Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Web-Junkie
I think the concern maybe that now NTL have stated "up to" they have free reign to mess about with the speeds any way they see fit and use the "up to" clause to justify it. This could include the traffic shaping many have voiced concerns over too.
Also, what happens when you are "upgraded" and your speed drops to less than the 2mb speed you were originally on while still paying the same price of £24.99, what do we do then when they have the "up to" clause to wave in your face?
|
NTL really had to change their tier descriptions from the 1MB, 2Mb, etc and quote them all as "up to" because of the way the internet works and the expectations of some customers. The speed at which you can download something is governed by many factors, not just the limit set by the configuration file that your modem is using. How many times do you see "I pay for a 10Mb service but get nothing like that"? Whether you can get it depends on factors such as the speed at which the other party can upload to you, the contention on the various networks that the data has to pass through and what every other customer on your UBR is doing.
In the early days of cable broaband there were relatively few customers on fairly low speeds. In the main customers tended to get 100% of the advertised speed. As the number of broadband customers worldwide has increased rapidly and speeds have been substantially increased at the same time then the ability to sustain maximum speed has gone. In the future as speeds get faster still then it will become even less likely that anything like the maximum speeds will be attainable.
Using "up to" is not a cop out by NTL but more a true reflection of what speeds on high speed home broadband connections are achievable.