g7kse.co.uk

This post isn’t politically motivated. I don’t hate any ISP and I don’t want utopia. What I do want is a fair deal, and I’m fairly sure you don’t get that with ISP’s
For a long time ISP’s have been advertising speeds that are not achievable. The marketeers would have you beleive that 8Mb broadband gives you speeds of 8Mb and that unlimited is unlimited. The news item http://www.adslguide.org.uk/newsarchive.asp?item=2652 says it all but the consumer gets the rough end of the deal.
I would like ISP’s to offer the consumer the same level playing field. So there are 2 things that I would like to be brought up

1. If there is a Fair Use Policy (FUP) and it only affects a low percentage of people then tell the consumer what the limit is. If there is a moving goal post then be transparent and you might find that your customers are more understanding. Receiving snot-o-grams which don’t give specific data does not help either the ISP or consumer.

2. By all mean advertise the theoretical speed. But as we know theory and practice aren’t always the same. All I would like it a bit of communication, tell me what I’m going to get on an average day at peak time and at off peak time. Call it a guide but make it accurate enough to make a value judgment.

As I continue to pay for my broadband to a commercial company I expect that their motivation is profit and until such time as not for profit broadband comes along then I will continue to pay. All I ask in return is a bit a of clarity and a level playing field with which to make an informed choice based on fact rather than vague statistics.

I don’t mind admitting it I use the internet a fair bit. I like to keep up to date and use Hubdog for my fix of news and ‘casts’ but I’m now on the watch list of my ISP because I download a fair bit. I recieved a snot-o-gram email from them telling me not to download large files during peak times (i.e when I’m awake) and to not use peer to peer technology at all. I thought this wasn’t entirely fair as it inferred that I will be downloading illegal material at worst or at least causeing them an inconvenience by using what I pay for.

I wrote to them asking for information as to what was considered to be fair use. How much exactly is the threshold? Unsurprisingly I didn’t get a straight answer, a mere redirection to a FAQ which oddly circumvented the thorny issue itself. I wrote again and receive no answer this time. I wrote on paper and as yet have still recieved no answer.

Along with the claimed connection speeds where my current 2Mb/s actually downloads around 120Kb/s at best am I the only one who feels as if my pocket has been picked in a smooth corporate way?

Answers on a post card, unless you are of course my ISP where any format would be acceptable.