Internet Service Providers - Good, Cheap, Fast?

Ages ago, I stumbled across this picture on the internet and had a quick chuckle...

Over the past week I have been researching Internet Service Providers (looking for a replacement for o2, which has gotten worse and worse over the year I have been with them). Suddenly the sign above really makes sense.

Fast Cheap service won't be Good - The big internet suppliers offer low prices and make big promises, but when you really try and use the service you pay for, you find that their system can't cope with so many people and everything grinds to a halt.

Good Cheap service won't be Fast - If you shop around, there are a number of really good business broadband suppliers out there with fantastic phone support, great reliability, 

Good Fast service won't be Cheap - There is only one way to provide a really good service to all of your customers if you are an ISP. Keep customer numbers down. Simple. You can't fit a quart in a pint pot, and you can't fit thousands of customers internet traffic down a line only built for half that. This does cause a problem, unless you are happy to pay double for your service.

I got to thinking about value for money and paying for what we use. Over the last few years, we have gotten used to being offered unlimited benefits at a low cost. Now that the internet is being used for streaming TV, radio, telephone calls, movie rentals, etc, the big networks are starting to creak under the weight. If want to continue paying £10.00 - £20.00 per month, we are going to have to accept restrictions. If we don't want restrictions, we are going to have to pay more for our connection.

Anyway, if you find that your connection isn't keeping up with you, speak to Xilo Communications. Their home package prices are reasonable when you consider that there is no throttling, no traffic shaping, and no overselling their connections. They even have free use off peak so you can download large files overnight (or at the weekends) without eating up your data allowance.