Phil,

On Tue, 05 Sep 2006 13:00:04 +0100, Philip Pemberton wrote:

> Howard Winter wrote:
> > My own ISP (Andrews & Arnold: http://aaisp.net.uk/) has charging based =
on a monthly usage allowance,
> [snip]
> =

> They're pretty expensive though... More expensive than PIPEX, and they're =

> generally considered to be pretty overpriced for what they provide.

Funny that - a lot of people say that, who aren't their customers!  Those o=
f us who are their customers think we're getting a reasonable deal for the =

money.  "What they provide" is a service without hassle - no silly rules or=
 limits (apart from the one you pay for) - you can basically do what you =

like with the line you have - share it with next door, run servers, set up =
a local WiFi hotspot, anything that isn't illegal!  :-)
 =

> Over the past four months I've averaged 40.28GB per month download, with =
a =

> maximum of 51.63GB (last month) and a minimum of 32.99GB (two months ago)=
. =

> Upload bandwidth was 29.89GB average over the last four months, with a ma=
ximum =

> of 37.55GB and a minimum of 25.28.

Wow!  Over the past year I've averaged about 4.6GB during unmetered time, a=
nd 1.1GB during the metered time per month, and I thought I was pretty =

active!  What on Earth do you do to move that much?  My highest unmetered w=
as 10.5GB, max metered was 1.8GB.

> Unfortunately my brother's a Youtube and =

> BitTorrent addict, so it's going to be VERY hard to get that figure down.=
 I =

> tried blocking it, but all that got me was a snide comment from him about =

> 'creating the Great Firewall of England'...

LOL!  =

 =

> =A3215pm for broadband really is a bit excessive..

Where did that figure come from?  Ah, you're looking at their "Max 50" tari=
ff?  Don't forget that A&A's usage is only metered 08:00 to 18:00 Mon-Fri, =
so =

unless you do all your downloading during office hours, you'll probably fin=
d a similar ratio to mine: 4 : 1 "free" : charged.  Which means you might b=
e =

able to get away with Max 8, at about =A347 if you can get your brother to =
do his stuff after dinner.

Mind you, with the usage you're talking about I'm not sure if I should be e=
ncouraging you to share the service I'm on - it's nice and fast at the =

moment!  :-)

> All I want is a 1MBit =

> unmetered line (or one with a 50GBpm limit) from a reliable ISP. I can li=
ve =

> without email (I have my own domain, and a dedicated server) but Usenet a=
ccess =

> would be really useful.

I still can't work out what you're doing with 50GB, especially if you'd be =
happy at 1Mbps, because things like video would be pretty awful at that =

speed.

> It seems most UK ISPs have switched from 'provide a half-decent service' =
to =

> either 'gouge the customers for as much as they'll pay' or 'cripple the =

> service as much as possible while keeping prices high'.

I'm not sure some of them *ever* had a half-decent service!  :-)

Cheers,


Howard Winter
St.Albans, England



-- =

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