NationStates Jolt Archive

Soon, a British report is due to be published detailing recommendations for another digital revolution in Britain - so that the demands of the future can be met by the UK in order to ensure a competitive edge with the rest of the world. The UK Government has promised a 2Mbps download speed for all British broadband home users by 2012.

So this got me wondering - what do YOU think is needed for the future of home broadband, not just in the UK but also wherever you live.

How much do you pay for your service, do you actually ever get said service, do you think that 2Mbps is an acceptable speed for 2012 - especially in light of all the streaming content available currently?

I'm currently with a UK ISP called Tiscali, using a BT landline - paying £12.50 a month for up to 8Mb, the connection usually supports 4~4.5Mb and during peak time (5pm - Midnight) when I want to watch stuff online the speed can drop below 1Mb... sometimes making the use of the net really sluggish.

Some UK Broadband stuff: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8068676.stm

How much do you pay for your service,

About 30 USD a month.


do you actually ever get said service,


*Laughs cynically*


do you think that 2Mbps is an acceptable speed for 2012 - especially in light of all the streaming content available currently?


Maybe. 2Mbps is usually good enough for live streaming of any one net quality video. But a lot of people seem to take multi window video streaming for granted these days, so I don't know.

we're on about £15 per month for up to 8mbps with plusnet, which i think is a division of BT now. its typically fast enough, usually around the 4mbps mark, though they do employ some pretty draconian speed throttling measures - PC Pro magazine did a great article about the UK's main ISP's speed management systems this month. the main problem with plusnet is the relatively low download limits - watch a vid or two on the BBC iplayer or 4OD and i can burn through the monthly limit within a week :headbang:

http://www.speedtest.net/result/487482121.png (http://www.speedtest.net)

in the office we use Virgin (cable) at 20mbps for about £30 per month, iirc. that's usually at least around the 18-19mbps mark, and very reliable... apart from when my router decides to shit up. i'll post a speedtest later.


So this got me wondering - what do YOU think is needed for the future of home broadband, not just in the UK but also wherever you live.

actually, i think 2mbps is enough for most people. my parents don't use video streaming hardly at all, maybe the occasional bit of radio streaming. they don't use p2p or anything like Spotify/itunes/Napster. they use the internet mostly for email and the occasional bit of research, booking flights/trains, etc. i'm fairly sure that's pretty ordinary usage for a lot of people, and 2mbps is fine for that, and will be fine for the next few years. but as more (younger) people come to use the net in a heavier way over the next decade or so, 2mbps will start to look way too slow. 20mbps is probably too slow... we should catch up with countries like Korea and Japan. in that light, there's also the issue of businesses using broadband in addition to the consumer angle.

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/45827000/gif/_45827708_broadb_day_gra466.gif



edit: office speeds are a little slow today, but then there are some other people on the LAN here using the WAN connection
http://www.speedtest.net/result/487526880.png (http://www.speedtest.net)

Bethere for £24 a month syncs me at 24Mb, but I generally get around 20Mb and there's no cap or peak-time traffic throttling. 2.4 megabyte/sec DL rocks!

*ahem* torrents are wrong.

http://www.speedtest.net/result/487514161.png


Seeing as we're probably going to start getting more and more services over the internet infrastructure, I doubt 2Mbs will be enough, especially if you want High definition TV/Film content.

Bethere for £24 a month syncs me at 24Mb, but I generally get around 20Mb and there's no cap or peak-time traffic throttling. 2.4 megabyte/sec DL rocks!

Seeing as we're probably going to start getting more and more services over the internet infrastructure, I doubt 2Mbs will be enough, especially if you want High definition TV/Film content.

We also have BeThere and have never looked back, usually get about 16mg/sec on the wired connection (wireless less due to interferance, but our media box is wired so it's all good). Have managed to get more, but depends on usage. I have never seen it drop below about 12mg/s barring when they were having issues at the local telephone exchange, but they sorted that pretty sharpish. It's a bit more expensive than most networks, but you get what you pay for.

Now at work on the other hand:
http://www.speedtest.net/result/487535392.png (http://www.speedtest.net)

But then we're on the university backbone :D

Now at work on the other hand:
http://www.speedtest.net/result/487535392.png (http://www.speedtest.net)

But then we're on the university backbone :D

*wants* (especially the upload speed!)

that said, most of the uploads i make are to our server. but using wget via ssh means i can get its backbone connection to work for me :P

http://www.speedtest.net/result/487587242.png (http://www.speedtest.net)

Also a uni connection, though it is quite a bit slower in the evenings.

At home I'd get a lot less, probably similar to PM or maybe less.

Also a uni connection, though it is quite a bit slower in the evenings.

At home I'd get a lot less, probably similar to PM or maybe less.

The nice thing about my work connection is that it's on the departmental network not the main university network. Why is this important? Well the main university network gets horrifically bogged down with multiple users, our departmental network really doesn't :D

I heard that Virgin to trial 200 Mbps in Kent.







But, only for 20 seconds.

The nice thing about my work connection is that it's on the departmental network not the main university network. Why is this important? Well the main university network gets horrifically bogged down with multiple users, our departmental network really doesn't :D

Nice. Normally here it's either good speeds or you're put in network quarantine every 5 minutes for 'urgent updates'.


And OP: I object to the verb in your title.

9001gbps.


anything less is unacceptable.

http://www.speedtest.net/result/488042938.png (http://www.speedtest.net)

Well...I feel...inadequate...

http://www.speedtest.net/result/488042938.png (http://www.speedtest.net)

Well...I feel...inadequate...

well at least you have a decent upload speed and pretty much SDSL, which is cool :)


http://www.speedtest.net/result/488490854.png (http://www.speedtest.net)

Virgin are being sucky today. maybe they give their new customers really good speeds for a month or two and then throttle the shit out of it... :confused:

Upload speed sucks :(

http://www.speedtest.net/result/488109413.png

http://www.speedtest.net/result/489362333.png (http://www.speedtest.net)

:(

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/45827000/gif/_45827708_broadb_day_gra466.gif


Slower than Mexico (I'm still on dial up) and get by just fine. :D

Slower than Mexico (I'm still on dial up) and get by just fine. :D

lol, i have no idea how you manage :p

and btw, i'm amazed this thread hasn't made it past one page in almost a week :( :(

Dial up? Bummer.

Dial up? Bummer.

Not at all. I played Asheron's Call for years. World of Warcraft in it's first month. Post on various forums. Keep up with news. I will soon bump up to DSL or something else because the price is getting better. But seriously. Dial up is not that bad. I really see no need for the super speed like in Japan. (unless it's cheap)

I rape kittens and then boil them until they're almost dead. I then crush their skulls, and use their brains as butter.

:confused: How is that relevant?

http://www.speedtest.net/result/492079438.png (http://www.speedtest.net)

I have no idea how to interpret this. My max--utter, complete, won't go any higher max--download speed is 160 kilobytes per second, and it's usually lower than that.

What does that make my connection speed? (I don't have the responsibility of taking care of internet service for this household so I don't know what it is.)