AntiCap UK

aCA

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/2932039.stm

Campaigners call for unlimited broadband

A lobby group has been launched in the UK to campaign for unlimited broadband access.

AntiCap UK has grown out of cable firm ntl's decision to limit the amount of downloads customers can make to one gigabyte per day.

Many of the founders of the campaign are subscribers to ntl's fast net service and have been angered by the capping, which ntl introduced without warning.

"We consider it a very sharp business practice to attract users and later adversely change the contract and service conditions, especially in a hushed up, and in our view unfair, manner," reads a statement on the AntiCap UK website.

and us stuck with 4/5gigs a month

I was really hoping Esat would have a much bigger cap on their product.

What do you think is more important in the short/medium term (for you personally), getting the price down another few squids or a bigger cap?

Winters

I would like a bigger/NO cap.

Price is allright at the moment if there is no cap on the service. thats the thing.

Hannibal_12

Originally posted by aCA
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/2932039.stm


and us stuck with 4/5gigs a month

I was really hoping Esat would have a much bigger cap on their product.

What do you think is more important in the short/medium term (for you personally), getting the price down another few squids or a bigger cap?

All of the above with a reasonable line rental. If I had to pick, I would say price initially but then what use is cheap broadband when you are handicapped by a ridiculous cap.
I have to say that complaining about 1 gig a day is amazing to me since it is in such huge excess of our offering here and yet they are still unhappy with it.

bizmark

eh 5 gig isnt to bad i used one of those progs to see how much u download in a month and normal use includeing d/l pritty big star trek ship mods for bridge commander every day talking maybe 15 megs for 3 mods
i was still only useing 1 gig a month so that would leave 4 gig in my view more than a nuff to double my internet surfing to 8 hours a day (not that i would have the time):cool:

So the main problum for me is the cost no longer the monthly cost 50 euro is only around 10 euro more than my monthly esat bill but installing is still a bitch 190 euro and the ratio 48:1 could be a problum

But with that 5 gig cap it would save us from kazza/imesh etc users eating all our speed up:p

strat

i hate the cap as much as the next linux iso whores, were getting the 512 esat buisness dealy with no cap instead. i really cant see the cap situation changing very soon tbh

vac

Compared to what we're offered, it sounds silly. But they've been getting uncapped cheap broadband for years in the UK and a cap like this isn't heard of. Lets be frank, if you use the extent of your broadband (ill prolly get owned for saying this), and you DO download illegal software/games/films etc, then 1 gig isn't much.

Dustaz

Thats the thing, if you are a 'linux iso' type of user, then you have no real comeback as you shouldnt be downloading 'linux isos'.

We've had the cap argument loads of times, lets not get into it again.

back on topic, whats strange about this group is that they are campaigning ffor something that is already there. Most people who can get ntls cable can also get an uncapped DSL. If they arent happy with the cap, why not move to a company that offers uncapped broadband?

Sloth

Ditto with people here. People are complaining about Eircom's cap but I mean since Via don't have a connection cap at all I can't for the life of me see why people are going for Eircom atm except for maybe (heavily misplaced) corporate loyalty. To be honest I can't see the point of having a broadband connection with something as piddling as a 3gb cap.

Mark_irl

Some people have financial commitments that make paying Vias over priced product hard to justify.

Sloth

But compared to Eircom it's not that much more expensive especially with the new cheap package (I say cheap but of course it's all fairly relative here).

Moriarty

Gosh, is it that time again?

Sloth

Grr, I really hate those stinking cards.

irishguy

€50 a month for a 512k/128k product is fine but its only fine if there is a large or no cap 5gigs is notting i can do that in a few hours.Even if they introduce a cap it should be a per day cap because if you give a user a 10gig cap for the month they can do that in a day or 2 and clog up the network [which defeats the purpose of a cap]

Dustaz

Originally posted by irishguy
5gigs is notting i can do that in a few hours

Do you have a magical 512k connection that breaks the laws of physics? You cant do 5 gigs in a few hours (although i guess it depends on what your definition of 'a few' is)

Even if they introduce a cap it should be a per day cap because if you give a user a 10gig cap for the month they can do that in a day or 2 and clog up the network [which defeats the purpose of a cap]

No, the purpose of a cap/throttle is to stop all 48 people on your port downloading '5gigs in a few hours' and hence making it unusable.

Dustaz

Originally posted by Sloth
Ditto with people here. People are complaining about Eircom's cap but I mean since Via don't have a connection cap at all I can't for the life of me see why people are going for Eircom atm except for maybe (heavily misplaced) corporate loyalty. To be honest I can't see the point of having a broadband connection with something as piddling as a 3gb cap.

