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8Mbit Broadband to Become Available in the UK
UK Online is offering 8Mbit broadband service to the UK. The upstream is 400K, and there's a monthly download cap of 500GB, but at 40 pounds per month, plus 50 installation and a free wireless router in the package, that has to be among the best deals on offer from anyone.
I pay $105.95 a month for Speakeasy DSL. That is for a connection with 6000kbps down, and 768kbps down. That connection has no bandwidth limits. Not a bad deal, if I do say so myself, considering I can run any servers I want on the connection.
Now let's look at the offer that was described in this article. If we convert 40 UK pounds to US dollars, we see that this connection costs around $75 a month, depending on the exchange rate.
My connection through Speakeasy is roughly $25 a month more, has no bandwidth limits (and 500GB is very easy to reach on a fast connection) and a faster upload speed to boot. There is also no mention as to whether this connection allows servers or not. However, I am guessing it doesn't, considering that Speakeasy is an exception on this policy rather than the rule.
When you consider all of these factors, this "best deal around" doesn't really seem to be quite so great anymore.
Actually, it seems quite expensive. I pay $60 per month CDN (at 26 pounds, it's just over 1/2 the price of this "deal"), and receive 6.5Mbps down, 900kbps up, with no limits.
There's no installation charge, and the cable modem is included.
I prefer to have more upstream.. and a little less downstream. That upstream is far more useful. So is the lack of limits.
Oh. By the way, this isn't make believe speed either. Videotron actually delivers. I get downloads at > 700kbytes/sec all the time.
Here in Hong Kong, I am getting 10Mbps Up and Down, with no upload/download limit (Of course they said you can't setup any kind of server in your home in the fine prints but who knows :P)
How much? Not more than USD 20 per month! The service was there for some years already. And there are now serval ISP providing the same service so the price is getting even lower~
500GB = 4,000,000,000,000 bit
8Mbit = 8,000,000 bit
4,000,000,000,000/8,000,000 = 500,000
8Mbit/s gives you 500,000 seconds
There are 2,592,000 seconds in a month (30 days).
That means that if you let it download constantly at maximum speed, you only get to use it for a week.
Of course, if you can find 500GB to download (constantly), then you've probably already figured that out.
Ironically, here in the US, with cable, I routinely get 1.5Mb/s down, with no cap.
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What about the new DSLAMs that are being rolled out? Have you investigated any of the new plans?
/mo /mo
http://bc.whirlpool.net.au/bc-isp.cfm?id=10&s=2
2048 / 384 kbps
400 MB $29.95
12 GB $49.95
Primus DSLAMs will also support ADSL2/2+ when the technology is approved for use in Australia.
Does it go on forever?
At least they tell you the cap. I have Comcast and don't know what is it, but it is purportedly around 2.5 gigs a day. This service sounds like a really good deal to me.
http://www.free.fr/
20 Meg Down, 1 Meg up, 100+ channels TV,
Free fixed calls to all of France, Free
installation!
That is very expensive. In Japan, for example ADSL connection from Yahoo Japan costs you about 4000 yen per month (less than 40 US dollar) for 50 Mbps ADSL.
And also fibre optic connection has become very common and cheaper. For example Usen Networks (one of the provider in Japan) provides 100 Mbps fibre optic connection for only 2950 per month.
I use the fibre optic that comes with 5 static IPs. And it costs me about 5000 yen per month.
Download cap is totally never heard in here. As far as I know, all packages come with unlimited bandwidth.
iiNet will be announcing 2Mb+ plans within the next week or so as well. GB allowances will be better than they have been, but for Australia, 500GB is preposterous. The biggest plans I have seen have been in the region of 72GB total for 1.5MB plans, with a hefty price tag attached.
The reason prices are so high is above my head but I understand it has to do with the USA charging us for both incoming and outgoing traffic, whilst expecting our traffic to them to be free. Perhaps the FTA will help (not likely!). Someone please comment on this and provide some more info.
For foreign readers, telecommunications in Australia are monopolised by "Telstra", a formerly government owned body with a legal monopoly over the copper wiring throughout the country. Telstra, who see broadband (and hence, VoIP) as a threat to the vast revenue they obtain from local telephone calls, are deliberating holding back broadband within Australia, by preventing speeds over 1.5Mbit and by onselling DSL to third party providers at a port-only cost greater than Telstras retail plans. This of course makes it impossible for anyone to offer DSL at the same price as Telstra without making a loss. Great business model for Telstra, though.
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In Canada, You can get 5.0/800 for $45 and there's no cap on how much traffic you can generate. Come to think about it, I've never seen a cap on cable internet. BTW, most people in canada have cable available, as there is usually only 3 channels (1 of which is french) if you just use rabbit ears. So cable covers most of the country. Cue the "But I Don't Have Cable" whiners.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
Add to that that there's no cap whatsoever, and you can run servers as you want. Additionally the modem is free, includes optional router functionnality and you can add a WiFi card for a mere 20 euros.
Oh and they now give you 1GB hosting space with no ads, PHP, MySQL, and unlimited traffic (no pr0n allowed though obviously).
That shit rocks.
You can also get 2Mbps upstream but that requires disconnecting the baseband phone line (and you have to pay ~90 euro for it).
Oh, and to top-it all off, free.fr is like super Linux friendly. I remember back in the day when all they did was offer free dial-up, they'd really stress the fact that they were a lean and mean operation because they used linux on commodity hardware. Now, if you look at their various FAQs, tutorials and manuals, you'll ALWAYS find very very precise instructions on how to configure Linux with, say, their freebox, outlining which kernel extensions you need to get, how to compile and load them, so you can do things like IP over USB and crazy shit like that.
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