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Broadband Bandwidth in 2010 - What is a reasonable monthly usage cap

magnetism2772
Grafter
Posts: 983
Registered: ‎06-06-2010

Broadband Bandwidth in 2010 - What is a reasonable monthly usage cap

To my surprise , I had not heard about ISP total downloading / uploading data caps or bandwidth capping.
My earlier ISP account was unlimited  but it did have understandable daily restrictions during the 6pm to 10pm peek periods of any day
The reason I was told , was that it was during these   hours of the day that their super  electronic motorways became congested.
Perhaps if ISPs instead of always thinking about their shareholders ,were ready to invest in new roads instead of traffic management and painting even more lanes with double yellow lines to prevent parking we would all get a better and more enjoyable and more importantly modern service
Just as Londons Victorian sewers, and Englands  road infrastructure lacks investment , in these times so does the  electronic highways in UK,
Due to lack of investment, cabling and other network  equipment , we are all having to surf on slow roads ,  carrying speed restrictions and ISP traffic lights.
Of course their are other reasons for caps,  the media moguls want to keep their movie and music monopoly and prevent us streaming movie ... so
caps on net users and their use  are common  and  here to stay , well for the present,   and we are all  going to run into problems.
Some users dont like being data capped at all ,
While others cant agree on a  suitable daily cap that is beyond  ones personal enjoyment
These are online gamers, they want  unlimited bandwidth and usage , and buy it where they can
'I fancy tryng online bingo,'
like those who like watching DVD video daily,at (3-5 gigabytes) each and those who have children who each want to watch a different movie.
Well I've run a bandwidth manager for the last couple of days to test what a surfer can do on a monthly usage  cap of 10 gigabytes
Its actualy plusnets' value' broadband pack
It states that its  monthly usage allowance  is 10 gigabytes i:e 10,000,000000 bytes and its just over £6 every month
Is it enough ?
It depends who you are
All day surfing the net,  for 11  hours  
Test was performed  , reading the news on  line , ebaying , and  visiting websites , such as  the independant
newspaper etc, reading plusnet views and writing here etc  ,   the pc was on and used to surf all day , but with a few  periods
breaks  'while i was away'   (Lunch  hour break) where it was left just to  idle , but still connected to the web .

Tests using a professionl bandwidth manager showed It actually used very little ..
Just a little less than  - 110 MB - uploading/downloading  data  over this 11 hour period
So during 30 days, just surfing websites , reading through general normal web pages , viewing their  normal images
uses around  3.3 Gigabytes of your allotted usage . which  is great
Problem though on plusnets  value BB package will I  be able to watch much TV, or Video , unless I download during the night. when usage is not  added to my cap total and if I cant without going to sleep at the pc ?
on 10GB  usage it surely wont be enough ?
Maybe i shall need to buy more usage   , I will see/and update this topic when i know
Cool
tests are  performed using softperfect bandwidth manager


12 REPLIES 12
pierre_pierre
Grafter
Posts: 19,757
Thanks: 3
Registered: ‎30-07-2007

Re: Broadband Bandwidth in 2010 - What is a reasonable monthly usage cap

Welcome to the Forum
PN dont make a secret of it
depends on you exchange are you market 3  or market 1/2
PN sells the excess in 5G blocks, you might find it cheaper to switch to PN Extra at 60G per month
Mand
Grafter
Posts: 5,560
Thanks: 2
Registered: ‎05-04-2007

Re: Broadband Bandwidth in 2010 - What is a reasonable monthly usage cap

Hi there,
Lots of people are unsure when they move to us just how much they will need, as they've never monitored their usage before.
10GB should be more than enough for average usage (browsing heavily, email, occasional downloading/streaming) but if you're watching a number of movies etc then you're likely to exceed this (unless you take advantage of the free off-peak usage).
As pierre_pierre has said, if you're normal usage is likely to take you over then Extra might be a better bet, especially in a market 3 area.
pierre_pierre
Grafter
Posts: 19,757
Thanks: 3
Registered: ‎30-07-2007

Re: Broadband Bandwidth in 2010 - What is a reasonable monthly usage cap

and when you get up and running you can monitor you usage here  https://portal.plus.net/view_my_broadband_usage/index.php  Cool
Alxns
Grafter
Posts: 172
Registered: ‎18-05-2010

Re: Broadband Bandwidth in 2010 - What is a reasonable monthly usage cap

Well i personally think 10GB is not that much and i would go way over that
so i decided to for the 60GB package as it seems to be the best value for money aswell as providing me with enough bandwidth.
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Broadband Bandwidth in 2010 - What is a reasonable monthly usage cap

