In reply to a post by pyarwood:

you have on many occasions quoted that you dont think the public need or want fast internet
even your comment on THIS thread is saying you dont think the op needs or could even use a
500 meg connection.

Where the hell did I say on this thread that the OP don't need 500 Meg? You are seeing things that are not there.

I have never said the public don't need fast broadband, I said the majority of them don't really need super-duper fast broadband, but yet the broadband companies will still try and get them to spend more than they need to for s speed they are never going to utilise.

That is what they will do, because they are all about making more money, and they don't give a monkey how they do it. You only need to look at the adverts, get 1gigabit speed, because you know you should, and we want you to, even if you are only doing streaming and a bit of browsing.

No point in paying for what you are not using, unless you have more money than sense, which seems to happen a lot,

Like the latest advert from EE, Wi-Fi 7 makes it all better, makes every device better. Bull. Wi-Fi 7 will only improve something that have Wi-fi 7 built in, how the hell EE gets away from telling such bull I don't know.

There may be something sat in the corner of the screen saying, only devices with Wi-Fi 7, but it would have to be small, I could not see it.

I really don't care what people have, it is up to them, but I fed up with companies ripping people off and riding on people who don't know about things.
Remind me of the days when people used to buy computers from shops and lad that only just left school, trying to sell them something that cost a grand, when all they need is a basic machine to do some office work and browsing.


If you think the companies are there for you, then you are deluded, they are there to make money, and they don't care how they do it

In reply to a post by cjn:

One big advantage of faster broadband is that enables the user to scroll through pointless, inane posts much quicker.

And your post add what?

In reply to a post by neo_wales:

I'm on a talktalk 900 connection, do I need it? In reality no but its nice to have and in real terms its cheaper than the old dial up services of 20 years ago.

I have 500Mb/s, I did keep it for a second year and full price, but I may go down to their lowest speed which is 200Mb/s, but then looking at the price difference I am not sure if it is worth it, £34.95 for 500, £32.95 for 200. That is where they get you, make the difference so small, that you wonder if it is worth reducing the speed. £2 may not be a lot to one person, well most, but if a company can get that off enough, it is a huge amount extra. I think it was on here that someone said, giving faster speeds don't cost the providers anything, if that is true, then they are quids in, certainly if somone like me or you, don't use a lot of the bandwidth.

Yes, we all know, well those of us who are old enough to remeber that broadband 20 years ago was more expensive, go back 24 years ago or and I was paying £40 for ADSL 512Kb/s. before that I was paying £25 I think a month for dial up that had a time limit on.

So yes technology have changed, sadly the way of the world have not and companies will still try and rip you off or talk you into things you don't need.

The 500Mb/s I have is useful, when I have redone the PC and downbload the games again, the problem is itis alsomaking me kind of lazy, since there is nothing stored on the PC these days that is important, I don't bother to back it up, if something goes wrong, I just download eveything again, apart from windows, whihc I have on a thumb drive.

I understand that some people want the shiny fastest thing and will spend the money to get it, that how Samsung and Apple built their phone sales and if you have the money then fine. But I have always preferred to go for the budget side if it did the job. Maybe that is from my parents, but then again, my brother paid 5 grand for a Hi-fi last year. Crazy person.


Sometimes companies take advantage of people that don't really have the money and that what annoys the hell out of me

In reply to a post by zyborg47:

I have 500Mb/s, I did keep it for a second year and full price,

You do know that people who say one thing then do the total opposite for themselves are considered to be hypocrites!!, saying people don't need super duper speed and shouldn't need anything more than 80Mb but then get super duper speed far above that for themselves falls into this category.

In reply to a post by PCJM40:

You do know that people who say one thing then do the total opposite for themselves are considered to be hypocrites!!, saying people don't need super duper speed and shouldn't need anything more than 80Mb but then get super duper speed far above that for themselves falls into this category.

What choice did I have? Plusnet was trying to push me to FTTP, by increasing the price of FTTC, trying to push a 24-month contract, I will not sign up for anything that is 24 months.
I tried my best to stay as I was, but plusnet was not having it, if I stayed on FTTC, then I would pay stupid prices and still end up on a 24-month contract, if I went to plusnet FTTP, it would still be 24-month.

I can't remember the price they gave me now, but it was more than what Zzoomm had on the leaflet that I had for their 500Mb/s,

If Zzoomm was not here then I was willing to move to something like now broadband, 12-month contract for FTTC at the time or One stream, again 12-month contract, both about £24 a month I think

I did not want to move to fibre, had no need for the speed, and still don't. I was on 36 by the way, not 80. Moving to fibre was hassle in my opinion, and it was a bit more hassle than I would like it to be, only because Zzoomm was being cautious, annoying, but I don't blame them.

So with plusnet not giving me what I wanted and having to move to another provider anyway and thinking things over that at some point I will have to move over to FTTP and the kicker, Zzoomm giving me a 12-month contract at a good price, is why I went for it.

