Fused, a company highly rated for its service orientation among web hosting providers has announced plans to provide “unmetered bandwith” to its clients. Hearing the announcement, HostJury decided to find out whether this was some marketing gimmick or a moment of temporary insanity by those in charge. Since there are already numerous web hosting companies offering Unlimited Everything, our skepticism should come as no surprise.

The quick and brief announcement regarding the change to services states:

As mentioned in past emails, unmetered bandwidth was being considered behind the scenes as our network topology got up to par to allow it. Today's that day. We've gone ahead and adjusted all hosting services to reflect the changes, and will begin ignoring bandwidth restrictions on all packages beginning tomorrow.

What this means is that all accounts that had been billed extra for bandwidth previously have had those 'extra' services terminated. You will still note a 'bandwidth limit' in control panels until later this week but our systems will ignoring the upper limits until we're able to set everyone to unmetered/unlimited.

We had personally always considered them an impediment to our services, and easily the most frustrating aspect of our services over the years -- for both us, and users alike.

In an email to the David McKendrick, the CEO of Fused, HostJury asked how this offering differed from the unlimited offered by most web host. Isn’t Fused just slow getting on the bandwagon?

Not quite, I like to see it as merely adjusting to the needs of our clients. The truth is bandwidth has consistently been one of our lowest costs since our launch in comparison to any other overhead we have.

Could you elaborate on the statement “considered them an impediment to our services, and easily the most frustrating aspect of our services over the years”

There was far more manpower being spent answering questions regarding bandwidth limits & adjusting them on behalf of users, and worrying about billing than there was in simply concentrating on scaling our services. Despite instantly vaporizing $20,000+ in annual revenue on bandwidth fees to clients, in the long-run we'll still save by making things unmetered as far as transfer is concerned.

Many veterans of the web hosting industry would state that there is no such thing as “Unlimited”. How does Fused hope to accomplish what, as many review will attest, has been unsustainable by many of the web hosts?

Unmetered and unlimited are far different beasts: unlimited infers (to end-users) that one can wield as much as they'd like without regard for anyone else. Unmetered simply means we don't keep track of bandwidth usage beyond basic statistic collection, as it's irrelevant unless one user impedes on another's ability to get solid performance & service.

One of my greatest long-term fears with the industry pushing towards the unlimited side of things is the effort required in translating other limitations into real terms for users. e.g. if there's no bandwidth restrictions, suddenly there is one less gauge for users to have to see where they're at in regards to usage.

We'll continue to do our best in translating the technology to make it more transparent to end-users, including giving them other methods where they can see what capacity they're using in comparison to the accounts they're on. CPU & memory usage will play a larger role, while transfer limitations will essentially cease to exist.

I suspect the same will begin to apply to many other players in the industry inevitably, especially as particular costs continue to drop substantially.

Certainly, if one looks at Fused reviews on HostJury, it’s clear that some comments suggest that Fused has been selective with their client base, preferring to target a more knowledgeable clientele in their operations, such as web developers. Can HostJury expect some reviews from disgruntled “new but former”  clients of Fused in the coming months?

I think any company has a responsibility to be selective with their clients in order to keep team members content. I've been involved in web hosting for just shy of a decade and have a fairly good eye as to the clients we prefer to work with.

The truth is no single entity can satisfy everyone 100% of the time, and inevitably someone will take something the wrong way. The truth is we're simply doing our best to satisfy the clients we do have and are largely uninterested in growth for growth's sake.

Now that Fused is offering unmetered bandwidth, some might ask if unlimited everything is the next logical step. “Don’t hold your breath,” said McKendrick, “Sadly, until we win the lottery all other resource restrictions will remain in effect.”

About Fused:

Fused continues to be a leading provider of web hosting throughout the world. Since 2001, Fused (formerly known as Fused Network), has offered first class support, uptime & time sensitive performance for personal and business clients in over 65 countries. During this time, Fused is proud knowing that it still retains the hosting firm’s very first client. Although over the years, Fused offerings and team members have changed slightly, Fused continues to provide exceptional service to its customers. Fused goal for the future is to partner with clients as though each one has a vested interest and personal investment in Fused.