Traffic Shaping Affecting All Tiers

[DieDieMyDarling]

Originally Posted by peanutkp

Shawty and arcamalpha2004 I also agree with you. What I said is what the other side of the argument is, I'm sure you've heard it all a million times anyway.

I'm gutted that I now have 20mb that I can only use for 21mins continously from 4pm (glad I don't go to work). Why bring out 20mb in the 1st place.

Advertising. They're a business, they are in it to make money and get more customers to make even more money.
I wonder how much this will cost them in retentions though, especially now as it would seem if you mention 'Sky' they'll offer you all but their own grandmother to keep you.

[peanut]

Originally Posted by VM

And we're not talking about just a few video clips. In some cases the top 5% of users were downloading as much as 3GB, just during peak times. That's around 750 music tracks in the space of a few hours..

Holy s*** Batman, 3 gigs !!!! Wait a minute, that says over a space of a 'few' hours, 3 gig on 20mb is 21 minutes.

[spankysmagicpian]

Originally Posted by shawty

Its not unlimited. Im paying for 10MB, there is now a cap of 3GB on at 4-12pm which if i go over 3GB will reduce my speed to 5MB, thus meaning for 4 hours im reciving 5MB instead of the 10MB im paying for. It is not unlimited no more, the cap is there of 3GB plainy for everyone to see now.

So you queue up 9Gb in peak time - it takes 45 minutes for the first 3Gb and maybe 2 and a half hours for the rest - it's all downloaded but it's taken say 3 and a half hours instead of 2 hours. You're still allowed to download how much you want.. it's just taken a bit longer

I do download a lot but only from midnight onwards - I can't think of anything that would be needed enough to grab it there and then unless people are genuinely desperate for a Linux build and even those such as Ubuntu can reside on a CD now.

I'm guessing that people who do hammer it in peak time and possibly all the time are those who like to download DVD5s especially now the car boot season is upon us

There's only so many Linux ISOs you can grab.

Lets see now....

AOL - advertised as unlimited but traffic managed after roughly 1.3Gb in peak hours.

Tiscali - advertised as unlimited but traffic managed

Pipex - advertised as unlimited but traffic managed between 18:00 and 00:00

SkyBB - advertised as unlimited on Max but traffic managed / warning letters and eventual cap on monthly amount.

BT Total BB - advertised as unlimited but traffic managed

So don't you think we are being let off lightly with double the allowance per day than AOL?

[brundles]

I've seen a lot of references to maxing the connection out for x minutes at a time to trigger it, but the VM page doesn't make any reference to that. On the 4MB package, the 750MB limit seems to cover the whole 8 hours.

I tend to specifically avoid downloading large files during the define peak hours, but that limit is a joke. The 375MB, 750MB and 3GB limits seem to be a rather fool hardy attempt to encourage people from X/L onto XL. 750MB over 8 hours isn't that difficult when you have 2 laptops connected for home working (one of them running VNC sessions to remote servers), and a VOIP adapter with 2 lines.

Edit: And as for recommending DU meter in a day and age when many different devices connect to the net at once - WTF!!! I'd like to see them install that on an Xbox 360!

[shawty]

Originally Posted by spankysmagicpian

So you queue up 9Gb in peak time - it takes 45 minutes for the first 3Gb and maybe 2 and a half hours for the rest - it's all downloaded but it's taken say 3 and a half hours instead of 2 hours. You're still allowed to download how much you want.. it's just taken a bit longer

I do download a lot but only from midnight onwards - I can't think of anything that would be needed enough to grab it there and then unless people are genuinely desperate for a Linux build and even those such as Ubuntu can reside on a CD now.

I'm guessing that people who do hammer it are those who prefer to download DVD5s rather than DIVx rips especially now the car boot season is upon us

Lets see now....

AOL - advertised as unlimited but traffic managed after roughly 1.3Gb in peak hours.

Tiscali - advertised as unlimited but traffic managed

Pipex - advertised as unlimited but traffic managed between 18:00 and 00:00

SkyBB - advertised as unlimited on Max but traffic managed / warning letters and eventual cap on monthly amount.

