UK Online unveils 8Mb broadband

[Samurai]

UK Online has launched a whopping 8Mbps broadband service, offering surfers a connection speed 120 times faster than dial-up.


Called Broadband 8000, the service costs £39.99 a month and has a £50 connection fee. A wireless Ethernet router costs £69.99.



The service is available through local loop unbundling (LLU) at 230 BT exchanges where network provider EasyNet has installed its own DSL equipment. Availability is limited to four exchanges today, but UK Online expects the service to be available to 4.4 million households by the start of next year.



Chris Stening, general manager at UK Online, said: “We're really excited by this. The service is phenomenally quick and is likely to suit those that share their broadband connection. It makes streaming video look like TV.”



According to UK Online, in order to get the full speed customers will need to be within 2km of an exchange which means around half of homes won't be able to get it.



"We are very honest about distance degradation and before people sign up we notify them what speed we expect them to get. If we are not able to guarantee at least 2Mb, we won't sell it," added Stening.



Broadband 8000 does not have a fixed download restriction, but UK Online said it considers "regular or recurring data transfer in excess of 4GB per day to be an example of excessive use".



Earlier this month, UK Online launched Broadband 1000 - a 1Mbps service costing £34.99 per month with free set-up and modem. The ISP hopes to add voice calls and TV/video on demand services next year.

Link (http://www.ukonline.net/)

I'm literally 0.5k from my exchange and I'm on 2MB but I don't think my exchange is enabled yet, so I've registered my interest.

Let me know if anyone can get it in there area.


Samurai :ph34r:

[4play]

8mb for £40 is great. seems it will be available in my area february. :-)

[n18]

UKers finally get decent speed broadband for a decent price...nice :D

[Samurai]

Yea I'm paying the same price for 2MB with Bulldog, and I thought that was good. Hopefully, by Feb, my exchange will be enabled.

[Samurai]

Anyone else checked to see if they can get it?

[silent h3ro]

Damn, keep up America!! I want 8Mbps! :(

[EtaunisniHtrad]

If I lived in Japan, I could have have a 26Mbit DSL connection via Yahoo! BroadBand (Y! BB). Holy crap!

What's it cost, you wonder? A bit less than my 1.5Mbit DSL or 3Mbit Cable in the US.

Think about it this way. In the 20-30 seconds it normally takes to establish a dial-up connection and get an IP address, you could have downloaded 60MB worth of data.

If you don't live close to the central office, you have to suffer with the slower DSL connections: 12Mbit, 10Mbit, or 6Mbit.

Oh, the pain...
from a random blog

http://jeremy.zawodny.com/blog/archives/001030.html

[Samurai]

See this is why when Japan is dedicated to doing something, they do it.

[DanB]

Broadband 8000 does not have a fixed download restriction, but UK Online said it considers "regular or recurring data transfer in excess of 4GB per day to be an example of excessive use".

hmmm, if you got 8Mb connection you're going to be downloading far more than 4Gb a day I'd have thought

[Samurai]

Some people actually work, and as such are away from their house for at least 10 hours of a working day. Sure, pound it like there's no tomorrow, but 3.5GB a day, I can live with that.

[vivitron 15]

what i did remark the other day is (on an uncapped product) 8Gb gives a 4400MB DVD movie in 78mins (if i remember rightly, without working it out) hence this will mean you can watch live, DVD quality streaming...maybe something for blockbusters to think about one day - id rather do that than go to the videoshop. I would prob even pay for it, if i twas offered like that......well, maybe not, but people would ;)

[DanB]

Some people actually work,

Miaow
:crying:

[Samurai]

Didn't mean it to come across bitchy, sorry.

I know the deal's not going to appeal to every single person. I myself, despise caps. Maybe they'll remove it if enough people refuse to sign up unless it's removed.

Might start myself with a petition... :-)

[DanB]

I'll happily add to it, that speed does appeal to me, we have only just been offered the option to upgrade to 2Mb

Don't worry I was only joking :P

[manker]

Some people actually work, and as such are away from their house for at least 10 hours of a working day. That's a bit of a pathetic, not to mention sarcastic, statement.

I actually do more downloading of movies, games etc while I'm at work or afk rather than when I'm at home surfing or using the connection for other, lighter bandwidth, activities.

However, I've pre-signed up for the 8mb service. Forty quid per month is only 10 more that I'm paying now for my 1mb line. :D

[Samurai]

Petition Activated!

http://www.petitiononline.com/fcuk/petition.html

[scribblec]

the cap puts me off


8Mb gives a 4400MB DVD movie in 78mins

thats one hour of downloading a day :l

[DanB]

Petition Activated!

http://www.petitiononline.com/fcuk/petition.html


Signed :shifty:

[Cheese]

Blueyonder are upping their speeds to a mere 4mb and upload is going up as well, I guess the advantage with them is unlimited usage.

