8Mbit connection for £14.99?

[Paul]

El Reg

Independent UK ISP Freedom2Surf has cut the ribbon on a new 8 meg ADSL package delivered courtesy of local loop unbundling (LLU) outfit EasyNet.

The service - "8Mbit Connect Package" - costs from just £14.99 a month (usage limits apply) although availability is restricted to a handful of telephone exchanges to start with.

Freedom2Surf also announced today that it also intends to make available "super-fast broadband services at speeds of up to 24Mbit".

Said Freedom2Surf MD Chris Panayis: "Consumers across Europe and the US have long enjoyed ultra high-speed broadband and we are committed to leading the broadband speed revolution in the UK.

"The promise of Local Loop Unbundling is finally delivering, and consumers as a result will be able to enjoy 24Mbit broadband for the same price as many are paying for bog standard 1Mbit services," he said.

Wonder what the cap is?
__________________

£/pm Activation fee D/l speed Usage limit
Connect Lite £14.99 £49.99 up to 8Mbit 2GB
Connect Home £19.99 £49.99 up to 8Mbit 10GB
Connect Plus £24.99 £49.99 up to 8Mbit 100GB

[paulyoung666]

and it is only upto , not guaranteed to be 8mb

[Paul]

Originally Posted by paulyoung666

and it is only upto , not guaranteed to be 8mb

The caps aren't good either lol £14.99 a month for 2Gb usage? If you were lucky enough to hit full 8Mbit speed it wouldn't last long

[Chris W]

Originally Posted by Paul

The caps aren't good either lol £14.99 a month for 2Gb usage? If you were lucky enough to hit full 8Mbit speed it wouldn't last long

about 34 minutes by my calculations....

[Paul]

Originally Posted by monkeybreath

about 34 minutes by my calculations....

It would be a fun 34 minutes though lol. Mind you £25 a month for 100Gb usage isn't too bad I suppose. If you can get it and can get a decent speed out of it.
Just read this too

We will automatically provide the fastest possible ADSL Connect speed that`s available at the time of subscription at your exchange!
The service is also future proof - if your exchange is currently equipped to a maximum of 2 mbits you will be able to upgrade to 8 mbits once available for only 15 pounds + VAT! The upload speeds are 256K for services up to 2 mbits and up to 768K for services up to 8 mbits!

So you can't get the advertised 8Mbit speed unless you pay another £15 per month

[David F]

My experience of LLU gives me no faith,I doubt theres many people anywhere in the uk can get even near 8 meg ,Im stuck on 6 meg and it don't work at night,in fact at the minute it does not work at all

[Ignition]

Well they just uncapped it:

http://www.freedom2surf.net/adsl/homeuser.php

Uncapped 8Mbps downstream 768kbps upstream ADSL for £24.99/month uncapped on monthly contract.

Paul - you got the wrong end of the stick, 8Mbps isn't going to be available apart from selected unbundled areas until November this year when BT release their MaxDSL product.

Sign up where it's available and you pay nothing, the £15 is just the regrade fee for transferring packages from 2Mbps to 8Mbps - this is going to be to recoup the charge BT will levy for conversion from standard to MaxDSL.

BTW Quite a bit of the UK population can get 8Mbps, 50% or so are close enough to their exchange to get there or there abouts, I was comfortably within range before moving home.

Originally Posted by F2S

Monthly contract:

Product Monthly Cost Activation Fee Download Speed Capacity
Connect Lite £14.99 £49.99 up to 8Mbit 2GB
Connect Home £19.99 £49.99 up to 8Mbit 10GB
Connect Plus £24.99 £49.99 up to 8Mbit Uncapped

Yearly contract:

Product Monthly Cost Activation Fee Download Speed Capacity
Connect Lite £17.99 Free up to 8Mbit 2GB
Connect Home £22.99 Free up to 8Mbit 10GB
Connect Plus £27.99 Free up to 8Mbit Uncapped

[mrlipring]

things are looking very interesting. We uk guys will be able to host bigger games of halo 2. w00t!

[Ignition]

Wouldn't bet on it, they'll be getting the prices that low by contending, UKOnline quote 33:1 they quote 50:1, and you'd best hope it goes nowhere near that.

You've no chance of seeing anywhere near the 7.2Mbit or so left after overheads in peak times once this gets going unfortunately, effect this has on pings depends entirely on how they manage it.

They're certainly cutting the margins close, and I'd guess hoping that not too many heavy users go onto their service, though they've shot themselves nicely in the backside uncapping the service. I can think of a couple of people who'll be happy to hoover up a terabyte a month or more with that service.

[mrlipring]

Even I'd be pushing it to find 1TB of stuff a month that i want.

[Ignition]

Originally Posted by mrlipring

Even I'd be pushing it to find 1TB of stuff a month that i want.

Who said anything about needing to want the stuff, people downloading those crazy amounts are either flogging or hoarding, it doesn't all get used.

[mrlipring]

I guess, yeah. plenty of people downloading to sell.

as i mentioned in another thread, i was a collector back in the amiga days, but i don't have the time/patience to collect now.

I don't even get time to watch everything i record off TV, never mind leeching everything i can get my hands on.

[Chrysalis]

Some people just get addicted to downloading they will download tons of stuff they will never use, I was like that when I first got broadband.

With 8mbit there is no doubt when this gets decent takeup the performance during peak hours will be noticeably contended, but the problem here is not reduced speeds but the latency increases, any decent isp should really traffic shape so small packets have priority.

[mrlipring]

The faster my connection gets, the easier it is to get my downloading done overnight, to free up online gaming time while i'm awake. There are often times when i'm awake that i'm busy/out, so i'll download then too, but if i had 8mbit, i can't imagine what i'd be able to find to keep it downloading so much. The extra upload would definitely be handy, mind.