UK ADSL ISPs - one with no limits

I'm really just testing the water here because I know my current one will eventually turn sour (indeed all their current offers certainly have, I'm on one that's not offered any more). I'm with PlusNet, on a teleworker 2mbit plan with no limits - and I do mean NO limits, no monthly data limit, no connection throttling based on time of day, no services blocked and their fair usage policy doesn't apply to business connections (note that I said this connection is no longer offered - the current ones offered are very restricted). So basically I can do whatever I want, download plenty of linux ISOs from newsgroups and from bittorrent.

However, they've been bought by BT. In my experience with BT they get worse and worse as time goes on - service levels get lower while prices get higher. This is evidenced by the new restrictiveness of the PlusNet connections - not a single one offers unlimited bandwidth even WITH a fair usage policy.

What I want to know is, are there any ADSL ISPs that do offer unlimited services? Here are the criteria any ISP I would sign up to would have to meet:

• No monthly limits
• No connection throttling based on peak times
• No connection throttling based on the amount you've downloaded
• No undisclosed fair usage policy amount that once you go over you get throttled
• No disclosed fair usage policy amount that once you go over you get throttled
• No services blocked
• No funny business (like Virgin's previous routing of all HTTP traffic through transparent proxies)

Price doesn't bother me, but please don't make any stupid suggestions like a leased line or whatever. Just like there are those adverts for insurance for people who have points on their licenses, I am hoping there are ISPs that are a haven for heavy downloaders. I am a heavy downloader, I'm not trying to ruin things for everyone else, I'm happy to pay more, but I want to be able to do what I want with my connection. I don't want to be paying £20 a month to be stuck in a POW camp, internet-wise. I'd rather pay £50 a month and get to use my connection.

Does such an ISP even exist in the UK any more? Or have they all become stupidly restrictive - I'd heard we were one of the worst countries for connections in western Europe. Feel free to share your thoughts on how restrictive people are, I'd be interested to read those too.

Any reason why you don't want DSL?


I've got Virgin/NTL had it for years ever since I got my new modem everythings been fine no caps or anything like that.

JamesXP said:

Any reason why you don't want DSL?

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I do want DSL. Hence the title "UK ADSL ISPs..."

However assuming you actually meant cable, I don't have cable in my area. We're relatively rural.

Hi there,

Anjow said:

I'm really just testing the water here because I know my current one will eventually turn sour (indeed all their current offers certainly have, I'm on one that's not offered any more). I'm with PlusNet, on a teleworker 2mbit plan with no limits

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We haven't offered truly unlimited accounts (including yours) for a long time now although we do still offer the package you're referring to. Our Teleworker Premier package can still be signed up to by following the sign-up journey on our website. Admittedly, it's the PAYG offers that are advertised on the first page however you can find the Premier offerings if you dig a little deeper.

How come you're still on 2Mbps? Do you not fancy the higher speeds or are you unable to get them? You probably already know but we can upgrade your line for free?

and I do mean NO limits, no monthly data limit, no connection throttling based on time of day, no services blocked and their fair usage policy doesn't apply to business connections (note that I said this connection is no longer offered - the current ones offered are very restricted). So basically I can do whatever I want, download plenty of linux ISOs from newsgroups and from bittorrent.

Click to expand...

Like I've already mentioned, *none* of our accounts are strictly unlimited. They haven't been for years. It's true that there are no specific fair usage limits for our business accounts but we do contact the really heavy users from time to time and there's still prioritisation to ensure time sensitive stuff like gaming and VoIP doesn't suffer at the expense of things like binary Usenet and P2P. Having said that, it's still possible to do 100GB+ without any recompense. That's possible with our current packages though which is why I'm a bit miffed by the statement about our current offerings having turned sour?

However, they've been bought by BT. In my experience with BT they get worse and worse as time goes on - service levels get lower while prices get higher. This is evidenced by the new restrictiveness of the PlusNet connections - not a single one offers unlimited bandwidth even WITH a fair usage policy.

Click to expand...

Interesting? We seem to have regained a lot of kudos since BT purchased us. They aren't here to assimilate us and we've been pretty much left to our own devices. We came up trumps in the recent uSwitch survey and a lot of our customers have been giving us praise for getting back to where we used to be.

What I want to know is, are there any ADSL ISPs that do offer unlimited services? Here are the criteria any ISP I would sign up to would have to meet:

• No monthly limits
• No connection throttling based on peak times
• No connection throttling based on the amount you've downloaded
• No undisclosed fair usage policy amount that once you go over you get throttled
• No disclosed fair usage policy amount that once you go over you get throttled
• No services blocked
• No funny business (like Virgin's previous routing of all HTTP traffic through transparent proxies)

Click to expand...

I don't get the impression that you're unhappy with the service. Would that be a fair assumption? If it's not broke then why do you feel the need to fix it?

Anyway, if there's any problems you'd like me to help you out with then give me a shout.

I caught your post on Google Alerts and couldn't resist the temptation to comment


Kind Rgds,

Let me add some context to this. This post came about when a friend asked me for advice on a home ISP - I recommended you, but then he saw your restrictions and told me. I investigated for myself and decided I didn't like what you were offering now. I am not the account holder in my family - I am not the one with the money. However I am the one with the knowledge, so I do the investigating; hence this topic.

