Common Questions About Karoo
ADSL2+
Products
Hardware
Terms & conditions
Speed
Usage
Shaping
Payment / charges
General
ADSL2+
What is ADSL2+, and what are the benefits?
ADSL2+ is the next generation of ADSL (i.e. broadband over the telephone line), and it works by using additional equipment to utilise additional bandwidth in the line. ADSL2+ extends the capability of basic ADSL and has the potential to provide connection speeds as high as 24Mbps downstream and 1Mbps upstream. However, only a tiny proportion of users will ever see speeds exceeding 16Mbps, and users who live further away from the exchange and currently receive ADSL connection speeds of less than the full 8Mbps, are unlikely to see a significant speed improvement using ADSL2+. As with ADSL, the length and quality of the line will determine the actual connection speed.
ADSL2+ also increases the potential download/throughput speed to around 2400kbps or 2.4Mbps, so overall, the download/throughput speed experience should be much closer to the connection speed achieved than on ADSL services.
A key benefit of ADSL2+ is the higher upload speed, which can reach as high as 1Mbps, which is double that of previous Karoo ADSL services. This means that you’ll be able to send your files and data to other internet users or to online sites much faster than previously.
ADSL2+ can also cope with more ‘noise on the line’, which means the stability of the connection is much better. To put it in technical terms, an ADSL2+ connection will remain stable at a lower SNR (Signal-to-Noise Ratio) than an ADSL connection.
A further benefit of ADSL2+ is the fact that it has a greater reach, so that, for the first time, customers living further from an exchange may be able to have broadband.
So, in short, the benefits of ADSL2+ are increased download and upload speeds (subject to distance from the exchange), greater line stability and extended reach.
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Signal-To-Noise Ratio (SNR) and attenuation
All ADSL connections are subject to SNR and attenuation, which determine the actual stable speed that can be achieved on your line. SNR (Signal-to-Noise Ratio) is how much signal you are receiving as opposed to noise on the line, and attenuation is how much loss of signal you have on the line. The SNR will often fluctuate at different times of the day, so it is difficult to monitor, whereas attenuation is fairly static, and depends on the actual length of your phone line between your premises and the exchange.
For SNR, higher is better (meaning not much noise on the line), but for attenuation, lower is better (meaning not much loss of signal on the line).
The SNR reduces as you connect at higher speeds and the further you live from the exchange. For a consistently reliable service, the SNR has to be above 6, and ideally above 10.
For example, if you have an SNR of 10, and you are on a 2Mbps ADSL service, you would not gain very high speeds from ADSL2+, as if you were to connect any faster, the SNR would drop to about 6, possibly causing disconnections and download speed problems. But, if you had an SNR of 30 on a 2Mbps ADSL service, you could probably receive much higher speeds with ADSL2+, which will perhaps cause the SNR to drop to about 8-10, just enough to operate reliably. However, there is no sure way to find out what your phone line will support, until a service is installed on the line.
When signing up for an ADSL2+ service, we will be determining what speed your line is capable of providing whilst remaining stable, based on your postcode area. This means that, while it may connect at a slower speed than you might like, it will help stop your connection from disconnecting due to a low SNR, giving you the benefit of a stable, always on (slightly slower) connection, rather than a (slightly faster), intermittent one.
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Is ADSL2+ available to all customers using Karoo products?
ADSL2+ technology is only available on our Karoo Lite, Mid and Pro products. Customers on older Karoo products can regrade to Mid or Pro for free, or to Karoo Lite for just £29.99
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Products
Why are Karoo Lite, Mid and Pro better than Karoo Max?
For a start, Karoo Lite, Mid and Pro are based on the latest ADSL2+ technology, which has the potential of giving faster speeds (subject to line length and other factors), greater line stability, and a longer reach than the old Karoo Max products.
In addition, unlike Karoo Max, Karoo Lite, Mid and Pro are subject to very little Performance Management (or "traffic shaping"). In fact, there will be no Performance Management on the most common forms of internet traffic, such as browsing, emailing, streaming, downloading and uploading.
All in all, Karoo Lite, Mid and Pro have the potential of providing better line and throughput speeds than Karoo Max, and are much less subject to fluctuating speeds. In addition, the products are easy to choose between, with pre-set usage limits, unlike Karoo Max, so the customer knows exactly what he's getting by paying more.
