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Unlimited Broadband: Another Con?

koantemplationkoantemplation Posts: 101,293
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in Broadband Internet #1
With all these Unlimited BB deals lately is this just another set up for more money for less?

Yes they say they won't limit speeds now, but will they put in the extra infrastructure needed so that speeds won't go down because of congestion?

And then they'll put in speed restrictions anyway.

Comments

  • mooxmoox Posts: 18,880
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    #2
    Every residential broadband service is run on the basis that congestion can happen - if the ISPs provided enough infrastructure to cope with the demand of every customer downloading at full speed all at once they wouldn't be able to charge the rock bottom prices that consumers think they want.

    There's a reason why the ISPs known for overall quality charge more than the bottom-rung ISPs like TalkTalk.
  • Kolin KlingonKolin Klingon Posts: 4,296
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    #3
    I like unlimited as I do hammer it with the GBs I download in a month and I now get about 14.5MBit speed in my new house as opposed to only 10MBit at the old address only when the wind was blowing in the right direction.

    I haven't noticed a reduction in speed yet even at peak times so it will do for me at the moment.
  • noise747noise747 Posts: 30,838
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    #4
    Yep, congestion is a problem on a lot of ISPs, even on the one I am on, but it is getting better.

    The problem is that people want to pay less and less for their broadband and then the ISps got to cut corners to keep making a profit. so they don't update the bandwidth and we get congestion.

    Very few ISPs are unlimited, in fact I doubt any are, even the Cable and wireless service I was on had a limit, ok you be hard push to get to it unless you was downloading 24/7 on a high speed network.

    The ISP I am with now says unlimited, but if you read a bit further it says Subject to acceptable usage policy.

    Saying that, I bang my connection at times and not heard a word. I was told only one person have been warned about their usage and that was because they was downloading 24/7.
  • scruffpotscruffpot Posts: 4,570
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    #5
    So instead of having the word unlimited in the advertising, what would you suggest would be used instead... Im not talking about the small wording at the bottom of the brochure...
    Im talking about when they plaster the front of the advert with the word unlimited e.g. http://www.whippet.co.uk/media/img/news/TescoBroadband.png.747x747_q85_crop.jpg
    you cant have a loads of numbers instead, the general public are easily confused.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 2,011
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    #6
    Even with speed reducing they are still offering unlimited broadband as they don't fully cut you off or charge you more once you download a certain limit so they are not misleading anyone. Although it is a bit shady of them to say download as much as you want, if we think you're ripping it a bit we'll just make it take longer to download it.
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