Metered Broadband at 8MBps

Broadband to be metered in 8Mbps future
Graeme Wearden
ZDNet UK
February 18, 2005, 17:15 GMT

Tell us your opinion
UK ISP PlusNet plans to charge customers on per-megabyte basis,
irrespective of the maximum line speed

UK's broadband providers are on the brink of moving away from billing
customers on the basis of connection speeds to a model built around the
amount of data downloaded.

The move is likely to reinforce the existing broadband divide, as
consumers and small businesses in metropolitan areas could end up
getting a much faster connection than those in more remote areas,
without having to pay more.

The catalyst is BT Wholesale's forthcoming trials into methods of
increasing the maximum speeds possible over its ADSL network from 2Mbps
to 8Mbps. This testing will begin in April, and UK ISP PlusNet has
taken the move as a cue to reshape its range of broadband products.

PlusNet is confident that BT's trials -- which it is taking part in --
will be followed by widespread availability of faster services by the
end of this summer. PlusNet announced on Tuesday that from April its
broadband customers will be able to get speeds of up to 8Mbps "where
available".

"Speed will no longer be a factor in how people buy broadband," said
Marco Potesta, PlusNet marketing director, on Thursday.

PlusNet is the first ISP to announce how BT's speed trials will affect
its business model. Previously, the price of its Premier product ranged
from £21.99 a month for a 512Kbps connection to £39.99 per month for
a 2Mbps line. But from April, PlusNet will shift to usage-based
charging, where £21.99 will buy 30GB of peak-time data per month plus
another 230GB per month during the night. Customers can pay more to get
a larger monthly download limit.

Potesta said that some of PlusNet's 'pay-as-you-go' customers, who pay
£14.99 + £1.50 for each GB of data downloaded, will also be able to
get speeds of up to 8Mbps from April.

However, BT has not yet given any indication of where 8Mbps services
might be available. It's likely that ADSL's physical restrictions will
mean that only people living relatively close to an exchange would be
able to get such high speeds.

This would mean that some PlusNet customers could pay the same for a
512Kbps or 1Mbps connection as for a 8Mbps one -- good news for surfers
in metropolitan areas who are likely to be able to get fast speeds but
less appealing for those in rural areas.

Potesta acknowledged that 8Mbps speeds would not be available
everywhere, but insisted that from April some PlusNet customers would
be able to get such a speed upgrade, depending on where BT carried out
its trial.

Potesta also said that most users would be able to get a connection of
at least 2Mbps. Until now a standard broadband speed has typically been
512Kbps or lower, but BT Retail upped the ante last week when it
announced that all its broadband services would run at 2Mbps apart from
its entry level product, which would be speeded up to 1Mbps.

BT Wholesale declined to comment on PlusNet's plans but suggested that
8Mbps connections could be available across the UK later this year.

"BT Wholesale is planning limited trials of the 8Mbps service in April
in limited geographies, which haven't been fixed and haven't yet been
announced. Subject to a successful trial, BT Wholesale is planning for
the service to be available nationally in the autumn of 2005," said a
BT Wholesale spokeswoman.

(E-Mail Removed) wrote:

> "BT Wholesale is planning limited trials of the 8Mbps service in April
> in limited geographies, which haven't been fixed and haven't yet been
> announced. Subject to a successful trial, BT Wholesale is planning for
> the service to be available nationally in the autumn of 2005," said a
> BT Wholesale spokeswoman.

Nice!

Anton Gÿsen wrote:

> (E-Mail Removed) wrote:
>
>> "BT Wholesale is planning limited trials of the 8Mbps service in April
>> in limited geographies, which haven't been fixed and haven't yet been
>> announced. Subject to a successful trial, BT Wholesale is planning for
>> the service to be available nationally in the autumn of 2005," said a
>> BT Wholesale spokeswoman.
>
>
> Nice!

Hold on, WTF am I on about? Metered? That's shit!

Anton Gÿsen <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>Anton Gÿsen wrote:
>
>> (E-Mail Removed) wrote:
>>
>>> "BT Wholesale is planning limited trials of the 8Mbps service in April
>>> in limited geographies, which haven't been fixed and haven't yet been
>>> announced. Subject to a successful trial, BT Wholesale is planning for
>>> the service to be available nationally in the autumn of 2005," said a
>>> BT Wholesale spokeswoman.
>>
>>
>> Nice!
>
>Hold on, WTF am I on about? Metered? That's shit!

Of course it is shit, what did you expect from BT.

BT are changing the way they charge ISPs. I don't know the details but it
used to be ISPs leased a pipe with a certain bandwidth and it was up the
ISP how they used it.

Now BT are going to charge ISPs by the byte .

It used to be you paid for the size of the pipe and metering if any was
done by the ISP, now BT are metering they want you to have a big pipe for
free to encourage you to use more 'product'.

"nospam" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> Anton Gÿsen <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
>>Anton Gÿsen wrote:
>>
>>> (E-Mail Removed) wrote:
>>>
>>>> "BT Wholesale is planning limited trials of the 8Mbps service in April
>>>> in limited geographies, which haven't been fixed and haven't yet been
>>>> announced. Subject to a successful trial, BT Wholesale is planning for
>>>> the service to be available nationally in the autumn of 2005," said a
>>>> BT Wholesale spokeswoman.
>>>
>>>
>>> Nice!
>>
>>Hold on, WTF am I on about? Metered? That's shit!
>
> Of course it is shit, what did you expect from BT.
>
> BT are changing the way they charge ISPs. I don't know the details but it
> used to be ISPs leased a pipe with a certain bandwidth and it was up the
> ISP how they used it.
>
> Now BT are going to charge ISPs by the byte .
>
> It used to be you paid for the size of the pipe and metering if any was
> done by the ISP, now BT are metering they want you to have a big pipe for
> free to encourage you to use more 'product'.

Isn't this a breach of BT's agreement with the government to do away with
metered access for UK internet users?

(kim)

> >>>> "BT Wholesale is planning limited trials of the 8Mbps service in
April
> >>>> in limited geographies, which haven't been fixed and haven't yet been
> >>>> announced. Subject to a successful trial, BT Wholesale is planning
for
> >>>> the service to be available nationally in the autumn of 2005," said a
> >>>> BT Wholesale spokeswoman.

I was in France over the weekend and saw an advert for ADSL on a bus
shelter. The company 'Alice' offered ADSL at up to 8Mbps unlimited, and
unlimited inclusive telephone calls to normal landlines in France, all for 1
Euro a day. That is about £21 a month!

Chris