8MB Broadband anyone!?

[Fireblade]

"UK Online (http://www.ukonline.net/8000/) has unveiled an 8Mbps ADSL broadband service - available to around 4.4 million homes - for £39.99 per month :eek: :cool:

The service is available through local loop unbundling (LLU) at 230 exchanges where telecommunications network provider EasyNet has installed its own DSL equipment.

Although the downstream speed is a maximum 8Mbps, this does require that the connected household is within some 2km of the exchange. If not... service will be provided at the best possible speed - whether 6Mbps, 4Mbps or even 2Mbps, although this is set as the lowest limit.

Upstream speed is 400Kbps, the contention ratio is 33:1, and a one-off set up fee of £50 is charged on top of the £39.99 rental."

Source Computer Buyer (http://www.computerbuyer.co.uk/?news/news_story.php?id=65867)


Personal note: One of UK Online's stipulations is: "Subject to reasonable use"

In their FAQ's, one of the Q's is: "Are there any usage restrictions?"

A. "We do not have a fixed bandwidth restriction. However we reserve the right to suspend or restrict your use of the Service if we consider it excessive.
We would consider regular or recurring data transfer in excess of 4GB per day to be an example of excessive use of our Broadband 8000 service."

[Aa-chan]

Woah! :D

Would love it really, but I still think that the upload sucks.

[latency]

Yea it's still the highest avalible to a home user tho- not counting SDSL...

That's a kick ass connection all in all! And very cheap considering!

[Jooster]

Wow!

If that doesnt cause the current price of 512/1Mb/2Mb services to drop, then there is no hope :p

[Slamdog]

and 4gb a day is pants...

that would take all of an hour or so to use up.....

[Ciqala]

not to mention they disconnect you every 2 hours and your max usage per day is 16 hours. and its consider abuse if you set your pc to automatically re-connect upon disconnection.

[daniel_owen_uk]

No they don't, thats their dial up connection, have a read of their terms and conditions, I read that on hexus too :P

[lambbuster]

i shall be getting this. Im not too bothered about the download limit, i just want it for general surfing and because i have 4 pcs that ened to share the connection in my house.

I gotta wait for my dad to get home with his CC, and then its all mine ... :D

[latency]

I hadn't read the limits... I'm not rushing out to get it but it's still damn fast...

[ViperVenoM]

screw the limits i couldnt cope..but 8mb for £40 :eek:

this crappy town of hull is doing 1mb for £40 :mad: ..ok its gone down to £35 now and 1.5mb ..but still

8mb - £40 or 1.5mb for £35... :confused:

[bLaXe]

Think I'll just wait for SDSL to become practical (cost wise I mean..). Upload bandwidth is what I want really.

[PuppetMaster]

whats sdsl? *n00b*

also, i admire your "seize the night" thing :D

[bLaXe]

:D - I seem to slowly be becoming nocternal...

SDSL, Synchronous DSL - the upload speed is the same as the download speed (hence synchronous). In ADSL, Asynchronous DSL - the download is (normally) much greater then the upload speed. For example, my 1.5Mbps cable line has only 256Kbps upload bandwidth.

There is an SDSL trial going on somewhere in the UK at the moment, but it's pretty expensive (and you have to be in the right area). As far as I understand it it's being aimed at the business market rather than domestic.

Would be nice to have though, you could run a decent server from one :)

[stdPikachu]

The S actually stands for symmetric, just like the A in ADSL stands for asymmetric. Availability is very low at the moment, and most ISP's charge an arm and a leg for it; a 256kbps connection from Zen will cost you £225 line activation, and a further £150 per month. 512kbps is a more reasonable £175 per month.

[[GPO]Solitaire]

why can't we be more like japan! where they get 10Mbs (Up&Down) for £40 as standered in there houses! and can get 100Mbs (Up&Down) for roughtly £70 month!!! they had the same type of telephone network as we had 10 years ago with the same number of users! now look at them :( were just getting 8Mb Adsl connections :(

[Proplus]

All me family and friends back in Hong Kong are on 20 or 30Mb lines, we're talking a download of an MP3 file in less than a sec!!!!

