Usage Limits

Are Zen ever going to drop their usage limits, or at least substantially increase them?

I've never gone over my limit (yet), and have been very grateful for the limits doubling over time, but with ADSL2+ (yes, it only recently got to my exchange) there's so much more I can do, but I feel constrained by the limits. I'm forever checking how much I've used, and planning for the rest of the month.

Given that other ISPs are unlimited, will Zen follow suit? I saw other threads on the same subject, generally involving the word "leaving"!

I don't mind paying a premium, as I already do, over the BT products - but the fact that I'd get more for less is tempting.

What do you say Zen? Is it an option down that line? (And no, I don't want to pay £80pcm for 2TB!)

AP

I suspect it will be a case of seeing how things are handled in the areas where they can by pass BT Wholesale with their new backhaul network.

The gamble is easy enough for the large providers as they will always get enough lite users, but for the smaller providers the risk of unlimited pushing the costs up so that they are making a loss are a lot higher.

Whenever I've looked at this, I've found that unlimited usage = traffic shaping/management. Although we don't live in an area of high population density, we're a fair way from the exchange so ADSL speeds have always been on the low side (best we've ever seen is just of 2MB, and that didn't stick for long).

So I'm not keen to find that my line speed varies according to some magic (and secret) formula know only to my ISP.

I'm also very sceptical about "fair use" policies, which also seem to go hand in hand with unlimited - again, implemented via secret spells in an ancient grimoire protect by power enchantments so mere mortals can't see how they work.

Upshot - I pay over the odds for enough usage to meet my needs.

What's ironic is the BT's fibre connections (with them as the ISP) seems to maintain very fast speeds all the time, when some ISPs (not Zen) struggle not to traffic shape 8 meg connections.

With internet being a medium for film and music delivery, it must only be a matter of time before usage limits become a thing of the past, but I'm hoping that Zen will move to this format, as they're a quality ISP.

In reply to a post by AndyPandy:

With internet being a medium for film and music delivery, it must only be a matter of time before usage limits become a thing of the past, but I'm hoping that Zen will move to this format, as they're a quality ISP.

I see end to end QoS and the deployment of multicast before we go to a 'unlimited' platform.

Though I note the mcast (FTTx & copper) routes are available now - just not sure how to purchase 1 from BT as yet...

While all the provides charge silly amounts for peering traffic and transit I don't see it for a while. Yes the core maybe 'private' and they might be running every link at 10x10 DWDM but they still have to break out to the rest of the internet.

I would be curious as to Zen's thoughts on CDN's being deployed at ISP networks, and what if any cost implications that has (who pays to sync the CDN for example) and moving forward - will the 'media' providers start asking (paying) for traffic elevation within ISP's networks?