[ilw]

the cap puts me off
thats one hour of downloading a day :l


Thats exactly what crossed my mind too. one measly hour. i bet the contention ratio is well high & I bet the upload speed is still 256k as well <_< even though they must know that their entire market is p2p users, I mean who the fuck wants webpages at 1MB/s

They should have a more expensive version (£45/50 maybe) with decent uplaod and no cap. I'm sure theres a fair few people who'd go for it

[Samurai]

Thats exactly what crossed my mind too. one measly hour. i bet the contention ratio is well high & I bet the upload speed is still 256k as well <_< even though they must know that their entire market is p2p users, I mean who the fuck wants webpages at 1MB/s

They should have a more expensive version (£45/50 maybe) with decent uplaod and no cap. I'm sure theres a fair few people who'd go for it

Their contention ratio is set at 33:1 and upload speed is 400k.

I do agree with you in that who really wants websites at 8MB/s :lol:

They really should make a higher tariff if they point blank refuse to remove the capping.

Maybe £49.99 for uncapped 8MB/s service would be fair. But if you check out my petition - Japan were paying £20 a month for 26MB/s connections this time last year. Their telephone lines are exactly the same as ours.

Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3278375.stm


Now, with the latest tranche of upgrades taking the maximum download speed to a blazing 26Mbps - remember, this is still over standard telephone lines, just like in the UK - one can be forgiven for wondering why BT and its competitors are languishing in the slow lane.


According to the IEEE, you could get over 50Mbps, theoretically, if your loop is less than one kilometre. In Japan, NTT has put a fibre feeder point within a kilometre of 80% of locations

[4play]

the reason its cheaper in japan is that people are packed alot closer to the exchanges. meaning lots of people can get these speeds with next to no trouble. and you must of heard of economy of scale.

we will catch up slowly since we are also a relatively small country but the states are way to big to offer everyone cheap high speed internet.

[ilw]

All the money and pressure thats applied into stopping the digital divide rural / urban is slowing things as well. Its kinda stupid imo, obviously there'll be a divide in terms of what you can offer in heavily built up areas to spread out rural areas, its like saying theres a farming divide.

[lynx]

There's no logical reason why we shouldn't all have the fastest speeds the wiring is capable of supporting. It doesn't cost any more to have an 8Mb/s connection than it does to have a 512Kb/s connection. The equipment is already installed and working.

However, with higher speeds we are likely to use more bandwidth so there is some justification for a slightly higher charge. But since most of the cost is in infrastructure not bandwidth they are just using it as an excuse to have a nice little moneyspinner. Bastards.

[silent h3ro]

So we could all be having 50Mbps lines? Fuckin greedy ISPs!! :mad3:

[BILLY-THE-FISH]

I would prob even pay for it
Stop swearing in here!! :lol: :lol: :lol:

[4play]

I think the article is a bit misleading. I dont think its possible to get anywhere near 26 mbits per second over copper cable for any great distance. im guessing your local junction box has to have fiber cable run to it and then your copper cable can handle that much bandwidth since its only a short distance.

updating the old network we have will cost a lot and i think having BT dragging their feet over upgrading it is whats causing expensive bandwidth in the u.k

[browser]

UK Online have now changed their terms and conditions to state the limit of 500GB a month, instead of 4GB a day. Looks like I'll be needing a new hard drive.

www.adslguide.org.uk

[Samurai]

UK Online have now changed their terms and conditions to state the limit of 500GB a month, instead of 4GB a day. Looks like I'll be needing a new hard drive.

www.adslguide.org.uk

Yea. I just noticed that myself. I forgot to check back on this thread :unsure: and was going to post this myself.

Is 16.66GB p/ day enough for ya's now? lol :lol:

[browser]

Well. I hope they start releasing some good films in April...when I get the 8MB line. I can't wait!!!

[vivitron 15]

yup - i think thats very reasonable, and ive registered pre-interest for the new year...its avail to me by early jan...though i think im going to give them a couple of months to see what the CS etc is like. I doubt ill get the 8Mb, cos i cant get 2 off BT, but i should be able to get more than the 1 im on now.

The only obstacle left is that its a 12month contract...

[Samurai]

I'm on a 12 month contact with Bulldog DSL, and as soon as I said I was unhappy with their service (a couple of months back) they said sorry and offered me a MAC code so I could migrate. They sorted themselves out though and I'm still with them, so don't think a 12 month contract will automatically bind you to everlasting doom if the service really is shit.

Count yourself lucky you can get it though. I'm 10 minutes away from Central London (SE London) and I've been emailed saying they have no plans for my exchange to be enabled. Here's a transcript:


Dear Mr Xxxxxxxx

Thank you for your enquiry. Unfortunately the Forest Hill exchange is not on our current LLU rollout phase. That is all the information we have for now. Sorry!

Kind regards

Kerry D'Souza

[silent h3ro]

Lucky sobs. :dry: