Deceptive selling of services

[#1]

If Plusnet (and BT) are unable to meet service levels at peak times they are guilty of essentially selling services they cannot provide. They should be fully aware of the capacity requirements of the backbone but it's easier and more profitable to do nothing. THis is the sheer idiocy of high speed fibre services. The very act of rolling them out to an area assures that area will end up with a congested backbone and lesser service than previous. It's the Internet equivalent of selling highspeed driveways to each house where those houses have several cars coming in and out at the same time. It's not much use if the local road is not upgraded. So as the sheer number of new customers come on with high speed Internet all of this new traffic is being taken onto ever more congested backbones without a corresponding increase in capacity. The end result is many users seeing far less actual available bandwidth at peak times than they previously enjoyed on ADSL. It's simply a case of over-subscribing. It's fraud. It's hugely profitable. There's not much one can do about it outside of some major city based alternative services (such as using 4G options) yet these companies ought to be accountable. I have written to my local member of parliament and would encourage others to do so. I would also encourage users to demand refunds where the service they are receiving is not reaching minimum service levels at peak times. Adding backbone capacity is not at all difficult when compared to upgrading a road. But it's unlikely to happen while customers stay quiet and are willing to pay for lesser services. 

[#2]

Many hear you but, that's the virtual monopoly of the marketplace for you. 

BT or By the Testicles.   

[#3]

@apdavoren,

A warm welcome to the forums.  Have you been advised that BT Wholesale have a back haul capacity problem in relation to your service ... or is this just a presumption?

Time related perceived bandwidth issues can have numerous causes, not just back haul capacity, but ranging from local wifi spectrum utilisation, cross talk on the local copper network, through to loading issues on the services you seek to use.  Time related REIN can cause similar symptoms.

S-VLAN capacity issues are usually readily fixed, by moving a user to a less busy S-VLAN.