Free Christmas downloads

[Steve]

The world would be a boring place if everyone was so bloody agreeable,if one cannot challenge the status quo or the accepted norm we might as well all pack and go home.

[Rik]

What are BT charging for?

I should have expanded that point, the charge is made for moving to or from the Max or Pro packages (ie lower ontention), which involves BT in exchange work. Other packages are just pure billing changes.

How then can AAISP makes its model work which allows users to 'borrow' from the following month's quota or, conversely, add any under usage (within limits) to the following month? Put simply, the user can pay for, say, 3 units a month and use up to 36 units a year without incurring any extra charge. Moreover, I cannot see that this type of package would be any less attractive to business users than that offered by IDNet. I do though accept your argument that this might not be an attractive pricing option for heavy downloaders.

Ultimately, I can only give you my personal opinion. If you want a definitive answer, you would have to talk directly to IDNet. AAISP have a very different business model to IDNet, we all must choose which suits our needs better.

I have no idea how IDNet's package change system works as I have never had call to use it. That said, provided that the user is prepared to give at least 30 days notice of a change then I assume that there would be no charge for a package change - up or down?

The change is made immediately, no extra charges are applied in the current billing period. A change up incurs no charge, a change down may incur a change if it involves BT.

[Rik]

The world would be a boring place if everyone was so bloody agreeable,if one cannot challenge the status quo or the accepted norm we might as well all pack and go home.

Good idea, 'night.

[Rik]

My point I suspect only related to the (relative small number?) of FTTC connections which I thought were a fixed one year initial term (subject to upgrades) and with much less force to the 3 month intial term for O2 ADSL2+ service? Not sure about phone though - I suspect it's month to month? Annual payments would be refunded pro-rata I assume on termination of a monthly contract.

The 1 year FTTC contract is imposed by BT on ISPs, so they have to pass it on, the cost to the business could be catastrophic if they didn't and had to 'carry' the balance of the year themselves. The rest of the ADSL and phone packages are all on a 30-day rolling contract, 30 days notice required.

[Rik]

I can't help thinking the withdrawal of the 2011 Christmas freebie will come back and bite IDNET in the backside.

The 2009 and 2010 offering were both subject to abuse which cost IDNet money. It's a nice gesture, but a balance has to be struck with the viability of making it. Ultimately, IDNet would have to look to recover the costs from somewhere. Personally, I prefer to pay for what I use, rather than pay more so that I can have 'free' bandwidth at Xmas. As Steve has said, we don't get free phone calls, gas, water, electricity or even petrol at Xmas - why do we feel ADSL should be different?

[Niall]

If it carried over, I'd have an obscene amount of off peak bandwidth available for use

[.Griff.]

I've absolutely no issue at all with IDNet deciding not to offer a repeat of last years bandwidth offer however I'm a little unhappy with all the remarks about people "abusing" the offer.

Last year was my first Christmas with Idnet. I'd moved from an unlimited ISP and quickly got used to rationing my allowance over the course of each calendar month. Then Christmas arrived and IDNet kindly informed all their customers about the free usage periods over certain days which was handy as I'd been given some iTunes vouchers and gifted two games on Steam and I think it's safe to say I downloaded about 20 - 30 GB on Christmas afternoon last year.

It's not like I left iPlayer streaming HD content all day and went out for the day or used as much bandwidth as possible simply because I could so I'm now left wondering if I'm considered as one of the reasons why the offer isn't being repeated? Am I considered as "abusing the system" last year?!?

[Steve]

I've absolutely no idea Griff, I certainly have not had any contact with IDNet with regard to why and why not there's no free bandwidth this year.

[adamb]

Then Christmas arrived and IDNet kindly informed all their customers about the free usage periods over certain days which was handy as I'd been given some iTunes vouchers and gifted two games on Steam and I think it's safe to say I downloaded about 20 - 30 GB on Christmas afternoon last year.

