NTL has published a new user policy which defines a "normal" data download cap of 1GB/day.

Here is the spiel

ntl: home's broadband and dial-up services are intended for normal recreational or educational use by individuals and families and our pricing and network architecture have been designed accordingly. Customers who use the services more heavily than a normal home user will reduce the performance of the network for other customers.

"Normal use" of the service is defined as up to 1 gigabyte downstream of data transfer daily (which equates to approximately 200 music tracks, 650 short videos, 10,000 pictures or around 100 large software programmes downloaded per day).

In a statement on NTLHellWorld, the company's curious sheep in sheep's clothing website, NTL adds:

"The objective of this clarification of the policy is to ensure that customers continue to get a great broadband service at all times. The vast majority of customers will not be affected by this at all.

ntl will only be contacting the small percentage of customers whose use of the service PERSISTENTLY exceeds normal levels, thereby potentially reducing the overall product performance for THE VAST MAJORITY OF other customers."

For one customer's reaction, check out this protest site: www.dont-pay-ntl.co.uk. It explains in big red letters why the new terms are 90 per cent worse than before.

NTL's user policy makes for interesting reading too: it's here. ®