WOAH! Free upgrade to 8Mb ADSL!!

[London Geezer]

Good god!!

I got an email from my ISP last night that went a little bit like this:

FREE upgrade to 8 meg for all Bulldog @ctive customers

Dear Mr Beautiful (i changed that),

We've done it again. In addition to rolling-out our 400th exchange and extending our coverage to almost 30% of the UK, we're now increasing the speed of our @ctive services to a blisteringly fast 8 meg.

Why 8 meg?
With 8 meg, downloading DVDs or music, or just browsing is so much better, and even huge files can be downloaded in a flash. It really will help you experience the internet the way it's meant to be.

When will your service be upgraded?
Your Bulldog @ctive service will be upgraded automatically, free of charge. This will happen the two weeks starting from 15th June 2005.

Are there any download caps or hidden charges?
Unlike many other providers, we don't set any download caps on any of our broadband services. You'll continue to pay exactly what you do now.

What happens if your phone line won't support 8 meg?
We'll provision lines to the greatest speed they'll support, up to 8 meg. This does mean that a minority of customers will have lines running with lower maximum speeds. However, even at 3 or 4 meg, our services offer great value.

What do you need to do?
Absolutely nothing. All you need to do is sit back, relax and wait. And you'll be surfing the net at superfast speeds up to 8 meg very soon.

Yours sincerely,


The Marketing Team,
Bulldog Communications

NICE!!!! What a fantastic surprise!

 

[rabidrabbit]

Why 8 meg?
With 8 meg, downloading DVDs or music, or just browsing is so much better, and even huge files can be downloaded in a flash. It really will help you experience the internet the way it's meant to be.

Wher can you download DVD's? Do this "Bulldog" have some own service, like iTunes for DVD's???

 

[London Geezer]

Why 8 meg?
With 8 meg, downloading DVDs or music, or just browsing is so much better, and even huge files can be downloaded in a flash. It really will help you experience the internet the way it's meant to be.

Wher can you download DVD's? Do this "Bulldog" have some own service, like iTunes for DVD's???

No, they're probably talking about torrents, in fact i found it despicable that they would encourage illegal downloads!! I mean that's just bad.

 

[Diplo]

How near are you to your exchange? I don't want to piss on your blanket but unless you virtually live at the exchange and your VP status is green there is no way you'll get anything like that speed.

However, congratulations 'cos you'll still should get a decent boost

 

[London Geezer]

How near are you to your exchange? I don't want to piss on your blanket but unless you virtually live at the exchange and your VP status is green there is no way you'll get anything like that speed.

However, congratulations 'cos you'll still should get a decent boost

Well to be honest i have no bloody idea, and no idea how to find out. The 4Mb connection i have now is great, always get maximum speeds whenever i need.

Though the little part where they feel they have to protect themselves and make clear that "some lines just won't handle it" doesn't feel too reassuring...

 

[Diplo]

To find out what your exchange is and it's status go to http://www.samknows.com/broadband/phoneno.php and enter your phone number. It will tell you your exchange and what it's status is (pay particular attention to the VP status because it gives a good idea if your exchange is overloaded, giving a higher contention ratio). You can also use something like http://www.adsl-business.co.uk/adsl_checker.asp to get an idea of what your line supports.

 

[London Geezer]

Right this is what i got:

General information
Exchange name: Canonbury
Exchange code: CLCAN
Location: London,
London
Postcode: N5 1HJ
Maps: Our map | Multimap | Streetmap
Serves (approx): 21,975 residential premises
1,896 non-residential premises

Exchange capacity information (Help!)
VP Status: AMBER
VP upgrade due: 10/05/2005
Total BT DSLAM's: 8 (1 SDSL capable)
Next BT DSLAM: 15/06/2005
Data last updated: 28 April 2005, 16:44:44

Translate? :?

 

[sytaylor]

DSLAMS are the huuuuuge cabinets in the exchange building that ADSL lines are connected to. (They look like big IBM mainframes). The capacity rating shows what percentage of capacity is being used on that DSLAM. Mine is red

 

[ndoogoo]

How much do you pay a month for your 8Mbit uncapped connection?

I hate to feel that I might be getting ripped off paying £34.99/month for a 3Mbit capped connection.

 

[London Geezer]

How much do you pay a month for your 8Mbit uncapped connection?

