Business FTTC

[#1]

I've just discovered BT has made Fibre/Copper FTTC available in our street. Is PlusNet planning a business offering along these lines?  Static IP address ranges, No-Nat routers ....

[#2]

At this present moment, we do not have any firm plans, but be assured we do have a goal to launch a product in the future.
In the short term, we never closed our FTTC trial when it came to our business customer base and you can register at the following address.
http://trials.plus.net/
Whilst this is classified as a trial, the core products from our suppliers and the support we offer is no different to a live product. We are however providing this service on the back of the products designed and intended for ADSL/ADSL2+ lines.

[#3]

Hi, borrowing this thread rather than starting a new one!
The management team here where I work have heard that FTTC will be available in our town later this year, I've checked and found this to be true.
We currently have PN business broadband, so when FTTC goes live will we see any benefit or able to change to a package that supports it?  (I'm not too knowledgable on this subject as it's not something we've had to know about until now).
Thank you.

[#4]

As per Phil's reply back in December we still don't have any firm plans for business fibre products. However if in the future we do make this available I'm certain you'd see benefits from the the increased connection speeds and would be able to change over to it from an ADSL package.

[#5]

Quote from: TMBS

Hi, borrowing this thread rather than starting a new one! The management team here where I work have heard that FTTC will be available in our town later this year, I've checked and found this to be true. We currently have PN business broadband, so when FTTC goes live will we see any benefit or able to change to a package that supports it?  (I'm not too knowledgable on this subject as it's not something we've had to know about until now). Thank you.

The only way you'll be able to get on Business FTTC at this moment in time is via the PlusNet FTTC business trial.  It is a trial but runs all the same kit as the BT & PN Res customers.  I've been running this since July 2011 and there have been some slow downs for me but no outages that weren't router related, ie config problems by me.
Regarding the date of availability by BT.  Keep an eye on it as mine was originally schedule for 31/12/10 and eventually went on 01/07/11!!  I know other exchanges where the dates are constantly put back.  I'd love to know how many of BT dates were actually done on-time or early?
Regards
Ben

[#6]

The point about paying more for a business service is three fold so far as we are concerned:

• No bandwidth throttling


• No unreasonable limits on bandwidth


• Most important - a very fast fix time if things go wrong

[#7]

We are currenlty on the FTTC Business Trial at work since about early 2011 and we have been very happy with its performance generally, although we did have to have a replacement modem after only two weeks.
Although we appear to have hit a problem today, when I first used it this morning it was taking forever to download a webpage, I tried Power Cycling both modem & router, but it took a very long time to reconnect. I have been out of the office most of the day and I noticed last thing that the connection had been lost again, before I raise a fault ticket can any PN Techy please check it for me.
User ID is "EARFCA" thanks.

[#8]

@Dave.G6HNI
We've been having speed issues for the majority of the day across the network which would explain the problems you've seen today on your business line.

[#9]

Are we going to be able to get on the 80/20 trial that residential customers can get?

[#10]

Hi - I'm on the "Business Trial" and NO - PlusNet WILL NOT allow BUSINESS users with a backup ADSL line and over 10 years experience installing and maintaining ADSL and Fibre products have the artificially restricted 37Mb on a 40Mb trial increased to the 80/20 service.
As suggested by Dave Tomlinson "Unfortuantely the 80/20 trial is currently only open to residential customers, I'd recommend keeping an eye on the fibre trials forum and if the trial opens up to business customers we will make a post the in forum to let people know."
In the same way, PlusNet tech support do not understand why they cap the existing fibre services at 37Mb when other ISPs do not and hence can achieve 10% better speeds than PlusNet Fibre products - the same 10% speed improvement I had when the service was temporarily uncapped after installation.
A nieve person might think that an experienced user with a backup connection, close to the FTTC cabinet with the ability to test different hardware easily would be an asset to PlusNet - but apparently the theoretical 104 / 30 speeds expected on my connection are not a useful test.
Given that I personally ran a campaign to get our cab upgraded to FTTC (It was not on the rollout plan AT ALL) and in just 3 months got Openreach to implement an additional single cab phase in the rollout plan - I know what CAN be achieved - and reading time and time again how PlusNet "Do not have any firm plans for a business fibre product at this time" - I also know how stupid I feel with over a hundred Business clients on PlusNet asking why they can't upgrade to a proper business fibre product and asking why I stay with PlusNet when they have much better services for a fraction of the price at home.
Any PlusNet customer COULD be put on the 80/20 trial, IF THEY COULD BE BOTHERED.  There's no "Risk" to PlusNet - it's in the T&C.  Likewise they could release a BUSINESS FIBRE PRODUCT any time in the last 18 months, if they were still in a position to adapt to the ever changing market like they used to 10 years ago.
But PlusNet has changed - and it's not to the benefit of us - the paying customers.  My recent experiences talking to BT Business support have been almost frighteningly good - If PlusNEt don't have the support, the products or the previous adaptive product range, then why are we still waiting, cap in hand, asking pretty please can I have a business fibre connection please Mr PlusNet?
I'm not sure I can honestly say there is a good reason any more.

[#11]

@rdowns, @philwilcox
Plusnet Business are looking at the 80/20 trial with a view to bringing it to Business. Discussions are ongoing - I can't set any expectations at this point, but wanted you both to know that we are not ignoring this thread.
@rdowns, if you disconnect and reconnect you should find that the 37Mb/40Mb issue is resolved - this was apparently fixed last week. I'll let one of the more technically affluent chaps advise further on that one.

[#12]

I hope this will be a matter of weeks instead of months. I am feeling a bit cheated paying a premium price for half the service that residential customers get.

[#13]

RE: 80/20 trial
First of all, thanks for your feedback - always good to have active community members asking after products on Business.
Plusnet Business was originally omitted from the 80/20 trial for a number of reasons, but it primarily boiled down to the fact that, unlike Plusnet Residential, we have yet to launch a full Fibre product.
We've taken on board the feedback, both on this forum and via customer accounts, and we now expect that we'll open an 80/20 Fibre trial to a limited number of Business customers in the next couple of weeks.
It's expected that the trial will broadly take the shape of the Residential trial, the outline of which can be viewed at: http://community.plus.net/forum/index.php/topic,102776.0.html - any deviations will be highlighted once the trial opens.
Keep your eyes peeled for an update on this soon, and thanks again.

[#14]

Hi Gordon,
Thanks for the update – that’s great news and will certainly help IT providers show our clients the sort of products likely to be available soon from our (still) favourite ISP…
It would be really great if PlusNet could acknowledge potential new Business and Residential products on some sort of “roadmap” – i.e. no commitment but indicative plans and approximate time scales to show the intended product direction…
If there was a commitment to a monthly or even bi-monthly update / refresh of the roadmap to reflect new products and technologies becoming available, this would be great information and a good marketing tool as well.
I look forward to getting on the 80/20 trial soon and being able to show clients what can now be done.
Thanks again to all involved for the update.
Robin

[#15]

I have to agree with @rdowns, a "roadmap" would be a great idea to keep us informed of what may be coming. There is nothing worse that just not knowing and hoping for an anouncement.
From a business point of view, I would not expect a package that offers any less than a residential package.