Is there a Flickr bandwidth limit, or not? Aug10 '07

I'm trying to find my current bandwidth usage on Flickr. Just yesterday I mentioned how some features are very hard to find on the Flickr site. This is one of those features.

Then I recalled that Flickr removes the bandwidth limit with a "Pro" membership, which I have. The upgrade page says so:

Screenshot of Flickr site

Unlimited bandwidth? Is that true? If so, why would anyone pay for a Picasa membership, which tracks your storage usage? A post yesterday on the Google Blog talks about how to get more storage for your Picasa account.

When you reach the limit of free storage (i.e., 1GB for Picasa Web Albums, 2.8GB for Gmail), consider this your overflow solution. Plans start at $20/year for 6GB (yes, $5 cheaper than before), with larger plans ranging up to 250GB.

$20 a year for 6 GB? Why not pay the same price for unlimited bandwidth on Flickr?

Despite this theory, something is amiss on Flickr. On the Flickr Forum, members occasionally complain of bandwidth limitations. I noticed messages from both free and paid account holders.

If you're a paying customer, shouldn't the bandwidth limitation be removed? In a sense, you should be able to upload as many images, in any file size, that you'd like - forever!

Another confusing thing is when you visit the Flickr Upload form (the old upload form), there's a notice that says, "(No more than 10MB per photo)".

Screenshot of Flickr site

Uh. Why does it matter what size my photo is, if I'm paying for unlimited bandwidth?

I personally have yet to receive a message about exceeding my bandwidth usage, so perhaps I should not complain just yet. But it's intriguing still.

Would appreciate if someone can clarify these details with me.

Categories: Bandwidth , Flickr , Storage

Add Feedback (view all)

Leave feedback

Feedback

Input format: The editor controls below will assist with Markdown syntax.

Status

Sub-status

Your info

The reason for the 10MB per photo limit has to do with the way PHP handles file upload. There is a setting for maxfileuploadsize and m ... Read more.

matthom is published and produced by Matt Thommes - an independent publishing enthusiast, mobile blogger, content creator, informative writer, web developer from Chicago. Never one to conform, Matt intends to promote the effect the web has on our lives, in an effort to intensify, instruct, and clarify all that is happening around us.

Contact Matt

Similar Entries

Stats

128 unique visits since August 2008

Syndicate

Advertisements