Hey,

I called BT (British Telecom) my Broadband provider here in the UK and they pretty much said I'm blank out of luck.

For the type of thing I was talking about, they wouldn't be able to provide for the HUGE increase in bandwidth which would be used in me basically being a server host for all these people to connect to. They said depending on the usage the cost would pretty much be insane...though I'm not sure if it actually violated their TOS being a server on my residential line...

So how do you think all the ISPs here in the UK are gonna feel, on our blank internet system anyway, when after nov 10th there is a HUGE increase in the bandwidth usage

Way to go IW.

Do you guys pay a flat rate for service in the UK, or do they charge you for what you use? Here in the states I'm on Comcast (probably one of the biggest providers in the country) and I get 20x8 as much as I want to use it for a flat bill every month. I think it does technically violate the TOS running a server, but that rule is more intended to keep business owners from running a huge office/website on a cheapo residential line. I don't think that running a listen or peer to peer server would be covered by the TOS quite as neatly as a dedicated server.

It makes me nervous though, because US ISPs have talked for a long time now about moving to a pay-for-the-bandwidth-you-use pricing structure, and that would make my bill skyrocket. I probably use way more bandwidth than the average home user. If there's suddenly a huge spike in bandwidth usage, that could make them start to think about it even more. Then again, millions of people every day play on Xbox live, and ISPs haven't pitched a fit about that yet. I don't think that gaming or even running a private server really uses up that much bandwidth.

Well you can get 'unlimited' connections which I have.

I have an "up to 8MB" line, which on these crappy old copper lines BT won't upgrade you will probably get around 4MB if you're lucky.

I pay a flat rate every month for up to 8MB (I get 4) and I have supposedly unlimited usage, but if you use insane amounts, they will flag you and ask why you are using these insane amounts. The guy in Hull that was on the webcast is being ripped off if it is £16 a month for a set usage. Mine is £15.99 for an unlimited usage package, PLUS BT vision TV.

BT did say they were worried about this though being used on a residential line.

Im lucky in that my download is 15MB but my upload is only 1MB. I've asked SKY (my ISP) if the line was suited to hosting a server and their reply was:

"Whilst the line would support that upload, I'm afraid that it may infringe the "fair use" policy."

By which they mean I would have to be hogging the line for this area and something that may very well get me removed from their service !

So in short... NO MW2 FOR ME !!

yeah I think a lot of customers are going to be getting contacted by their ISPs on the sudden increase in usage, and having their line CAPPED due to breaching the fair use policy.

You should read your terms of service very carefully. Think about it: if your ISP will blackball you for hosting a peer to peer game, than everybody over there with an Xbox would have a hell of a time getting service. Those rules about not hosting servers on your residential line are usually just a "cover my ass" kind of thing. They're just trying to stop you from running a huge website or database server or whatever. I've talked to a lot of people in the past that have run CoD2 and CoD4 dedi servers out of their homes with no nasty calls from the ISP. Gaming doesn't really take up much bandwidth compared to other types of servers, and your ISP probably has bigger fish to fry. I worked for an ISP here in the states as a cable tech for a while and I never heard of anybody being at all concerned about it except in extreme cases. Again, kids on Xbox live are hosting p2p games 24/7 and no ISP that I know of has pitched a fit about that yet, so I don't see how it will be any different with MW2.

Also, that sucks in general about your ISPs over there. I have a 20x10 connection bundled with HD cable channels (Plasma flatscreen ftw!), and its only about 80$ a month. Which I guess is expensive compared to 16 pounds (about 35$ american I think), but its worth it to me.

Hi Oronare,

I'd say it will probably run pretty bad if you're on BT. I was on the BT 'Unlimited' upto 8Mbps package until recently as well, but it isn't really unlimited, they have an unwritten 100gb/month limit, if you go over that amount then they will cap you down to 1Mbps during peak hours (5pm - 11pm if I remember right) for a full month. They also seem to constantly be throttling certain things, for example Xbox live ran terrible when I was on BT, as did the PSN and forget about most things that use P2P technology, they get capped till they become unusable. Even when I wasn't being capped, it used to slow down most nights anyway and most evenings I was lucky if I even got the 1Mbps.

I ended up leaving BT (after a big fight with them which resulted in me taking them to Ofcom and then to the telecoms ombudsman Otelo because I felt they were in breach of their own fair usage policy) and I signed up with 'BE There' Broadband and I've never looked back, I now get 12Mbps download, 1.4Mbps upload, static IP, no contention, and they never ever do any capping or throttling. The day I went live, the first thing I noticed was how much better my Xbox live was running, I found it amazing how you just get used to how bad something can run, I'd ended up thinking that the way Live etc ran over BT must just have been normal, but it isn't.

BT are one of the worst ISP's imho, if you are on an LLU enabled exchange I would definately look at changing to a different ISP if at all possible. I now pay £17.50 a month for true unlimited broadband which is miles better than I was getting from BT.

It won't make a difference though, it is all about the line quality & distance to the exchange...

The speed I am getting now (4-5MB) is the highest speed I can get The exchange is LLU and BE is live there, but even on BE's site, it says the max is 5MB for my number.

But for gaming I think it comes down to more than just line quality & distance to the exchange. I think eack individual ISP's standards on bandwidth caps, throttling, P2P traffic management etc also comes into play when it comes to gaming, especially if something like MW2 is going to be using P2P technology.

Maybe I was just lucky with my location for the performance beneifit I got by changing from BT to BE, but I've got to be thinking that if the choice is:

A) 4-5Mbps, 100/gb cap limit then capped at 1Mbps 5pm-11pm for a month, Network management of P2P traffic.

or

B) 4-5Mbps, No cap limits, No network management.

So even on the same line, I know which I'd prefer as a gamer. I guess what I'm saying is that different ISP's will handle it differently, I can only go from my own recent experience with BT and state that for me, as an avid online gamer, the service was terrible. This is why I ended up shopping around for a different ISP. So if it did turn out that people have problems running MW2 with their current ISP, then they maybe able to get better elsewhere, even if the linespeed itself isn't any better. Just my thoughts anyway

You guys think you have issues, try living in South Africa?