Rumor mill: Deutsche Telekom to begin throttling DSL users

Deutsche Telekom (DTE.DE) is going to start throttling DSL speeds on users who go over a set bandwidth limit, according to rumors reported on a telecom blog.

Citing a Fanboys.fm blog post (careful, it's in German) which said it got its information from an anonymous DT insider, Telecompaper reported that beginning in May, the telco's DSL service will be throttled to 384 Kbps if a user exceeds their assigned usage quota.

The telco's 16 Mbps Call and Surf or Entertain speed package will incorporate a 75 GB cap. It will also implement a 300 GB limit on Fiber-100 and Fiber-200-400 users.

In response to the Fanboy.fm post, Deutsche Telekom said that it is considering throttling excessive users, but has not revealed any new tariffs, adding that they will "make an appropriate announcement."

The idea of throttling users is a big change for DT, which had been providing unlimited usage for its DSL services.

Rumors of their desire to throttle DSL users come as the telco gets ready to build out a large VDSL2 network.

In December, Deutsche Telekom announced plans to invest about €6 billion ($7.7 billion) to roll out VDSL2 with vectoring over a Fiber to the Curb (FTTC) architecture. By using a mix of VDSL2 and vectoring, DT said it would be able to deliver up to 100 Mbps download speeds over existing copper in Germany.

For more:
- Telecompaper has this article (sub. req.)

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