topic Re: I think PN should comment on this.... in Plusnet Feedback

I think PN should comment on this....

David_W — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 00:51:37 GMT

An article on the BBC...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16842463

Quote
It said Plusnet customers could roughly double their promised speed to "up to" 40Mbps by swapping to a service with the firm that cost £5 more a month.

It's very misleading by the BBC as the majority of customers cannot do that but the BBC is saying that for a fiver more PN will stick you up to "upto 40Mb".
They also compare speeds and you came middle of the road. I'm guessing you may start to get a few phone calls asking "upgrade me to up to 40Mb!" though the article itself was interesting.

Re: I think PN should comment on this....

mapletree — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 09:29:23 GMT

A misleading article in the media. What a surprise
The £5 extra, I assume, refers to the fibre (FTTC) products that are now available in some areas. I'm not sure how many people can get this now but, if BT have upgraded your cabinet and exchange, then PN should be able to supply you.
I'm not sure why there's such a variation in speeds between ISPs since the biggest factor is where you live (owing to the quality/length of your phone line).

Re: I think PN should comment on this....

Chris — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 09:56:07 GMT

I've flagged the article up internally, as most of you know our FIbre products are £10 more than the ADSL variants, not the £5 the BBC have said.

Re: I think PN should comment on this....

anniesboy — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 10:04:09 GMT

Well
Im on Extra and all calls £14.99 pm ,
I could get Fibre and all calls £19.99 , yes 20 gb less 60 to 40

Re: I think PN should comment on this....

WWWombat — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 00:36:19 GMT

Quote from: Chris
I've flagged the article up internally, as most of you know our FIbre products are £10 more than the ADSL variants, not the £5 the BBC have said.

The BBC are just quoting what Ofcom said.
Ofcom gets it right in this instance, as it mentions that the £5 difference is when you go from a 60GB ADSL package to a 40GB Fibre package. They happen to be comparing packages that include phone services, but that doesn't make any difference to the Plusnet case.
What I'm not sure they (Ofcom) have right is that they say it costs £13pm difference if the ADSL package was a 10GB one. As Chris says, surely the difference there is £10.
I don't think that either Ofcom or BBC articles are particularly misleading. The point, of the section in the Ofcom document, or the whole BBC article, was to let people know that it is relatively cheap to jump to a superfast experience even without swapping ISP.
From reading the rest of Ofcom's research, I have to say that ADSL2+ doesn't live up to much: The range of speeds for the "middle 50%" of subscribers is 3-10Mbps.
On the other hand, FTTC is doing a considerably better job: The sange for the same middle-50% is 35-38Mbps. It is probably helped by BT having rolled out the 17a profile while the Ofcom test was going on

Re: I think PN should comment on this....

David_W — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 22:05:16 GMT

The misleading part I was referring to was that you could phone up PN and be switched to a 40Mb connection, as we all know it's limited in who can actually do that but the BBC article suggests that it's available to anyone who calls up PN. I'd love to phone up PN and get a 40Mb connection, but I can't... till next month and then it'll be 100Mb (hopefully!) but that's besides the point.

Re: I think PN should comment on this....

Pettitto — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 17:34:27 GMT

The wording has been changed very slightly as per below:
"It said some Plusnet customers could roughly double their promised speed to "up to" 40Mbps by swapping to a service with the firm that cost £5 more a month."
I think that importantly the added word "some" does help a little bit and makes it sound a lot less misleading.