Nearly a week after ntl quietly introduced a new provision in its Acceptable Use Policy on the evening of Friday 7th, informing customers that anything beyond 1GB of downloads per day would exceed "normal use" of the cable operator's broadband services, the fury of customers is still being felt around the internet.

Despite attempts to clarify the AUP with statements that the operator will only contact customers if they exceed the daily 1GB download recommendation for more than three days in a consecutive fourteen-day period, the internet community is buzzing with outraged customers expressing their distaste for the new rules.

What may have seemed like a run-of-the-mill operational decision to ntl managers has spiralled out of control into a public relations disaster that has made it into the national press. The main thrust of the outraged customers seems to be that in addition to protesting a "normal use" recommendation in the first place, they feel they have been betrayed by ntl, who sold them a broadband service on the basis that it was "unlimited". The company has since stopped using that term in its advertisements, but this has done nothing to quell the storm brewing on many internet forums, including those of Digital Spy. A selection of quotes from our ongoing thread on the matter:

Paul Evans: "Although I'm on the 600k 'service' at the moment, I'm dropping down to 128k at the end of the month. I refuse to pay a premium for what has essentially become a crippled service."

nickcoe: "Dropping NTL for BT (never thought i'd say that) just sounds better all the time...NTL have shot themselves in the foot too many times now and if they had good management where the management actually understands the products that they sell then this all could have been avoided."

There are however posts from people who agree with the new rules - 'jaymz' writes: "You pay to have a service which you agree to use according with the terms and conditions. NTL define what it considers acceptable, and if you don't like it find another provider. I'm sure if you cancel your contract on the groups the T&C has changed they'd be no penalty... If you want high-speed uncapped guaranteed connection pay for it!"

Mostly though such posts are swamped in tirade after tirade against the new AUP section. Some users are planning a "mass disconnect" on Valentine's Day, while others are choosing to voice their concerns on online petitions. Many users have stated they are downgrading their service to a lower-speed, and lower-priced, option, such as the basic 128kbps level. Others have complained to national TV shows such as Watchdog, while others vent their frustration to the Advertising Standards Authority, a body with which ntl has something of a history of clashing with. What is clear is that the PR nightmare for ntl is far from over, unless the company comes out with something unequivocal to placate its angry user base.

Telewest, incorrectly described this week in some media outlets as ntl's "rival" - the company in fact works closely with ntl on marketing broadband cable to compete more strongly against DSL offerings - told Digital Spy on Monday that they have no plans to introduce a daily cap on their blueyonder broadband service.