topic Re: Residential Refresh 2014 FAQ in Community Announcements

Residential Refresh 2014 FAQ

LinnPlusnet — Tue, 10 Jun 2014 08:08:14 GMT

If you have any questions regarding the new packages and charges that have come into effect today 10/06/2014 -
Please find our FAQ here: http://community.plus.net/plusnet-residential-refresh-faq-june-2014/

Re: Residential Refresh 2014 FAQ

ITWorks — Tue, 10 Jun 2014 08:26:46 GMT

Why are PN penalising customers ( paying the same, getting less) who can not get or do not want fibre ( fibre get evening and weekends, ADSL just weekends ), yet you are happy to charge them the same for line rental.? In some cases paying more on adsl then customers on fibre (Market 1).

Quote
How much will Line Rental cost?
Line Rental will increase to £15.95pcm (this includes Weekends for Unlimited broadband and Evening & Weekends for both Fibre packages).

Very very poor judgement PN, giving one set of customer less than the other, yet both paying the same ! .
PN what's the reason for this ? ~~Would the ADSL customer have to pay another £1.50 a month extra on top for evening and weekend calls?~~ Just seen this is now an extra £ 2 month for ADSL customers, disgusting !

~~LRS increase , is that just for new customers, or everybody, when their LRS is up for renewal ?~~
Regards
Mike

Re: Residential Refresh 2014 FAQ

Oldjim — Tue, 10 Jun 2014 08:58:21 GMT

What this tells me is that any potential customers on Market 1 exchanges would be better off going with BT as it is cheaper and includes a few other things as well

Re: Residential Refresh 2014 FAQ

w23 — Tue, 10 Jun 2014 09:59:14 GMT

I'm interested in:

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Both Fibre products will be provisioned on 80/20 speeds, however, the Unlimited Fibre (Up to 38Mbps) package will be capped at 40/20 on our side.

That presumably means the same (wholesale) cost to Plusnet for both products (ignoring the inclusion of the 'Plusnet Protect powered by McAfee Antivirus' on the 'Extra' product since many will not see a lot of real value in that extra).
I can't really see that those limited to just 38Mbps will necessarily consume a lot less bandwidth so this appears, to me, that the basic Unlimited Fibre represents far better value (especially as many don't/wouldn't get full speed on 80/20 anyway) than Unlimited Fibre Extra.
An aside to this: On the 'basic' Unlimited Fibre (40/20) would any potential future Plusnet IPTV (Multicast) offering be using bandwidth only within the PN capped 38Mbps or could it use additional available bandwidth since the line is still provisioned on 80/20 so some 'spare' may be available?

Re: Residential Refresh 2014 FAQ

LinnPlusnet — Tue, 10 Jun 2014 10:25:06 GMT

Quote from: I
Why are PN penalising customers ( paying the same, getting less) who can not get or do not want fibre ( fibre get evening and weekends, ADSL just weekends ), yet you are happy to charge them the same for line rental.? In some cases paying more on adsl then customers on fibre (Market 1).

I can understand where you're coming from Mike, however, the Evening and Weekends included in the bundle if you take out Fibre and phone is to encourage people to take out the bundle. I can appreciate that not everyone can get Fibre, however, if a customer chooses Unlimited broadband and adds E&W they would still pay less than a customer on Unlimited Fibre.

Quote
An aside to this: On the 'basic' Unlimited Fibre (40/20) would any potential future Plusnet IPTV (Multicast) offering be using bandwidth only within the PN capped 38Mbps or could it use additional available bandwidth since the line is still provisioned on 80/20 so some 'spare' may be available?

I'll feedback to the people looking into how multicast would work as it's theoretically possible if your line is sync'd above 40Mbps to use that for multicast but we've not yet decided.

Re: Residential Refresh 2014 FAQ

ITWorks — Tue, 10 Jun 2014 10:42:06 GMT

Not for those on market 1 compared to market 2 and 3 tho
Market 1 ( £15.95 line rental , £17.49 adsl , £2 evening and weekends = £ 35.44 )
Market 2.3 ( £15.95 line rental , £14.99 fibre , free evening and weekends = £ 30.94 )
I think PN should include the free evening and weekend calls if you take a bundle for Fibre or ADSL.
Regards
Mike

Re: Residential Refresh 2014 FAQ

Townman — Tue, 10 Jun 2014 10:43:55 GMT

If a customer contracts for unlimited fibre extra and then finds that BTOR can only deliver up to 38Mbps, will PN allow a package down grade without penalty or will they force BTOR to deliver the contracted for service?
Now that the pricing is speed based, there needs to be assurances that BTOR can and will deliver the estimated speeds. Hiding behind "it is just an estimate which can vary depending upon local line conditions" is no longer commercially acceptable.
Kevin

Re: Residential Refresh 2014 FAQ

Kelly — Tue, 10 Jun 2014 10:44:43 GMT

Quote from: w23
An aside to this: On the 'basic' Unlimited Fibre (40/20) would any potential future Plusnet IPTV (Multicast) offering be using bandwidth only within the PN capped 38Mbps or could it use additional available bandwidth since the line is still provisioned on 80/20 so some 'spare' may be available?