It comes down to economics, and that is going to be the same for a lot of people, they will have little choice.
so what do you expect me to do, go for something more expensive?


As for saying people don't need super-duper speed, I said the majority don't, they could get along nicely with around 70Mb/s and if Zzoomm came up to me and said, we will give you 70Mb/s for say £15 I would jump at it, but that is not going to happen as it don't pay them to do so.

There are a few things I have learnt over the last 20 months or so and yes i would still be on FTTC on plusnet if they had given me the right deal, which strangely enough they said they had a deal that was suited for me, and it would have been, but then they knew i had already had the other network installed, so they would say anything .

See it as you want, I don't really care, but at some point some of us have to change our mind, like it or lump it, if you have said you have never done it, I will not believe you.

you could always buy a 10 base-t router then you would be happy with the excellent super duper 10 meg speed you say is all anyone needs and put one right over on your isp forcing fast speeds on you..

Edited by pyarwood (Tue 07-Jan-25 06:11:05)

In reply to a post by pyarwood:

you could always buy a 10 base-t router then you would be happy with the excellent super duper 10 meg speed you say is all anyone needs and put one right over on your isp forcing fast speeds on you..

Wow,

Again, like others, you are incorrect, I did not say 10 meg speed is all anyone needs, I said that the majority of people don't need super-duper speeds,

So tell, oh wise one, two examples. Example one, next door neighbour, they have at the moment FTTC, they have sky broadband and sky TV, two of them in the house, they don't bother with streaming video, and it is Sky Q, so satellite, not streaming live TV. The only thing they have connected, apart from one Alexa that is used to play music for their parrot, is their phones and an android tablet that is used for a bit of browsing and a bit of game playing, nothing bandwidth taxing.

Example two, my brother, again on FTTC, was on shell, now on Talk Talk because of Shell giving up their broadband. Use Freeview, I have tried to get him to use the streaming services like Iplayer, ITVX and others, but he shows no interest. He says he can record stuff he wants and watch them later as he has a PVR. He does have a computer, but mainly Ebay and a bit of browsing, again, nothing too taxing for even FTTC, even if he did stream.

Taking away FTTP being more reliable, what advantage would they have paying more for something faster?


Yes, if they can get a decent deal on faster speed that don't cost them any more, then go for it, if they want to go through having FTTP. For my brother it would be a bit of a hassle since he is in rented accommodation, my next door neighbours own their own house, so easy enough for them.


My problem and I said this before was the forcefulness of getting me to change to FTTP, FTTC done what I needed, why would I want to go through the hassle of having to email my landlord to get permission, then have someone come up to fit it when I had no need for it? Took me a lot of emailing back and forth with photos to get permission and even after all that, Zzoomm decided they wanted to do that themselves, so it took longer. Good job I did not cancel my FTTC until I had the FTTP installed.

It is installed now and yes I am pleased with it, I stayed with 500Mb/s mainly due to laziness, unlike other providers, there is no way on their site to go to a lower, you have to phone or email them and to be honest, is it worth it for £2.

Sure if Openreach have made this area into a stop sell area for FTTC, that would be a different thing, but they have not, Plusnet was just trying it on with me.
Going for walks around the estate, I am surprised how few people have got FTTP, there is more than there was this time last year, but up this road alone, there is still only 6 or 7 and there are 59 houses in this road.

So either people are fine with what they have or can't be bothered, because I am sure they are getting emails and any other communication from their provider saying, please go Fibre.

Granted, I may have made a bit more of a drama about it than I should have, but that was my anxiety kicking in by all accounts, something I never even knew I suffered with until a few years ago. Now it is installed, I am fine with it and as I said before, yes I would go for a lower speed if the price was right.

But I would not have gone for Openreach fibre, as I said before.

In reply to a post by zyborg47:

Wow,

Just don't engage with him. You have already said what your position is. I can see where you are coming from. I was happy with 40M just 3 years ago, went to 30M and would have been happy with that but for CGNAT and excessive contention. And now I am more than happy with 160M and wold probably still be happy with 40M. So nothing much for you to explain to him.

The "I would go for a lower speed if the price was right" discussions are based on a misconception of where the costs come from. People might assume that if they can have gigabit for £35 then they could have 100Mbps for £20, but things like this just aren't priced on a cost-plus model. Dropping your speed on renewal saves the ISP no money at all, but it could hack out 20% of their revenue, it's never in the interests of the ISPs to offer the sub-£25 option that is good enough for most people.

In reply to a post by DFScale:

Just don't engage with him. You have already said what your position is. I can see where you are coming from. I was happy with 40M just 3 years ago, went to 30M and would have been happy with that but for CGNAT and excessive contention. And now I am more than happy with 160M and wold probably still be happy with 40M. So nothing much for you to explain to him.

CGNAT seems like it can be a pain, so glad Zzoomm don't use it. I am not going to lie, the higher speed can be useful to have there, now Io have it, but I managed with a slower speed.