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What are the advantages of changing to Karoo Lite, Mid or Pro?
There are several benefits to changing, summarised as follows:
- Our lowest ever prices, starting at just £8.49 a month for Karoo Lite with 2GB usage included - more than enough for occasional and light users who mainly browse and email.
- Karoo Mid offers a user experience as least as good as Max Option 4, but at almost half the price, with a generous 10GB usage allowance, which is more than enough for the majority of users.
- Karoo Pro is targeted at heavier users and downloaders, offering unlimited downloads at super-fast speeds overnight, and a healthy 75GB monthly allowance between 8am and midnight.
- All products come with a "Pay as You Go" option for users who want to use the internet beyond their monthly allowance, offering complete flexibility and choice.
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Why are there only three packages available?
Whilst choice is important to our customers, we wanted to keep the options simple and clear. When we were looking at which packages to offer, we looked at our various customer segments, and thought about the type of product each of these segments would want us to provide. This exercise showed us that combined with a "Pay As You Go" option for additional usage, the three products we are launching between them satisfy the varying needs of our customers.
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Why can you not provide me with an unlimited package?
We understand that many customers enjoy the peace of mind that unlimited usage brings. However, when we analysed the actual usage patterns of our users, we found that over half of our customers use less than 1GB a month, whilst 71% use less than 2GB a month, and 95% use less than 10GB a month. This means that Karoo Lite and Karoo Mid would provide plenty of usage to suit the majority of our customers, whilst the relatively small proportion of our customers that download heavily are best suited to Karoo Pro, particularly as they can schedule unlimited downloading activities to happen overnight.
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If I am unhappy with my new package, can I change back without cost to me?
We are confident that customers will experience consistently improved download speeds with these new products. However, in the rare circumstance that a customer experiences a downgrade in experience, we will allow the customer to change back to his previous product free of charge.
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Why are you charging me a £5 hardware delivery fee?
It is standard practice for an ISP to make a small charge for delivery of inclusive hardware. Among the providers that also make a hardware delivery fee, PlusNet and Madasafish each charge £6.99, and Eclipse also charges £5.
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Hardware
I’m using a USB modem to connect to the internet. Will this still work on the new service?
Not all broadband hardware is ADSL2+ compliant. USB modems are not ADSL2+ compliant, nor are the earlier ADSL routers. Your hardware WILL still work with Karoo on ADSL2+, but will only train up to a maximum of 8Mbps (i.e. ADSL Max speeds only). If you want to take advantage of ADSL2+, including its benefits of higher speeds downstream and upstream and greater stability, you will need to upgrade your hardware to an ADSL2+ compatible router,
Karoo recommends two particular routers, which have been developed with the vendors to work straight out of the box with Karoo broadband, and which come with free Technical Support from our Karoo Helpdesk. Both of these are currently on special offer for our customers. The first is the Zyxel single-port router, ideal for customers that only have one person using the internet at one time. This is just £19.99 (reduced from £25.99). The other is our Netgear wireless router, which has built-in wireless security and will connect up to four computers or consoles all at the same time if needed, with no need for wires, retailing at just £56.99 (reduced from £69.99).
A full list of hardware that is and is not compatible with ADSL2+ can be found on www.karoo.co.uk.
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Terms & Conditions
Why do I have to re-start my contract?
There is a cost to Kingston when an existing customer changes to a new product, mainly attributable to staff resource within Customer Services and Engineering. All we ask is that customers start a fresh contract with us. Customers are free to select the one-month option on Karoo Mid or Karoo Pro, for the connection fee of £47 inc. VAT.
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Does the Fair Usage Policy apply?
There is no Fair Usage Policy with these products, but, as with all of our products, the Acceptable Use Policy applies, as published on the Karoo home page at http://www.karoo.co.uk/acceptable-use-policy.aspx.
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Speed
What speed am I going to get?
We will be able to provide you with an estimate of the connection (or line) speed that you will achieve, but download speed (i.e. the actual speed at which you browse / watch online videos, etc) will differ across different times of the day. Whilst the intention with these new products is to give customers a download/browsing speed that is as close as possible to their line speed, broadband is a naturally contended service, and there will be times when there are so many other users sharing your connection that you will see a slowdown in speed.
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How have you calculated my predicted speed?
