are there any unlimited ISPs left in the UK?!

[badass]

Oddly, this is somewhat of a catch 22. Because of low-cost solutions like £12 p/m for 1gig or less access, this has in turn caused less and less "truly" unlimited packages.

Until we are talking about ADSL2, and other such technologies, I'm afraid this trend of caps/shaping/fair usage is only set to rise.

Have a good look and you will find something that suits you best, but don't expect to be able to hit the theoretical 1.2T max p/m of ADSLMAX

ADSL2+ will make no difference to the capacity of the network. Caps will still be there. The problem isn't the speed of the ADSL, its the problem of BT's network having the capacity to deal with the data and the ISP's being able to afford the BT centrals at around £250Kpa upwards depending on the capacity of it.

[kopite]

21CN should make a big difference as it will be fibre right up to the green cabinet.

It should be out by 2011 in most places.

Exchange are getting upgraded at the moment and BT are investing a lot of cash in it.

I`ve seen some of the kit that will be used for it and also seen a lot of stuff about how its gonna work.

If Bt actually carry out what they are promising its gonna be great

[aidanjt]

Why are people even bothered by shaping?.. It provides relaible transmission of more important packets and services and stops bandwidth hogs from chewing up all the bandwidth on normal users.

[badass]

Why are people even bothered by shaping?.. It provides relaible transmission of more important packets and services and stops bandwidth hogs from chewing up all the bandwidth on normal users.

Because some people expect others to subsidise their complete abuse of their broadband link.

[CrazyMonkey]

AOL are not capped or shaping.

Ditto, 6 Years with them and not 1 second of downtime or high ping issues, i thought i did but i realised my torrent application didnt shut down

[badass]

Ditto, 6 Years with them and not 1 second of downtime or high ping issues, i thought i did but i realised my torrent application didnt shut down

/nelson
HA HA!
/nelson
http://www.thinkbroadband.com/news/2...se-policy.html

[CrazyMonkey]

lol still i dont notice anything, and i havent had a high ping or 1 day of downtime for 6years... so i think you are.. a giant butthole!

[dave87]

BT are just reintroducing an unlimited package - though I'm not sure on the traffic shaping side of things

[aidanjt]

TRAFFIC SHAPING IS A GOOD THING.

Sorry for yelling, but it's pissing me off, and if you'd like i'll draw you a crayon diagram demonstraiting why it's good. Go learn about something before griping about it.

[pollaxe]

I thought AOL just changed their T&Cs for a 'fair use' policy (but haven't actually defined what 'fair use' means..)...?

edit: Yes they are, as of Feb 1st - http://www.uk-bug.net/Article1411.html

[chuckskull]

I just signed up to a BT.yahoo unlimited one. I cant seem to find it on their site though. No shaping at all, was downloading at way over 750kps on torrents(all legal of course ) the other night.

Just need to find the package now, came with an odd version of the home hub too.

[dangel]

I'm with BT Business (mid package) and yes, i'm an 'evil' heavy user too. Are people quoting bandwidth use in both directions or merely downloads? TBH most of my downloading i either schedule post 12am or do early in the morning (7am) so as to not affect other users. It is perfectly possible to download loads in a way that's still sociable to others IMHO

Not sure how long i've been with BT now - 3-4 months and i've not recieved any notice of excessive use. BT market the service as unlimited and it's aimed at multiple business-class users (1-4 in my case). I do have a bandwith monitor on my server so perhaps i'll post up my stats for the past 3 months?

The FUP is as follows:

"Why do we have a Fair Use Policy?
At peak times, a lot of customers use the shared network bandwidth at any one time.

A very small number of our customers use their broadband service inappropriately, for example when sending or downloading very large files, or using 'peer to peer' and file sharing software (which may be sending and receiving video and other large files constantly). This means that service quality for all users is affected, making it slower for everyone to access the internet or send and receive emails, especially at peak times (between 6pm and midnight, Monday to Friday).

The vast majority of our customers use their service considerately and their usage levels during peak hours don't disproportionately affect the shared network capacity. Even though only a very small number of our customers use the service inappropriately, their activity does greatly affect the service. Our Fair Use Policy manages inappropriate use and makes sure the service can be used fairly by everyone.

How does the Fair Use Policy work?
If you regularly use the service inappropriately during peak hours, and we believe this is unfairly affecting other customers' use of the service, we'll manage your bandwidth during peak times (which could result in reduced service speeds)."

Now I have noticed my download speeds drop during peak hours - so presumably i'm being restricted 6pm-12am - this doesn't bother me in the slightest tbh. I only see around 80k/sec during these hours of late which is fine for the odd small download or web browsing. Then again, this may be merely contention at the exchange. Either way, i'm good (or evil)

If you do consider BT Business then you may want to know:

1. "Single" costs about 36 quid a month inc.
2. BT will send you a bill for six months use which will scare the bejesus out of you (don't panic you can then resolve this by signing up for direct debit). The bill is so large as it comes after 3 months of use and carrys the next 3 months too - you are, after all, a business right?
3. I went through sheer hell with BT support (few of them know what they're doing - it's pot luck) removing a 2meg limit on my 7.5mb synched line - it was a stuck BRAS profile and nobody at BT seemed to know this.
4. It's a 12 month contract - althought there is a 3 month trial (or was when I signed up).


Roll on 21CN frankly, 1 year to go?

[hsncool]

demon.net -

ive gone over 300GB in a month before.

they emailed to make sure i knew it was happening and not just some spyware i caught, i sed i knew it was hapning, and they sed "thats ok then"


.........there fine with it!!

8mbps @ £20

bargain!

[Leepox]

Be i heard is really good.. added to that, its 24meg, with upload speeds of 1.3mb so i think thats more than sufficient

[eggenstein]

Be i heard is really good.. added to that, its 24meg, with upload speeds of 1.3mb so i think thats more than sufficient

I must admit, 'Be Unlimited' will be the next supplier I go with. I've heard lots of good things about them including that they are the only supplier with NO fair usage policy!! is that true?

I went with tiscali 8mb unlimited just over a month ago, they're ok but from midday to midnight Torrents rarely go over 50k a sec. As long as you leave your downloads on during the night from midnight it's fine and they're always done when you wake up!

I've heard lots of bad things about tiscali but I'm yet to experience anything bad and the transfer to tiscali from AOL was the smoothest transfer I have ever experienced.

[Leepox]

yeah... i will go Be once my current contract expires... 24mb is just too good to ignore