That's a genius idea. I hadn't considered it.

Re: Residential Refresh 2014 FAQ

glloyd — Tue, 10 Jun 2014 10:53:39 GMT

So pay monthly and the line rental goes up a shocking £1.45 a month. Pay year in advance and it goes up a ridiculous £2.00 a month and this when wholesale prices are dropping. Plusnet is getting greedy and less competitive. Certainly not the PlusNet I joined many years ago.

Re: Residential Refresh 2014 FAQ

ITWorks — Tue, 10 Jun 2014 11:05:20 GMT

Where one leads , every one else follows , which is very true of PN these days, regarding line rental.
As we all know the increase of LR is just away to subsidise broadband cost, whilst keeping the headline price artificially low.
I wonder how long it is before us existing customer get an email, informing that they will be increasing LR.
Maybe with the increase in revenue they will be able to sort out the their, billing and referral systems quicker, be nearly a year when the referral system went wrong, and still no end in sight.
Regards
Mike

Re: Residential Refresh 2014 FAQ

LinnPlusnet — Tue, 10 Jun 2014 11:15:25 GMT

Quote from: I
Market 1 ( £15.95 line rental , £17.49 adsl , £2 evening and weekends = £ 35.44 )
Market 2.3 ( £15.95 line rental , £14.99 fibre , free evening and weekends = £ 30.94 )

I understand what you're saying Mike, however, my point was more based on a customer who is in Market 1 would pay more regardless if it was ADSL or FTTC.
I'll definitely mention it to the relevant team though.

Quote
If a customer contracts for unlimited fibre extra and then finds that BTOR can only deliver up to 38Mbps, will PN allow a package down grade without penalty or will they force BTOR to deliver the contracted for service?

If it turns out that the estimated speed was incorrect upon signup and (not due to a fault) the actual speed is lower than 38Mbps then we'd advise the customer to contact COT to discuss changing the package.

Re: Residential Refresh 2014 FAQ

Oldjim — Tue, 10 Jun 2014 14:00:28 GMT

I see from http://www.plus.net/support/broadband/speed_guide/download_speeds.shtml that it hasn't been updated for the new products
Are the new unlimited products the same as the old ones

Re: Residential Refresh 2014 FAQ

LinnPlusnet — Tue, 10 Jun 2014 15:59:39 GMT

Can you get to that webpage going through the support links from the main webpage? I'm unable to find that page going through the support pages.
Yes, the new Unlimited products are the same as the old ones.

Re: Residential Refresh 2014 FAQ

Oldjim — Tue, 10 Jun 2014 16:07:22 GMT

I have no idea
I get to it using the search option

Re: Residential Refresh 2014 FAQ

LinnPlusnet — Tue, 10 Jun 2014 16:08:16 GMT

What do you type in the search bar?

Re: Residential Refresh 2014 FAQ

Oldjim — Tue, 10 Jun 2014 16:09:54 GMT

Download speeds and it is the first result

Re: Residential Refresh 2014 FAQ

LinnPlusnet — Tue, 10 Jun 2014 16:10:40 GMT

Thanks Jim, I'll get this flagged with the Marketing team!

Re: Residential Refresh 2014 FAQ

confident — Tue, 10 Jun 2014 17:08:12 GMT

My exchange is coming up as Market 1, but EE, Sky and UTV, as well as BT are all willing to take my money.
So how accurate are PN's records for Market 1 areas?
Also with regard to fibre options, is PN relying on the test results from: https://www.dslchecker.bt.com/ ?
If you are and say you can give me even 60% of that estimate, I'll sign up now.

Re: Residential Refresh 2014 FAQ

petecov44 — Tue, 10 Jun 2014 19:34:09 GMT

If someone on a Market 1 exchange gets an NGA installed surely they are no longer M1? Due to the choice of provider?

Re: Residential Refresh 2014 FAQ

Chris — Tue, 10 Jun 2014 19:36:17 GMT

Markets don't change that quickly, they are reclassified by Ofcom on a periodic basis.
adie:quote