Tag Archives: unlimited

Test Drive Unlimited 2 launch fails miserably – Atari’s reputation on the line

Whilst Atari thought they had the launch of the eagerly awaited Test Drive Unlimited 2 safely in the bag, sadly they obviously didn’t prepare well enough.

Test Drive Unlimited 2 (the successor of the very popular TDU1 released in 2006) was launched earlier this week around the world. However, Atari is clearly suffering from regular server problems which are upsetting the gaming community.

All platforms (PC, Xbox 360 and PC) are currently suffering from regular server downtimes which make the game unplayable – as it relies so heavily on the internet to function.

The TDU twitter feed is currently being inundated with tweets from frustrated users – and the official forum is taking quite a battering too!

I think Atari owes a lot of frustrated users one hell of an apology!

O2 cuts unlimited internet on it’s mobile tariffs – is that such a bad thing?

It has recently been announced that as of June 24th, O2 will no longer be offering unlimited internet to it’s new and upgrading customers. The move has shocked many, but O2 has said that too many people use the network abusively and as a result they have been forced to take action.

O2 has mentioned in it’s press release that the changes will only affect about 3% of it’s customers who use the network excessively. The remaining 97% will not be affected as O2 claims that even the lowest internet package, providing 500MB per month, is more than 2.5 times the average monthly user usage.

Customers currently on contracts with O2 will continue to receive unlimited data until 1st October, but will have to watch for changes to their contract over the next few months to make sure they don’t receive horrendous charges.

The question is whether other networks will follow suit. Orange currently offers “unlimited” internet packages, but hidden in the FUP are limits restricting customers. As usual, Orange has forgotten the meaning of unlimited. Vodafone is slightly clearer, offering fixed plans with fixed usage limits.

It is also worth thinking about whether O2’s increasingly popular MVNO, giffgaff, will follow suit. The network announced today that they have no plans to change their unlimited internet offers with their goodybags, but stated that they couldn’t guarantee this wouldn’t change in the future.

Personally, I don’t think the news is all that bad – as customers will finally get a clear idea of what they can use each month in terms of data, but time will tell as to whether customers agree to the changes.

[GEEK! Exclusive] UK Investigation: Unlimited broadband, true or false? ISPs put to the test!

The word ‘unlimited’ is an evil and unwanted word in the world of technology.

And when I say the world of technology, I more specifically mean the world of broadband. When looking for broadband the word ‘unlimited’ means nothing – you can never be sure. There’s usually a fair usage policy that caps you if you download a certain amount.

So, for your benefit GEEK! has been in contact, by phone, with all the big brands and put them on the spot. We asked them the question, and mention a response for each company below. Plain and simple. Oh and by the way, GEEK! only asked companies that claimed an unlimited service on their website.Bear in mind that GEEK! made sure that we mentioned if all downloads were legal and at fair times (not always in peak time – which is typically 6pm-12 midnight)

Test completed 17th September 2009 – all information was correct at this time.

Sky: simply told me that the unlimited package is totally unlimited, whenever you want to use it.

Be: unlimited package is unlimited, fair usage for peak times.

O2: unlimited, no fair usage on peak times, no throttling whatsoever.

BT: claim unlimited on option 3, after being on the phone for a worryingly long time I am told that there is no physical limit if high usage is within an off-peak time of day (eg not 6pm-midnight)

Orange: after being redirected a couple of times on the phone, I am told that the Home Select and Home Max “unlimited” packages come with a 40GB per month transfer limit (ie not unlimited).

PlusNet: after being cut off once, an advisor on the phone told me that their unlimited package was unlimited, however as a general policy the company implies that they perform “shaping” so that customers get an equal share of available speed. The advisor did give me this link which provides information about how they organise traffic “shaping”.

Virgin: after speaking to somebody on a dreadful line, I am told that there is no limit and that you can download as much as you want, whenever you want.

Tiscali: (surprisingly) I was very quickly connected to an advisor who told me that their unlimited package had a cap of 100GB per month at which point they would contact a client for excessive usage.

So there you go then – all the big major ISPs put on the spot by GEEK!, just for your benefit. GEEK! hopes that this test makes it a little easier to choose your broadband if bandwidth is a key point for you – which it should be. Many people do not know what broadband allowance they have, and if you are one of these people you really ought to make sure you do know, or you could face costs for running over your allowance.

That gives you a good idea about who allows what. All questions were asked over the phone and not on the internet (as only information is not always correct) and all information is correct at the time of writing. None of the companies said that they were planning to change their policies in the near future.

Three UK announces unlimited Skype for everyone, forever

Three UK mobile announced on 1st May 2009 that it was editing its usage policy of Skype on user’s mobiles. From now on, all users of Three mobiles will receive unlimited usage on Skype no matter whether you top up or not. So basically that means that users can now have free calls to anybody in the world, as long as they are on Skype.

The plan used to be that Pay As You Go customers had make a £5 top up once every three months to get Skype calls, and Pay Monthly customers had to have an internet plan. From now on, as long as you are on a 3 mobile you will get free Skype calls anytime, to anyone (on Skype).

I am glad that Three are finally using VoIP to a new level, and hopefully this will cause other mobile operators to follow on.

Sky Broadband – the ONLY broadband that’s truely unlimited

I heard this out a while back but I didn’t really think to post about it. 

Anyway, according to Channel Five’s (UK) The Gadget Show, Sky.com is the only company in the UK that provides truelly unlimited broadband. On their full maxed out package, they recently removed their fair use policy and have told The Gadget Show that there is no cap whatsoever. Hopefully, this will persuade other companies to make their broadband fully unlimited.

So, if you’re looking for a full on broadband for all your download needs – head for Sky.com’s MAX package.

I myself have never needed full on broadband – I would’nt have thought I download more than 20GB a month on a busy month. Generally I suspect I download about 10GB a month, depending on where I am.