At the end of my 12months but IDNet packages do not seem to fit my profile

[BoobBoo]

Hi all,

I am at the end of my 12months of FTTC, I am honestly say that this product is amazing and changed how I use the Internet.

The only issue is that I have gone over my usage limits 4 times in the last 12 months, currently on the 30GB/120GB product. I could go up to another product, but it really does not feel right - the peak hours throughout the whole week really gets tiresome when many good ISPs give weekends as unlimited, also having 3 times the allowance for off-peak with less than 1/3rd the time to use it.

I presume that IDNet are not about to change their packages any time soon and so is my only course of action to move to another ISP, like Zen who have a bandwidth allowance of 200GB 24/7 for a similar price to IDNet?

Any advice/hints would be appreciated.

Thanks

Chris

[Steve]

 

I think we all use the Internet differently and of course one package from one ISP doesn't everyone, I've no idea if IDNet are reviewing their packages but no harm in asking when they open after the New Year.

[pctech]

You are unlikely to get a response to your question via the forum as it is publicly accessible.

Best advice is to mail IDNet directly and see if they can offer you anything, I'm not an IDNet customer so I don't know whether they will do any form of retention deal nor whether they have any scope to do this on this product.

[Ardua]

 
Rik has said on another post that IDNet is likely to review its packages in the New Year. I am hoping to move to FTTC shortly and I looked at Zen but found them to be roughly the same price as IDNet (unless you take the 12 months for 11 offer into account which makes IDNet cheaper). Your comment about your change of usage pattern with FTTC is something that has been worrying me for sometime. Have I mis-read Zen's offer?

[pctech]

Difference between Zen and IDNet is that Zen impose a hard cap, meaning if you hit your allowance you can't go anywhere other than the Zen site to buy some additional transfer, IDNet will charge you on next month's bill which is about £1/GB.

[BoobBoo]

@Ardua - I definitely found my usage profile changed, for example I am now using iPlayer in HD not SD.

I do not keep everything I download "in case I need it again", with the bandwidth available I just redownload if needed.

@Pctech - I will be talking to them as everything they do is good and at a reasonable price, the only unreasonable thing they do have is their peak hours.

Thanks

Chris

[zappaDPJ]

I think the move towards high quality digital data and downloadable applications is definitely going to be a factor in people's ISP choices in future but I'm not sure how much more ISPs can give away and still remain competitive. We all know that all you can eat packages generally come with payload be it fair use policies or some form of throttling.

I prefer to have the same level of provision within a capped allowance but I'd be lying if I said I find my current package fulfils my needs. I don't file share or download music and I only have one computer game on my PC. In spite of that I find I am unable to watch anything in HD or view any of the movies provided by my Sky package.

Tomorrow I have parts for a new PC arriving and I've calculated it'll consume my entire monthly peak allowance (30 GB) just to get it up and running. Nearly 20 GB will be lost to a single computer game along with another 5-10 GB for the applications I use. The move towards media-less applications and entertainment data coupled with the ever increasing requirements of high definition are really pushing the boundaries of capped packages but I doubt there's a short term answer to it unless BT drop their wholesale prices.

[Anton]

Given what I'm about to say, it's probably best that I make it clear that I'm in no way connected to IDNet and have no axe to grind.

I have to admit I have very mixed feelings about the cost/bandwidth issue, but in the end, I find IDNet worth the extra and I have a feeling that most (if not all?) IDNet's residential customers have landed here because of a need/desire for quality reliable service and looking at the headline deals available from mainstream ISPs the cost differential can be huge so the service levels need to be so too. Currently the service differential IS there and the profile of the charging packages is one of the things that protects it.

Generally though, I'm still happy, and while over the past few months, since I came out of contract, I've been considering other options (Plusnet, Zen) I'm staying put for now. However, If IDNet are reviewing their pricing and caps and there's some favourable movement, I'd be delighted.

I know the team read these forums, so I'll make a suggestion or two.

