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Is 5gb allowence a month enough in this day and age

:hrmph: Recently i have been uploading some old cine film to you tube and suprised how fast my 5gb monthly allowence is being used up and believe that £2 per gb over my allowence is over priced.
I am putting these on to help my local community in to local history and that the more people who see them in my eyes the better..
I am currently paying £13.81 per month of which i am not complaining.
But do you think 5gb is adequate in this day and age with bbc iplayer and the like.
I await all your comments.
Thank you :confused:
 
There's no simple answer - what is "adequate" depends entirely on your requirements, though your situation is not helped by the fact that, from what you say, your ISP count uploads against your allowance, not just downloads.

I have very little interest in anything other than straightforward information, which usually consists of mostly text, and the ISP I'm with only count downloads, so 5GB per month is plenty for me - I rarely go over 3GB. Even if they included uploads, I doubt if I upload 2GB of stuff in a month to my websites (separately hosted, not ISP free webspace), so I probably still wouldn't have to worry about exceeding my allowance and have to think about upgrading.

On the other hand, Jarman has a possible 420GB allowance if he times things right, and doesn't think that's enough. Obviously his requirements are rather different to mine!

Horses for courses - if it isn't enough, then upgrade or, if your ISP doesn't offer a suitable package and your excess charges on a per GB basis are likely to be more than about a fiver, change ISP.
 
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To get a decent peak/off peak allowance, you will need to pay 2-3 times what you currently do.
Beware of cheap offerings with the word "unlimited" in them; I still cannot believe that OFCOM and ASA have allowed Vodaphone to claim an unlimited service when the FUP is 3Gb!!!!

I get 10/40Gb, line rental, very cheap overseas calls, and 300 minutes of UK "01" calls for £29.99
 
My limit is 45gig peak 300gig offpeak I am around the computer on and off all day. Two others share the connection occasionally my son comes round with his girlfriend and they use the connection my worst month was using 25gig altogether that includes uploading websites watching youtube, moderating this forum visiting other forums and searchign more inforation on BT's webwise.
 
Kits, can I borrow some of your bandwidth??

It seems that BT is forcing midnight till 8am as off peak onto Vispa customers, despite Vispa insisting we are on 10pm till 8am; meaning I have only 2 Gb of my "Peak" allowance left.
 
The way BT are charging all will only have offpeak as midnight till 7:59 8 am starts peak.

Between those times you can be sure speed will be slow.
 
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An afterthought on this...

Ivan, you say you "believe that £2 per gb over my allowence is over priced."

Yes, it's a bit pricey compared to most - but at £13.81 you're paying a pretty low base price to start with, and the thing to consider is, how often are you likely to exceed your 5GB allowance?

If uploading these films is basically a one-off rather than an ongoing project that's liable to result in, say, 8GB being used regularly, and the service provided by the ISP is fine in other respects, then if I was in that position, I'd stay where I was and live with a few pounds extra now and then.

For example, it wouldn't be fair to use my own package as a comparison, as (a) I'm on a 2Mb line not "up to 8 Mb" and (b) it's an old package that's no longer offered, but if I look at what Namesco's current "up to 8Mb" offering...

£14.95 with 1GB included
add a pre-paid extra 5GB for £2.50 = £17.45 for 6GB
or add a pre-paid extra 10GB for £5 = £19.95 for 11GB
or if my usage got more towards Kits's level of use...
add a pre-paid extra 25GB for £7.50 = £22.45 for 26GB
and so-on.

Personally, I'm happy with them and would stick with them if I upgraded my line - but if you are basically happy with your ISP, with that low £13.81 base price having 5GB included, if you're only a bit over, and end up paying £6 in excess charges, so £19.81 for 8GB, not massively over where the excess charge results in you paying, say, £29.81 for 13GB, you're actually no worse off, are you?

Namesco aren't the cheapest, of course, so if you genuinely need a *lot* more than your current allowance on a regular basis, obviously it's worth looking around to see what's on offer, but, as Captain Cretin says, beware of anything that looks too good to be true, because it probably is!

The bottom line is that bandwidth costs money, and you're not going to get a phenomenal amount for under £20 without also getting a really crap service. If Namesco folded up tomorrow, I'd be looking at ISPs like Zen, IDnet and the various Entanet resellers, and be prepared to pay a bit more for a decent service, not looking at Mickey Mouse ISP's 100GB for £15 or whatever - if you don't need 100GB, what's the point in risking it when it's likely to give you a permanent headache?

If Be sort out their current problems, their overall reputation is pretty good for the price, so they might be worth considering - but personally I won't use an ISP with an overseas call centre, so they they wouldn't be on my own list.
 
I think everybody else has already made the main points but just to add, generally if you're doing anything with video services (viewing or uploading) then that really does require a bigger allowance than 5GB.. I'd say at least 15GB. 2GB to 5GB really is for basic Internet use.
 
can I add internet radio to that Mark; I used to run up about 15 Gb a month just from a radio stream when I was working from home. Even if you only listen for a few hours each evening, it still adds up to several Gbs.
 
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Sorry I forgot all about that one, even tho I commentated on it!!!!

It is a pity we cannot send these people cheques with UPTO or UNLIMITED on the payment line, then allow only 5p in the small print!!!
 
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