Friday, February 04, 2005
Comments:
nick: say 9.30 onwards?
On another note, I just coming up to renewal time on my broadband contract (had it nearly a year now). The deal I have at the moment is 512K/unlimited and I'll probably stick with that; the 1Mb/unlimited looks exciting but I don't think I really have a problem with download speed.
But they've recently announced that they're considering a "fair use" policy. Seems that some people on the "unlimited" account have been using so much bandwidth that it impacts other users, and they're trying to address this. What they're proposing is that they'll define some level of downloads that you can do no problem, and if you go over this in a month they'll send you a warning. Do it two months running and you get another one. Do it three months running and they may take action (not sure what that is).
The limits they're proposing are something in the order of 50-100GB/month. And anything you do between 1AM-8AM doesn't count. Now I can view my current usage, and the most I've ever used in a month is 7GB, with averages of between 1-3. So while I can see that it's a bit dodgy for them to do this when they're selling the package as "unlimited downloads", I can't imagine it would affect me.
But quite a lot of people are pretty upset by this, and some of them say they're using well in excess of 100GB/month.
What on earth are they downloading??
nick
Steve: I can only assume they are downloading films. A typical film is in the low Gb. Hang on though, to get over 100Gb a month would still take some doing.
Can't they do something like slowing down a user's connection after he's used up the nominal bandwidth in a given month. I'm still waiting to see if they police the 2Gb limit on our line but since we have no indication of what we've used what are we supposed to do?
Tim: It's impacting other users? Perhaps that implies that if you've got realistic download requirements you're better off signing up to a service that only offer limited download. That way you know there won't be any headcases clogging things up...?
nick: my adsl provider is plusnet (www.plus.net). I've been very satisfied with the service; no downtime, very good on-line forums with support available, no restrictions on what TCP ports I can use (some ISPs do this) and very clear web interface to view account details (including usage stats, Steve). Oh, and a fixed IP address, fwiw.
At the time I joined they were doing a very cheap price for what I wanted. Now I think that their tariffs are not so competetive, but they're not so out of line to make me want to change.
Also I think they operate a referral scheme, so let me know if you're thinking of signing up!
nick
Tim: Well, their "limited" option looks OK... £15 for 1MB/1GB, and a couple of quid for each extra Gb?
nick: yes, maybe I should go for that.. just the idea of being on a capped tariff makes me uneasy...
Just noticed gmail says I now have 50 invites to give away (was 6 last time I looked). How many friends do they think I have?
nick: Assuming it's not a restricted page (I don't think it is), you can see some interesting stuff about broadband pricing and the rationale for Plusnet's changes in contract here:
http://usertools.plus.net/status/archive/1101830040.htm
They say that when they were investigating problems, they found that 0.3% of subscribers had usage that was "consistently between 140GB per month and
600GB per month." And I was feeling guilty for downloading some Linux ISOs (600MB each)...
nick: it gets more complicated... just came across this announcement:
=========================================================
From Friday 11th of February, PlusNet is reducing the price of its
Broadband Home 2Mb Lite to just £14.99 from £19.99, a saving of 25%.
Pre-pay and Pay As You Go data charges are also to be reduced on all
‘Lite’ broadband products.
On Residential Lite products, additional Pre-pay data-transfer prices will
be reduced to just £1.50 per GB (including VAT) on all available speeds.
On Teleworker and Business products, additional Pre-pay data-transfer will
be £1.50 per GB (excluding VAT).
.
.
.
In the next few weeks we will be announcing our next special deal to
existing PlusNet ‘Premier’ customers, so they won’t be missing out,
=========================================================
Seems like I need to wait a couple of weeks then (renewal date is 25-feb so I can hold out until then...)
nick
Post a Comment
<< Home
nick: say 9.30 onwards?On another note, I just coming up to renewal time on my broadband contract (had it nearly a year now). The deal I have at the moment is 512K/unlimited and I'll probably stick with that; the 1Mb/unlimited looks exciting but I don't think I really have a problem with download speed.
But they've recently announced that they're considering a "fair use" policy. Seems that some people on the "unlimited" account have been using so much bandwidth that it impacts other users, and they're trying to address this. What they're proposing is that they'll define some level of downloads that you can do no problem, and if you go over this in a month they'll send you a warning. Do it two months running and you get another one. Do it three months running and they may take action (not sure what that is).
The limits they're proposing are something in the order of 50-100GB/month. And anything you do between 1AM-8AM doesn't count. Now I can view my current usage, and the most I've ever used in a month is 7GB, with averages of between 1-3. So while I can see that it's a bit dodgy for them to do this when they're selling the package as "unlimited downloads", I can't imagine it would affect me.
But quite a lot of people are pretty upset by this, and some of them say they're using well in excess of 100GB/month.
What on earth are they downloading??
nick
Steve: I can only assume they are downloading films. A typical film is in the low Gb. Hang on though, to get over 100Gb a month would still take some doing.Can't they do something like slowing down a user's connection after he's used up the nominal bandwidth in a given month. I'm still waiting to see if they police the 2Gb limit on our line but since we have no indication of what we've used what are we supposed to do?
Tim: It's impacting other users? Perhaps that implies that if you've got realistic download requirements you're better off signing up to a service that only offer limited download. That way you know there won't be any headcases clogging things up...? nick: my adsl provider is plusnet (www.plus.net). I've been very satisfied with the service; no downtime, very good on-line forums with support available, no restrictions on what TCP ports I can use (some ISPs do this) and very clear web interface to view account details (including usage stats, Steve). Oh, and a fixed IP address, fwiw.At the time I joined they were doing a very cheap price for what I wanted. Now I think that their tariffs are not so competetive, but they're not so out of line to make me want to change.
Also I think they operate a referral scheme, so let me know if you're thinking of signing up!
nick
Tim: Well, their "limited" option looks OK... £15 for 1MB/1GB, and a couple of quid for each extra Gb? nick: yes, maybe I should go for that.. just the idea of being on a capped tariff makes me uneasy...Just noticed gmail says I now have 50 invites to give away (was 6 last time I looked). How many friends do they think I have?
nick: Assuming it's not a restricted page (I don't think it is), you can see some interesting stuff about broadband pricing and the rationale for Plusnet's changes in contract here:http://usertools.plus.net/status/archive/1101830040.htm
They say that when they were investigating problems, they found that 0.3% of subscribers had usage that was "consistently between 140GB per month and
600GB per month." And I was feeling guilty for downloading some Linux ISOs (600MB each)...
nick: it gets more complicated... just came across this announcement:=========================================================
From Friday 11th of February, PlusNet is reducing the price of its
Broadband Home 2Mb Lite to just £14.99 from £19.99, a saving of 25%.
Pre-pay and Pay As You Go data charges are also to be reduced on all
‘Lite’ broadband products.
On Residential Lite products, additional Pre-pay data-transfer prices will
be reduced to just £1.50 per GB (including VAT) on all available speeds.
On Teleworker and Business products, additional Pre-pay data-transfer will
be £1.50 per GB (excluding VAT).
.
.
.
In the next few weeks we will be announcing our next special deal to
existing PlusNet ‘Premier’ customers, so they won’t be missing out,
=========================================================
Seems like I need to wait a couple of weeks then (renewal date is 25-feb so I can hold out until then...)
nick
<< Home