1. How about a tied renewal option - I'm out of contract now but I'd be more than happy to sigh up to a fresh 12 (or 24 for that matter) months in return for a reduced monthly fee or an uplift in caps (how about a choice?). That'd give IDNet certainly of income so they can plan capacity and provide me with some loyalty benefits in return for the commitment? Frankly if I were offered a 24 month contract with a monthly discount or reasonable  Peak cap uplift, payable monthly, I'd sign up today and take the uplift option! I know the pay annually option is there, but I don't want to swallow a cost of that size in one go!

2. How about a capped rate product with a higher overall volume cap? I imagine there's a market for a 15-20mb line cap with no peak/off peak split? I appreciate that their may be constraints with BTW around billing and administering, but there must be a market to use fibre for 'better than ADSL2' but not full on maxed out FTTC. Again I don't understand the commercials and technical constraints but this sort of offering would be popular I think, particularly in areas where copper limits speeds to <4mb or so?

[ukwiz]

Rik has said on another post that IDNet is likely to review its packages in the New Year. I am hoping to move to FTTC shortly and I looked at Zen but found them to be roughly the same price as IDNet (unless you take the 12 months for 11 offer into account which makes IDNet cheaper). Your comment about your change of usage pattern with FTTC is something that has been worrying me for sometime. Have I mis-read Zen's offer?

The Zen package seems to have a cap at 50GB but no off-peak allowance. Also, the up speed is only 2Mb

Regards
David

[Lance]

David!

[Steve]

I'm reading Zen FTTC 200Gb  @ £66/month (in vat)

And welcome David

[Glenn]

  David.

Do Zen include uploads in their package, or is it like IDNet, only downloads are charged?

[Ray]

  David.

[ukwiz]

I'm reading Zen FTTC 200Gb  @ £66/month (in vat)

And welcome David

I was quoting like-for-like with boo-boos package.

And thanks for the welcome

[pctech]

Zen do not meter uploads, only downloads.

[Steve]

I wonder how often the home user needs more than 2Mbps upstream?

[Glenn]

I do, to host my rfactor races. 

[Steve]

I use it to upload photos and it's a great benefit to have that speed.

[Ardua]

Now I am confused. The OP said that he was reluctant to upgrade his IDNet package and he implied that he could get 200GB a month 24/7 for a comparable price. Putting BT to one side, I cannot find any ISP that offers this type of package for a price similar to the 30GB Peak FTTC package offered by IDNet. As said earlier Zen and IDNet do offer 50GB packages: Zen do not have peak/offpeak but IDNet does but gives a massive off-peak allowance. Even I can work out which is better value.

Surely, a more meaningful question to ask is whether the gap between Infinity Unlimited and IDNet 30GB FTTC has widened to the point where the answer is a no brainier?

[zappaDPJ]

I wonder how often the home user needs more than 2Mbps upstream?

It's become pretty essential for me when I'm working on remote servers which I do almost every day. No more sloping off for a coffee and a smoke while I'm waiting for an upload

[Steve]

So a higher upload has definite health benefits.

[mervl]

  Perhaps IDNet's review might conclude (as Voda recently did) the best thing is to sell their residential customer base to BT (well it was Plusnet in that case, but BT-owned), and we wouldn't have to worry! Would we have to re-name the forum BTNutters though?

[Technical Ben]

Perhaps IDNet's review might conclude (as Voda recently did) the best thing is to sell their residential customer base to BT (well it was Plusnet in that case, but BT-owned), and we wouldn't have to worry! Would we have to re-name the forum BTNutters though?

No one is that cruel!

[pctech]

I doubt IDNet would go to the expense of building out their own network and taking on a secondary LLU feed only to sell off to BT.

I maybe wrong but I think Voda's was always a rebranded BT Wholesale service.

Orange used to use the Energis service but then switched to BT.

[Anton]

I doubt IDNet would go to the expense of building out their own network and taking on a secondary LLU feed only to sell off to BT.

Phew!