Hi Kahnage

I'm afraid I don't know about providers that deliver 1:1 contention ratio at the price you're after, (i.e. £40 a mth). I'm very surprised to see that Abel claim to be able to offer this when I've looked at the rest of the market and could only find business broadband deals in the £100's of pounds to get a comparable contention ratio.

Living in North Wales means there is no LLU or cable in your area at present but that could well change.

My advice is to go for the best you can get now but make sure you go with a provider that gives you the flexibility to leave if something comes along later on that's more attractive. This means you need to go with a provider that has no minimum contract period.

In terms of what you can get now, (don't forget £9.99 - £11 a mth line rental):

Virgin Unlimited Broadband Plan 2: £17.99 a mth for 8Mb/unlimited broadband plus no minimum contract period

Namesco Homemax: £19.95 a mth for 8Mb/10Gb broadband plus no minimum contract period

PlusNet Broadband Premier: £21.95 a mth for 8Mb/unlimited broadband plus no minimum contract period

If I were to choose I'd go Namesco as first choice, followed by Virgin and then PlusNet - and then wait until someone can offer you a much faster speed via LLU, (such as Be Broadband or Sky or Bulldog).

I hope ths helps?

Cheers

Jason

Here are some ISP companies that do offer a choice of contention ratios.

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Abel Always:

Contention Ratios with Speeds of up to 8Mb (6GB download cap)

50:1 £17.99
20:1 £26.99
5:1 £29.99
1:1 £39.99

Note that a 1:1 contention ratio is nowhere near 50 times as expensive as a 50:1 contention ratio so that makes it pretty good value if you want the maximum possible speed at peak internet periods.

Check it out here --> http://www.abelalways.co.uk/llu-adsl-su-lg6.html

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InternetCentral

Contention Ratio 50:1 (Light Use)
8Mb/s Download / 448Kb/s Upload*
up to 30GB Data per month From £19.99 +VAT

Contention Ratio 20:1 (Office Use)
8Mb/s Download / 832Kb/s Upload*
up to 50GB Data per month From £39.99 +VAT

Link --> http://www.internet-central.net/broadband/

==================================================================================================

Eweb.co.uk:

Unmetered Access is a one fee per month option for different users. There are a number of packages available, listed below:

FREEDIAL - Ideal for light users.
50 hours of off peak access per month At just £9.99 per month

FREEDIAL PLUS - Orientated towards slightly heavier users.
80 hours access per month. 2 hour disconnect at a contention ratio of 12:1
unlimited email addresses 10mb of free webspace At just £12.99 per month

ANYTIME - Catered for the heavy user 10:1 contention ratio
Improved performance over basic packages during peak periods At just £14.99 per month

ANYTIME PLUS- Same service as package three but with an extra 2 hour disconnection period.
Remain connected for 4 hours in a single uninterrupted session At just £16.99 per month

Link --> http://www.eweb.co.uk/fixedrate.htm

========================================================================================


I would gladly pay £40/month to get a the 8MB 1:1 contention ratio offered by Abel Always but their service is not offered in my area.

So can you offer any advice on an ISP offering a good contention ratio in my area? I am willing to pay up to 4 times the typical £10/month subscription cost for oversubscribed budget 8MB services to get a fast reliable sevice at peak periods. Ideally I am looking for a minimum of 2MB at peak periods. I get the full 2MB speed with a 2MB service at offpeak periods so my line is cable of delivering that speed if I am not hamstrung by contention ratios.

I live in North Wales and my post code is LL18 1EA. (Cable is not available in my area either)

Thanks.

Most well known ISP's deliver a 50:1 contention ratio so we didn't think it was necessary to illustrate this, but perhaps this may change in the future if more providers start to offer varying contention ratios

Cheers

Jason

Your broadband comparison tool does not seem to take contention ratios into account.

A company offering "Up to 8MB" with a contention ration of 50 will give very roughly, 10 times slower connection speeds at peak periods than a company offering "Up to 8MB" with a contention ration of 5.

Companies very rarely advertise their contention ratios.

If you could obtain this information and include it in your comparison tool then it would be very useful.

Not so much links to other sites. You must provide alternative links to ISPs that aren't loaded with referral codes and inform prospective broadband customers exactly why there are two sets of links and which is which. That way, customers have a choice on whether they finance this site or not.
However, a prominent, honest and open disclaimer that fully explains the mechanics and ethics behind this site should negate the need for such duality.

Such honesty would generate a lot of goodwill toward this site and that in turn would generate much more traffic. On the other hand, hide the fact that referrals etc are the order of the day and that will be discovered and it will be made very public indeed. I can't think of a better method of driving away customers than very widespread publicity of the worst kind.

At long last, my weekend is about to start. :)

Yes we can do that - provide clear explanation and links to other sites on one page no problem..

Despite not being able to have a walk, hope you have a good weekend anyway.

