Connection Equity (Frequently Asked Questions)
This page is intended to:
Q: How did this happen, I don't use much data?
A: As of January 2022 the average household uses approximately 435 GB monthly. You have exceeded 2,000 GB. This level of usage falls into the 'excessive' category.
Q: Will this add to my bill? Can I pay for more data?
A: The answer to both is no. While we do not add any charge, the program is built to limit the impact of excessive users on the other 99.9% of the network. Due to this, we also do not allow people to pay to be removed from the program. The exception is business plans which are exempt from the data limits.
Q: How to I get out of the program?
A: The simplest way is to reduce data consumption. The above charts indicate your standing in a 30 rolling day view, by reducing traffic for a single day, that is often enough to exit the program.
Q: I work from home, is this because of video calls?
A: The short answer is no. You could be on 3 video calls at a time for 12 hours a day, 7 days a week, and not be impacted by the CE program. While they do add data, its at a drastically lower rate than other activities.
Q: I stream music, could that be causing this?
A: The short answer is no. A music stream uses about 0.3 GB an hour. It does add to total data consumption but is not an activity with enough data by itself to be an issue.
Q: What I do is important, this is annoying, I shouldn't have a data limit because my work is so important
A: Each customer has tasks they feel are crucial to perform. One customer drastically impacting 100 others because of excessive usage isn't viable on our network. The Connection Equity program is a safeguard against it.
Q: I can't leave the house without all my TVs running, the dogs need noise. What can I do?
A: This question isn't answerable by an ISP. Running TV's streaming content 24/7 will regularly put you into the excessive tier. You could try limiting the resolution to SD vs Ultra HD for the TVs or potentially try downloading content locally to put on a loop.
Q: With other ISPs, I just complain enough and they bypass my usage thresholds, will that work here?
A: No, the program exists at the network level and is not modifyable individually for customers or modifyable by the admin staff.
Q: How much data do different items use?
A: If you are hitting the CE program, it is nearly guaranteed to be because of streaming media and/or game downloads. Typically both.
CNET has provided a chart of common activities and data for each -
Click Here for Link
Q: I've never hit this before with another provider, why now
A: As people move to the mountains, their habits sometimes change. Getting rid of cable/satellite TV is a large contributor. New gaming systems have more intensive game downloads and media is coming in higher resolution every year. A new habit of leaving devices constantly streaming (TV on in the corner, tablet constantly playing video) can also drastically increase consumption. The TellerWifi thresholds are much higher than other providers. CNET has provided a chart of common data thresholds by ISP -
Click Here for Link
Q: I'm not going to change anything I'm doing, you'll just have to deal with it. I have a right to do whatever I want, whenever I want.
A: We get this reaction more than you would think. The CE program was created to ensure connection equity between customers so when a person wants to perform an action online, the system has capability for them. We have multiple ways to limit excessive usage; as noted above, not all modules are currently active for the connection equity program. We (TellerWifi) will not tell you what you should be doing online but we will limit excessive impact to other customers from distruptive usage.