uk [UK] Are there any UK ISPs that don't throttle speeds?

[Elliot B.]

Are there are ISP packages (or even ISPs overall) that you know of that don't throttle speeds, especially during peak hours?

[Daedroth]

I'm under the impression that Sky's top tier package doesn't throttle speeds.

[The Evil Overlord]

I didn't realise VM did, or at the very least, I didn't notice.

[Elliot B.]

I didn't realise VM did, or at the very least, I didn't notice.

It's usually torrent speeds where ISPs bone you.

[Steven P. Administrators]

See PM.

[The Evil Overlord]

It's usually torrent speeds where ISPs bone you.

Ah ok, didn't know that. :)

[watkinsx2]

TalkTalk throttles p2p at peak times. VM throttles most things as peak times. BT Infinity I think has gone totally unlimited as are Sky. 

 

Plusnet do some throttling but its not as severe as Talktalk.

[jakem1]

It's usually torrent speeds where ISPs bone you.

 

Virgin do throttle torrents but it's only once you've downloaded a certain number of gigabytes (it was 7GB but they're in the process of changing that I think).  Despite this, I never notice my speeds slowing down and I would easily exceed 7GB a week.

[Daedroth]

I didn't realise VM did, or at the very least, I didn't notice.

Virgin Media also have a limit on the amount you can download during peak times. Once you go over that limit (varies depending on your package), you get a 66% speed throttle until that peak time is over.

[jakem1]

VM throttles most things as peak times

 

That's not true.  They only throttle torrent traffic.

[The Evil Overlord]

Virgin Media also have a limit on the amount you can download during peak times. Once you go over that limit (varies depending on your package), you get a 66% speed throttle until that peak time is over.

Ok understood :)

That's not true.  They only throttle torrent traffic.

Well for how long I've been with them (Over 10 years now <originally a telewest customer>) I was unaware of this, but I think it might be self explanitary as to why :)

[watkinsx2]

That's not true.  They only throttle torrent traffic.

 

 

Also not true - if you go over your allowance everything is throttled. Its also the most convoluted and complex traffic management of all of them. Also - pray that your network segment isn't over congested because VM will take months to fix it.

 

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/news/5790-virgin-media-launches-new-stepped-traffic-management-levels.html

[The Evil Overlord]

Also - pray that your network segment isn't over congested because VM will take months to fix it.

 

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/news/5790-virgin-media-launches-new-stepped-traffic-management-levels.html

<liked>

Unfortunately, very true, I won't go into details but I remember this happening not to long ago

[Daedroth]

That's not true.  They only throttle torrent traffic.

Yes they do. Back when I had VM, on a 20MB line...downloading more than 3GB during peak times meant that my connection was dropped to 4MB.

[mps69]

Never had my Sky connection throttled even using P2P.

[jakem1]

Also not true - if you go over your allowance everything is throttled. Its also the most convoluted and complex traffic management of all of them. Also - pray that your network segment isn't over congested because VM will take months to fix it.

 

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/news/5790-virgin-media-launches-new-stepped-traffic-management-levels.html

 

I've just had a look at their updated policy and it's less clear than it used to be although this is the important bit:

 

 

Also, speed is only reduced for the direction a threshold is exceeded ? if you exceed your threshold with downloads, your speed will only be reduced for downloading

http://my.virginmedia.com/traffic-management/traffic-management-policy-30Mb-or-higher.html

 

In effect they're saying that they'll only throttle P2P traffic because that's the activity that's most likely to exceed their fair use policy.  They're old policy was much clearer and explicitly stated that web traffic including streaming video wouldn't be shaped. It's a shame they've switched to vaguer terminology.

 

Anyway, in practice I've never bumped up against these limits or haven't noticed a significant slow down.  From memory my 120Mbps service gets shaped to about 75Mbps and it only lasts for an hour so it's not that big a deal anyway.

[Biohead]

TalkTalk throttles p2p at peak times. VM throttles most things as peak times. BT Infinity I think has gone totally unlimited as are Sky. 

 

Plusnet do some throttling but its not as severe as Talktalk.

 

 

Talktalk don't do any throttling anymore. They got rid of that a few months ago. Sky also don't throttle, and the top BT Tiers also does away with throttling (although the lower BT Tiers ARE throttled)

[Elliot B.]

 

 

Talktalk don't do any throttling anymore. They got rid of that a few months ago. Sky also don't throttle, and the top BT Tiers also does away with throttling (although the lower BT Tiers ARE throttled)

 

Where I live (a HMO), the letting agent uses Utility Warehouse, which I believe uses TalkTalk as their provider, and they throttle heavily between 18:00 and 00:00.

[ManMountain]

Sky fibre here, not a throttle in sight :)

[watkinsx2]

Where I live (a HMO), the letting agent uses Utility Warehouse, which I believe uses TalkTalk as their provider, and they throttle heavily between 18:00 and 00:00.

 

 

Talktalk Retail may not have the same traffic management policy as TalkTalk wholesale. I can test Talktalk later as I have a FTTC connection through them at home.

[philcruicks]

I'm on the top BT infinity package and I never notice any throttling, I'm sure they as most ISP throttle p2p, but i can run a speed test any time of the day and its always within a 1mb range, which when your connection runs at 75mb I don't count as throttling, just normal variance.

[Elliot B.]

I'm on the top BT infinity package and I never notice any throttling, I'm sure they as most ISP throttle p2p, but i can run a speed test any time of the day and its always within a 1mb range, which when your connection runs at 75mb I don't count as throttling, just normal variance.

They can fake such results on testing websites. Run torrents, that'll be a real test.

[watkinsx2]

BT are un managed now:

 

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/news/5697-bt-retail-makes-its-unlimited-products-totally-unlimited.html

 

http://crave.cnet.co.uk/gadgets/bt-infinity-goes-totally-unlimited-ditches-throttling-50010340/

[MinTeH]

I'm with Sky (Not the top package) and I've never been throttled. 

[The Evil Overlord]

I'm with Sky (Not the top package) and I've never been throttled. 

*God it's tempting to make a joke here*