Why cant we be charged based on the speed we get?

cepheus

that sounds like a good idea :rotfl:

Broadband customers to pay 'up to' 100% of their bill

....So I’ve decided that it’s fine to pay a monthly sum of money that is virtually nothing compared with what I originally offered to pay. “If my service provider complains, they’ll be able to find my contact number on my website, hidden right down the bottom of the !!!!ing page in a tiny font.

Then I’ll keep them on hold for an hour, playing Doctor Alban at deafening volume, before politely telling them that they don’t matter.” Broadband provider CEO Julian Cook said: “I suppose this is what my Mumbai call centre operatives would describe as ‘karma’.

Viscount

You can be absolutely certain that if they did then they would find a way to make it as profitable as possible for them and as confusing as possible for us.

Nilrem

Because it would be a nightmare to do?
Rather than having 2-4 packages (depending on what equipment is installed at the exchange), they would need something like 20-40 different packages.

Hence they tend to offer you one of a choice of "up to" speeds, and sometimes a package that also takes into account how much you actually use.

For example a customer with an "up to" speed of 40mb, but a real world speed of 32mb might actually use less data than a customer on an "up to" package of 40mb, but a real speed of 9mb.
As the first customer might only use an average of 1mb/s over the space of the month, whilst the second one despite being on a lower speed might average 3mb/s over the month.

It's not the speed that tends to cost, it's the equipment and actual bandwidth used, and they tend to remain fairly constant costs regardless of your actual connection speed*.

The fairest way to bill for BB would probably be by actual data usage, that but people tend to be against that and like the simpler option of paying for their "up to" connection.


*For example, I'm on a 120mb connection with VM (yay for cable), but my actual bandwidth usage hasn't increased much since it was 20mb, let alone 50mb, as the extra speed tends to be used in bursts (for example downloading a purchase off steam now takes 5 minutes rather than 30).

bizzielizzie_2

I know you can check the speed of your internet online, it would be good to have an app that sat in the corner of your screen and showed you your speed all of the time. That way the whole thing is transparent and the providers can't fudge the figures! I'm sure the technology is out there...actually, maybe there is one already? Anyone know?

penrhyn

All you have to do is log onto your router and you can find your connection speed and other exiting information.
Your connection speed should remain constant between reboots unless there is a problem on the line.
Your data throughput will vary during the day due to contention with other users, network congestion, or being throttled by your ISP.
Or if you want plot a nice graph with routerstats if yours is supported.

http://vwlowen.co.uk/internet/files.htm

cepheus

I thought the cost was installing and rewiring to accommodate shorter lines and fibre-optics. A cost based on ones speed might encourage them to do something, it's only a multiplier, not rocket science. Cost per Month say £5+ Speed Mb/s up to a maximum of say £30.

iniltous

Your line is connected to the same equipment as someone who gets a faster speed than you, the ISP's overheads are the same etc..so why wouldnt the rental cost be the same, the person who has a faster speed will be closer to the exchange than you, thats the only difference,
It could be argued that as you are further away from the exchange then your 'line' contains more copper than a short line, and as copper is a valuable commodity perhaps you should pay more line rental than someone with a 'short' line..
To keep things simple, and to stop complaints, all lines are charged the same line rental by the line rental company, and not based on the amount of cable used by that line, you are not being victimised, you are subject to the laws of physics that's all

cepheus

So why can some companies offer faster speeds than others, and those speeds drop substantially during peak hours, could there be too many customers using the system? What is is called 'contention ratio' and 'traffic management'? Also what incentive is there to link customers to a fibre-optic network.

Note a fibre optic is available where I am but BT has a monopoly in my area so everyone pays top rate. O2 my provider have been meaning to offer a fibreoptic service but never seem to get round to it.

Even from what I know, there is a lot more to it than hardware!

penrhyn

Contention ratio in simple terms is the number of people sharing your connection, could be between 20:1 and 50:1, so if all the users sharing your connection try to download stuff at the same time your speed will reduce considerably.

cepheus

I know, but the claim is that it is all lines of the same length are the same, nothing to do with the type of line, the number of people on the line, the type of activity on the line...............

the ISP's overheads are the same etc..so why wouldnt the rental cost be the same, the person who has a faster speed will be closer to the exchange than you, thats the only difference.....you are not being victimised, you are subject to the laws of physics

so why should we have to pay the same for different contention ratios for example?

penrhyn

If you are unhappy with your ISP you can always change to a different provider, and ask them what contention ratio they use.
I'd be more concerned about OFCOM not sorting out LLU to LLU transfers.
The MAC system doesn't always work very well but at least there is a code of practice.