BT provisioning of business accounts

[#1]

DAK if Teleworker, Small Business and Business accounts are all provisioned off IP Stream Max Premier (MAX successor to IPstream Office 2000 I believe), or is there some difference betwen them in traffic prioritisation within BT (as well as 'Business' - but not the other two - having an upload speed of 832kb/s).
I ask partly because I use a (legacy) Teleworker Pro account which has an upload limit of 832kb/s and am running out of website download traffic capacity (100MB/day). The only suitable PN upgrade appears to be a jump direct to 'Business' (bypassing 'Small Business'), and this upgrade is overkill just to add a bit to the website download limit.
And has anything happened yet about the oft-raised suggestion for a Pro (832kb/s upload) option for all the business accounts - or perhaps even also for the Residential BBYW accounts?

 

[#2]

Hi there,
We are currently only offering the IPStream Max Premier on our main Business Package.  Teleworker and Small Business does not get a increased upload speed owing to the increased cost that we are chrged by BT for the product.
We're looking into ways of having an add-on for IPStream Max Premier and we're looking at doing this for £25 a quarter currently.

[#3]

That's INC VAT too

[#4]

I would think very hard about using PN business max ..  even if you have used them for years. If a fault develops they still tend to deal with you as they would a residential customer.  My throughput speeds dropped from 6700  - 7000kbps to 695kbps and they wont do anything for you as its within specifications.
Get a second line .. preferably with someone else .. there a few that are offering MAX to residential customers for a few quid extra each month. We have 3 accounts with them but after this we are looking to move elsewhere rather than expanding as we were going to do.
Business customers always take second  .. in planning (they are always last when things are revamped) and in problem solving.

[#5]

Hi Moemoff,

Quote

I would think very hard about using PN business max ..  even if you have used them for years. If a fault develops they still tend to deal with you as they would a residential customer.  My throughput speeds dropped from 6700  - 7000kbps to 695kbps and they wont do anything for you as its within specifications.

We're dealing with the fault as per BTs recommendations and have to go through the standard checks, otherwise you could be liable to a hefty bill from BT, which I really don't think you want

Quote

Get a second line .. preferably with someone else .. there a few that are offering MAX to residential customers for a few quid extra each month. We have 3 accounts with them but after this we are looking to move elsewhere rather than expanding as we were going to do.

As mentioned earlier, I'm happy to place an order on IPStream Max Premium for £25 per quarter.

Quote

Business customers always take second  .. in planning (they are always last when things are revamped) and in problem solving.

that's not really true, or fair, although I appreciate that you have had a poor experience.  The average call wait time for Business Customers yesterday was 10 seconds, with 100% of tickets being touched within 4 minutes and 96% of calls being answered within 60 seconds.
I don't think I'd call that second best.

[#6]

Whats unfair about what I am saying?
It is true that business customers are left to last in your planning  for revamps.  I am not the only one to have mentioned this.
And what good is a fast response time if nothing effective is done when you are supplied with the information???
This sort of action or non action effects a business. This is not a problem of short duration. Also I took exception to your support folk deciding there was no action they were going to take and closing my "question" leaving me with on on going problem and "like it or lump it "attitude.
We have been through the tests .. and I seem to get "We're dealing with the fault as per BTs recommendations and have to go through the standard checks, otherwise you could be liable to a hefty bill from BT, which I really don't think you want" at the end of each chapter. 
I have been with yourselves for years .. and your records will show what speeds my line achieves . You now have a very unhappy customer.

[#7]

I really don't know what I can tell you.  If you are indeed suffering from exchange contention, then BT are merely going to state that there is no fault found and charge us.
If you do not believe that the fault is caused by Exchange Contention, then we are happy to raise a fault for you. but you need to be aware of potential charges.
I do appreciate that a Business Product refresh has been a (very) long time coming and can assure you that this is being looked into.

[#8]

What evidence has BT given you that my problem is contention. I havent seen anything my end and I have checked all the the exchange info. I shouldnt be on the residential side as its Max Premium.  How come I was getting 6700kbps when they fixed it and a week or so later the speeds started to go down?
IF you want to make a better product to differentiate between a home product and a business one (to give folk peace of mind) then offer say one free BT visit in a year if needed. You are not offering a Level of Service agreement but you are guaranteeing them peace of mind in the eventuallty a wheel falls of and the situation may be not clear cut from your end even after all the tests. As long as folk are told that this life will be used up then then there wouldnt be a problem now would there.
It is far better than offering an unhappy customer extra months and refunds after the event and if you beleive in the product you are selling them 99% of the time it wont be needed.

[#9]

Hi again,
Whilst your suggestion is an interesting one, I'm not sure of the financial viability, although we are planning on offering Enhanced Care, which will give BT related SLAs.
My evidence would be that as your sync rate does not decrease and that you are seeing fluctuating speeds dependant on the time of day, it would suggest that your problem is contention.  At no point have I suggested that it definitely is contention, nor that it definitely is not.
Can I ask if you have tried making any relevant tweaks to MTU & rWin?  I too am on a Max Premium line and a highly contended exchange.  Following changing my MTU on my desktop and router to 1430, I saw improvements in speeds from 2Mbps to 5-6Mbps.  I did occasionally see faster speeds prior to making these changes so I would imagine that it would be worth a go.

[#10]

My MTU has been 1430 abd TCP recieve 166800 for a very long time .. ever since I was getting 7000kbps and slightly lower. It was always stable.

[#11]

Could you please thank Mark Kelly for his call. Could you also advise him that I was connected to Max DSL Premium in November 2006 and not September this year as BT seem to be suggesting.  Look at ID: 20692409
Many thanks

[#12]

Back on thread...
James B kindly answered two of the three questions in my original post.
The third:
"DAK if Teleworker, Small Business and Business accounts are all provisioned off IP Stream Max Premier ... or is there some difference betwen them in traffic prioritisation within BT [and PN?] (as well as 'Business' - but not the other two - having an upload speed of 832kb/s)"
is still lurking for any knowledgeable person to comment.
In other words, is the only difference (on the network side at least ) between the three just an enhanced upload speed?

[#13]

IPStream Max Premium is supposed to offer higher prioritisation on the BT Network than IPStream Max.
the actual difference may indeed be quite neglible outside of the higher upload speeds.

[#14]

Sorry to flog this one to death, but...
are you saying that all (current) PN accounts apart from 'Business' are on IPStream Max? Put another way, that Teleworker and Small Business and all current Residential accounts are on the same BT IPStream Max service so that within BT there is no differentiation?

[#15]

Hi there.
Yes that is correct. There is no differentiation, within BT, between Residential and Business IPStream Max products.
The difference comes in the level of support and the total service wrap from the service provider side. However from an escalation perspective in the event of a fault it does give us a little bit more clout where businesses are concerned.