O2 introduces cap on broadband service

[pctech]

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/05/26/o2_disconnects/q

I knew this would come as their network must be groaning under the traffic

[Rik]

Unlimited bites the dust...

[Glenn]

I was reading this today, it's only on the Access product at the moment though.

[pctech]

The host links must be getting overloaded and O2 probably don't want to rent any more.

It'll come on the LLU product though.

[dujas]

I guess they don't want non-LLU customers, as it seems to be a one year contract at £22.50 a month with a 10GB FUP!?

[pctech]

Well like other ISPs they have to pay BT for the links which is why it is more.

I was on their LLU service for just under a month but because my line was so long it was really unstable, tried to claim my money back under their guarantee and they lied to me about a refund and wanted a printed bank statement (which would have cost me money) to be sent to some bloke in a call centre who was just referred to as Mark, guy wouldn't tell me whether this was a Manager or just one of his fellow call centre folks.

As it was only 7.50 I didn't bother as suspected that the individual was on a personal details fishing trip.

[pctech]

Correct link is http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/05/26/o2_disconnects/

[Steve]

I would think 10Gb / month is a quite a challenge with O2 access with the speeds and congestion issues people complain about. They would appear not to be wishing to invest in the expansion of their current BT supplied networks.

Slighlty worrying is the comment that some of larger ISPs may be unwilling to participate in VDSL excvept via the BT backbone.

[pctech]

Not surprised Steve as they don't really care if the end user's connection is bad as they have thousands of customers so losing one or two isn't going to mean much.

After a horrendous experience with Virgin ADSL (DNS frequently went down and was not aware of OpenDNS at the time but it showed me they could not operate a core service) I turned my back on the big names.

I tried BT Plusnet which was a big mistake as it was traffic shaped and very slow but was cheap but I ended up having to buy myself out of the contract as it was often unusable.

[Technical Ben]

Bizarrely, it adds: "We don't set a limit on how much you can use each month. Most people use a different amount each month. But if we've asked you to cut back, it's because you're consistently above the monthly average."

The doublespeak is exactly the type of broadband marketing guff that Ofcom's voluntary code of practice aims to restrict.

Voluntary?!

Big thanks to IDNet as they provide me with 30GB+ 60GB and no throttling. I get what I pay for, and they are honest. If they said "there are some problems out of our control [an asteroid has hit the exchange] and you are now limited to 10GB per month" I'd be happy. As they are much more honest than the "doublespeak" O2 spiels out. 

[pctech]

Far better to deal with an upfront ISP.