[stdPikachu]

Japan and Hong Kong have insanely high population densities, native high-tech industries with a high-tech population who have an active interest and an actual use for speeds like that. UK has none of these things. Not to mention that 8Mbit/s connections are fairly useless unless all the rest of the infrastructure has been upgraded as well - I doubt you would ever see your downstream bandwidth saturated, because (if we discount backbones) there are few pipes that can supply 8Mb/s. We're also not helped by having dinosaurs like BT overseeing operations.

For me it's SDSL or nothing. I don't do much P2P, but whenever I want to upload something reasonably chunky it always takes forever. Gah.

[Dunc]

Yep, i'm holding out for SDSL too. I've played around on a 3 MB connection and really didnt seem an enormous improvement over the 1MB line i used to have. I'm sure i'd notice with an 8MB line, but its really the upload capability i want. I'd notice the effect of that way more than the down stream.

[daniel_owen_uk]

The upload has been increased to 400kbs, hardly sdsl but its a start.

SDSL isn't going to be cheap soon anyway, its too easy to run webservers on SDSL line (hence the hosting companies loose out).

Although LLU will hopefully aid the process.

[benktlottie]

Telewest are introducing 4mb in Dec\Jan. Its a free upgrade for customers on 3mb (which I'm on) Its pricey at £50 a month, but there are no limitations with dl's and its always on.

Its quite cool, I can be dl'ing at 334kb/s, then open up another dl at 100+kb/s, then open a third dl at 30-40kb/s. It take upto a minute for the 3 dl's to equal 334kb/s, but for the majority of that minute, youre looking at nearly 500kb/s ! Sweet.

Telewest are good because of their low latency on the link, ideal for online gaming.

[lambbuster]

ive gone and ordered this, hopefully it will be a reliable service.

I was initially concerned with the 4gb a day limit, but it seems its 500gb a month.

Im getting connected on the 9th :D

Phil

[nick_cfc]

yeah it does say 500Gb a month. its not in my area anyway, i cant get more than my 1Mb here

[brumster]

Give it a few years - 2006+ probably - and 40Gb fibre will be with us. BT are apparently trialing it in-house (well, with their employees, anyway). Well, that's what I heard... any truth in it?

The biggest problem we have with investment in our infrastructure if the god damn government as usual. Back in the early 90s they decided that BT was too much of a monopoly, and 'regulated' the whole industry such that BT had to re-sell their services/connectivity over their infrastructure on to the likes of Mercury (remember them :D ), etc.

The problem is that if I was BT now, I'd be saying "well, sod it, I'm not investing in our network infrastructure any more because we'll never see the return on it, because we have to sell it cheaply to our competitors".

Come 2006, when the regulations imposed are due to be dropped, I'm hoping BT will get back on the horse again.

[nick_cfc]

woot, bring on 2006.

faster internet and the world cup

[DarkEntity]

Fingers crossed we can watch England get thumped again ;)

[Fat Jez]

Fingers crossed we can watch England get thumped again ;)
Now, now, just because the English press believe England have a God-given write to win just because they turned up doesn't mean you have to be like that ;)

Oh, and ignore my location - I'm an ex-pat living down here because of work.

Cheers,
Stephen

[Clarkey]

My wanadoo only allows me to download 2gb a month which sucks but i can have online gaming everyday it just restricts me from big downloads. Its better than my old dialup. So 4gb a day is plenty unless your downloadin 2 dvd's evry day lol.
Ive gotta get that.

[[XiZZo]]

My exchange is LLU as i have 4Mbit BullDog Inter@active......gimmie gimmie that 8Mbit! ;)

[daniel_owen_uk]

Give it a few years - 2006+ probably - and 40Gb fibre will be with us. BT are apparently trialing it in-house (well, with their employees, anyway). Well, that's what I heard... any truth in it?

The biggest problem we have with investment in our infrastructure if the god damn government as usual. Back in the early 90s they decided that BT was too much of a monopoly, and 'regulated' the whole industry such that BT had to re-sell their services/connectivity over their infrastructure on to the likes of Mercury (remember them :D ), etc.

The problem is that if I was BT now, I'd be saying "well, sod it, I'm not investing in our network infrastructure any more because we'll never see the return on it, because we have to sell it cheaply to our competitors".

