Well word has it that O2 are looking at revamping their Broadband Packages as they've recently been sending out email asking select customers (registered on their 'Join In O2' site) to fill in a survey asking for customer opinions on the new packages.
Initial viewing seems to show that O2 are, at least, are considoring limiting bandwidth usage on one of the packages, as well as implementing traffic shaping on them all. Here's some info on the 'new' packages:
The Basics - The great value one
For single user or single device households - one computer or device online at a time.
Ideal package if general web browsing is most of what you want to do online - shopping, emails, Facebook, decent iPlayer & YouTube, etc
Download limit of 20gb per month.
Speed: Upto 20Mb, subject to both the speed your line can handle. Certain traffic managed, depending on package.
The All Rounder - The balanced one
Multi User households - more than one person, computer or device online at a time
Great for families that need multiple access to the web to catch up with emails, Facebook, shopping
Good online streaming experience with iPlayer
Better connected experience: premium wireless router (wireless 'N' technology for better wireless range/less chance of drop outs)
Unlimited monthly downloads
Speed: Up to 20Mb, subject to both the speed your line can handle and the package you pick. Certain traffic managed, depending on package.
The Works - The ultimate one
Multiple users/multiple devices - several people, computers and devices all online at the same time, using the internet heavily
Great for heavier internet users that use the web to the max. Ideal for online gaming.
Best online streaming experience; especially for multiple users
Best connected experience:
- Premium wireless router - (wireless 'N' technology for better wireless range/less change of drop outs)
- faster upload speed
Unlimited monthly downloads
Speed: Upto 20Mb or the maximum speed we can offer you on your line. Peer to peer file sharing traffic is shaped at peak times.
Some screenshots of the proposed packaged can be found further down the page...
Now then, it's great to see O2 are taking the different internet user types into account, and that obviously they're pre-empting possible issues on their LLU network with the new packages, however I do wonder how the pricing is gonna work, and how they're gonna move existing customers onto the new package. For example i'm currently on their 'Standard' package for £7.50 per month (purely due to the fact my line can only support 4mbps, although i'm currently syncing at 3mbps...), now under those seperate packages, 'The Works' would be the new ideal package for me as i'm a heavy internet user, play online games a lot, download a lot, talk to friends on teamspeak often, and on top of that I have other users in the house taking full advantage of whatever bandwidth that I leave.
Now if O2 go about this the wrong way, and start modifying prices to make the packages more expensive then myself, and probably many others aren't gonna be too happy with this and take our custom elsewhere, which is something O2 need to be very careful about...