[quote=magnetism2772]unless I download during the night. when usage is not  added to my cap total and if I cant without going to sleep at the pc ?
I find that if you wait until midnight to start doing gigabytes of downloading (from say the BBC iPlayer), that because a lot of other people are doing the same thing, that the download speed starts of quite slowly (for the first hour), and you also end up often leaving the PC switched on overnight to complete.  I now tend to start my downloads in the morning, to finish before 8am, as I get my maximum download speed (843KB/s) then, and therefore can download about 2.5GB per hour - which is usually enough for me if I get up at 7am, or earlier if need be.  Obviously if you have a really slow broadband connection, then midnight starts might be your only option.
magnetism2772
Grafter
Posts: 983
Registered: ‎06-06-2010

Re: Broadband Bandwidth in 2010 - What is a reasonable monthly usage cap

hi all
thanks for all the replies
Plusnet's 10 GB  download/upload bandwidth value account is fine if I only want to use(read web pages)like I would read a colourful book with all its images.
I agree that I am likely to stay within the bandwidth limits controlled by Plusnet's(PN) value package with half or more bandwidth to spare to
do other things
But the web offers so much more than just surfing to read .all day  long every day
I have discovered that under this value net package I wont be able to enjoy  watching and listening or downloading too many mp4 files
As the filesizes for just one of  these are about 30MB , so downloading or listening to one hundred of these in / over any one month  would reduce my monthly allowance by 3000MB or 3 GB .
The same would be true of watching a daily episodes of steptoe and son or dads army etc  from youtube over any month
Other than what has already been said
The account then after I've daily surfed over the month and downloaded one hundered mp4 songs over that same month
would now be so restricted I'd have to buy new bandwidth
I now  understand why many ISPs like talktalk offer/offered these type of accounts  for  free
if you buy into a phone deal with them..
Interestingly If you live in a Democracy
Corporates act as cartels(little communisms) including ISP's
for example If you live in the United States you are  capped by many ISP providers ,but not  all , but the caps  come in terabytes
Here in the UK you are caped by some ISP's, but again not by all, and   they come in  much smaller  values , tens of gigabytes
Yet strange as it mean seem if you live in Communist China , your more likely to
get unlimited allowances.. hmm
I shall need to upgrade to the Plusnet(PN) extra and pay that extra £5
it says in My  account that my billing is not activated  yet , checking on your  bank DD setup.. can I upgrade early ?
Lips_are_sealed
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      Just because I don’t care Doesn’t mean I don’t understand
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Mand
Grafter
Posts: 5,560
Thanks: 2
Registered: ‎05-04-2007

Re: Broadband Bandwidth in 2010 - What is a reasonable monthly usage cap

Hi there,
You can't upgrade until you're activated, but you can raise a ticket requesting this and we'll action it for you once it's active.
magnetism2772
Grafter
Posts: 983
Registered: ‎06-06-2010

Re: Broadband Bandwidth in 2010 - What is a reasonable monthly usage cap

hi   mand
thank-you
I am in a market 3 area . and I am reassured by the comments here.
I intend to upgrade from Plusnet's value package
onto Plusnet's  'extra' package with  speeds upto 20MB/60GB bandwidth
I will raise a ticket shortly today,
regards
itsme
Grafter
Posts: 5,924
Thanks: 3
Registered: ‎07-04-2007

Re: Broadband Bandwidth in 2010 - What is a reasonable monthly usage cap

It's actually speeds up to 20Mb and 60GB allowance. Regarding the speeds basically if you are syncing at and below 6Mb do not expect any improvement in speeds.
pierre_pierre
Grafter
Posts: 19,757
Thanks: 3
Registered: ‎30-07-2007

Re: Broadband Bandwidth in 2010 - What is a reasonable monthly usage cap

and its PlusNet not NetPlus
magnetism2772
Grafter
Posts: 983
Registered: ‎06-06-2010

Re: Broadband Bandwidth in 2010 - What is a reasonable monthly usage cap

for simplicity of course the term bandwidth is being incorrectly used here to describe
the consumption accumulated over a month measured in gigabytes per month,
the more accurate phrase used for this meaning of a maximum amount of data transfer each month
or given period is monthly data transfer Cheesy
when more precisely bandwidth =  transfer rate / sec
one example  = dialup modem = 56Kbits / sec

amended ..'netplus? and 50GB to '
sorry , the Plusnet(and  not netplus)  'Extra' deal is in fact , speeds upto 20MB with a monthly data transfer of 60GB

pierre_pierre
Grafter
Posts: 19,757
Thanks: 3
Registered: ‎30-07-2007

Re: Broadband Bandwidth in 2010 - What is a reasonable monthly usage cap

and dont forget that data transfer is two way, up and down