That was my understanding

Sky has 1G and 10Gig backhaul options

Well I hit my 20GB Limit at 1 minute pate 3PM and there dosen't seem to be any STM between 3-4. So I can get what I want done now and apart from e-mails and streaming Spotify I won't need to use my connection between 4-9.. Like i've said before if I do I still get 60-70mbps which is more than enough!

But I don't see why people can still carry on - surely they are trying to reduce the transfer amount?

In reply to a post by pcoventry76:

I'd love to see how busy it is overnight. Surely if everyone shifts to overnight and it can take it then it can take it all the time? Or would they put STM on the night bit too?

You seem to be labouring under the illusion that every internet user is leeching 24x7 and that simply isn't the case. Only a small proportion download significant data volumes and only a proportion of those bother to schedule their downloads overnight.

As they make extensive use of shaping Plusnet are probably avoided by 24x7 leechers but even so I suspect that many ISPs traffic follows a similar pattern to theirs which they publish - http://www.plus.net/support/service/network_performa...

In reply to a post by yarwell:

not M, G - 288 circuits at 20 Mbits/s each = 5660 Mbits/s ie 6 Gbits/s hence 6 * 1G fibre. TTC.

Exactly. It was "you're only guaranteed 20M from the cab to the exchange" that I was on about .

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

Sky has 1G and 10Gig backhaul options

They also use multiples of 1Gb backhaul, I believe they go up to 4 of those before they purchase the 10Gb hardware either side.

That's true and I am one of them - I do nothing until atleast midnght and I make sure I am done by 8am.

Tonight I have used nothing. I have a very fast speedtest but Sky Player is buffering every 10 seconds.. I switched to my backup ISP and it's running fine. SO I've videod it and sent the attachment to trading standards.

Say bye bye to buffering - my [censored]!

Many thanks to all the replies which have made for interesting reading!

In reply to a post by baby_frogmella:

TalkTalk FTTC. I know i'll get shot down in flames but seriously their actual broadband is very very good...

Thanks for that suggestion! TalkTalk, even from my limited understanding, seem to have a pretty bad rep. But in my desperation I've just checked them out. It appears they only currently offer 40/2 rather than the 40/10 I'm looking for. What's that all about? Anyway, for me that's a deal breaker. However it appears they will be offering 80/20 when it's available (are there any firm dates?).

The fascinating thing is that according to their 80/20 availability checker we will get 41/6.5 while our neighbours, three houses down, will get 57/13! Why such a large difference over a few metres? Are these accurate predictions or should they be taken with a grain of salt?

In reply to a post by Chrysalis:

For VM its more like about 200mbit downstream and 40/60mbit upstream for 200-300 users.

This is why I personally believe Virgin have introduced these daytime caps: they've doubled speeds but have they doubled their capacity?

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

You may just have to wait and see if Sky risk running their fibre with no management at all.

Why risk? Because leaving natural contention to manage things can be a nightmare for all, just look at the congestion problems some exchanges have currently.

I recently read an article on SKY's fibre network being far larger than Virgin's. Over 7 terabits/s was mentioned (see below). Hence my hopes they won't have to resort to these tactics.

In reference to www.broadbandgenie.co.uk/news/20111201-sky-network-first-takes-fibr...:

Without getting into boring details, the new tech allows data to be transferred at seven terabits per second, meaning that in theory up to 4.6 million Sky Broadband customers could simultaneously stream a HD film over their broadband without a hiccup.

Also at the bottom of their fibre page (register your interest) they categorically state:

In reference to fibre.sky.com/shop/broadband-talk/broadband-options/sky-fibre-broad...:

Does Sky Broadband Unlimited Fibre have a usage policy?

Sky Broadband Unlimited Fibre is a residential service that offers totally unlimited usage - there is no fair usage policy and no traffic management is applied to this service.

It doesn't get much clearer than that! Mind you, a few years ago Virgin had similar stuff in their ads. It took them quite a few years to break that promise... Anyway I hope people makes a permanent copy of the above promise by SKY. I'm sure if they break it they'll come out with all the same mealy-mouthed justifications that Virgin have. Having said that I'm more hopeful due their greater financial resources.

No virgin Haven't doubled their capacity - they are doing this so that more people can be crammed on.

They can spend 110M doubling the speeds - why cant they just hold back and us ethat for upgrades to the network they already have?

VM dont care about upstream. They only want to be the fastest down - We will have 120/12 but I would rather have 80/20 but that's just me.

I was led to believe the money was a mixture of upgrades to speeds and backhaul link improvements