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Technical News & Discussion => Broadband, Internet & General Computer News & Discussion => Topic started by: john on Dec 15, 2008, 13:51:23

Title: Is broadband getting any faster ?
Post by: john on Dec 15, 2008, 13:51:23
Maybe, but not much, see article here (http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/technology/2008/12/broadband_britain_slowly_getti.html)
Title: Re: Is broadband getting any faster ?
Post by: Rik on Dec 15, 2008, 15:28:52
About what you'd expect, John. Unless someone spends some serious money, it's not going to get a lot faster, and that someone is unlikely to be BT at this time. :(
Title: Re: Is broadband getting any faster ?
Post by: Sebby on Dec 15, 2008, 18:49:06
So true, Rik. :shake:
Title: Re: Is broadband getting any faster ?
Post by: Simon on Dec 15, 2008, 20:31:42
I think it's time some ISPs were told to remove the 'up to 8Mb' line from their advertising, particularly the ones who throttle speeds, as, to my mind, that's blatant deception.
Title: Re: Is broadband getting any faster ?
Post by: Sebby on Dec 15, 2008, 20:38:33
I think it's only the ones that throttle that need to remove it, Simon, because it's factually correct otherwise.
Title: Re: Is broadband getting any faster ?
Post by: Lance on Dec 15, 2008, 22:55:31
I disagree, Sebby. When you factor in the profile, its only up to 7.15mb! (And even then there will be some overheads on top!)
Title: Re: Is broadband getting any faster ?
Post by: Simon on Dec 15, 2008, 23:18:31
I posted this before, but it must have been lost in the outage. 

If you buy a pint of milk, you expect a pint, not what the cow might be able to deliver!  ;D
Title: Re: Is broadband getting any faster ?
Post by: J!ll on Dec 15, 2008, 23:25:37
 :hehe:
Title: Re: Is broadband getting any faster ?
Post by: john on Dec 15, 2008, 23:51:55
Don't be silly, everyone knows that milk comes from bottles, not cows  :D
Title: Re: Is broadband getting any faster ?
Post by: Simon on Dec 15, 2008, 23:55:00
That could have been a lot worse, John!  ;D
Title: Re: Is broadband getting any faster ?
Post by: john on Dec 16, 2008, 00:04:12
 :blush:
Title: Re: Is broadband getting any faster ?
Post by: Inactive on Dec 16, 2008, 01:30:46
Quote from: Simon on Dec 15, 2008, 23:55:00
That could have been a lot worse, John!  ;D

Udder rubbish..  ;D
Title: Re: Is broadband getting any faster ?
Post by: john on Dec 16, 2008, 01:32:48
 :lol:
Title: Re: Is broadband getting any faster ?
Post by: Rik on Dec 16, 2008, 08:47:19
The other issue which is coming fast is capacity and bandwidth. With the BBC attempting to share the iPlayer with the other broadcasters, I can see bandwidth usage increasing quite sharply. That's going to show up a lot of ISPs, and it's also going to bring the 'unlimited' providers into the spotlight as they start putting the brakes on people.
Title: Re: Is broadband getting any faster ?
Post by: Sebby on Dec 16, 2008, 12:56:19
Indeed - capacity is becoming a major issue.
Title: Re: Is broadband getting any faster ?
Post by: esh on Dec 19, 2008, 16:31:16
A couple megabits down is frankly enough for me. What I *would* like is a couple megabits up though. There's SDSL of course, but I think that's a dying and somewhat awkwardly priced sector of the market, a bit like ISDN in the mid-90's.

I'm pretty sure the distribution system for popular P2P systems like iPlayer will have to be fundamentally altered to bias connections towards local sources to avoid a lot of expensive cross-network capacity issues.
Title: Re: Is broadband getting any faster ?
Post by: Rik on Dec 19, 2008, 16:32:40
ADSL2+, when BT deign to give it to us, will improve u/s speeds.
Title: Re: Is broadband getting any faster ?
Post by: Sebby on Dec 19, 2008, 17:25:48
Do you know how it's going to work, Rik? I know that Be uploads syncs as high as it can, i.e. the upstream sync has a target SNRM too.
Title: Re: Is broadband getting any faster ?
Post by: Rik on Dec 19, 2008, 17:29:32
I'm not sure, Seb, but I know it's faster than IPStream, so it's likely to be similar (I wonder if you can trade upstream and downstream?).
Title: Re: Is broadband getting any faster ?
Post by: Sebby on Dec 19, 2008, 17:37:42
On LLU, you can't. I wondered the same thing - why can't download use unused upstream frequencies? Maybe it can, but it's just not something that's done.
Title: Re: Is broadband getting any faster ?
Post by: Rik on Dec 19, 2008, 17:40:24
I suspect it's not 'convenient'. :(
Title: Re: Is broadband getting any faster ?
Post by: Sebby on Dec 19, 2008, 17:41:37
Ah, the old convenience issue. I suspect you're right. ;)