Come 2006, when the regulations imposed are due to be dropped, I'm hoping BT will get back on the horse again.

Not so sure m8 the implementation of LLU is kinda cancelling the whole BT monopoly thing (at least for net connections), hopefully it won't just be the lucrative exchanges that get the benefits thought.

Lambuster you withing 2k of the exchange?

[haz]

My wanadoo only allows me to download 2gb a month which sucks but i can have online gaming everyday it just restricts me from big downloads. Its better than my old dialup. So 4gb a day is plenty unless your downloadin 2 dvd's evry day lol.
Ive gotta get that.

WOW a download limit,

i was beggining to think that they'd made it up in that friggin AOL advert. it was beggining to **** me off

i LOVE watching the world cup (well only England any way) ahhh...

it annoys me how we tend to create all these sports then let other countries get better than us :(

[Br4inDe4d]

almost 2005 and im still unable to get DSL or cable. woopidy my neighbors less then half a mile away can get it tho.. your all wanting faster speeds :( I want to play Xbox Live damnit!

[daniel_owen_uk]

Well checked this yesterday, and I can get 8mb..... shame my plusnet contract aint up till august :( stuck on 2mb till then :(

[Fireblade]

You shouldn't necessarily be stuck with them until August Daniel :confused:

You'd undoubtedly have t' pay them something to get out of the contract... but you should be able to?

Have a read o' their 'Terms & Conditions' t' see what options (if any) you've got?

[Sloany]

I am with bt broadband not the bt yahoo thing. 1 meg for 29.99 and the service is great when you have a problem you get to speak to someone from the uk so no problems trying to explain what the problem is. And the download limits on every package apart from the basic don`t apply till mid next year if attoll. They even phoned me up to see if I had any probs with my new router witch they sold me for £25.

[daniel_owen_uk]

You shouldn't necessarily be stuck with them until August Daniel :confused:

You'd undoubtedly have t' pay them something to get out of the contract... but you should be able to?

Have a read o' their 'Terms & Conditions' t' see what options (if any) you've got?

Yeah it would cost me over £300 to buy out, like I say stuck till august :(

Btw a guy from UKOnline called me up on tuesday to kindly tell me that it was now available in my area, I quizzed him a little and he seemed pretty knowledgable (weird for sales staff), according to him I am also within 2km so would definitely get 8mb, which is even more depressing.

[stdPikachu]

Argh! Is no-one else eternally irritated by the endless confusion?!?!

M = mega
m = milli
B = bytes
b = bits

:mad:

[daniel_owen_uk]

I should follow it but I am lazy, it's usually obvious by the context of the sentence, but if it makes you feel any better;

"I am also within 2km so would definitely get 8Mb, which is even more depressing."

[davidmoore83]

still beat that with my free 10Mb connection :)

[mp260767]

almost 2005 and im still unable to get DSL or cable. woopidy my neighbors less then half a mile away can get it tho.. your all wanting faster speeds :( I want to play Xbox Live damnit!
Tell me about it, exchange finally got enabled, then found out our village is supplied via a 15 yr old RADIO dish that is narrowband only :( :mad:

mark.....

[daniel_owen_uk]

Well due to the recent F UP by plusnet (thats Fair Usage Policy), they have released me from my 12 month contract, so I am moving to UK Online 8mb service, signed up saturday morning so it should be within a fortnight :D

Might not actually get 8mb but hoping for maybe 4-6mb we will see.

Of course I will keep you lot informed/jealous :)

[Fat Jez]

TBH honest, Daniel, no ISP is going to allow totally unlimited usage. The charging model operated by BT prevents this, as each ISP's costs are around £1/GB of data downloaded (the cost BT levy to carry the data on their backbone network). Therefore, no ISP is going to be able to tolerate for long any user who is losing them money, e.g. Paying £25 a month but using 50GB of data. Hence the reason that Plusnet were forced to take steps (and the other ISP's almost certainly will in the future too).

We appear to be moving towards a different charging model in the UK, where you are no longer paying extra for a faster service, but pay more for a larger amount of data downloaded, as evidenced by Plusnet charging the same basic £14.99 a month for all the way up to 8mbps broadband and charging for the amount of data used.

