Firefly Dial-up Bummer!

Nix

This email received this morning from Firefly - for those of us still on 56k :

Please be aware that with effect from 1st August 2006 the following changes will be made to your Firefly Freedom Account:
1) Price change: Going forward the price of Firefly Freedom will be £25 for 60 hours.
The recent popularity with broadband / ADSL has had a significant impact on the dial-up internet market and has had a profound effect on the costs we incur in providing you with a service. This has forced this change.
It is important to note that new price per minute is LESS than 0.7 pence and that this price is still significantly lower than that of ANY other ISP. It is also around 3.3 pence per minute less than the cost of dialling an 0845 number during daytime hours.
2) Terms Change: Going forward any bulk purchases of Freedom hours will have a 'life-span' of 6 months from date of purchase.
It is very important to note that this will NOT affect existing timebanks. Customers will be granted 12 months to use any time purchased prior to 1st August 2006.
Essentially therefore, anyone who wishes to avoid the higher charges or the terms change (detailed above) for some time should top up their timebanks PRIOR to 1st August 2006.
We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause our Freedom customers but hope that the fact that we have given over 1 months notice will help to alleviate any immediate problems that these changes may cause.
Firefly Customer Services

Bummer!

mrJ_5

if your using 60hrs worth of dialup access, zazizam offer it for £6.99 a month... though the 60hrs is for the month, where I think firefly just take the minutes out of your 'pot' until you have used them all up - but I'd say this was a good deal - works out being 0.19p per minute if you want to compare

skiddy2k

£25 per month for dialup?!... why not switch to Broadband... can get it for as cheap as £15-£20... quicker, not too expensive and doesnt hog your phone line

tweeter

Hi,
Until recently I was on Firefly, now I'm on Fast4 @4.99 a month, to use it as much as you like.

mrJ_5

skiddy2k wrote:

£25 per month for dialup

its not a month - its £25 for 60-hrs worth of usage over any month, over what appears to be 6 months now... ie. use 5hrs this month, 10hrs next, and 45hrs in month 3 - thats 60hrs, and you have only paid £25, and not 3x£25 =£75, for 3 months usage

Stuart_W

doesn't firefly's changes mean that MIPcards.com's offering of £10 for 2,000 minutes over a 90 day validity (0.5p/min) are actually now cheaper??

Nix

mrJ -
Will have a look at this zazizam as I'm starting to use my £25 worth approx every 3 months or so now as opposed to the 6 months when I first started with Firefly many moons ago. Are they reliable and dependable?

skiddy2k -
Yup, at the moment, you pays your £25 and you gets your 100 hours of internet usage with no time limit. Dropping it to 60 hours with a time limit is the bummer.

tweeter -
I used to be with Fast4 except that it a) wasn't very fast at the time and b) that was only if/when you could access the internet in the first place, especially during peak times! Seem to remember they had quite a high contention ratio. Hope they're better now...

Stuart_W -
2000 minutes equates to 33.33 hours for £10 so yes, it now works out cheaper. But, again, I tried MIP ages ago and had the same probs as with Fast4. I need someone to say that these guys have learnt lessons, bucked themselves up and are now offering a great service. With so many people switching to broadband, surely the strain on 56k dial-ups would lessen?

tweeter

Nix;

I don't have any probs getting on line now.I can't say that Firefly are speedier than Fast4, though Firefly claim a better contention ratio.

Stuart_W

Nix,

I agree there have been issues with MIP in the past.

I can however state that my parents have had years of good service from dmcdial.net with their £5.99 per month up to 40 hours per month deal with no issues experienced at all. A good 56Kbps or very near connection every time. Not quite as cheap as others that have been mentioned, but maybe worth a tentative try for a month or two - no min contract, simple instant sign up.

:-)

Nix

Thanks for the feedback re Fast4 and MIP. Having had a quick gander, I'll give Fast4 a shot first as they're unlimited hours and a squid cheaper (plus no minimum contract time). If they don't deliver, it's MIP here I come!

Nix

To conclude this thread, let it be known that I did sign up to Fast4 and it's proved (touch wood!) to be vastly improved and no problems! On top of that, due to the unlimited usage, it's now proving to be cheaper than Firefly ever was (ie I'm no longer watching the clock).

Their 2 hour cut off hasn't been an issue yet and YES, to all those mega surfers, I will get broadband when the right package arrives in Buxton!

Cheers!