Internet Decadian

laissez-faire · 6 Apr 2006 at 18:34

10 years today, we got a connection to Compuserve. I think the Modem cost about £300 (external 28k) and we paid about £30 a month for our package and STILL had to pay for each phone call!

How things have moved on...

In 1999 we got freeserve, which was a revolution because of no monthly charge. Then BT Internet launched an unlimited service, there was a brief ISP that didn't boot you off after 2 hours called 247web but that quickly went bust. We had major issues getting broadband here, we first tried to order it in 2001 but because we are 6.4km from the exchange it wasn't until 2 years ago that we finally got broadband, and by a cruel twist of events, it was literally the DAY BEFORE I started at Edinburgh Uni so I never really get the benefit, but I am at home now and it is bad enough going from 40mbit to 512k, so I might have killed myself if it was back to 56k! We still can't get anything faster than 512k due to line loss issues.

When did you all connect? What was your starting package?

Sam

saitrix · 6 Apr 2006 at 18:35

56k, with a free 0800 bt number. No monthly charge either. About 7 years ago i think.

lookitsjonno · 6 Apr 2006 at 18:38

connectfree.co.uk was my isp in about 1998

they were the first "free" [pay for 0845 call only] ISP iirc

Phil99 · 6 Apr 2006 at 18:39

BT PAYG 1ppm back in what must be 1998...can't remember exactly.

56kbps external serial modem on a P120 with 16MB RAM :cool:

laissez-faire · 6 Apr 2006 at 18:39

saitrix said:
56k, with a free 0800 bt number. No monthly charge either. About 7 years ago i think.

7 years, hmm. That was about the time they launched freeserve, and that was a revolution for being free, i.e. no monthly cost. Freeserve got their money from the income from the 0845 call rates.

I never knew of anything from BT that was free? How did they make money?

Sam

lukechad · 6 Apr 2006 at 18:41

I think we first got connected about 3-4 years ago here on a pay per minute 56k connection with freeserve, we thought that was the best option at the time, we didnt use the internet at all much. I used to spend half an hour a night on the internet, between 6 and half past. 6pm saw the cheaper 1p/min rate

We got a bill of some £50 more than usual so went for an anytime option, still 56k, then jumped straight upto 512k about 18 months ago, been on 2mb for a year or so now.

saitrix · 6 Apr 2006 at 18:41

laissez-faire said:
7 years, hmm. That was about the time they launched freeserve, and that was a revolution for being free, i.e. no monthly cost. Freeserve got their money from the income from the 0845 call rates.

I never knew of anything from BT that was free? How did they make money?

Sam

They didnt. It was through an internal testing number for BT as my Dad works for BT.

Kol · 6 Apr 2006 at 18:47

Haha, compuserve. Lol, I remember that. My old man was on some local BBS years before the internet, but I remember being allowed to use the net now and again.

Nix · 6 Apr 2006 at 18:52

Around 1999, I can't remember exactly. It was the good old days with freeserve in Dixons. Wait, actually - they sucked.

Oh man, how I hated the dialing up noise. Especially after you got cut-off. haha.

Sone · 6 Apr 2006 at 19:49

think it was around 98, was on MSN for £14.99 a month. A few months later freeserve was launched and we switched soon after to another free provider (they did 0800 numbers with banner adverts but think i managed to connect twice in twelve months, always ended up using there 0845 number)

Kol · 6 Apr 2006 at 19:58

I remember when Phones4U, I think it was, released free dialup if you used them for phone calls. We decided ot go for it and after a few years they went bust. I'm not surprised either as we were never sent a single bill for calls or otherwise!

The funny thing was, they supplied us with 10 vouchers allowing us £10 off ten bills. We never got to use them

Mr. Brightside · 6 Apr 2006 at 20:14

Compuserve in 1996, but I was only 6 years old at the time so can't remember many other details. Modem was external I know that much and guessing it was 28k. One day the modem got destroyed by lightning and so my mum (who was the most knowledgable of computers at the time) moved us over to ISDN. From there it was 64k BT packages (started with free off peak calls but charges during day, then moved to free calls all time pay monthly). Maximum time usage per month was capped at 150 hours. Then in 2001 we had dual connections, 64k ISDN on the old Gateway 2000 PC from '96 and pay as you go 56k on the new Tiny Athlon 1ghz we got. At some point we moved to ISDN on the Tiny too. Around the time that I got into computers and built my first, I had us move to Onetel because it let you double up the ISDN channels for 128k (extreme speed back then

), and didn't have monthly time capping. I also set up a network and shared this for all PCs.

Then in February 2005 our exchange was finally enabled for broadband and we got Freedom to Surf 1mbps 'Special Pure IP'. Then in February this year we moved to Zen Home 2mbps and that's where we shall remain I think.

marc2003 · 6 Apr 2006 at 20:31

i'm such a noob..... 2002

got dialup, bt anytime i think it was called. 150 hours a month i think for a fixed fee of 15 or 16 notes. no call charges obviously....

i then wanted to get blueyonder cable as that meant i could do away with the bt line. but it seems they serve just about the whole of my town- except my street - not happy. :mad:

i then got bt broadband in feb 2003. 27or28 notes for 512k. i then chose to get 1mb when that was made available in july 2004. was paying 37 a month for that. a few months later prices dropped back to the same as 512k....

come round to feb 2005 and there is a lot of talk of usage allowances being introduced with bt so i hopped it to pipex. got 2mb as soon as i signed up with them, paying 34 notes a month. at the time it seemed like a good idea, but now i think it's too much and i may well be switching soon. ironically enough i probably could have stayed with bt as my downloading habits have chaged and i doubt i'd ever get close to 30gb in a month....

El_Watcher · 7 Apr 2006 at 12:29

I think it started around 97 with AOL,had a few problems with them so moved to Lineone's 0345 number. Lineone then merged into Tiscali around 2000 but the service didn't change. This lasted until about 2001/2 when our exchange was BB enabled so I went onto Tiscali 512Kb for about £25/month. Mid to late 2005, BT then upgraded the exchange so I went onto 2Mb for £18/month uncapped I think it is. Have to say never had a problem with Tiscali, no abnormal line drops, offline time, and I don't notice any major slowness, but how can I tell as I have never been with anyone else.