Understanding Data Limits
Data Limits
Most people this day in age are familiar with data limits. The introduction of these were primarily with the mobile network providers as a way to help control the costs of bandwidth to each of their locations. Many companies across the world have moved or are moving towards this metered style of service.
So why would InterBel impose data limits on their service? Well directly to the point that Mobile Providers do, the cost of bandwidth. When facing the reality of purchasing more bandwidth to provide more service to our members, the cost of doing so rapidly increases as we increase our backbone.
As we investigated this, we found the only fair way to keep the playing field equal for everyone was to move towards data limiting. This then ensures the people that actually use more of the internet are paying for what they use, while the others that only use the internet for basic use dont see an increase in their monthly internet fees.
Facts about usage
- InterBel’s lowest data limit is 300 Gigabytes for one month. This is the equivalent of watching 150 hours of HD video a month
- When streaming video, setting the resolution to standard definition will decrease that data consumption in half.
- If you do not use streaming video or download a lot of content, it is very unlikely you will ever use 300 Gigabytes in a month.
- If you are a large consumer of data, we do offer services with unlimited data limits
How to check your usage
To view your usage, use our Smarthub app (the same place you pay your bill online). Access Smarthub here. Once you sign into Smarthub, you will see a menu at the top. Click on the My Usage tab of the menu to gain access to your usage statistics.
Once you have selected My Usage, you will gain access to a chart that tracks your usage per day over the entire month.
The red line on the chart is where your data limit is set to. If you are near or over this line, please contact InterBel at (406) 889-3311 to discuss options to avoid overage charges.