A DSL bandwidth or "speed cap" is instituted by a service provider to limit the maximum throughput a customer is able to achieve at any given time. The limits set are still generally much higher than the performance of a traditional modem (in the range of hundreds of kbps). Caps can be applied to customers individually and separately to downloads or uploads, but they apply to all applications and at all times of day. A customer may not be aware they are capped, and they may be able to remove the cap simply by asking the provider.