Sloth, We can tell by your sig that your a VIA fanboy, but it would be nice if you could refrain from mentioning them in every single post you make. They are not the be all and end all of broadband connections in this country.

For the VAST majority of users eircoms 4gb cap would suffice for most uses. Therefore they just might be going for it because its cheaper.

I also should point out that the package you are talking about is not actually available at the moment, so again a final warning. Stop pimping it please.

irishguy

actually yes i do have a magical 512k connection i have gotten up to 450KB/s [using Download Accelerator] over powernet on a sunday morning.My connection spikes from a few KB/s up to 100s of KB/S.Even with that speed maybe i was being a little optomistic ill refrase it i can do 5gigs in a day or 2. Also i know the purpose of a cap i was just saying that in general [not talking about this case] that a daily cap should be used instead of a monthly cap to reduce people using up there cap in a few days

vac

Most people who can get ntls cable can also get an uncapped DSL.

You have to understand, most UKers have never been in the position of not being able to have fast, flat rate internet connections. NTLs broadband is better then BTs adsl because theres fewer problems, better gaming pings and better downloads.

BTOs ADSL was terrible for quite awhile, people could bearly get connections and they were doing very little about it.

dahamsta

Originally posted by Dustaz
Thats the thing, if you are a 'linux iso' type of user, then you have no real comeback as you shouldnt be downloading 'linux isos'.

I'm too drunk to respond inspiringly, so I'll keep it simple:

Why?

adam

Jorinn

Originally posted by Dustaz
Thats the thing, if you are a 'linux iso' type of user, then you have no real comeback as you shouldnt be downloading 'linux isos'.

We've had the cap argument loads of times, lets not get into it again.

back on topic, whats strange about this group is that they are campaigning ffor something that is already there. Most people who can get ntls cable can also get an uncapped DSL. If they arent happy with the cap, why not move to a company that offers uncapped broadband?

Firstly i download a lot of linux isos. or rather I get people with fast connections at work to do it for me. In the past month I've gone through Mandrake, EvilEntity, Yoper, ClarkConnect, Caldera and Lycoris and am currently downloading Smoothwall on dial-up (only 30 megs in anticipation of getting DSL). tbh I'd like to be able to download them from home.

In relation to all those who would be downloading warez etc. I see it as pointless, you can get pretty much anything you want off friends and don't use cd protection as an excuse. Their are various programs to circumvent it, the only place protection has really worked is DVD's, whoich has just resulted in some of them being unplayable on a ps2.

As for why they don't just change, well because if one of them gets away with then the rest will follow. Also they probably don't want to have to pay another installation / connection fee.

DSLinAbsentia

The linux argument is, well, not really an argument at all...

A distribution of Linux (SuSE or RH) needs about 4 ISO's (on average) to be workable for 99% of users...

4 x 700MB = 2.8GB

That leaves you with 1.2GB left with €ircon's package. To be honest, you'd want to be a "Download Junky" to do this more than once a month and even more than once a quarter.

So if you're downloading the full ISO's every month, then I might suggest therapy - it might be cheaper than Eircom's overcap prices.

dahamsta

I'm still not seeing the logic here. We shouldn't download (or want to download) Linux ISOs because Eircon has made an arbitrary decision that precludes us from doing so? There's absolutely no logic in that statement. Eircom's download "allowances" are set abusively low, and defeat the entire purpose of broadband.

Red Hat currently requires 3 cd's, and Suse is an eval that runs from the CD, i.e. you can't download a full install. I think Mandrake is three too. And you'd be a fool to download your primary distro every month, since they only release about twice a year, if that.

adam

Dustaz

Sorry, i really should make something clear.

When i say Linux Isos, i mean Linux Isos. However, when i said "Linux Isos" i of course mean illegally obtained software and media.

As has been mentioned in the thread, there is really no need to be downloading 5 linux distros every month. People are far more tempted to get the latest LOTR before it hits video.

Thats fine, but its illegal and it will put you over your cap. You CANNOT say "damn, eircom are spoilsports because i cant download Matrix Revolutions" because you really shouldnt be doing it.

Sloth

Similarly though if you sign up for a beta of a game, say Galaxies for example and have to download a 600mb client file your going to reach your cap very quickly. Maybe Eircom should have internet police and award good downloaders with extra bandwidth and slap those warez types with a 1gb limit

BArra

Maybe Eircom should have internet police and award good downloaders with extra bandwidth and slap those warez types with a 1gb limit

heh, u should be shot



baz

Sloth

Well within 3 weeks I'll be downloading 20 games at once, each 3.1gb just to spite the Eircomites.