BT Infinity & Usenet/Newsgroups

Hi folks

I've been a pretty happy Be subscriber for some time now (Zen prior to that, so you can see I'm used to pretty good service ), but the speeds and pricing of BT Infinity have started becoming very attractive. Most of what I use my connection for, however, is downloading from usenet/newsgroups, in addition to lots of wifi & streaming around the house. I can see a few threads connected to p2p use but nothing specific to usenet & infinity. Are there usage restrictions worth knowing about? For instance, I currently get around 11meg connection through Be, so the projected 59 through BT is a huge improvement - but only if it actually runs at a decent proprtion of that much of the time.

Any advice would be great.

The Totally Unlimited Infinity product is totally unlimited.

Where does the fair use policy and traffic shaping at certain times fit in, if its totally unlimited?

I use newsgroups with SSL encryption and it goes as fast as your connection can go, I've not seen any throttling myself

Same here, on both SSL encrypted and non-SSL encrypted connections

In reply to a post by bluenapalm:

Where does the fair use policy and traffic shaping at certain times fit in, if its totally unlimited?

They don't, as it's totally unlimited.

In reference to www.productsandservices.bt.com/consumerOrders/control/termsandcondi...:

19. BT Infinity Option 1/BT Infinity 1 has a monthly usage allowance of 40 Gigabytes. If you go over your usage allowance, we will charge you for your additional usage. You can find details of the extra usage charges in the Tariff Guide.

20. BT Infinity Options 2 and 3 and Unlimited Infinity 1 and 2 have an unlimited monthly usage allowance.

In reference to bt.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/10495/c/346/?s_cid=con_FURL...:

Network Management
What is BT's traffic management policy?
Information for customers on totally unlimited products

If you're on Unlimited Broadband, Unlimited Broadband extra, Unlimited BT Infinity 1, Unlimited BT Infinity 2, or for customers taking BT Total Broadband Option 3 from 1 February 2013, we won't place any speed restrictions no matter how much you upload or download, even at peak times

Thanks one and all for the responses - I tend to stick with ISP's that are good even beyond when their speeds fall behind the competition, but the potential difference here without a huge increase in cost is just too tempting. Fingers crossed I get a positive swap.

" Information for customers on other products

For customers on all other broadband products: to protect the performance of the network and to ensure the best experience for all users of the service, at peak times we may manage the speed of non-time critical applications such as Peer-to-Peer (P2P)."

right below the other paragraph you referenced.

Obviously not relevant to the totally unlimited products being discussed herein.

As others have said BT recently removed any traffic management on their unlimited products and rebranded them.
The packages are now called 'totally unlimited.'

This move was recent ie within the last 2 months but it's here to stay. New advertising rules mean it's hard to get away with traffic management / overprediction of speeds now.

This means that everything goes at the full speed. There is no throttling, no slowing down, no traffic management etc.
It it TOTALLY unlimited. Nothing is restricted or slowed in any shape or form. If it goes full wack on a download via Internet explorer, it'll be able to go full wack via peer to peer, torrent, usenet, iplayer etc.
No restrictions, nothing.

I can confirm that my infinity connection is full wack now too.

The world has changed a lot in the last few years.

Fibre has also meant that backhaul has been increased and now networks can cope being totally unlimited without any hiccups.
Make the move it'll be wonderful

Edited by ukhardy07 (Thu 21-Feb-13 02:04:40)

In reply to a post by bluenapalm:

For customers on all other broadband products: to protect the performance of the network and to ensure the best experience for all users of the service, at peak times we may manage the speed of non-time critical applications such as Peer-to-Peer (P2P)."

There is still traffic management on the package that ARE NOT totally unlimited.

That is what this quote refers to... On the totally unlimited infinity there are no restrictions what so ever. This is T&C that are for another package (one that isn't totally unlimited) so isn't relevant.

In reply to a post by ukhardy07:

New advertising rules mean it's hard to get away with traffic management / overprediction of speeds now.

Are you sure that doesn't refer to connection, (or in BT Wholesale's case IP Profile), speeds, rather than throughput?

This means that everything goes at the full speed. There is no throttling, no slowing down, no traffic management etc.

In similar vein, I agree it means no throttling, but I doubt if it means 24/7 "full wack" is guaranteed.

Fibre has also meant that backhaul has been increased and now networks can cope being totally unlimited without any hiccups.

Backhaul has been fibre for donkey's years. The advent of FTTx makes hiccuping more likely, not less.

Whilst I agree with your and everyone else's recommendation to the OP to "go for it", although I prefer my own ISP, I feel your enthusiasm has slightly overridden your clarity of view .

Thanks again for all the detailed help folks. I've taken the plunge & should get things installed on the 15th March. Projected line speed of about 58Mb so fingers crossed! Also, this is copied from the T's & C's I've just been sent, so as of feb '13 it should be accurate;

Section 1: Traffic management in relation to your broadband product (not including during busy times and places to manage network congestion. See section 2)
Products introduced from 1 February 2013

Use and availability of services, content, application and protocols on this product
Broadband product name Broadband Unlimited Broadband Unlimited Broadband extra BT Infinity 1 Unlimited BT Infinity 1 Unlimited BT Infinity 2
Are any services, content, applications or protocols always blocked on this product?** No
If so, what? n/a
Are any services, content, applications or protocols always slowed down? No
If so, what? n/a
Are any services, content, applications or protocols always prioritised? No
If so, what? n/a
Are any managed services delivered on this product? If so, what is the impact? Yes
If so, what?
What impact? BT Vision traffic is managed over the network to ensure that on demand films are delivered to customers successfully. Additional bandwidth is provided to support this service.
Data caps and download limits
Broadband product name Broadband Unlimited Broadband Unlimited Broadband extra BT Infinity 1 Unlimited BT Infinity 1 Unlimited BT Infinity 2
What are the download/upload limits or data usage caps on this product? 10GB Unlimited Unlimited 40GB Unlimited Unlimited
Is traffic management used to manage compliance with data caps and download limits? No
Under what circumstances? n/a
Level of speed reduction? n/a
Duration of speed reduction? n/a
Is traffic management used in relation to heavy users? No
Level of speed reduction? n/a
Duration of speed reduction? n/a
**This excludes any service, content, application or protocol that an ISP is required to block by UK law and child abuse images as informed by the list provided by the Internet Watch Foundation.

To me that all but guarantees no throttling or management so we'll see

In reply to a post by phookoo:

To me that all but guarantees no throttling or management so we'll see

Does it? It all depends on Section 2, which you have not enclosed:

(not including during busy times and places to manage network congestion. See section 2)

In reply to a post by XRaySpeX:

In reply to a post by phookoo:

To me that all but guarantees no throttling or management so we'll see

Does it? It all depends on Section 2, which you have not enclosed:

(not including during busy times and places to manage network congestion. See section 2)

Don't all ISPs (even Sky) have a clause about protecting their network?

They may very well do.

However, I was questioning the OP's contention of a guarantee when he has only considered half of the relevant info.

to be honest never noticed the speed management just slight local contention.