Cheers,
Stephen

[daniel_owen_uk]

You seem to be under the impression that all isp's are controlled by bt's pricing model, LLU of course doesn't fall under BT, UKOnline are of course an LLU ISP.

[ViperVenoM]

runs around chanting my download llimit is uncapppeddd \o/

they state uncapped and boy ive tested it ;)

80gb a month no complaints!...wish i could get more than 1.5mb ere though..bloody karoo :(

[daniel_owen_uk]

8mb is capped.......... to 500GB

I could use that if I wanted, but thats serious overkill imo.

[lambbuster]

Ive been on this 8mb service for a few months now - its damn fast. I am within 2km of the exchange but for some reason couldn't have the full 8mb without getting daily disconnects. It was disconnecting me even at 5mb, but now its back up at 7 (after 6 weeks) and i don't get disconnected at all.

I think because i am probably one of the only a few users of the service in my area :)

I could never go back to my 512k line now...:D

[Proplus]

Ive been on this 8mb service for a few months now - its damn fast. I am within 2km of the exchange but for some reason couldn't have the full 8mb without getting daily disconnects. It was disconnecting me even at 5mb, but now its back up at 7 (after 6 weeks) and i don't get disconnected at all.

I think because i am probably one of the only a few users of the service in my area :)

I could never go back to my 512k line now...:D

Ditto, been on it since the beginning of this month... :D

[daniel_owen_uk]

You getting full 8mb?

I have been on 2mb for a year so it would kill me to go back to 512k, hoping for 4mb that way I won't get too excited :)

What sort of upload speed you getting guys?

[joeyace]

Believe it or not I pay £70 a month for 512/128 here in gibraltar for ADSL Broadband. There is only one telephone company at the mo and we have to stick to it whether we like it or not. 512/256 is £90. The only other companies which have breakneck speeds in their offices are Lawyers & Online gambling. 1.5Mb and 8Mb speeds you are talking about are "Star Trek" speeds, light years away from me @ the mo.

PS. There is light at the end of the tunnel .I have just found out that a new company "Broadband Gibraltar Ltd" will be setting up shop in the near future. "1Mb" here I come

[daniel_owen_uk]

Migrated yesterday, its a little flakey but it looking pretty stable at about 6000k data rate.

(they keep altering it to 6500 then it gets loads of CRC errors disconnects, then reconnects at a different speed)

Tech support said it was usual for first couple of days to be a little flaky till speeds sort themselves.

What did you guys find? Did it take long to stabalise?

[daniel_owen_uk]

Swapped my router/modem with the one that they provided last night, getting a pretty solid 7mb/512k now :D

All I gotta do now is try to figure out how to keep under 500GB a month :)

[Jev]

I'm a BT engineer, and the managment are shoving 21st century network down our throats at the moment.

http://www.btglobalservices.com/business/global/en/business/business_innovations/issue_02/century_network.html

They say they are going to spend billions on this(more than the whole uk roads spending). I'm dubious.

The future of the internet in this country depends on how customers pay for it. The only feasable way I can see this working is to charge per gigabyte. If bt expect to charge for content they will have a shock. Most internet users will find a way around paying for films/music/programs etc in time.

The upshot of all this is that voice calls will always be virtualy free. All communication except video uses very little bandwidth so will be very cheap. Telephones will be pluged into router type boxes that only use the internet unless calling someone outside of the uk.

[daniel_owen_uk]

Makes sense, just give a couple of IP addresses to each house and provide, video, net access, voice etc all over the same cable (assume that its gonna use fibre for bandwidth requirements).

BT will use more and more cost per gigabyte services like they are doing at the moment with MaxDSL, fortunately I am one of the customers that ISN'T stuck with BT.

[daniel_owen_uk]

Line has been up for a day now, no disconnects, really impressed with UKOnline so far, very smooth migration, informative email contacts, good equipment provided with line.

ohh and

Downstream 6460 Kbps (807.5 KB/sec) 6976 Kbps (inc. overheads)
Upstream 461 Kbps (57.6 KB/sec) 497 Kbps (inc. overheads)

:D

[Fireblade]

OK already :rolleyes: :mad:










:p