Moving from Zen Active to O2 All rounder?

Hi All

I'm considering moving from Zen Active to O2 All rounder.

Currently I get 50Gb per month (at 7mbps, my line max) for £25 from Zen and it doesn't seem to be throttled at any time.

If I move to O2 All Rounder I can get the same speed for £12/month although I think "unlimited" now means about 40Gb per month which I can live with. I will lose my static IP address and also my 1 month contract but I can live without both those. Plus, I can get 3 months free and £50 Topcashback meaning I'll save quite a considerable amount in year 1 (and can readdress for year 2 etc).

Am I being silly? Will O2 throttle my D/L speed? Would anyone else make this decision?

Thanks

David

Have you considered Be? Same network but doesn't have the limits that O2 have implemented. Also, on all but their value package you get static IP (if you would prefer to have it). It would be £18 for the unlimited package that you would probably be looking at but that is cheaper than Zen is currently.

If price is the overriding factor then O2 may be fine for you. However, if you want unlimited, high performance, static IP then for the extra Be is a great choice.

The concern I would have with O2 is that the packages have only just changed and it seems they are now moving more to the standard consumer market rather than the potential high end user/technical user. Be suits that market better for a bit more money.

Hi Ian

Thanks for the heads up on Be - I will take a look. Do you know about throttling on O2? I'm not sure I understand if they implement this.

DELETED

EDIT : Seems SJR is more up to date than I am...

Edited by ian72 (Wed 15-Sep-10 16:18:36)

O2 All Rounder is subject to a 100GB FUP not 40GB
However p2p and possibly usenet is throttled at peak times. O2 IP addresses are quite sticky (I've had the same one since joining in February this year) so if 100GB and p2p throttles are not a problem then it certainly looks like a good option. However if p2p and/or usenet throttling is going to annoy you, you might want to consider Be Value instead. Slightly more expensive but still with cash back and still unlimited and unthrottled. Limited to 8Mb but if your line can only do 7 that's not an issue unless that's 7Mb on ADSL1 where you might expect quite a bit more on ADSL2+

Regards,
Steve

Edited by sjr (Wed 15-Sep-10 17:16:24)

Further to what ian72 and sjr have sai:-

Be Value or Unlimited would seem a better choice if traffic management might be a worry. For several useful detailed comparisons of O2 v Be see MKD's documents.

I think a major factor not yet checked is what your line speed would be on O2/Be. Your 7Mbps may just be a maximum for your existing package. If you post your line stats we can give a fairly accurate estimate based on those figures. See here for help.

Sorry - I should have said, 7Mbps is the max for my distance from the exchange on ADSL2. My Zen package goes up to 20 but I can't achieve this so this would be the max regardless of supplier.

Re; Dowload limit - I'm sure I read on O2's own forum that they not consider fair use to be 40 not 100Gb

40GB used to be the generally accepted FUP on the Access product so that might be where you're getting that figure from. That's now down to 20GB but the FUP on All Rounder is 100GB for sure.

Regards,
Steve

Fair enough, but have you checked your home phone wiring is optimised? I have seen several improvements of over 2Mbps. The stats tell us if that potential is there.