Cheers

Jason

Ok I'll be brief, we work the way the broadband industry asks us to so they work on a CPA revenue model - i.e. cost per acqusition. In an ideal situation we'd like to work much like online advertising on a cost per click basis so we don't get paid for sales we only get paid for traffic - but ISP's don't want to work this way.

At the moment we accept their model but that doesn't mean in the future we can't change the model, we've done it before in other sectors but because we're new and unproven they won't move from their current position.

In terms of why we need to earn revenue it's quite obvious, building a new channel, allocating developers, middleware, back office, data management resources to maintain the channel costs money, (especially labour costs). In order to innovate, create more new services and tools for the user we need to derive revenue, and affiliate partnerships is the best way to achieve this allied to other revenue streams such as online adveritising.

We also advertise ourselves online through SEM and also offline through direct response advertising, so as you can see keeping a channel like this going is a costly business.

Right I must go now, have a good weekend.

Cheers

Jason Lloyd

Very sorry Jason but I didn't really see it as a question.
Anyway, to answer you - Yes, that would be a good start but it must be a prominent link that cannot be missed and the contents of the linked pages must be entirely clear about how revenue is generated. Alternative, non referral link options to ISP sales sites must also be provided giving the consumer choice. Any less than this means that MS cannot be seen to be impartial.

The weekend weather here is supposedly going to be awful and if the last couple of days are anything to go by, my usual long weekend walk looks to be on the back burner. I hope it's better wherever you are. Have a good one.

Hi Zer02004 but you didn't answer my question in relation to creating a "How we Work" link.

We ALWAYS consider the interests of consumers first before ISP's every time and will never create a situation where the consumer's interests is subordinated at the expense of commercial interests

That's about as much as I think it's possible for me to say now really.

Hope you have a good weekend.

Kind Regards

Jason

"Where we differ is that we cannot offer a comparison tool without affiliate links to ISP's...."
Could you expand upon this statement and give reasons why changing this is impossible? Don't be afraid to go into technical details. I have a very good understanding of all things web based including corporate site building.

My only concerns are for customers and prospective customers. Those new to what has become, except for a few exceptions, a veritable cesspit of an industry should not have to put up with seemingly independent and impartial advice sites misguiding them even further. Now, I'm not saying that MS is intentionally doing that but where revenue is generated from recommendations, there is ALWAYS the temptation to put the interests of the revenue generator before that of the consumer.
Unless ANY AND ALL interests are fully and prominently displayed at every opportunity, the consumer is being misled. It really is as simple as that!

I have amassed a great deal of knowledge with regard to computers and software in general and the UK broadband scene in particular. I am always willing to impart that knowledge to those in need of it without charge or accolade.
Spot the difference?

Hi Zer02004

OK I appreciate what you are saying. Far be it from me to appear unreasonable because we want the channel and our forum to remain a useful resource to consumers.

I don't have an issue with you highlighting other useful websites such as adslguide and ISP Review, and I welcome your comments in terms of advice about ISP's and technical issues. In less than a day your comments have proved useful to a few posters on the site so thank you for that.

On the issue of where we derive our revenue, I'm willing to consider creating a link from the new broadband homepage which says: "How we work" which then explains how we earn revenue via commissions from completed sales to engender further transparency so consumers know exactly how our site works.

Where we differ is that we cannot offer a comparison tool without affiliate links to ISP's, we can make it clearer that this is how the site works but we cannot change the way we work itself.

If you're willing to accept this compromise situation then great, we can get to work on it and hopefully answer some of your concerns.

I look forward to your response.

Kind Regards

Jason Lloyd
Broadband Channel Manager

Ah yes, I've been waiting for some wag to point this out. It's hardly PROMINENT is it?

"The key advantage moneysupermarket.com has as a comparison service is that we are completely independent. This means we have no bias and unlike many websites do not simply show the providers we have deals with or place the paid-for products at the top of results tables. Instead we work through a process known as 'proactive intervention'.

Proactive intervention means we display the whole of the market and lobby providers to offer exclusives to our users. This frequently produces a situation where every standard product is on our site plus some unique - and even better - exclusives. As moneysupermarket.com is the biggest personal finance aggregator site by both user numbers and volume of applications sourced we negotiate on our customers' behalf in much the same way as Tesco or Asda will demand better deals from grocery suppliers."

Paragraph 1:
Complete transparency and public trust will never be obtained by using affilliate links whereby service providers finance the site. Both the site owners and the service providers have vested interests. This has been detailed by recent events at similar comparison sites.

Paragraph 2:
Nowhere near "the whole of the market" is accounted for - In fact, only a tiny fraction is! If misleading statements are evident here, what does this say for consumer confidence?

Two posts by a new user and both in reply to posts by myself criticising MS? Not very constructive replies either!

Fan or troll...... Which is it?

http://www.moneysupermarket.com/AboutUs/#3