Any mutterings from sky/be

BT Infinity is now orderable for me (30.6/6.8 predicted), a step up from 4/1 (o2, actual, 3dB SNRm 4.7lm)

Has anyone heard any more news/mutterings from sky or Be/O2?

Whilst I use 160-200 pcm and could go with BT their 300 fup still worries me esp as likelihood of much more use is very high.

Talktalk appear to be the next ISP announcing a service from Feb 2011 (and my exchange is TalkTalk LLU today) so will be one to watch too, but they have a more chequred history than sky/telefonica

On that point does anyone know how comparable Telefonica/TalkTalk/sky backhaul is? and how quick to upgrade?

TT is a pile it high sell it cheap outfit. There's stuff in the public domain about their backhaul provisioning - less than 60 kbits/s per subscriber not long ago it was about 40k.

http://media.tiscali.co.uk/sites/www.talktalkgroup.c...

That sounds low (of course) though is presumably averaged over a very large base - so without comparative figures hard to say

In reply to a post by planetf1:

That sounds low (of course) though is presumably averaged over a very large base - so without comparative figures hard to say

Well to put it into perspective; Eutelsat has just launched a broadband specific (i.e. its only function) satellite, a hugely expensive endeavour (much more so than just renting some lines from BT and buying in some fibre optic backbones) and that allows 35kbps per subscriber (if they all download at exactly the same time).

averaged over the number on an exchange too. It's a low GB/month product design (as is the satellite example Ade quoted)

Doesn't seem too far off to be honest for the product TT are selling.

To put in prospective if 100% of TT customers* were to download their 40GB worth per month you only need 130kbps per user. Most will not use their full allowance so probably only need half that.

* assumes all take the essentials service.

Problem is with design like that there is need for packet shaping as the network becomes saturated at peek times because after all internet usage isn't spread evenly throughout the day/month.

In response to the OP

Keep waiting on Be*/O2 and Sky as it can't be that long before they announce something. Just don't start a new 12~18 month contract now or you'll be kicking yourself.

40GB worth per month you only need 130kbps per user

are you spreading it out over 24/7 ? Their average user is well below 20 GB.

it will be interesting to see what speeds ISPs see as a fault.

BT Infinity appear to be treating regular < 12 Mbps throughput at any time as a fault (of course this is to their speedtest site!) -- and I guess their benefit is large number of customers making peaks probably more gradual.

TalkTalk are also being quite specific on their website
"...guarantee your speed day or night"
Guaranteed speed:
Our great value Fibre Optic Boost will guarantee your download speed � at least 15Meg (up to a maximum 40Meg).

TalkTalk's *current* fup is at http://www.talktalk.co.uk/legal/fup.html
"all TalkTalk Customers have no restrictions on time-critical web traffic such as surfing, gaming, streaming content from applications like BBC iPlayer or using VOIP packages like Skype at any time."

Something tells me the talktalk offer is too good to be true, but I have to admit to be watching it if there's no info from sky/be.

BT is probably a "solid" relatively safe offering, but despite only using 100-200 pcm I have a beef/concern with the 300Gb limit combined with 18m contract as usage could change a lot

TalkTalk are also being quite specific on their website

do they define "speed" ?

Of course not, so no idea what the endpoints are, protocols, averaging etc.

Can't see them being at top of my list, in all honesty I can't see me not pulling the infinity trigger sometime in next day or two as there's nothing else viable on the table, and no real indication of when there might be, be it Jan 1st or Dec 31st..

I reckon it could be late 3q before we really see Be/Sky engaged but that's a total unsustantiated guess.

are you spreading it out over 24/7 ? Their average user is well below 20 GB.

Yes. Obviously that is not how real world usage will happen but is the basis of a simple capacity calculation that assumes all you need to do is provide all users with a maximum of 40GB download capacity per month. NOT the way I would want to design or build a network but the only way investors understand.

In reply to a post by 5km:

Yes. Obviously that is not how real world usage will happen but is the basis of a simple capacity calculation that assumes all you need to do is provide all users with a maximum of 40GB download capacity per month. NOT the way I would want to design or build a network but the only way investors understand.

Contending is the only way the services can be provided at those price points and the standard measure of bandwidth provisioning is kbps per customer. It's not based around a monthly download figure but that kbps per connection figure.

Obviously you can't sell the service on those terms though

the investors were giving the number in kbits/s at peak times.

I'm bidding O2 a fond farewell in February. While the service has been just fine the lack of any announcements or other information on FTTC has given me no desire whatsoever to extend contract or continue using them. Given the lack of movement so far and Openreach's delays before they roll FTTC Virgin will have 100/10 available to me which should suit me alright, so regrettably...

I placed an order for Infinity yesterday. Got a text from O2 "is there anything we can do to make you stay".

YES - offer FTTC.

Sorry but at nearly 5km away FTTC makes a huge difference in speeds, and so no real competition.

Wasn't convinced by the talktalk chatter, and 300Gb should be enough (don't think I've ever even gone above 200Gb). even if I go over speed in peak is same as now..

Bt's policy is fairly clear, they appear to accept < 12 Mbps at any time is a fault, and they *should* have enough customers/network to mean any slowdowns are gradual - as long as they don't mess up their fup throttling rules again!

In reply to a post by planetf1:

I placed an order for Infinity yesterday. Got a text from O2 "is there anything we can do to make you stay".

YES - offer FTTC.

Sorry but at nearly 5km away FTTC makes a huge difference in speeds, and so no real competition.

Wasn't convinced by the talktalk chatter, and 300Gb should be enough (don't think I've ever even gone above 200Gb). even if I go over speed in peak is same as now..

Bt's policy is fairly clear, they appear to accept < 12 Mbps at any time is a fault, and they *should* have enough customers/network to mean any slowdowns are gradual - as long as they don't mess up their fup throttling rules again!

Do we even need to ask for you to keep us posted with how you get on?

My parents are in the same boat. 4mbit from o2, but FTTC coming "soon" (meaning, 31st Mar 2011 the way things stand).