What's FUP?

If you speak Indonesian, you ought to understand what FUP is through this fan-made message :p

Okay, after the review of an Indonesian internet modem product, I think I'm going to explain something that most customers don't know when they're subscribing to an ISP or telco company. If you're in Indonesia, there are lots of companies that use FUPs aside from their unlimited data plan (some are limited, but also have FUP). What's FUP? Let's find out after the break! :D

If you understand what the image on top of the post says, then it's most probably that you can guess what FUP is, never mind about what it stands for. If you don't know what the image says, let me translate it for you: FUP for togetherness. How nice it is to share bandwidth. Hahahahaha, gotcha! :D

Well, jokes aside... FUP actually stands for Fair Usage Policy. I'll spare all the technical details and explanations, since I'm not technical... and here it is:

FUP is actually used to limit your data use, so that people who are in the same plan as yours won't experience a choke, since you take all their bandwidth by brutally using it for streaming, downloading, gaming, etc. Maybe in some countries you know this as "Data Throttling", which is actually the same concept... but called differently.

Please note though... that even if you're subscribing to an unlimited data plan, your ISP can still be able to throttle your speed through this FUP. The amount of FUP can vary each ISP, so before you subscribe, I advise you to carefully read the terms and conditions of your plan. Don't be shy to bombard the customer care salesperson with lots of (annoying) questions. You don't want to regret your decision in the future, right? If you're confused of the explanation above, you might as well read the following example:

Example of FUP:
You have subscribed to A's Unlimited Data Plan, which promised you the speed up to 512kbps download and 256kbps upload. It is however, has the FUP of 4GB/month, with the speed of up to 128kbps download and upload. Say, in the first week, you've downloaded a total of 4,1GB of files. Therefore, A reserves the right to downgrade your speed to 128kbps for the rest of the month. Don't worry, though... you can get your full speed back next month, when your usage counter is reset to 0.

Okay, I guess that's the overall explanation I can give for today. Moral of the story is, read the terms and agreements of  whichever ISP you've chosen or which data plan to subscribe to. You don't want to put your trust and dream of satisfying Internet experience into the wrong hands, right? :D

Disclaimer: Image courtesy of kaskus.co.id. I'm not siding any companies or ISPs; I just happened to find that attractive image :p