iDirect Usage & Performance
(aka fair access policy)
Why not simply offer unlimited Internet over the iDirect platform? To offer performance guarantees, users must stay in line with their service level otherwise even a minority of users would be able to have an impact on the performance of the entire network*.
You have two ways to deal with your service when you go over quota:
- Go over quota from time to time and pay for overages.
- The performance of your system is never reduced.
- The rate for overages is determined by your service level.
- An invoice for overages is issued at the end of the billing cycle.
- Go over your monthly quota and remain on a flat rate.
- You do not pay for overages.
- Speeds are throttled to compensate for excess usage.
- Normal speeds resume within 2 weeks if usage returns to normal.
Online Usage Statistics
Detailed usage statistics for your system are available 24/7 through your online account:
Email Notifications
We can also send you courtesy notification via email every time you reach a 25% mark in your monthly quota's usage.
Dear Client,
|
As a rule of thumb, if you receive one notification per week, you will be within quota at the end of the month. These email notifications are also useful to warn you of potential system abuse or to the presence of a virus consuming network resources without your knowledge.
Throttle Policies
Contrary to other service providers that will throttle you within the hour if you are on a flat rate plan and you go over quota, we will generally throttle your service at the start of your next usage cycle. This allows you to have full aces to the system's capabilities when you need them the most. This is perfect if you only go over quota from time to time due to irregular usage patterns. If you need more bandwidth, you can always upgrade your service plan.
The table below outlines the percent of throttle applied to your system's performance at the start of the following cycle if you go over quota. If you use less than 1/2 of your monthly quota during the first 2 weeks of the new cycle, the throttled is lifted and normal speeds resume.
Unless you are being throttled heavily or your plan is small to start with, "essential services" such as VoIP, Email, VPN tunnels and browsing should still work under throttle.
| Percent Overage | Throttle Percent |
| under 5% | 0% |
| 5-10% | 5% |
| 10-20% | 10% |
| 20-30% | 20% |
| 30-40% | 30% |
| 40-50% | 40% |
| 50-60% | 50% |
| 60-80% | 60% |
| 80-100% | 70% |
| 100-150% | 80% |
| 150-200% | 90% |
| Over 200% | 95% |
The throttled speed is a percentage (%) of your guaranteed speeds (CIR). During that time, the throttle speed will become your maximum speed and your CIR speed guarantees will not apply.
If are on a flat rate billing service plan and you exceed you throughput allowance by 100% or more for two consecutive cycles, 50% or more for three consecutive cycles, or 10% or more during four consecutive cycles, we will ask you to move to a service level that meets your usage requirements or you will be billed for overages for the following cycle.
*: To benefit from performance guarantees without a monthly quota, you would have to be on a dedicated platform. Dedicated service is also available, starting at around $5,000/mth. Please contact us if you would like to explore this option for a single location or multiple sites sharing the same capacity.
**: Experience shows us that over 90% of customers have a 4:1 usage ratio, that is, they download approximately 4Mb for every 1Mb uploaded. If you have specific upload requirements, the usage ratio on your service plan can be adjusted to a 1:1 ratio (when 2-way communications are mostly being used) or a 1:4 ratio (possible usage patter for a monitoring station contributing a lot of data to its HQ).