Unlimited/Essentials product launch December 2012

[#1]

Jim, On reflection I think we should be actively promoting everyone to have the Pro add-on. With the extra money Plusnet make from the suckers people with the add-on they might be able to reduce the fees for those of us who are wise enough to realise it's a con.

[#2]

It's not a con. 
It made sense on Extra because if you wanted a) P2P at line speed at 9pm on a Sunday or b) any games that weren't being identified properly be protected in titanium (or gold if we were misidentifying them as something else), you needed pro.
With Bronze traffic being un-rate limited on the unlimited product, that a) no longer stands, which was the main benefit.
Putting Pro on Unlimited will still go b), but at the trade off of NOT having the prioritisation for P2P (etc) which may result in poorer performance for streaming apps/web browsing, depending on your use.  The other use case for Pro is for customers who want to make their own calls on prioritisation (don't touch my bits!).

[#3]

I agree it's most definitely not a con for users on Extra, Value and Essentials. But for the benefit it gives on Unlimited compared with the benefit it gives on those other accounts it is a con charging the same amount. Why anyone would want to pay an extra £5 for P2P, Usenet or large downloads to interfere with streaming/web browsing is beyond me.

[#4]

I agree it's unnecessary on Unlimited really.  I just didn't want to remove it because of those gaming signature problems we have every now and then.

[#5]

But it won't actually totally help even then. All it will do is make the game the same priority as the heavy downloads that are causing problems with the game, so the only solution is for the user to slow down those activities.
On the other accounts it works for games because it's the heavy streaming, downloading etc of other users that affect the miss-identified game even when the user is running the line well below it's capability.

[#6]

No, if it is unidentified, which is usually what happens, it ends up in titanium and therefore takes priority over downloads.

[#7]

Ah, I thought it lifted it to Gold.
I've now been to look at http://www.plus.net/support/broadband/speed_guide/traffic_management.shtml
What's the rational behind lifting External FTP to Titanium? My argument would hold for that.

[#8]

Kelly in simple terms please explain the difference between Gold Plated and Gold?
A lot is mentioned about P2P, but it is not the only difference in traffic prioritisation between Unlimited and Extra. Also my understanding was that traffic prioritisation is based on everybody's use over the line at the same time not an individuals use. Personally I do not want other peoples use to slow down what I want to do. One of the reasons I chose Pro is due to using External FTP.

[#9]

Priority affects both your connection and the total traffic on the host links. If Plusnet purchase sufficient bandwidth to ensure bronze traffic is not expected to slow down then that drops out of consideration. If your own connection is not maxed out then that too is not an issue.
If your connection is maxed out the default traffic prioritisation tries to ensure interactive traffic (VoIP, streaming, browsing, email and gaming) is given priority over non-interactive traffic (P2P/Usenet mainly).
Gold Plated is prioritised between Gold and Silver. If the network were exceptionally busy (probably a fault condition) Gold Plated traffic would be dropped before Gold.
External FTP on Unlimited is in the Gold queue, the same as streaming, browsing and email. The Pro Add-on puts it into Platinum Titanium alongside VoIP and gaming.
Edit: Platinum -> Titanium correction.

[#10]

Wot he sed
Spider:  Have a read of: http://community.plus.net/blog/2012/12/21/its-unlimited-why-is-it-still-traffic-managed/
Jelv:  That I don't know.  I'll ask Dave tomorrow. (Probably Fletch's doing.. )

[#11]

Yes Kelly I had read the page and been following this closely. I'm sure spraxt means Titanium and not Platinum ;). With regard to Gold Plated though I have not found any indication where it falls in the 'metals list' as Gold Plating can be applied to many non-precious metals and so would put it below Bronze in the pecking order.

[#12]

True
Yeah, basically it is where we put things like Apple downloads which people really didn't want to be rate limited at peak hours, but we wanted to make sure we didn't flatten everyone else's streaming and web browsing when Apple did a big os update

[#13]

Quote from: Spider

I'm sure spraxt means Titanium and not Platinum ;).

Thanks. Mistake corrected.

[#14]

Quote from: Spider

With regard to Gold Plated though I have not found any indication where it falls in the 'metals list' as Gold Plating can be applied to many non-precious metals and so would put it below Bronze in the pecking order.

On the Traffic Management page, expanding the Traffic prioritisation block displays

Traffic prioritisation
Our systems identify traffic and assign it to one of six priority queues:
    Titanium (highest priority)
    Gold
    Gold Plated
    Silver
    Bronze
    Best Effort (lowest priority)
The queue for each type of traffic is different for each of our broadband products
(see the table below for full details). Generally, 'time sensitive' and 'interactive'
activities have the highest priority.

As it says those priorities are listed in order by decreasing priority.
(See the linked page for "the table below".)

[#15]

Thanks spraxyt, I couldn't see for looking