Our predicted speeds that we quote using our speed checker are based on averages across a large cross-sample of Kingston telephony lines.
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What speed information does your speed checker give me?
The Karoo speed checker tool will provide you with an indication of a typical line speed for your postcode area when using an "up to 24Mbps" product. Line speed (also known sometimes as "synch speed" or "connection speed") is the speed of the line between your broadband router or modem and your local telephone exchange. There are a number of factors that affect your line speed, the length of your line being by far the most significant, but internal wiring and the use of extension cables can also affect your line speed. So the further you live from the exchange, the lower your line speed is likely to be. Please note that other broadband speed checker tools readily available on the internet may be checking download (or "throughput") speed, which is different (and often lower) than your line speed, since this is affected by a number of additional factors, such as how busy the internet is.
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Will I always be able to connect at the speed you quote me?
The Karoo speed checker will provide you with a typical line speed for your postcode area. This is the maximum speed at which you will be able to connect to and browse on the internet. Please note that connection speeds vary when more people are using the internet at the same time.
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Am I guaranteed to receive the same or greater speed than I currently receive?
In theory, ADSL2+ will provide downstream speeds up to 24Mb and upstream speeds up to 1Mb. However, the actual speed you receive on your line is, as with Max broadband, dependent on a number of factors, including how far you live from the exchange. If you’re currently receiving the full 8Mbps on your current broadband service, it is highly likely that you will see a speed increase, although again how much of an increase will depend on how close you are to the exchange. Even if you are receiving less than 8Mbps on your current product, you will probably see a small speed increase, since the line will be able to withstand more noise on the line with ADSL2+, but the increase will not be huge, particularly if your line is particularly long.
Most customers will also see an increase in their upload speed, which is the speed at which you send data (e.g. sending emails, videos, photos for online processing etc.)
Customers still using a dial-up connection could see an extremely high improvement in their connection and surfing speed, depending on where they live and their distance from the nearest exchange. Please call 01482 602300 to find out what speed you could achieve and to up-grade to one of the new Karoo Broadband packages.
Please note that, in order to minimise the effects of natural broadband contention for the majority of our customers, we may still give lower priority to peer-to-peer (file sharing) and newsgroups traffic during busy periods.
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Is there a guarantee of minimum speed?
The actual speed you experience is affected by one or more of the following factors, and it is therefore impossible to guarantee a minimum speed:
- The distance you live from the telephone exchange: the closer you live to the exchange, the faster your connection is likely to be. Like mobile phones, the further a signal has to travel, the weaker it is.
- Quality of your phone line: if your phone line's in good condition, you'll get a stronger signal.
- Wiring: once the broadband internet connection hits your house, it still needs to reach your PC. If you've got good quality wiring in your house, you'll be able to enjoy faster speeds. Try to avoid using extension cables.
- Time of day: the internet has busy periods, and traffic on our network will vary from minute to minute depending on the number of people using our network.
- Hardware: the type of modem or router you use can affect the speed you experience. In addition, you will need to be using an ADSL2+-compliant router in order to benefit from the best speeds possible.
- Microfilters / splitters: the quality of the filters you use will also affect your speed.
- Karoo Performance Management on file sharing and Usenet traffic (affecting users of this type of traffic only)
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Will my speed be consistent?
Whilst your line speed will be consistent, your download/browsing speed will vary at different times of the day, depending on how many other customers are using the same connection as you.
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What download speeds will I get?
Karoo Lite, Mid and Pro give customers the best possible download/browsing speed on their line, since we do not traffic shape the most common types of internet traffic such as browsing, emailing, video streaming and downloading. However, your broadband connection will still be liable to natural contention during busy times.
Please note that, in order to minimise the effects of natural broadband contention for the majority of our customers, we may still give lower priority to peer-to-peer (file sharing) and newsgroups traffic during busy times.
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How will traffic shaping impact my speed?
There is no Performance Management on the majority of internet traffic. However, we apply Performance Management for bandwidth hungry protocols such as file sharing and Usenet traffic, which, whilst used by a small minority of customers, has the ability to adversely impact the Internet experience for a large number of customers.
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Usage
How do I check my usage?
The Karoo Control Panel (accessed by clicking on "My Account" from the Karoo homepage) includes a Usage Meter, which will illustrate your monthly usage, both for the current 30-day period and also for six previous monthly periods, so you can keep an eye on your usage.
