BBYW Pro - Lite

[#1]

Hi Penfold,
To be fair, the days when BB+ was the new PN account type was about the same time the PN network was being squeezed to capacity for maximum revenue per user while the PN management were wanting to get a big fat payoff from BT ... your pain was their gain ... literally. 
Those days I believe are long gone and shall not return.
SW.

[#2]

If you (PN) can do PAYG 15GB for £19.99 why can't you do 4GB for 12.99? Doesn't seem disproportionate.

[#3]

You can't do the calculation without knowing how much of the 15GB, on average, goes unused amongst those on that tariff.
Those on lower allowances are more likely to use a higher portion of the transit paid for.

[#4]

Yes.  there are various factors that you have to consider.
Looking at the actual Mathematics of the product, you have to assume that customers are unlikely to usee the full allowance being offered, and if they do, they are likely to exceed the allotted quota, thus purchasing additional blocks of 2GB.
Because the traffic is prioritised, my un-finance-orientated-head would probably expect each gigabyte of prioritised traffic to cost in the region of £1, added onto ~£7 tail costs and factor in margin, staff costs and so on it makes it a bit harder to factor in a lower usage allowance.
Of course, having said that, it is something on the wish list and will be considered in the future should we look at doing a further product refresh later on in the year.

[#5]

Thanks for the explanation.

[#6]

James,
I appreciate that this is all off the top of the head but if we assume that the tail cost of BBYW Option1 is £9.50 and transfer that to Pro-lite then add 4GB at £1 per GB then the total cost would be £13.50. Alternatively to give a better margin (less people using the total allowance 5GB included would be £14.50 and 6GB included £15.50 compared to Pro at £19.99 for 15GB included (which should cost £24.50 on the same basis) . Then a product such as this would be viable and would met the requirements of users like myself on PAYG 4GB included

[#7]

I don't make the rules, I was merely thinking aloud

[#8]

See NewNet's Home Lite account as it is kind of in this range http://www.newnet.co.uk/broadband/home.php
SW.

[#9]

Yes, I moved there in January 2007 and I think I have now given up on ever seeing a competitive Product from PlusNet.
This product is for those of us who prefer to pay for what we eat and NOT subsidise the gluttons who benefit from users who eat less than they pay for. As I said in my opening post, PlusNet seem to be charging headlong down that route again.
p.s. I must change my sig!

[#10]

Quote from: godsell4

See NewNet's Home Lite account as it is kind of in this range

It's certainly good on the surface, although it would be interesting for a PN rep to comment on the concept of "no traffic shaping" whatsoever. On the face of it they have what PN would call a legacy PAYG (unshaped) 3GB package for £12.
If PlusNet's viewpoint is to be believed, lack of any sort of control at peak times could just make everyone's experience slow to a crawl as natural contention kicks in. Would we not find the P2P and iPlayer (etc) traffic suck up the entirety of the available bandwidth? Is this just another case of a relatively little-known ISP managing to offer something that hasn't yet been abused by the masses? I notice they do play a toned-down version of the "unlimited" word-game on one package.
PlusNet's opinion on this really would be valuable...

[#11]

Quote from: Laser

Would we not find the P2P and iPlayer (etc) traffic suck up the entirety of the available bandwidth?

Not for very long though, as they would hit there paid for usage pretty quickly. I would assume they would also implement something like the Enta.Net ALT (Anti Loss Tool) at peak times though they seem to maintain 2Mb on all connections regardless of time of day, except for the odd day when the load across central is not balanced.
SW.

[#12]

Quote from: Laser

If PlusNet's viewpoint is to be believed, lack of any sort of control at peak times could just make everyone's experience slow to a crawl as natural contention kicks in. Would we not find the P2P and iPlayer (etc) traffic suck up the entirety of the available bandwidth?

To make efficient use of the network you need to be able to shape the traffic. You might do this on the basis of, protocol, time of day (encourage off peack use with lower price), or how much the customer is prepared to pay (pay for priority).
So, if we were all on a simple PAYG product with all traffic at high priority it would be an expensive network to run. Either we would be prepared to pay a lot for it, or no one would buy it, or it would make a loss.
I'm looking forward to the day where we can have PAYG for all where we pay according to protocol with the selectable priority we want and time of day. The challenge will be to make it simple to understand. Its a bit like phone calls or off peak electricity but with the added dimension of priority.

[#13]

I can see the rationale of these arguments but NewNet's CEO has declared in the TBB forum that the Home Lite product is the most profitable in the product set.
If you price the tail cost and per GB cost correctly, you cannot make a loss because users pay for all they use!
Remember that NewNet do not have the cost of the Ellacoyas and all of the staff required to implement and support the traffic shaping. They also do NOT attract the data hogs because of their pricing.
It is another way of running a railroad and it seems to work well.

[#14]

Has anyone from PN got any news about when a Broadband Pro Lite type product might be available?

[#15]

The short answer to your question is no.
The long answer to your question is also currently no, but it is something that we are looking into.