In reply to a post by Pheasant:

Adrian - don’t ever be tempted to emigrate to Oz. For one thing compulsory voting (with escalating fines) would drive you berserk!

You are not 100% correct, voting is not compulsory, turning up at the voting station is, they do postal voting now as well.

In reply to a post by andynormancx:

They are using the words You must not on some personal whim. You are legally required to complete/respond to the annual voting registration form. You could theoretically receive a £1,000 fine/criminal record for not doing so.

This is not really the correct place for this, but if they just sent a letter/email, saying if nothing have changed, then ignore this, that would be better. They can send me a form, I am not doing it online.
Not that i am voting anyway, all a waste of space.

In reply to a post by dect:

In reply to a post by zyborg47:

I wonder how many of your associates who are using mobile data are demanding they are left on 2G? I wouldn't be surprised if they still live in caves and still have square wheels instead of round ones 🤣

They stayed on dial up because they had little choice, they did look at ADSL, but no provider would even try. The reason they went for mobile broadband is that they don't want to pay £30 a month for something they will use once or twice a week.
I am fine with 4G on my mobile, i don't see any need for anything faster on a mobile phone.

Not everyone wants to go with the latest and greatest, some people don't need to show off with the latest greatest phone, with features that they will never used, just to say, look I got this, or I got that. I work with someone like that, just got himself a new Samsung phone that cost stupid amount of money and then show everyone what he has got and yet it does the same thing as my cheap oppo.

The same with broadband, I have broadband because it is required these days, but to be honest it is just another bill i rather not pay, so if I can get it cheaper I will, and I am certainly not bothered about super fast speeds, what the hell do I need 150Mb/s for? I have been using this service at around £6Mb/s for 7 years, i still does the job.

In reply to a post by zyborg47:

I am fine with 4G on my mobile, i don't see any need for anything faster on a mobile phone.

Only 8 years ago people said that about 3G.... unfortunately when you are talking about multi-billion pound infrastructure it isn't about what people want, it is about what the service provider can provide. Nobody now wants 3G, and the same will happen with 5G given time. (and with FTTP, given time).

Individual consumers have no clue at the rate of increase of usage, so don't understand why change is happening. It also appears once people reach a certain age, sometimes as low as 30, we become resistent to change. Human nature, and one we have to work with.

Edited by jchamier (Wed 27-Jul-22 10:40:14)

In reply to a post by zyborg47:

all a waste of space.

You have summed up your opinion on most things

This is continuing to go completely off topic…But I can assure you (as an Aussie citizen) voting is most certainly compulsory. You’ve been able to vote in absentia for years.

In reply to a post by jchamier:

Only 8 years ago people said that about 3G.... unfortunately when you are talking about multi-billion pound infrastructure it isn't about what people want, it is about what the service provider can provide. Nobody now wants 3G, and the same will happen with 5G given time. (and with FTTP, given time).

Individual consumers have no clue at the rate of increase of usage, so don't understand why change is happening. It also appears once people reach a certain age, sometimes as low as 30, we become resistent to change. Human nature, and one we have to work with.

To be honest 3G is fine for me, I went for weeks with 3G when we had a problem with some masts around here, and it did not make any difference to how I used my phone. One day I may get a 5G phone, but I am certainly in no rush, even if we had decent 5G here, which we don't. I really don't care if it s a multi-billion pound infrastructure or not, If it comes to the point that people have to be pushed then it proves that people don't really want it and are fine with what they have got.

You really think that change is happening for us the consumer? If you do then maybe you should take the blinkers off, everything is about making more money for companies, they don't care about us the consumers.
They push people onto services they don't need, just to get this little more money.

It is not about being resistant to change, it is about paying more for something I don't need. i have no need for 150Mb/s so why would I pay more for it. The service I have works fine, it is a pretty good price considering and it works, it does everything I need., so why on earth would I have the hassle and the extra cost per month just to have a faster Internet speed?

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

This is continuing to go completely off topic…But I can assure you (as an Aussie citizen) voting is most certainly compulsory. You’ve been able to vote in absentia for years.

I have relatives in Aussi land, and they tell me that you can spoil your vote if you don't any of the idiots are worth voting for, their words, not mine.
if voting because compulsory here, which it never would, then that would have to happen here, they can force people to vote for anyone, all they can do is force people to turn up.

"they tell me that you can spoil your vote "

That is still a vote!

In reply to a post by zyborg47:

To be honest 3G is fine for me, I went for weeks with 3G when we had a problem with some masts around here, and it did not make any difference to how I used my phone.

I think you mean "upto 20 Mbps is good for me, and I only use two way roads, never dual carriageways and never use motorways".

I have no problem with that, but that doesn't mean 3G is still the right thing for the networks to supply in 2022. 3G was circuit switched, and so there was a maximum number of connections. This meant as more and more people bought mobile devices then some would get no connection at all. Not even a notification about a text, or Whatsapp message could get through. 4G and later solved that by using packets.

Phones don't generally last 10 years, so 4G started in 2012/2013, and by 2020 majority of people had 4G phones. By the end of 2024, 3G will be switched off in the UK.

Sometimes change IS for the consumer, to enable millions of more consumers to use the same service you are using. "concurrency". Yes, more concurrent users gives more money to the operators, but they also pay out a stunning amount for the infrastructure. And why do we dislike companies making money and employing people? Surely most of us are in jobs, and need to get paid to afford food, fuel, housing etc?

i have no need for 150Mb/s so why would I pay more for it.

I think you are lucky to have the reliability, but when FTTP comes past, why not pay for a 40/20 service at the lowest cost. As you know I left Plusnet at £37 a month to go to Virgin £53/month, because the uplink speed wasn't sufficient for home working due to copper degredation. I do not need 200 Mbps, but I needed faster than 3 Mbps uplink. That was my only option.

At some point you will have to swap from copper to fibre as the delivery mechanism when the network provider (most likely Openreach) cease VDSL services, which is likely a few years away yet.

Edited by jchamier (Wed 27-Jul-22 16:03:25)