UTVi Friaco feedback

aidan_dunne

My vote goes to:

300 hours per month, go over that and you get charged per minute. Seems the fairest option to me.

Oh, and as shinzon and Nuphor suggested, make it a seperate thing from the whole phone package. Not everybody living in a house/flat actually owns the line and would be willing or able to change their home phone provider.

Neil_Sedaka

Originally posted by aidan_dunne
My vote goes to:

300 hours per month, go over that and you get charged per minute. Seems the fairest option to me.

I agree!

Rags

I second that, seems like the fairest option to me

BigEejit

10 hours a day limit sounds very good to me ... and like others have said, dont bundle it with a voice calls ... I definitely will not go with it if its bundled with something that I dont want

bk

It might be handy if the mods created a poll for this, just so Scott can easily see what the majority prefer.

Maybe:
1) 250 - 300 hours a month with per minute billing after that.
2) 10 hours a day
3) No limit, but posibility of heavy users getting a warning and then disconnection for continued abuse.

Personally I'm in favour of the 250 -300 hour option, I believe it is the most balanced and fair option.

I really don't like the 10 hour a day option, it is just too inflexible.

One thing Scott needs to be wary of, many Joe Soap users say they like the idea of FRIACO, because there isn't any limit and that they don't have to clock watch. Many of these people mightn't like the idea of the 250 -300 hour option or the 10 hour option for this reason.

Even though they will probably never come near these limits it is just the idea they don't like. If Esat or others launch their service as a nolimits service (however we all know the reality, they will probably kick off heavy users), you might lose customers to them who don't know reality of such services.

bk

Also Scott, if it is possible in anyway, I would like to see the continuation of some form of cheaper Off Peak packages.

Many Joe Soap users don't need on peak access as they are at work or school during the day. Something like your current off-peak packages only cheaper would be really good for these sort of users.

Also it would be nice if you made it easy for people to change between packages, I could imagine many students wanting the 24/7 package during the summer and then wanting to switch back to an off-peak package during the college/school year.

As others have said it would also be nice if you could get the service seperate from your telephone service. Maybe you could sell it by giving a further reduction or increased hours or something to people who do decide to take up your phone service.

Maybe something like EUR X if you take up the service with your telephone service and EUR X + EUR 5 for people who want it seperate.

Finally the ability to use dual channel ISDN would be nice, if you go for the 250 - 300 hour option, then maybe dual channel ISDN use could be charged equivalent to 2 hours.

Slutmonkey57b

There are valid issues with all of the options, however what is most important to me (and I suspect a lot of people who switched to UTV) is the company ethos. UTVip is the ONLY telecoms company that has not systematically lied to, ripped off, and abused its customers. Switching is as much about the improved customer service as anything. Actually it's probably the only company in the entire country that behaves like this.

The freeserve model is useful from an organisational and marketing point of view but is complicated to codify and, most importantly, has no transparancy for the consumer. Freeserve is the biggest ISP because it was one of the first flatrate options, and was flogged wholesale by Dixons. A lot of consumers don't like the company though, and certainly don't trust its decisions in respect to booting service. It would be very difficult for potential bootees to monitor their "abuse" of the system and modify their behaviour accordingly.

I would support the monthly limit - it's in keeping with what the customer expects - open, transparant and useful. A daily limit is more of a crimp on user's behaviour, and I for one as a moderate user have never come close to using 150hrs, never mind 300.

Originally posted by SkepticOne
So what needs to be encouraged here is an ethos of responsible use. Just because you are given access to a shared resource does not mean that you can grab all of it. Downloads of service packs, etc, should occur at night to prevent ports being taken up during peak evening time - that sort of thing. UTV should be able to take this sort of thing into account.

Speaking as a previous SNL user I think we can write that idea off altogether. Heavy users by definition are not interested in responsible use, they are interested in slurping as much rubbish as they can 24 hours a day. Let them know where they stand and they'll be fine with this. Leave them open to some "arbitrary" decision making process whereby they get booted (and you can be sure they'll be both vocal and influential - and they'll all have a friend who is on 24/7 and hasn't been booted) and they'll go mental. To someone who plans on downloading *ahem* service packs (cracked gamez) or *ahem* internet radio (illegal mp3s) any flatrate option is a saving on PSTN and they'll jump at it.

