EsatBT Residential offer - why is it 256k?

LoBo

Hi all,

[I don't think this should be merged with the previous 256k esatBT DSL thread (http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?s=&threadid=71455) which is full of OT stuff.]

I'm very happy to see esatBT intending to launch a DSL offering aimed at residential customers - after all residential DSL seems to be where the UK price war is being waged - it must be an important and useful market. However, why must the service be 256kbps ? (priced at around €60 pm)

Is there any good reason for this? Surely its as cheap for them to offer 512kbps for the same price? My feeling is that they don't want to show up their current 512 for €108 pm offer as being ridicolously overpriced. Why not launch a 512 for €60 pm for residential only? Instead of halfing the max speed, why not give no contention ratio (ie no guarantee of speed, and priority to the business users at these times) during peak times (the times when a business user would need it most) and give the 20:1 contention during off-peak?

Answers along the vein of 'because they are ba$tards who want to steal our money!!1' - don't bother

Colm

DC

Couple of reasons I reckon.

1) It has to save them money offering 256 as opposed to 512 - particularly at peak times when the bandwidth is at maximum use.

2) They can call 256 residential and 512+ business. This means a different contract with a much poorer SLA (as much as there exists that is). You will probably even get a different support number. Maybe a pay number as opposed to freefone 1800 924924.

Your point about contention ratios instead of halving the speed is a good point and AFAIK this type of plan pricing is used in the UK and elsewhere to distinguish between business and residential without cutting the potential bandwidth.

LFCFan

'because they are ba$tards who want to steal our money. Simple as that.

They want to maximise profits while the market is like it is. Once FRIACO is introduced there will be a steady increase in demand for Broadband and we will see some decent products coming online.

LoBo

DC:
1) I think it would cost them no more to offer 512 to residential customers as long as they got less priority to bandwidth during peak hours, than offering them 256k always with (presumably) their 20:1 contention ratio.

2) keeping the business and residential services clearly different products is obviously the reason they are going for 256k for the residential service.
However the 512 business one has no SLA anyway (haven't got to read the T&Cs for it yet either) and has a fairly poor contention ratio for a business service (specially at that price) - 20:1.
Stuff like no freephone support.. self install etc for a residential 'no frills' offer are all well and good - but not for €60 a month! That's more than you pay for the full 512 piece of pie in other EU countries..

LFCfan:
The reason i'm bringing this up now is because I am not sure that decent products will come online if residential offers are being started off 'half-speed' instead of 'less-service'.

zynaps

TBH having a guaranteed minimum speed of 13107 bps (1/3 of the speed you'll be getting on a dialup modem) isn't a great offering for €60.

It won't be clear what kind of competition for bandwidth there'll be until the service starts being taken up a bit... but 256k just isn't a lot to share between 20 people.

If it comes in in high demand and people use all of the bandwidth, the only advantage this offering will have over dialup is having it always on, especially in peak time.

It could well be that when friaco products do come out, which hopefully will be soon (as in count the number of months away on one hand), a fully flat rate dialup option would give more available bandwidth than getting DSL.

Though I guess the same would apply to a 512k option, since that turns into 26k or so if every user is using their max?

zynaps

eth0_

Originally posted by zynaps
TBH having a guaranteed speed of 13107 bps (1/3 of the speed you'll be getting on a dialup modem)

What *are* you talking about?

zynaps

Originally posted by eth0_
What *are* you talking about?

Divide 256k by 20?

I'm talking about MATHS.

eth0_

That's true in THEORY only. You're NEVER going to get all 20 users using as much bandwidth as they're allowed, 24 hours a day.

Does anyone know what contention rate broadband ISP's in the UK and USA use? Would be interesting to compare...

zynaps

How do you know you won't?
I can see plenty of filesharing bandwidth hogs (me, for example) leaving their machines on downloading films and such overnight.

From what I've heard similar contention ratios are in place in other countries, though I was somewhat surprised it was so high in the first place...

zynaps

eth0_

Ah well, it'll be fast for a while yet, sure there's only 1900 live DSL lines in Ireland right now anyway. Hardly a quick take up.

I think i'm going to go for 512 just to be on the safe side!

zynaps

Aye, but I think people tend to attribute slow takeup to disinterest, whereas in this case I think it's just a case of not very good products at joke prices, with almost no availability.

I'd be going for 512k too

MagicBusDriver

Contension ratio is not an issue in Ireland for the forseeable future. In the UK BT say 50.1, in reality is is no more than 10.1.

€60 for 256k is better than the UTVip €30 deal. If its a choice between UTVip and 56K, It is very easy to see which is the better deal

LoBo

But which is better - 256k for €60 or 512 with some restrictions for €60?

Dustaz

As I said in the previous thread about this, the 256k offer is a dead duck if FRIACO happens anytime soon at a reasonable price.

Why the hell would you pay €60 for emasculated DSL if you could get Flat Rate ISDN for say, €20 euro (or whatever the friaco price turns out to be).

The extra €40 (or whatever) just wouldnt seem worth it.

Kix

Originally posted by Dustaz
Why the hell would you pay €60 for emasculated DSL if you could get Flat Rate ISDN for say, €20 euro (or whatever the friaco price turns out to be)

Unless you want ISDN for voice as well though you're paying an extra €18pm rental for your ISDN line which closes the price gap quite a bit, unless I'm missing something?

K

vinnyfitz

20% of gym member go as often as they should (3 or 4 times a week)
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That's how gyms make money.

Dustaz

Originally posted by Kix
Unless you want ISDN for voice as well though you're paying an extra €18pm rental for your ISDN line which closes the price gap quite a bit, unless I'm missing something?

K

Well, you pay line rental on top of the €60 for the DSL as well.

SkepticOne

It is 256k because the 512k is over 100 euros.

Why is the 512k over 100 euros is the real question.

leeroybrown

It's called profiteering

Moriarty

Originally posted by Dustaz
Well, you pay line rental on top of the €60 for the DSL as well.

Not if its the option that provides the line for dsl only, with no voice services...?