Supanet ADSL 1mb Ã‚Â£23!

etccarmageddon · 08-10-2004, 13:06

https://signup.supanet.com/cgi-bin/s...1007&_showbb=y

another too good to be true offer! this one includes FREE MODEM AND CONNECTION! wow!!!

AND UNCAPPED!!!!

AND...
"Supanet state on their website that the contract can be canceled in the first month. This is longer than usual cooling off period."

**Jefferson T** · 08-10-2004, 13:13

I can see when my 12months with Tiscali is up in January I'm going to have some fun choosing a new ISP

Ignition · 08-10-2004, 14:41

Ummm...

Hang on, Ã‚Â£23.99 including VAT, free modem, and free connection (cost to Supanet Ã‚Â£58.75) for a 1Mbit service?

Umm hate to pee on anyone's bonfire but on the IPStream platform to provide 1Mbit DSL costs an ISP using 'classic' pricing around Ã‚Â£27 per month. To maintain the ~ 25:1 contention ratio often used using the newer 'Capacity Based Charging' scheme costs about the same.

So... this is either using a huge contention ratio (they not only have monthly costs to cover but also obviously the cost of the free connection, modem, bandwidth, tech support, etc) or it's using the Datastream product line with a big contention ratio.

Either way I personally wouldn't touch that offer with a bargepole, it is quite literally too good to be true.

Using BT Wholesale products which Supa must be it is currently not possible to release an uncapped Ã‚Â£23.99 / month 1Mbit product and make any amount of cash on it. This will probably end up getting subscribed to by heavier users looking for max bandwidth for minimum cash, and quickly the 50:1(ish) contention ratio that they are probably looking for will soon be reached, followed by streams of complaints from customers when their download speeds won't break a couple of hundred kbits per second.

BT's network gives a nominal 25:1 contention ratio to all residential products and approximately 15:1 contention to business products. ISPs usually ensure that there is no contention on their networks apart from that which is applied by the BT network.

Even this 25:1 ratio results in peak time congestion in some cases - BT class over 25:1 on their network as a fault and required upgrade. Anyone fancy Supa's 50:1 or so they're gonna need to make money on this product?

etccarmageddon · 08-10-2004, 16:56

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ignition

Hang on, Ã‚Â£23.99 including VAT, free modem, and free connection (cost to Supanet Ã‚Â£58.75) for a 1Mbit service?

nope - Ã‚Â£22.96!

I might try it for a month and see how it performs!

Ignition · 08-10-2004, 21:44

Am sure it'll be fine until enough sign up and it all gets nice and congested. Personally that service at that price scares the poop out of me, I'll stick with getting what I pay for and paying for what I get, been stung in the past with 'too good to be true' deals

scrotnig · 08-10-2004, 23:07

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ignition

Am sure it'll be fine until enough sign up and it all gets nice and congested. Personally that service at that price scares the poop out of me, I'll stick with getting what I pay for and paying for what I get, been stung in the past with 'too good to be true' deals

Too right, cheapest is not always best.

It's a bit like buying 'Tesco Value Fish Fingers' instead of proper BirdsEye ones. No comparison.

I know ntl broadband isn't the cheapest, but for me it's always been the best. And I'd rather pay for that reliability.

That's not to say you can't get good ADSL services, just not that speed for that price.

ntl customer · 09-10-2004, 09:22

Quote:

BT's network gives a nominal 25:1 contention ratio to all residential products and approximately 15:1 contention to business products. ISPs usually ensure that there is no contention on their networks apart from that which is applied by the BT network.

Really? I thought it was 50:1 for residental products and 20:1 for business?

etccarmageddon · 10-10-2004, 00:52

Quote:

Originally Posted by ntl customer

Really? I thought it was 50:1 for residental products and 20:1 for business?

correct - that's the advertised rates.

Ignition · 10-10-2004, 17:10

Yup but I'm not that fussed about advertised rates and prefer to deal in the real thing - BT supply Ofcom nominal bandwidth supply of 20kbps per 512kbit customer on home packages and ~30kbps for business custs on that package (can't remember exact but is in that ballpark), not exactly 15:1 but about there. This is the rates at which the margin calculations are done and are the rates supplied across the BT Wholesale network.

Find an ISP that's contending at 50:1 and observe their customers feeling the pain.

EDIT: This contention can be even lower still depending on demand in the areas for DSL.

Gareth · 11-10-2004, 15:46

Holy Cow, Batman!

I understand Ignition's points, but you gotta admit that it is incredibly cheap. Hopefully it'll lead to other ISPs dropping their prices.

My 12-month NTL contract is expiring verrrrry soon, so I'm getting my old abacus out and doing the sums as to whether it's worth switching or not. Would be nice if NTL could offer a comparatively priced package.