Anyone have any recent dealings with O2 Broadband's Fair Usage Policy?

David_Bowley

I'm trying to find an unlimited broadband provider, and it looks like O2 is the only one that I can find that might actually let me download a decent amount. While they don't specifically mention a figure in GB's in their FUP I've heard online that they are quite generous (only 2nd to Sky who don't have a FUP), but all the information I've found is from about 12 months ago.

Does anyone have any experience downloading from them recently and what you can get away with? I can download anywhere between 20GB and 100GB+ depending on what's on the BBC iPlayer that month and want to make sure I'm not going to run into any problems.

Thanks in advance for any help with this

coolsteel

O2 are now as bad as all the others, taken on to many customers and now are throttling connections during the evening making even watching BBC i player practically usless. Daytime speeds are also poor. After midnight is the only time to do serious downloading. Im looking to move WHEN i find an decent isp.:cool:

David_Bowley

Ah pants, was hoping to hear they were smelling of roses. Any recommendations? I'd go for Sky except I have no use for the TV and it seems such a waste to get it unless they'll let me have Broadband and Phone on its own.

coolsteel

My exchange though is not LLU so that could be a factor in the now slow speeds in my area and the need for O2 to throttle the service. I pay £22 for this crap service £17 after discount and i only get upto 8 meg at that!

David_Bowley

Ah I see. I've been reading the forums for a while and it seems the Access service is shockingly bad. However my exchange is enabled for the LLU.... still have no idea what it will be like. Tempted by the Plusnet Premium Broadband now, choices choices.

dylanuk

I've got O2 and I have no problems at all, I don't download much but I do stream music a lot and never notice any difference to streaming & browsing in the evenings or at any time.

Be broadband are well known for their very lenient fair use policy if you don't want to risk O2, who are operated slightly differently even though it's the same network. (Sorry was writing this before you posted you weren't in an LLU area!)

Plusnet is also worth a look, but only if you can manage to do most of your downloading between midnight and 8am when they go totally unlimited. The rest of the time they prioritise gaming, voip, browsing traffic above peer2peer type downloads: http://www.plus.net/support/broadband/speed_guide/traffic_prioritisation.shtml

I think BBC iPlayer would be in "Download Servers" category because it's not P2P anymore - unless you're streaming it in which case it's Streaming.

But it's good because other ISP's will throw BBC iPlayer use (and everything else) for that matter into the same pot - so people doing lots of P2P slow down your browsing for example. Also - if you do a lot of P2P downloading you won't slow down your own browsing either.

mightymolly

Have Pm'd you, hope it helps!

David_Bowley

dylanuk wrote: »

(Sorry was writing this before you posted you weren't in an LLU area!).

No I am in an LLU area, I can get O2 LLU (the cheaper one) if I'm understanding the terminology correctly. Thanks for your advice

@mightymolly: pm'd you back.

kwikbreaks

O2 are enforcing the FUP on their Access product.

So far as I'm aware you can do what you like on the LLU product.