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CenturyLink punishes hogs

US ISP CenturyLink is going to charge some customers for what it deems is excessive data use.

Under the new excessive use policy, subscribers with 1.5Mbps plans will be told not to download more than 150GB a month, and those with faster broadband access will be given a 250GB limit. That's a soft limit – you'll simply get a warning if you break these caps.

However, subscribers in Yakima, Washington, will be charged $10 for every 50GB they download over their monthly cap up to a maximum of $50 in a new billing trial. Broadband users in Yakima with downlink speeds below 7Mbps will be capped at 300GB a month, and faster plans will be capped at 600GB.

Overage charges have been used by some ISPs as a way to enforce data caps, which they say are necessary to keep heavy users from slowing down everyone's network traffic speeds. Critics have charged other cable companies with failing to properly implement the caps and arbitrarily charging customers for excessive use. ®

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