Hi guys
a few years ago now, I blogged on the topic of ISP terminology. I thought I would re-hash this for anyone who was interested. hash browns, bigger bytes, queue at mcdonalds, queue in servers for data loads from the ISP mmm.
When you buy a lovely BigMac one of the nice fresh ones, in an area/place you feel confidant has had no tempering, up market, the place might be ten years old, but as you sit it is so clean you feel like you are the first and only one ever sit in that booth.
You were told on TV in an advert, BigMac's for sale '300 Guineas' you supposed it was some kind of dismissible joke, no one uses 'Guineas' nowadays they were only used in american colonies and in the UK in the 1700's. You go along with your £/$3 thinking 'what a great deal!', the restaurant is packed with slightly annoyed customers, but happy never-the-less. You approach the counter and ask for a BigMac and ask about the deal, The assistant says 'yes sir, that'll be 300 guineas' you reply how much is that in pounds(or dollars)?' he replies 'oh that's 5 pounds' you say 'erm that's not a great deal, its the same as your regular rates.. .. >:( ..:( ..' and he replies 'well since you are here and hungry, do you still want it?' sadly you are hungry and reply..':( ... :) okay'. .... this is just my imagination, but done to illustrate a point.
ISP's have an old way of counting speeds as a marketing tool to increase shopping confidence. They count in megabits per second, kilobits per second.. not *bytes* which is the more common counting method for everyone else. To explain, there is 8 bits in 1 byte, so a 20 megabit per second, is actually a 2.5 megabyte connection.. but there are many more factors that determine your true speed.
1. How far you are away from the ISP server, if they use traffic shaping, something i feel should be tolerated, but monitored by the government, that ISP's are not just cutting us for little to no reason, it has to be justified, and if not, why not? ..why not increase infrastructure to meet the demand you said you could prove to people you have now locked to a contract?? that costs money and if you were willing to enter a contract you should be proving the agreed service or have a just reason why you occasionally (1 hour a day) limit their internet.
2. loads on servers, much like traffic shaping, but not controlled by the ISP, like the old told tale of the world cup, and everyone* when to put the kettle on for a cup of tea and there was a blackout, too much demand all at the one time.
3. home networking ability. simply your ethernet/card/wifi or its drivers is not good enough to soak up all that data quickly enough.. harddrive/ssd plays a big part in this too, where the data is being stored has to be able to write the data quickly enough from the download.. slow drive can = slow download.
4. finally the ISP's themselves and their server policies, some but not all reserve bandwidth in case things get 'choppy/hectic'.. this bandwidth pretty much just sits there doing nothing, and unless Elvis comes back and Yahoo news or a Facebook viral video are first to report, I guess it's only used to bounce youtube around a little to bolster your bandwidth.
buuuut.. its this thing where.. they shouldn't be using an old measurement to impress people.
Story
I recently switched to Sky after years and years with Virgin Media.. they did a *very* bad thing to me 2 years ago, and I think they must have some the worst staff policies of any company out there. in 2011, they sold me a V+ box, I had talked it out with VM salesman over the phone..he had called me, its was £100 over three months (2 and a half), I said yeah sounds good..but that's not what happened, it £200 over 2 months, I had my internet cut off in a bad time in my life, I had broke up with my ex and was quite lonely, I was relying on the internet to keep in touch with friends as I don't have a car and they live far enough away thats it's not cool to ask them to come for me. I phoned VM up being a long standing customer I thought: 'I have put loads of money in their bank over the years surely they will give me an extension until I get paid two weeks later'. they didn't. and I was alone at already very isolated point in my life... I decided not to pay next time either I was furious at them at all the loyalty I had showed them for them to not even care when I needed them.. I rung them up and said I wanted to clear my bill and leave.. they told me with getting the V+ box I had renewed my contract and could not leave for another 2 years.. I had already told them I did not want it and wanted to return the box..which I did 2 weeks later.
I never forgot that..I wanted out of the painful reminder of what they had helped do to me in a bad time in my life..
So in October.. I phoned them up and said my contract is up and I want to leave. they danced around this and it took 3 separate phone calls to end my contract with them.. at one point a customer manager came on and tried her hardest to talk me out it.. I even told her the story above and she didn't want to let me go .. what a B*!! try to convince me by saying 'standard policy' hen you were doomed from before you lifted the phone but c'mon, not even trying here, except when it came to scare tactics.. oh she was good at that.. fine this! and fine that! but I held my ground. heartless B*.
I gave her 'laldy' she heard exactly what I thought of VM for doing this to 6 year (in 2011) customer.
when all was said and done I spoke to another gent a nice guy who wrapped it all for me/us. he even sent £13 refund for the end of a bill cycle.. I also felt he felt sorry about they way I had been treated, but that might have been my imagination.
I had good experiences with VM too, like when I wrote them some feedback in 2009 about a separate thing I don't remember, I mentioned I had a got one of their london call centers and the londoner had been abusive to me..they phoned me up and asked how i thought this could be avoided and I asked for scottish call centers..i think they did this, as a year later while calling them, I got through to a wow.. scottish voice. and the londoners 'I can't understand you.. speak english! do.you.know.english.?' seemed to fade away.
wow this is all just pouring out..should have I just continued with the article?.. I mean you get it right?
Dava
*(this was supposedly in London in the 60's or 70's IIRC)
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