I am currently on the ancent BroadbandPlus (I think) downloading ubuntu at a stonking 30kb/s on my 'unlimited', 'up to 8MB/s', 'always on' connection.  (Or is it 'user experience'.).

Other than sending letters, which at the moment would seem to be faster, I would be grateful for any advice on a better product for <= £15 / month.  I mean better for me, lest there be any confusion about my reasons for wanting a 'product refresh'.
I did try reading all the information, but got lost between market segment pricing, product traffic shaping tables (2 hourly), general traffic shaping and precious metal (gold, titanium etc) service prioritisation.  It would be unfair to suggest it is all intended to confuse, but it has that effect on me.

BTW this is not a criticism of PN pricing.  I know that if they did not make the system unusable most of the time for all but general surfing then they would not make as much profit or have to charge more.

It all depends on what your uses are, if you use usenet or p2p and other dowmload sites then most of PN options are traffic managed and will be slow at peak times. I know you say <£15 but if you could afford £19 then I would recommend the pro account. Full speed for whatever your needs at anytime of the day but with a 20G/month limit (excluding 12am to 8am)

Before we go too far, are you sure your speeds are down to the traffic management on BB+ and not a problem with your connection? You said you are getting 30k bits per second (30kbps), did you mean 30k bytes per second (30kBps) which is 240kbps and closer to what you might expect on BB+?

What does https://portal.plus.net/my.html?action=stable_rate say for your current line speed?

Started at 500 units/s around 0900 and crashed to 30 units/s around lunchtime. So I think the answer is bytes.

Used to get up to around 700 units/s with PN in the past.  Now 500 is the best I get.

[Moderator's note by Dick (Strat):  Full quote of preceding post removed, as per Forum Rules ]

Have a look at http://www.kitz.co.uk/isp/plusnet_shaping.htm

Thanks.  

For my pattern of usage, looks as if I may be able to get a similar level of frustration slightly cheaper - which I guess means there will be a switch-over cost.

[Moderator's note by Dick (Strat):  Full quote of preceding post removed, as per Forum Rules ]

no switch over costs at all

I'd still like to know the answer to

Estimated line speed:
    Not recorded (service activated before we introduced estimates).
Current line speed:
    4500

Thanks for that.

That speed is in bits per second, so divide by 8, less a little bit for overheads, the absolute top speed your line is currently capable of is around 550KBps - 500 is not unreasonable. If you were previously getting around 700 then something has happened to your line or equipment to knock you back a bit and no matter what account type you change to you are not going to get that speed back until that is sorted out. Unfortunately the drop you are seeing is not enough for it to be considered a fault so if you want to see if that speed can be regained you will need to do it yourself with our help.

Have you made any changes at all since you sere getting the higher speeds including new telephones, using different extensions etc?

Can you post your router stats (sync speed, attenuation and noise margin) please.

If you could get the results from a BT speed test as well.

What has changed: wiring same, different computers, perhaps 'new' wireless modem router.  I will see if I kept the old (non wireless) modem and give see if it makes a difference.  Thanks for the suggestion. 

Status
Modem Status    Showtime
Mode Selected    G992_1_A
DMT Framing Mode    G.DMT Framing Mode 3
Trellis-Coded Modulation    Enable
Latency Type    Interleave

 
Rate
      Downstream    Upstream
Data Rate    5600 kbps    448 kbps
Maximum Attainable Data Rate(ATTNDR)    0 kbps    0 kbps

 
Information
      Downstream    Upstream
Line Attenuation(LATN)    13.0 dB    11.0 dB
Signal Attenuation(SATN)    0.0 dB    0.0 dB
Signal-to-Noise Ratio Margin(SNRM)    14.5 dB    25.0 dB
Actual Aggregate Transmit Power (ACATP)    0.0 dB    0.0 dB

 
Performance
      Near End    Far End
Superframe    2698166
LOS Failure    0    0
LOF Failure    0    0
LPR Failure    0    0
RFI Failure    0    0
NCD Failure    0    0
LCD Failure    0    0
CRC    1    5
RS Correction    1    0
Forward Error Correction Seconds(FECS-L)    1    0
Errored Second(ES-L)    1    1
Serverely Errored Seconds(SES-L)    0    1
Loss of Signal Seconds(LOSS-L)    0    1
Unavailable Seconds(UAS-L)    30    0
HEC Error    0    0

Your downstream noise margin is very high which isn't good news.

Can you try reconnecting during daylight hours (background noise increases at night so a resync is best avoided then) and immediately get those figures again please.

The noise margin it gives you then will be the target set by BT. It initially starts at 6 but BT push it up if the line is having problems, as the noise margin goes up the sync speed comes down. If your line stays stable with few errors the noise margin will creep down again, but this can take a few weeks.

Readings at about 10:00.  Modem plugged straight into the phone socket coming in from outside.
The signal to noise margin has increased slightly from yesterday.

Status
Modem Status    Showtime
Mode Selected    G992_1_A
DMT Framing Mode    G.DMT Framing Mode 3
Trellis-Coded Modulation    Enable
Latency Type    Interleave

 
Rate
      Downstream    Upstream
Data Rate    5344 kbps    448 kbps
Maximum Attainable Data Rate(ATTNDR)    0 kbps    0 kbps

 
Information
      Downstream    Upstream
Line Attenuation(LATN)    13.0 dB    11.0 dB
Signal Attenuation(SATN)    0.0 dB    0.0 dB
Signal-to-Noise Ratio Margin(SNRM)    16.0 dB    25.0 dB
Actual Aggregate Transmit Power (ACATP)    0.0 dB    0.0 dB

 
Performance
      Near End    Far End
Superframe    13704
LOS Failure    0    0
LOF Failure    0    0
LPR Failure    0    0
RFI Failure    0    0
NCD Failure    0    0
LCD Failure    0    0
CRC    1    5
RS Correction    0    0
Forward Error Correction Seconds(FECS-L)    0    0
Errored Second(ES-L)    1    1
Serverely Errored Seconds(SES-L)    0    1
Loss of Signal Seconds(LOSS-L)    0    1
Unavailable Seconds(UAS-L)    55    0
HEC Error    0    0

Could not get the speed test (linked from the PN web page) to work.  Apparently I need some Licence that I do not have. (javascript was enabled.).

Something odd there; target noise margins are a multiple 3 so 16 is a bit odd!

When you said "Modem plugged straight into the phone socket coming in from outside." was it the test socket inside or the socket on the front?


The speed test you tried to run, was it http://www.speedtester.bt.com/ ? Could you post the error you get please (either copy the text if you take a screen dump you can attach it in the Additional options when posting).

The socket on the front.  Samsung micro-filter plugged into front socket.  Modem plugged into micro-filter.
Never taken the cover the off.

Speed tester image attached.

BTW tried my old modem and got similar results.