Do PlusNet use BT hardware

[#1]

Just joined PN on 16/12 after 5 years with BT, the last 5 months of which were abysmal in terms of line speed. Around 7pm weekdays and 5pm weekends the speed would drop to 0. Restarting the hub would temp fix but not for long. Spent 5 months raising incidents and testing the line (should have been them doing this). Eventually sent an OpenSource engineer out but he said there was no problem with the line. They even sent me a new hub (1 week before I left) but made no difference. The only suggestion they could make was that I took the fibre line to up the speed......hmm I smell a rat.
Since joining PN (touching wood here) the speed has been fine, never lower than 4 and mostly above 8 mbps.
On to my question thn, if PN use the same hardware for the supply how do they work when BT don't. The theory that BT had  was a line fault but such a physical issue would not be provider specific.
I always supected that over population of the line was the fault but this was denied of course, it does fit in with the timing of the fault though.
Is there physical seperation between the BT and PN at line/network hardware level?

[#2]

There are a few different parts of BT here:
Your house to the exchange = Openreach
Your exchange to Plusnet = BT Wholesale

[#3]

The exchange to PlusNet part of the service will be over PlusNet paid-for virtual paths, which might be less congested than those used by BT-Retail.
However the link / service between your home and the Exchange is exactly the same - strange that it now seems to be working.
It is possible that BT-Retail had you configured on the "wrong" product.

[#4]

It depends on your telephone exchange. Check it out on "samknows.co.uk" to see.
If your telephone exchange and been "unbundled" then you might be one other equipment. If you are not unbundled then the hardware is BTs.
I am on an unbundled exchange so stuck with BT hardware - old ADSL 😞
However there is a config option on the exchange hardware (sometimes called the 'IP profile') to up the normal 448k UPSTREAM to 832k even on old ADSL. Plusnet support this with their 'Prioritised Service' option.
BT could do this but refuse to do it, so I have just moved to Plusnet to give it a try! Then I have to worry about the contention on the Plusnet virtual circuits but we'll see.
Hope it works....

[#5]

Hello dopey349, welcome to the forum (and to Plusnet).
As far as the exchange goes, it makes no difference whether the exchange is unbundled of not. Plusnet's service (as do all ISPs that aren't LLU) uses the BT Wholesale backbone network. Don't get confused with the BT Retail |Network or even Plusnet's Network which is where you connect after the BT Backhaul.
You are quite correct that on 20CN exchanges, there is an option which gives 832kbps upstream and prioritises contention on the VPs (Virtual Paths) at the exchange - this is all on BT Wholesale kit long before it gets to Plusnet. Things are different on 21CN but it could still be possible to get VP congestion.
I hope you both find you get improvements, but if you are unlucky post back with some details when the 10-day training is complete and I'm sure people will try and help you out.

[#6]

Really pleased with PlusNet speed, 3 weeks and rarely falls below 7mbps.

[#7]

Moved over this morning!!
And there is that  832k upstream that BT said was not possible!!!
[tt]
          DS Channel1   DS Channel0 US Channel1   US Channel0
Speed (kbps):           0         8128         0         832
Previous Speed:         0         8128         0         448
[/tt]
Now to let the training period do its work and we will see what we end up with.

[#8]

Is your router forcing ADSL(1)?  That looks like a 21CN service constrained to ADSL(1).

[#9]

Hi makemdano
Glad to see that your connection is working as you would have hoped, and hopefully the case remains the same following he 10 day stabilisation period
However, if you do encounter any problems, don't hesitate to let us know
Regards
Matt

[#10]

Quote from: Townman

Is your router forcing ADSL(1)?  That looks like a 21CN service constrained to ADSL(1).

No it doesn't - going by his previous post it looks like he's on a 20CN exchange paying the extra for Max Premium. Otherwise it's one hell of a coincidence that his upload speed is spot on the Max Premium upload speed.

[#11]

Correct jelv. However if dopey349 posts which exchange he's on, we could have a look at the possible likely future status of the exchange.

[#12]

Thanks for the updates guys. I work in the industry and have checked out exactly what is in my exchange and it is old ADLS1 kit 😞
There are no plans for any upgrades either 😞
I live out in the country and BT prefers to stay in the towns and cities...welcome to high speed Britain  
I have taken the  "business" service from Plusnet and have paid for the "prioritisation option" which is why I am seeing the 832k upstream in my profile
Best actual speeds I have seen so far are 7.8Mb down and 375kb up
I hope that the up will increase over time - but I did take out a monthly contract just in case - if there is no increase in actual upstream I will just return to BT.
dick:quote

[#13]

Hmmm... That upload isn't great. I'm also on a 20CN exchange with Max Premium:

7.8Mb down is not possible as your IP profile will be 7.15.
Are you using a wired or wireless connection to the router?

[#14]

You should certainly be seeing a better upstream speed than that BUT if it's not changed in a couple of days and that's wired, I'd suspect something was amiss.
(You could PM me the exchange name if you don't want to post it in public).
btw, what advantage, if any, do BT Retail offer you compared to Plusnet?

[#15]

I am concerned about congestion at peak times and so I will want to check the Plusnet performance against BT Business in terms of prioritisation at peak times.
Its too hard to work out what will actually happen hence taking out the one month package.
I used BT's business broadband for 3 years so I am used to their performance.
We will see how Plusnet does!
I work from home a lot and use VoIP which is ok.
I would really like to try and get the upstream working as well as possible to see if i can start using video.

Quote from: Anotherone

btw, what advantage, if any, do BT Retail offer you compared to Plusnet?