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24 Mb Consumer Broadband Launched

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the can-i-get-a-t1-for-what-i-pay-in-cable-now dept.

twilight30 writes to tell us The Guardian is reporting that broadband provider "Be" is providing customers with the option of a 24 megabits per second download speed connection. These speeds are roughly three times the closest local competitor and also allow 1.3 megabits per second upstream, roughly five times quicker than any other service provider. The service is being offered at £24 (US $42.84) per month. Hopefully this will become a trend of radically increasing consumer internet speeds.

7 of 389 comments (clear)

  1. Australia first by davisk · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Internode have offered this in Australia for some time. Wish it was available where I am, but i'm stuck on 12000/1000 with iinet (no, i don't work for either of them, but i've been a happy customer of both)

    1. Re:Australia first by ColaMan · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Meanwhile, Be has no download cap whatsoever. This, I think, makes Be's service significantly better.

      You're comparing apples to oranges a little here. Internode (in Australia) is crippled somewhat by the limited capacity and high cost of overseas links.

      Be had better be prepared for the incredible amount of leeeeching. 24Mbps is no good if you'll only get that to the next system upstream at the Be office, with 5k/s to The Rest Of The World. As pretty much all relevant ISPs (that is, the ones that are still in business) have discovered, truly unlimited high-speed internet is not a good, sustainable business plan at the moment.

      This is why Internode, for example, have plans that get shaped to 64kbps after your limit. They also have flatrate plans that (after a set amount) dynamically prioritise your packets depending on how much you've downloaded compared to everyone else online at the moment. These are more expensive (AUD100-200/month). Then you have the true, unlimited 'leased-line' style plans, which cost in the order of AUD500-1000 a month.

      So I wonder how much backbone capacity Be has, and I also wonder how long it will be before they completely oversubscribe it to the point of end-users leaving. I give it 6 months, tops. Bookmark this post :-)

      --

      You are in a twisty maze of processor lines, all alike.
      There is a lot of hype here.
  2. I have had 26 Mbps for 3 years by G3ckoG33k · · Score: 4, Interesting

    This IS old news... I have had this service for three years, but in Sweden.

    The cool thing, apart from the bandwidth is that it comes directly through the telephone jacket. No need for new cables.

  3. Re:24 Mb not 24 MB by moro_666 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    #1 56 mbits would be heaven ? nah, i dont really think so :) at first, if 3 users with 56Mbit lines would start to download from a server that sits in a rack behind a 100Mbit ethernet ... they would want to pull 56*3=168 Mbits out from the 100Mbit ethernet ... so they will just not be able to really use their bandwidth and the server will be jammed .... and for most of users, even 8Mbit is a huge overkill, cause people that dont download movies/cd-images/adult-movies/music each day, mostly have latency issues (they click and the browser doesnt react within a second, waaah) and the larger the bandwidth distributed over several users, the larger the latency (routers & co have their limits). ofcourse a big maximal downloadspeed is great but i dont think that the rest of the network isnt quite ready for it, it might not be such a good idea (most of our country's server hosting providers have 100Mbit ethernet/internet lines for the servers, so 4 british haxors can now jamm my server)

    #2 i wonder how they can afford it ... the last time i checked the broadband companys themselves have to pay for each mbit they transit, so if they have a nice schoolful of haxxors who download stuff 24/7 then their downloaded/uploaded mbits will cost more than the 24 pounds that are charged ... ofcourse some users use less than that ... but still, it's still curious

    #3 while they're at it, i'd even be lucky to get a 8mbit connection for 24 pounds over here

    --

    I'd tell you the chances of this story being a dupe, but you wouldn't like it.
  4. The West is so far behind... by Rocketship+Underpant · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Here in Japan, I have 55 megabit fiber DSL. I'm still getting used to it. I can multiple download files at 1 MB/sec (that's megabyte, not megabit), and that's when there's a bottleneck at the other end. :)

    --
    He who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me.
    1. Re:The West is so far behind... by achurch · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Here in Japan, I have 55 megabit fiber DSL.

      That's all? I'm sitting here in Yokohama with an ONU in my kitchen, and wget doing things like this:

      --15:16:09-- http://www.jp.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/lin ux-2.6.13.tar.bz2
      [snip]
      15:16:13 (8.67 MB/s) - `linux-2.6.13.tar.bz2' saved [38372729/38372729]
      Yum. Somebody slashdot me so I can finally find out how much upstream bandwidth I have--so far all I've been able to do is max out everyone else's downstream . . .
  5. 100Mbps in Japan for 17pounds per month by Falcon040 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I'm living in a residential zone in Japan in Niigata, pretty near to the edge of the countryside really... Anyhow, I've got a 100Mbps fiber that only costs me 17pounds per month. Account with the company 'Nifty'. Can watch TV channels on it regularly while VoIP and video phoning back to UK.

    For my 1Mbps line back in the UK, its more expensive.

    Its a pity the UK is so far behind.
    Japan and Korea know where the future is, and the goverment has organised a very competitive system, there are so many companies trying to offer the service.

    BTW, the fiber comes in through the rough on telegraph-like lines, the same way as the power in Japan. So no expensive costs digging holes!