Heavy users blamed for jamming Liberty

Liberty Surf has joined the growing number of internet service providers to blame 'heavy users' for clogging up their unmetered services.

The company, which stopped signing up new members in June, said it is not "kicking off" customers but is "changing the settings" for certain users, which it claims have been abusing the system. However, it declines to elaborate on the changes.

Some users have told vnunet.com that they are no longer able to access the service but have not been told why. One reader wrote: "The service has had problems for the last three weeks. When I telephoned at first they said they didn't have a problem. Since then I have got connected twice after 340 tries the first time and 265 the second."

In a statement, Liberty Surf said: "Some heavy users have been abusing the system and, in order to allow the majority of our customers to enjoy the best level of service, we have changed the settings of the small minority of users who are clogging up the network."

"We have taken the decision to change the settings for these particular users in the hope that they will modify their usage, [which has made] it impossible for all our existing customers to enjoy our unmetered access product," the company added.

But the decision has angered many customers who claim that they have not abused the system. In web discussion groups and forums, some users said they only used the system for a maximum of four to five hours on certain occasions, and complained that they are now unable to use the service at all, despite Liberty Surf's promise that it is not "kicking off" customers.

Liberty Surf has so far not revealed how many have been classed as heavy users or what defines such use. It also remains unclear as to what the ISP means by "changing the settings", with many users claiming that they are unable to "modify their usage" as they can no longer access the service.