. Wouldn't you find that in any unlimited data plans?

That's a good thing!
- Nothing wrong with only supporting compliant/certificated modems.
  
  Yes there is, depending on what "compliant" means in this context. I expect to be able to use my Openwrt router on any ISP I pay money to.
  
  Your router isn't a modem, they don't care what router you use.
  
  Not sure what kind of ISP these guys are, but I'm assuming coax based, in which case they probably are adding terms saying you need to use more modern DOCSIS modems. This is most likely because they are going to start to phase out support for older DOCSIS standards.
  
  I take the change to mean "no phone support for" not "you can't use".
  
  From a hardware point if view; how would they even know you'd changed the firmware?
- We’re adding more definitions to what we consider ‘unfair, unreasonable or inappropriate use’.
  
  Is the excuse they're gonna use to slow your speed without specifying exactly why
  
  It says "adding more definitions".
Anyone got any suggestions for a possible alternative provider? Currently with belong and would rather just change than fuck around with whatever this is.
- Superloop and Aussie Broadband are my top 2. Currently with Superloop myself.
If my router stops working I’ll definitely be switching providers

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