I don't know why I'm still on 2mbps, when you initially introduced the upgrades to 8mbps I said that we'd go for that, but something like 2 years on it hasn't happened; I don't know why. I haven't bothered following it up, though I may do now.

As for not being happy - currently I am! However I'm trying to inform myself of other options because in my experience more and more restrictions get put in place over time. I also want to know who the best ISP is for when I'm looking for one myself once I've finished my MSc and am no longer using the Uni's phat pipe. Here are my examples and the non-plusnet one is with BT, so it's not exactly good news when I find out you've been acquired by them:

Example 1 - BT so-called unmetred dial-up several years ago
It was fine - just as I'm fine with my connection at the moment. However, they then made it so you can't be connected more than 16h in a day, made it disconnect after 2h (we had a machine that maintained a connection for us 24/7) and bumped the price up £1. They then changed that to 12h and bumped the price up another £1. We then moved.

Example 2 - PlusNet home connection before we moved to business
It was fine, until you started throttling newsgroup bandwidth after a certain amount was downloaded - an amount, might I add, that I met in a day. There was no home alternative to this offered - I couldn't pay more and remove that restriction, which I would have been happy to do. So we moved to NewNet.

NewNet turned out to be utter balls, but then we discovered that the throttling on your connections didn't happen with business ones so we signed up for one of those.

Now I see that your home connections have become even more limited, so I can only predict the same for mine over time. I said your business account offerings have turned sour because that's what I saw on the site - not a single unlimited one; I didn't realise one had to 'dig' for the decent connections.

I realise you finished top in that survey - but is that not a survey of all your users? I am not an average user, what's best for them isn't best for me. Mr. Average likes to browse the interweb, download his emails and maybe get the odd song from iTunes - I have downloaded over 15GB/day on occasions and I readily acknowledge that my requirements are abnormal. So just because you're voted best by the majority, doesn't mean you're best for the minority.

Bottom line: I don't feel the need to fix it; I feel the need to inform myself of the alternatives for when I have to jump ship.

Hi again,

That's a fair account and I understand your requirements a little better now.

If you'd like me to place a modify order to get you on the IPStream Max Up to 8Mbps service then drop me a PM containing your username and I'll get it done some time this week.

I still think that our packages are competitive. The bottom line though, is the fact that bandwidth is not free. It costs us money as it does any other ISP, so it simply isn't sustainable to offer unlimited packages.

A lot of providers (us included) used to be able to survive without prioritisation and fair usage guidelines because the low bandwidth users cross-subsidised the heavier downloaders. Problem now though is the fact that usage has sky rocketed. Average users who before would use a couple of GB or less each month are now discovering high quality streaming, YouTube, BBC's iPlayer and 4oD etc. It's becoming more mainstream and less niche and Wholesale costs prevent the ISP from simply accommodating for this by throwing spare capacity at the network.

Would you believe me if I told you that about 7% of all of our network traffic is from YouTube?? That's a hell of a lot of time critical traffic that simply didn't exist when you look back 12 months or so.

We're pretty unique and dare I say it, pretty much pioneered the traffic prioritisation ethos amongst the tier 2 ISP. We're capable of utilising the bandwidth available to us effectively, whilst allowing what needs to work to continue working when things are busy. The problem with just throwing capacity at the platform and doing away with management are the quieter times when you're paying astronomical rental for central pipes that aren't being used.

Your connection is prioritised. Your P2P and Usenet will be slower during peak hours. In fact to some extent it will be slower than some of the residential packages, but the tone of your original post certainly doesn't lead me to believe that this has caused you any dissatisfaction?

You're free to stay on your existing package and we'd provide ample warning if we had any intention to change this.

You can download 15GB/day on our £14.99/mnth package should you desire but it would need to be done outside of the peak hours for that product!

If you're bandwidth simply must be used up when the network is busiest then perhaps we're not the best for you in the long term. Don't forget though, we do now offer this facility without restricting your traffic - you just have to pay for it!

Wholesale costs aren't going to get much cheaper (our products are already based on 2008 pricing), but usage is going to increase. We're already seeing more and more ISP's customers' beginning to complain about speeds during peak hours and I'm sure we'll see more introducing Fair Usage Policies if they haven't done so already. There's a lot of companies where we were a year or two ago. You may find one who offers what you're after now but it probably won't be long before they have to tackle the

Anyway, I'm sure I've bored you enough already so shall discontinue my slightly (probably over)lengthy reply.

Remember to drop me that PM if you want me to look into your speed upgrade!


Kind Rgds,

I haven't noticed my newsgroups being any slower at all, indeed right now I'm downloading at what my network monitor is reporting as sustained 200KBps+ so I don't know how that's limited. I will try again in an hour in case your peak times start at 18:00.

As for bittorrent, well, that is rarely fast on an un-throttled connection so that's not something I have an issue with. What's more I throttle it myself because it seems to be greedy and interrupts my family's online gaming.

bobpullen said:

Would you believe me if I told you that about 7% of all of our network traffic is from YouTube?? That's a hell of a lot of time critical traffic that simply didn't exist when you look back 12 months or so.

Click to expand...

I would, given that my mother has managed to discover it.

What gateway are you on? Once you've found out, take a look here. You're looking at the Premier Non-Interactive average figures for each gateway. If the figure's below 0.1 then you'll be getting close to line speed if you're on that gateway. Oh and it is peak time now but some of the gateways aren't as busy as they could be

Rgds,