I'm a long-time openweb client (>3 years) on Gold 2Mbps and I finally decided to call it quits and cancelled my account. I thought in the interests of consumer activism I would add my voice to the number who have posted here following a similar path (I've read the forums over the years but never registered to post until now). Short summary: During most of those 3+ years I was quite happy with openweb even though i thought their methods (frequent account changes, vague answers on shaping/contention, "only 133 account left!" etc) were a bit unorthodox. I often got full line speed for weeks at a time... until this year.
The main thing I want from an ISP is reliable browsing, quick download of small (up to 20-30 MB) files and to be able to leave large downloads / torrents on 24/7 and i'm perfectly OK if they get shaped to say 10% of line speed most of the time (though SOME of the time I expect closer to 100%) and even less than that as long as its not too often. Considering the premium price paid for a GOLD account, this all seemed reasonable.
Here is my current experience: daytime internet is useless on ALL protocols. Sometimes just slow, sometimes too slow for pages to even load. Everything runs "OK" at night and on weekends, but still, I notice that my line speed might as well be theoretical because I NEVER get that, even in short bursts. This doesn't seem to me like "shaping", i.e. where SOME protocols are given lower priority, it is more akin to what I would call "throttling", i.e. an overall reduction in maximum bandwidth. Definately nothing that could be described as "premium" or "high-priority" network access. At the very least, it seems that openweb doesn't provision enough bandwidth for their customer base.
So I finally decided (after months of hoping that it will get better by itself) that the situation is intolerable. I emailed their support complaining, they ask for a traceroute and a speedtest.net test. Now here I think is some deviousness on their part: speedtest.net gives me full line speed, but other speed tests, including my own web server on a http download gives about 10% of line speed. The lesson: DON'T BELIEVE SPEEDTEST.NET on openweb accounts - it seems to be prioritised for fast speed. When I persisted in my complaint they basically told me that "they shape during busy times" (i.e. i have unrealistic expectations) and recommended that I get an capped unshaped account. So, no joy or even hope of improvement, and I cancelled. Too bad I'm stuck with them until the end of December, given that I failed to cancel before 25 October.
