Keys used for ISP price list , ISP contact/information, ISP caps and ISP price comparison pages.

Speed

The speed shown is an "Up to" speed. How fast your connection will actually be is dependent on various factors:-

1). Physical condition of your line - the further away from the exchange you are, then the less chance you will have of attaining full speed. Although the line checker will give you an indication of what your maximum speed is likely to be, no-one can say for sure until you are actually connected to the service. The type of router you use and also the condition of your internal wiring and filters may also have a large effect on your maximum speed.
To give your line the best chance of the higher speeds then follow the tips on my low SNR page.

2). ADSL is sold as a contended product - (you share the costs and available bandwidth with other users), therefore during peak time periods then there is the chance that you may see slower speeds either due to local exchange contention, or congestion with the ISPs pipes.  Some ISPs are more known for congestion on their network than others.

Cap

An indication of how much usage you may use during a month. Some ISPs also offer periods when usage is not counted towards your cap (see Extra).

Be cautious with Fair Usage Policies (FUP's). There are some ISPs that advertise "Unlimited" and hide behind a Fair Usage Policy. Some ISPs do disclose what they consider fair use, but not all.

In reality there are some ISPs whose "unlimited" or FUP is actually far less than other ISPs who openly disclose a cap.
For example UK Online's FUP (on LLU lines) is thought to be in the region of 500 GB. Yet there is one ISP whose FUP will kick in after just 3GB in a week.

Extra

Some ISPs may have times of the day/night where any usage used during this period isn't counted towards any usage cap or FUP.
Depending upon which "key" no is shown in the main table then the times/usage are as follows: -

Excess

An indication of what the penalty is if you exceed your usage allowance.

Some ISPs may stop internet access until you purchase more GBs, others may slow speeds down to a crawl - (128 kb seemingly a typical example), although this may vary from ISP to ISP and how much usage you have used over the month.

Whilst some ISPs may only throttle the connection during day/evening peak time periods, with others the throttling remains in place until your next billing month.

Contract Length

Length of time you are required to stay with the ISP before you can move or migrate to another.

Some ISPs may let you exit from a contract early but will expect you to pay the monthly fees remaining before you move on and/or pay for any BT connection costs and equipment charges.

There are some ISPs that may offer a short term contract, but if you have taken advantage of fee BT connection costs and equipment that they have paid on your behalf and therefore expect you to repay these costs.

In all fairness adsl profits are not particularly high for IPStream ISPs as BTw charges have to be taken into account, therefore until you have been with the ISP for about a year, then they may not have been making much profit on a brand new connection.

Type of Provisioning

Some products are only available at certain exchanges. This depends on the type of broadband product, if your exchange has been upgraded and/or if an ISP has their own equipment at your exchange (LLU). To find out if a product is available to you use the adsl checker.

• Only IPStream Products are available at all exchanges.
• Certain ISPs (such as Talktalk) will only offer broadband from exchanges where they have an LLU presence.
• Some ISPs may offer IPStream products, but charge slightly more than the 21CN equivalent.  (See Broadband Access Market)

Key	Short Type	Long Description
1	IP	IPStream only
2	DS	DataStream only
3	LLU	LLU only
4	Cable	Cable only
5	21CN	BT 21CN WBC/WBMC
6	FTTC	Openreach FTTC
7	Mob	Mobile Broadband
8	wifi	Wireless
9	Hull	KC Hull
10	Other	Other

Part of a Phone/Product Plan or Package

In order to offer cheaper deals some ISPs require that you have other products with them. Typically this is line rental but may also be a TV package. Some ISPs will only provide broadband if they also take over the Phone line.

• If this column is marked as Yes then the ISP will require the transfer of your phone line to them in order to offer broadband at the stated price.
• If this column is marked as No then you are free to purchase your phone line rental from where you want and will need to add on line rental cost.

Caution is advised when comparing these products to ensure both broadband and line rental is factored into the total cost.

Call Costs

Cost of calls taken as being on a BT Fixed line from the BT price list for specialised Numbers.
0800 No Fee                    0808 No Fee
0845 Local NTS                0870 National NTS