Cell C curbs BlackBerry abuse

Despite earlier efforts to curb the problem, abuse of the BlackBerry platform on Cell C's network is still rife.

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Cell C has introduced further measures to mitigate ongoing abuse of the BlackBerry 7 platform.

Despite attempts to throttle BlackBerry "abusers" earlier this year, says Cell C, abuse of the "unlimited" Internet service is still very high - with some customers using in excess of 100GB of data, which seriously degrades other users' experience.

"Streamlining of the service allows the company to address this problem. Cell C is updating its BlackBerry 7 fair usage policy to include generous data thresholds for the service, which will improve the BlackBerry experience for all customers."

The revised fair usage policy will come into effect as of next week Monday and will not apply to customers with BlackBerry 10 devices.

Cell C says, after analysing the average usage of BlackBerry services on the network, it has identified thresholds that will provide customers with a "quality experience" on the network.

All BlackBerry 7 customers who reach their designated threshold will be charged Cell C's usual data rate of 15c per MB out of bundle.

The following caps will be applied to the applicable BlackBerry service plan:

* BlackBerry Enterprise Service (BES) - 2GB per month
* BlackBerry Internet Service (BIS) - 2GB per month
* BlackBerry Social & E-mail Plan - 1GB per month
* BlackBerry Social Plan - 1GB per month

"While the majority of Cell C's customer-base does not use nearly these levels of data on the service, Cell C believes the increase in the use of Internet applications warranted the large data offers."