I was one of the people saying that it was a shame that some abused it. Whilst you downloaded a lot of data, it's not 24/7 full speed downloading. To be honest, the only thing that makes IDNet a viable ISP for me is the ADSL Max Premium (8Mb download and 832K upload). It's hard to find a decent package these days when your exchange is non-LLU. For me, the package that I am on is one of very few options for me. I could "get by" easily on the 60GB offered on the LLU deal but the 40GB is the difference for me. I know it's only 20GB extra and even if I had to pay for an extra 20GB, it would cost me £20 + £34.99 = £59.99 which is cheaper that when I was with Nildram Unmetered package on ADSL Max Premium.

I have been with ISP's on unmetered packages but at the end of the day they are all the same. Whether I am with Sky, TalkTalk, UKOnline (my last ISP), they are all giving me the same service, 8 meg down 448K up and latency which could be used to measure the distance between planets. I cannot live without my ADSL Max Premium, it's just a shame that I have to watch my usage. In IDNet's defense, I am still getting a good deal even if I go over 10GB every month so I have shot myself in the testiclos by mentioning it It's all still down to BT because if my exchange was not so primitive then I would have the perfect amount of bandwidth every month.

[Ardua]

In days of old, when the family visited for Christmas the only thing to worry about was 'do we have enough food and drink'? I have just done an unofficial wi-fi connectivity census and the results are as follows: an IMac, a MacBook Pro, 3 Kindles, 3 IPads, 3 IPhones, 2 Blackberrys, 2 IPod Touchs, an internet radio and a BluRay recorder are all fighting for my bandwidth. Fortunately, I still have some peak GBs left in the Bank and watching the usage meter is only slightly less exciting than watching the endless Christmas repeats on TV.

[Simon]

Well, there is one easy solution - turn your router off, or don't give them all the password.

[Ardua]

Well, there is one easy solution - turn your router off, or don't give them all the password.

I am not sure that I would want to be known as Scrooge when they have all travelled along way to see us. Usage does clock up at quite a rate when one shouts out 'have you seen this latest free book on Amazon' and three people down load it. It is days like today when an unlimited package  - or an ISP Christmas freebie - undoubtedly has its attractions!

[Simon]

When you think, it's only in the last couple of years that all these wifi devices have popped up.  Makes you wonder how we all used to manage to get through the day without them, doesn't it?

[Ardua]

Grandson has just announced that as Grandad has got fast broadband, he would like to download today's Freebie from ITunes - a 1GB video of Top Gear. I have told him that he is free to do whatever he wants between Midnight and 9am but now it is time for a Christmas game of charades. His sister's response was 'I am sure that I have an App for that'!  You cannot help but love 'em.

[Rik]

It's not like I left iPlayer streaming HD content all day and went out for the day or used as much bandwidth as possible simply because I could so I'm now left wondering if I'm considered as one of the reasons why the offer isn't being repeated? Am I considered as "abusing the system" last year?!?

No, Griff. I don't know who was, but the problem came from those who downloaded flat out, 24/7, during the free period.

[Ardua]

As the Christmas break nears its end, it is probably time for Rik et al to draw a line under this particular thread - unless, the intention is to keep it running with Christmas 2012 in mind! Seriously, my connection has not missed a heartbeat (both in terms of connectivity and downstream speed) in the past fortnight so IDNet, and to some extent BT, is to be congratulated for that.

[Simon]

We don't usually close threads just because the topic has moved along, but I expect one of us will split the SD / HD part of the discussion when we get a minute.  It's not something I can do from my phone. 

[Lance]

Me neither! You just can't get the staff!

[Steve]

It was done ages ago!

[Simon]

[pctech]

and to some extent BT, is to be congratulated for that.

Now you've put a hex on it, NEVER EVER congratulate BT as when you do it all starts to go wrong.

I'd congratulate all the non BT Retail ISPs that provide an excellent service in spite of BT