Want to buy some extra gigs: (Inc: discussion about future capacity plans)

[#1]

I’ve been with plus for almost five years now and always stayed within limits (e.g. no level 1 management, etc. etc.). But recently I’ve subscribed to high-quality Internet TV and see my usage rocketing. I am still on old Premier Option 1 and like my extended off-peak times.
The problem I have is: subscription to high-quality streams is quite new, so we have to “settle-down” and see the usage patterns. As you understand with products like this, one tends to use more at the start and then after cooling-off period it settles into a different pattern. Until it happens you couldn’t tell when and how much data you need.
Can anyone tell me how can I buy these extra peak-time gigs for my package to get out from level 1 management? I thing it’s easy with the new packages but why it shouldn’t be available for old and loyal customers? I do like my Premier 1 but jus want this tiny bit of flexibility, and please note, I am NOT asking for free lunch, I just want to be able to add extra blocks of peak-time data if needed.
Has anyone been in this type of a situation? Could plus.net comment on this?
Regards,
w0wn0w
[Moderator's note by Barry Zubel: Title changed to reflect interesting further discussion on the future of bandwidth ]

[#2]

This is strange…
No reply to my ticket, no replies here…
I thought it’s going to be an easy question. Am I the first customer to ask such sort of question? 
Hello, plus.net, don’t you want some money? 
Fellow plusneters, has anyone tried to do such a simple transaction?

[#3]

I myself are on the old Premier Option 1 package..(and i luv it!!) 
And would be willing to pay for the odd gig or two during peak times...if the need be.

[#4]

I think you will find that this is one of the reasons the BBYW product was created. I haven't regretted moving onto the new product, but with paid for usage now covering 8am to midnight it does not suit everyone. The other advantage of the BBYW product over premier is that the restrictions come in when you reach your paid for cap, rather than earlier, unless you have set it up to automatically add extra usage.

[#5]

The old legacy products (Premier option 1 being one of them) do not have the capability to purchase additional peak time allowances and as they are legacy (i.e. no longer sold or being developed) they are unlikely to be changed.
Your only option is to move to one of the BBYW products where you can buy additional allowance.

[#6]

Hi there,
Unfortunately buying extra GB's is not possible on the old Plus/Premier products.
This is the main advantage of Broadband Your Way, although I can appreciate the shift in peak times doesn't suit everyone.
I can arrange an upgrade to Premier Option 2 for you if you wish? The product costs £29.99 and gives you upto 30GB of peak time usage (Level 1 management starts at 20GB).

[#7]

Thanks for all your replies, people!
Mand, I have to think about it now and do some math. I’ll let you know shortly which way I move with the package. Thanks for extra choice 
Am I going to loose my fax-to-email if moved to BBYW?

[#8]

Hi w0wn0w,
Whilst you're not able to gain fax2email as a new BBYW customer (as it's no longer for sale), if you already have fax2email, you can request to keep this as part of your product change.

[#9]

Thanks Jameseh.
I just wonder now when HQ Internet TV really picks-up in the UK how ISPs are going to handle this?
We are talking about streams at 800Kbps and above. I think within a year it would become one of the serious data transfer sources.
And in this case customers are unable to do it off-peak, like downloads, as we are talking live streams.
Does plus.net investigate this issue and the situation which is about to hit the bandwidth?

[#10]

Unfortunately, even if Plusnet promote such a service, they are still constrained by the cost of providing the service as set by BT.
An analogy might be that as more and more people are travelling larger distances by car, then the price of petrol should reduce.  In this case, it would be the oil companies, (and ultimately the OPEC countries) that would have to reduce their prices.
I'm all for higher transfer allowances, but I also believe in sustainable business and offering products that cost more to provide to the customer than the customer is paying ultimately means that there won't be a Plusnet to provide you with your internet connection!
B.

[#11]

Hi Barry,
I can see your point. But what I am talking about is a different scenario. Like when HQ Internet TV becomes a common thing, which is not a distant future. So what you are saying is that plus.net is not going to cater for this sector? By common I mean as common as VOIP.
I don’t think plus.net would stay aside of this. It might involve some global changes across the ISP networks but those changes should be made. For example I know some ISPs across Europe that my friends use and they have special arrangements for iTV to actually attract customers.
I do believe that all ISPs in the UK sooner rather than later would have to face this issue.

[#12]

Absolutely.
We've literally been talking about this for year.
We know that usage is going to increase, but until it becomes a cheaper resource, we are unable to increase our usage allowances.  We're no good to you as an ISP if we are broke.
Of course, we will keep on pushing BT for further reductions in price, as will other ISPs, but until that happens, we will not be in a position to increase our usage allowances, or drop the prices on our services.

[#13]

The only way I could foresee PN dropping their prices is if they turned into an LLU provider - an expensive proposition requiring a fairly hefty amount of investment in hardware.
Unless they take this route, (and tbh with BT ultimately holding the purse strings it's fairly unlikely) then they are constrained by BT's prices for wholesale provision.
Recently there has been a lot of consolidation within the industry  with larger ISPs buying out smaller ISPs to increase customer bases and reduce spend.  The reason that other ISPs can appear to offer better deals is because they are saving money in other areas (outsourced international call centres for example).  There is also a certain amount of cross-market subsidisation going on with certain deals (for example O2 and BeThere, or CPW and Talk Talk).  Ultimately, as Plusnet are an ISP and only an ISP, they are unable to cross-subsidise from another market so the balance sheet has to, well, balance.
BT will be forced to reduce their wholesale prices (in fact 21CN is *supposed* to be the start of that), but they also need to ensure that their network is able to carry the capacity that is forecast - this requires investment, which requires a revenue stream etc. etc.
One day, I'm hoping this will all be immaterial.  Sadly, I think that this is still quite a way off.
B.

[#14]

I wouldn’t be so pessimistic about the timing. If this does not happen sooner rather than later then this part of the market might be lost to cable Internet providers. We all know that BT is very slow to adapt but still when they start loosing money they get moving. Just remember the number of price-cuts after low cost telephony was introduced.
Plus.net becoming a LLU supplier… Well, as far as I know plus.net is actually part of BT now, so how it could happen.
And by the way, we are not talking at the moment of huge capacity increases; roughly this system could need around 1.5 to 2.5 gigs per day for moderate to heavy use. This is not much. Companies like simplytv.co.uk are already hitting UK market with new type of service and this is going to pick-up fast.

[#15]

Virgin Media is pretty heavily restricted because of lack of bandwidth on the cable network.  Have a look around at places like thinkbroadband and you'll see what a bad deal cable customers can suffer.
Phil