BT Total BB - advertised as unlimited but traffic managed

So don't you think we are being let off lightly with double the allowance per day than AOL?

This is Virgin Media, none of the rest so forget them. Im paying for 10MB broadband, not 5MB broadband between 4-12PM. VM have not just limited everyones broadband but are still calling it unlimited.

[peanut]

How any company that can sell you a 20mb connection and deem 3 gigs is a whopping great amount is clearly taking a sample.

[DieDieMyDarling]

It would appear people are already hammering retentions. I phoned up about 12:30 to activate a new modem, got through in about 10 seconds, just rang there now and was told there's a queue where i could have to wait 10 mins.

[spankysmagicpian]

I agree with you Shawty in a way but what are you going to do?

Complain? or move supplier?

It's the way of the world now - this has been coming for a long time now and was discussed a while ago when ADSL / BB first came available.

I'm not saying it's right but it's the 'best of a bad bunch' People don't seem to be factoring in other matters such as reliability etc.

I know a few people who'd be lucky to download an album before their ADSL connection collapsed let alone 3Gb.

I do however think for 20Mb connection - 5Gb would be a more realistic amount before it was triggered.

[shawty]

Originally Posted by spankysmagicpian

I agree with you Shawty in a way but what are you going to do?

Complain? or move supplier?

It's the way of the world now - this has been coming for a long time now and was discussed a while ago when ADSL / BB first came available.

I'm not saying it's right but it's the 'best of a bad bunch' People don't seem to be factoring in other matters such as reliability etc.

I know a few people who'd be lucky to download an album before their ADSL connection collapsed let alone 3Gb.

Thats not the point. The point here is advertising what is not true. Clearly VM broadband is now limited, so it needs to be sold as that.

[brundles]

Originally Posted by spankysmagicpian

AOL - advertised as unlimited but traffic managed after roughly 1.3Gb in peak hours.

Tiscali - advertised as unlimited but traffic managed

Pipex - advertised as unlimited but traffic managed between 18:00 and 00:00

SkyBB - advertised as unlimited on Max but traffic managed / warning letters and eventual cap on monthly amount.

BT Total BB - advertised as unlimited but traffic managed

So don't you think we are being let off lightly with double the allowance per day than AOL?

OK, taking a few of those options for me:

Pipex: Up to 8Mb, £14.99 per month
Tiscali: Up to 8MB, £17.99 per month.
Sky: Up to 16MB, £10.00 per month.
VM: Up to 4MB, £24.99 per month.

Not to mention having to fork out for a BT Line (we currently have no fixed line, using VOIP and Mobiles), and that I live pretty much in the middle of 2 exchanges so wouldn't hope to get anywhere near that on any ADSL line.

I accepted paying higher prices for the service because it was reliable at the speeds advertised. And while I think that some form of traffic shapping/traffic management is essential I think they've set the limits way too low.

I can see the Sky execs rubbing their hands with glee at this one!

[peanut]

21 minutes usage in 8 hours is VERY LOW.

[spankysmagicpian]

Has anyone (can anyone) confirm the speeds? By the looks of the web page the XL package management is based on the 10Mb ????? if everything is being halved after 3Gb??

Maybe they should only implement the traffic management for everyone except those on the VIP pack

[peanut]

Will that mean 20mb be 10mb and upload be 384k , if that's the case then not too bad.

[shawty]

Originally Posted by peanutkp

Will that mean 20mb be 10mb and upload be 384k , if that's the case then not too bad.

"When will this new policy be launched?
We'll start moderating the heaviest users' service at the same time we roll out the new speed increases for Broadband XL customers. "

"Broadband Size: XL
During peak times, the top 5% on the Size: XL package download at least 3GB of traffic each.
Any users hitting this amount during peak times (4pm till midnight) will have their broadband speed temporarily traffic managed – their download speed will be set to 5Mb, with their upload speed set to 256Kb. This will last for 4 hours from when the traffic management policy is applied. "

[peanut]

So it looks like your connection will be quartered.