Coop says internet customers can "rest a little easier" with more usage on their accounts, which could help avoid overage charges.
DILLINGHAM: Broadband internet customers with the Nushagak Electric & Telephone Cooperative just got an increase to the amount of data usage they’re allowed on their accounts.
"We have increased the usage limits on all the account packages, from between 25-66%, so everyone can rest a little easier and hopefully reduce some of the overage fees that’ve been accumulating," said Nancy Favors, Business Office Manager at Nushagak Cooperative.
When Nushagak Cooperative rolled out the broadband service for its customers last fall, there was concern that the added speed would allow users to surf way over their usage, racking up huge overage fees as they did.
Favors said some very large bills were reported early on, but by and large they have been surprised that the overage didn't occur as often as predicted.
"We had expectations that there would be more than we’ve actually seen. Even so, we’ve been working with our “upstream provider” to help our customers out, to get them more bandwith they can use for no extra cost."
Nushagak Cooperative also rolled out both a 60 gigabyte and a 100 gigabyte package, with business customers in mind.
All the changes have gone into effect. Users can see the updates on the website nushtel.com or by calling 842.5251.
A rundown of the increases, from Nustel:
512K $ 42.11 – 3 Gigabytes/month usage limit - Usage limit is now 5 Gigabytes
2M $ 71.43 – 6 Gigabytes/month usage limit - Usage limit is now 10 Gigabytes
3M $ 83.99 – 12 Gigabytes/monthly usage limit - Usage limit is now 15 Gigabytes
4M $113.30 – 18 Gigabytes/monthly usage limit - Usage limit is now 25 Gigabytes
6M $155.18 – 25 Gigabytes/monthly usage limit - Usage limit is now 40 Gigabytes
6M $231.99 – 60 Gigabytes/monthly usage limit
6M $331.99 – 100 Gigabytes/monthly usage limit