SkepticOne

Originally posted by Slutmonkey57b
Speaking as a previous SNL user I think we can write that idea off altogether. Heavy users by definition are not interested in responsible use, they are interested in slurping as much rubbish as they can 24 hours a day. Let them know where they stand and they'll be fine with this. Leave them open to some "arbitrary" decision making process whereby they get booted (and you can be sure they'll be both vocal and influential - and they'll all have a friend who is on 24/7 and hasn't been booted) and they'll go mental. To someone who plans on downloading *ahem* service packs (cracked gamez) or *ahem* internet radio (illegal mp3s) any flatrate option is a saving on PSTN and they'll jump at it.

That's essentially also the argument in favour of caps on broadband services where the resource being shared out being bandwidth as opposed to time. Indeed we've seen examples of people downloading 2 gigs a day on broadband. Ultimately it is down to the ISP to deal with those who use the network to the extent that others' use of the network is degraded. Otherwise you are left with the need to cap the downloads and charge for the amount downloaded thereafter.

fabien

true flat rate or 300 hours gets my vote, but only if UTVi can support 128k isdn...please!

Synkronite

I agree with the majority sentiment..

..No daily limit
..Reasonable limit of 250-300hrs
..Kick abusers OFF!
..Dont worry about backlash (You have loyalty)
..Include a 'lite' package say 50hrs, 100hrs, etc for starters (should help to get many average people who are looking into the internet and just recently bought a computer)
..Chance to use 128Kbps dual-channel (even if it means double subscription.. eh? )

DonegalMan

Originally posted by Dotsie~tmp
Firstly the idea of kicking users for using your product to its fullest extent is ludicrous.

Not if the limits on use of the product are clearly stated in advance - most heavy users should be well aware by now that FRIACO is not an 'always on' product.

Much bad will was creted for Esat when they did it to us

The bad will was mostly because of the manner in which Esat did this:

1. They never gave any indication that there was a specific limit on the service
2. They never gave individuals any warning that they were in excess of that limit
3. Cutting off 1800 users in one foul swoop was a rather crude way of implementing the new policy.

I would be happy with an overall limit of 250-300 hours per month with the facility to go over this when required, but pay for the extra rather than being cut off. One variation on this - I don't know if this is technically viable - is for the time of access to be taken into account; for example a 6 hour download from 1:00 a.m. to 7:00 a.m. IMO should be regarded as more restrained use than someone sitting on continuously for 6 hours during peak time.

Like many other users who have no prospect of Broadband, I would be wiiling to pay for double package to get 2 ISDN lines combined, hope this turns out to be possible.

Martin Harran

flamegrill

I've been using UTVip since it was released back in september.
My monthy average as been around 148 hours, and only last month i went over the 150 hours for the first time.

My usage patterns are generally fairly constant. Come home in the evenings and work online from around 6pm ish to between 2 and 4am depending on how much I've got to do.

Havinig between 200 and 300 hours a month won't make a huge difference to me, but it will mean I can carry on doing as i was and not clock watch, thats the single most annoying factor of internet access via dialup, having to watch the time you spend online.

So what i'd like is 200-300 hours with a per minute charge, an off peak realitive one, after the limit which is charged no matter what time of day it is, as with FRAICO we all know there is no difference to yourselves weather we are on during the day or nite.


Thanks,

Paul

The Clown Man

Would Dustaz or sceptre feel brave enough to maybe take all the possibilities mentioned thus far and put them to poll?

It should prove more useful to the UTVip research.

Maybe a sticky might get the opinions of most of the browsers.


And I personally think that a combination of some of the options would be the best way.

Users that seriously exceed a limit of usage, like the 10 hour per day limit, in one month would be given a warning or two and then booted. Although I think that there should be a certain amount of lenience - for example, a person that uses the service for 24 hours maybe 3 days of a month and then uses it nominally otherwise should be overlooked.

Of course, warning of the possibility of overuse should be expressly given to any potential customers. And it would avoid the No-Limits syndrome.

Fergus

There is an ISP somewhere in the US that provides completely free flat-rate dial-up to the local community. The main way they stopped abuse was that they have on their home page a thing that shows the status of their modem banks, and the names of users that are 'hogging' lines, if any.

De Rebel

Originally posted by Fergus
There is an ISP somewhere in the US that provides completely free flat-rate dial-up to the local community. The main way they stopped abuse was that they have on their home page a thing that shows the status of their modem banks, and the names of users that are 'hogging' lines, if any.

Which of course we would turn on its head and immediatly start a competition to see who could get his name on the list and keep it there for the longest time....