Making use of broadband

Maybe that should be making full use of broadband.

I chat to many people, Lorry drivers, people at work, friends, family, and broadband comes up now and again, and it surprises me how many pay out for broadband and use a fraction of what it is capable off.
Someone at work, who asked me what Zzoomm is like, only use their broadband for their phones. My brother, broadband just to browse the net and email and maybe use Alexa. Other people seem to do the same sort of thing.
Most of these people have a smart TV, why not connect it and use the smart functions, even if they don't want to pay for streaming services, there are free ones, and bound to find something they want to watch.
If they have a smart speaker, use it for radio, mine is playing Boom radio downstairs at the moment, doing some housework, just came up for a coffee.

Up to them at the end of the day, but a lot of money each month just to browse and connect their phones.

Dial up days it was different, for a start the speed was slow, and you could not do much with it, but I did used to chat with a few people in different countries using a webcam, even if it was naff, those days it seemed amazing.
Also, if you did not use it that often you could pay when you use it, in fact I think it was Freeserve that came out with the pay a set amount and use what you want type of thing.

ADSL changed everything, for the first time I did not get moaned at by my mum because my phone was engaged a lot

Now look at it, I can go to 2Gb/s if I wanted to. I would not want to work at how much faster that is than dial up.

In reply to a post by zyborg47:

Now look at it, I can go to 2Gb/s if I wanted to. I would not want to work at how much faster that is than dial up.

So.... dialup to the end was advertised as 56k - 56 kilobits per second.
1 Gigabit per sec is 1000 Mbit per sec, or 1 million kilobits per second (2 gigabit, is 2 then 2 million kilobit/sec)

Or 2 gigabit is 3,571,300% increase over 56k.

As long as people are wiling to pay the going rate, what speed people go for isn't really anyone else's business. We all use our broadband differently but I have lost count of how many times I've read people saying, "so and so" doesn't need 150Mbps, 500Mbps or whatever speed as if they are an expert on how "so and so" uses their broadband. I could do a lot more with the service I have but I am happy with the speed I pay for and thats all that matters.

Edited by PCJM40 (Sun 18-Aug-24 16:20:10)

An estimated £4Bn of UK gym memberships are unused, so even using a part of whats available via internet must beat that.

In reply to a post by PCJM40:

I have lost count of how many times I've read people saying, "so and so" doesn't need 150Mbps, 500Mbps or whatever speed

Well said. There are some AltNet providers that only have one or two products, the prices are typically lower than those on FTTC/VDSL, such as the Hampshire company Toob, whom have 900/900 symmetric for £29/month if you are covered.

Then people like myself, whom through hope of getting something else, have ended up paying high monthly fee for lower speed service, when the same money would get higher service.... but you have to be in a min-term contract lock-in to get the lower price. Virgin Media, Plusnet and many others do this.

I agree, and nobody "uses" their broadband really, connections sit idle most of the time. The point is that people want the burst capacity there and they weigh that up with the price to settle on a tier that they are happy to pay for.

If you smoothed my last month of usage out it would be a steady 1.6Mbps, that's not to say that a 2Mbps connection or even a 20Mbps connection would be suitable for my requirements. My current ISP charged about a 30% premium to get 1Gbps over 500Mbps which I didn't think was worth it at the time but if I found myself regularly shifting large files around I'd upgrade without any hesitation - I'm not waiting around on a connection for the sake of a few pence each time I need it.

Edited by jpm (Sun 18-Aug-24 18:10:11)

In reply to a post by jchamier:

In reply to a post by zyborg47:

Now look at it, I can go to 2Gb/s if I wanted to. I would not want to work at how much faster that is than dial up.

So.... dialup to the end was advertised as 56k - 56 kilobits per second.
1 Gigabit per sec is 1000 Mbit per sec, or 1 million kilobits per second (2 gigabit, is 2 then 2 million kilobit/sec)

Or 2 gigabit is 3,571,300% increase over 56k.

Thank you. Wow, that is a lot. How did we cope?

In reply to a post by PCJM40:

As long as people are wiling to pay the going rate, what speed people go for isn't really anyone else's business. We all use our broadband differently but I have lost count of how many times I've read people saying, "so and so" doesn't need 150Mbps, 500Mbps or whatever speed as if they are an expert on how "so and so" uses their broadband. I could do a lot more with the service I have but I am happy with the speed I pay for and thats all that matters.

I am not saying it is anyone business what speed people go for and this is not about speed as such as even 36Mb/s is fast enough for most things, which is why I was not bothered about fibre.
I was saying it is a shame that people who pay for broadband don't get full use out of it.

In reply to a post by burble:

An estimated £4Bn of UK gym memberships are unused, so even using a part of whats available via internet must beat that.

I know a couple who paid for 12 months at our local private sauna, swimming poll complex, thinking that it would help them with their health issues and yet in the last 5 months or so, been twice. Such a shame, because it is a lot of money, certainly for them. I do try and push them, but not easy.

Re

In reply to a post by zyborg47:

and it surprises me how many pay out for broadband and use a fraction of what it is capable off.

You can say that for any supply, water, gas and electricity.