In addition, we will be sending out warning emails when you have reached 50% and 75% of your monthly allowance (Karoo Lite) or 80% (Karoo Mid and Karoo Pro).
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How will I know if I go over my usage allowance?
We will be sending out warning emails when you have reached 50% and 75% of your monthly allowance (Karoo Lite) or 80% (Karoo Mid and Karoo Pro). In addition, we will email you (to your default Karoo email address) when you've gone over your usage allowance.
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What happens if I go over my usage allowance? How much will it be if I go over my usage allowance?
Your first usage period may cover more than 30 days. So to help get you settled onto your new broadband package – additional usages charges during this time is unlimited and completely free. Subsequent months will be charged accordingly. If you go over your usage allowance, you will be charged £2 per GB or part thereof if you're using Karoo Lite, or 98p per GB or part thereof if you're using Karoo Mid or Karoo Pro. The payment for additional usage will be added to your next monthly payment, which will be taken on or around 29th of the month. We will notify you in writing of the changed bill.
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Shaping
What is contention?
In order to provide cost-effective broadband services, Kingston plans its network so that each connection to a telephone exchange is shared among multiple users. When too many customers are using their connection at the same time, speeds will start to slow down for all those users sharing the set amount of bandwidth. This is known as contention.
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What is the difference between traffic shaping and contention?
Contention happens naturally with ADSL or ADSL2+ broadband, and is dependent on how many other customers are using the same connection at the same time. Traffic shaping, on the other hand, is a form of managing internet traffic that is controlled by the ISP, and can take many forms. It may involve slowing specific customers' connections down at particular times of day or preventing specific customers from conducting particular internet activities at certain times of day, for example, peer-to-peer downloading during busy periods.
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How does natural contention impact gaming?
What matters for a good gaming experience more than anything is fast pings (the time delay measured in seconds which it takes to get from your computer to the gaming server, and back again). This has more to do with upload speeds than download speeds, and any downstream slowdown experienced due to contention will have minimal impact on gaming.
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Are these packages suitable for gaming?
The increase in upstream speed to up to 1Mbps should be of benefit to gamers.
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Payment / Charges
Why can I not pay cash?
The vast majority of ISPs have been accepting only direct debit payments for a number of years. The cost of managing cash and cheque payments has become prohibitively high, and we have had to review our policy in the light of offering reduced prices.
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Why do I have to pay a set-up / downgrade fee?
It is standard practice throughout the ISP world to charge a set-up or downgrade fee for new and existing customers that wish to move to a new, lower priced product. Other ISPs that do this include TalkTalk (£29.99 charge for new and existing customers), Sky (£30 for existing customers), Pipex (£20) and Be (£24).
Don't forget that we are making the discounted price of £8.49 per month available to existing as well as new customers, so that a customer moving from Max Option 1, paying £16.99 a month, would recoup this charge in just over 4 months of changing to Karoo Lite.
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Can you offer a Pay As You Go service?
There is a standard cost attached to providing a dedicated port (on a DSLAM in an exchange) to an individual customer, and for this reason it is not feasible to offer a free PAYG service on broadband as it is on dial-up. These new products are PAYG, since customers can choose to use additional bandwidth and paying for it.
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Can I have my telephone calls and broadband service bundled and billed together?
A bundled telephony/broadband product is not something that we are planning to offer at present.
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Can I buy extra Gig in advance?
Currently, the only option is to buy additional GB as you go, at a set cost per GB.
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Why did I pay £2 for 2GB on my old package, but now it is £2 for only 1GB?
The cost of additional usage is £2 per GB only on the Karoo Lite package. It is £1 per GB on Karoo Mid and Karoo Pro.
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Can I have a discount on my telephone service?
We have no plans to offer telephony discounts to broadband customers.
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General
Can I come into Carr Lane to collect my equipment?
Unfortunately this is not possible, since we use an outside fulfilment house to configure and deliver our hardware.
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Can my email be sent to another email address other than Karoo?
Unfortunately at the moment we can only send warning emails to your Karoo email address.
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What can I do for 75GB (i.e. how long will it take to download 200 music tracks)?
There is an online Usage Calculator on www.karoo.co.uk, which will help you determine which package is best for your usage.
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