I hate to feel that I might be getting ripped off paying £34.99/month for a 3Mbit capped connection.

£40, phone line rental included, no capping.

BT charges you 14 to 20 quid on top of the phone line rental to in the end they charge wou around 35 quid for a capped 1-2Mb connection...

So really, Bulldog is a hell of a good deal.

 

[Diplo]

VP Status: AMBER

Translate? :?

Amber, as you might guess, is between being 'green' for 'all OK' and 'red' for 'congested'. In effect you might find that at busy peak times (ie. early evening) then you may get contention-rate issues effecting your peak bandwidth. You'll probably be OK in early hours and daytime, though. Bare in mind, however, that not many servers will actually have the capacity to output at 1MB/s (which is effectively what an 8Mb connection is). I'm on a T3 at work (around 40Mb) and don't really notice much difference between it and my 2Mb home line apart from on certain servers.

 

[London Geezer]

VP Status: AMBER

Translate? :?

Amber, as you might guess, is between being 'green' for 'all OK' and 'red' for 'congested'. In effect you might find that at busy peak times (ie. early evening) then you may get contention-rate issues effecting your peak bandwidth. You'll probably be OK in early hours and daytime, though. Bare in mind, however, that not many servers will actually have the capacity to output at 1MB/s (which is effectively what an 8Mb connection is). I'm on a T3 at work (around 40Mb) and don't really notice much difference between it and my 2Mb home line apart from on certain servers.

Yes i know, most sites will stay the same, but torrents DL speeds will be very nicely bumped up...

I wonder if they also upgrade upload speeds, now it's 500Kb...

 

[Diplo]

I wonder if they also upgrade upload speeds, now it's 500Kb...

Yeah, often this is overlooked, but if you are the kind of person that likes to share torrents then upload speed is important. I somehow doubt, though, that it will as ISPs never seem to increase it.

 

[Andy]

This sounds a lot like what an ISP here in Australia, IINet is offering as well.

Now if I wasnt already on speeds of up to 10Mbit on cable, I would consider it!

 

[Guden Oden]

unless you virtually live at the exchange and your VP status is green there is no way you'll get anything like that speed.

I live roughly a kilometer from my exchange, 8mbit is no problem for me. I also have an old highschool who lives way out in the forest outside a small town to the north, he must easily have several kilometers to his exchange considering how un-densely the area is populated. He also gets 8mbit speed.

ADSL seems fairly robust in that sense it seems.

 

[Diplo]

he must easily have several kilometers to his exchange considering how un-densely the area is populated. He also gets 8mbit speed.

Perhaps you have better line infracstructure in Sweden? Generally it's recommended (in the UK) for you to be within 2 miles of the exchange for optimum speeds. However, error correction gets better all the time so I guess this could have changed...

 

[London Geezer]

Just checked the map with that website you gave me Dildo and i'm definately within 2 miles of the exchange. Not by much but i should be fine.

 

[hey69]

unless you virtually live at the exchange and your VP status is green there is no way you'll get anything like that speed.

I live roughly a kilometer from my exchange, 8mbit is no problem for me. I also have an old highschool who lives way out in the forest outside a small town to the north, he must easily have several kilometers to his exchange considering how un-densely the area is populated. He also gets 8mbit speed.

ADSL seems fairly robust in that sense it seems.

i have a hard time to believe that . under 2km yes maybe 8mbit but not 4-5km. even 4mbit at those distances are diffictult

 

[MPI]

he must easily have several kilometers to his exchange considering how un-densely the area is populated. He also gets 8mbit speed.

Perhaps you have better line infracstructure in Sweden? Generally it's recommended (in the UK) for you to be within 2 miles of the exchange for optimum speeds. However, error correction gets better all the time so I guess this could have changed...

Yeah, from what I've heard we are supposed to have very good lines here, but nonetheless at over ~3,5km length it is hard to get max datarate. The attenuation just gets too large whatever the line quality.

I think the secret lies in that we have a lot of distributed mini exchanges, so even in the countryside you can have quite reasonable distances.

 

[hey69]

that would be it.
right now we are installing ROPS (mini exchanges as you will) to deliver VDSL all around belgium. the trick is to bring everything closer to the clients
so to end of 2006 . 95% of belgium would be able to have full VDSL and has his distance under 1km of a dslam(or rop)