Is the Pro Add on worth having?

[#1]

I'm currently on a legacy Fibre Unlimited product (76Mb), without line rental and calls. My account still has the Pro add-on from when I was on ADSL.

I'm considering moving to the current Unlimited Fibre Extra product (76Mb) combined with line rental and calls, which will save me money.

Will to Pro add-on make any difference to the new Unlimited Fibre Extra product, or should I cancel it at the same time to save an extra £5?

[#2]

Hello there.

It depends on the types of internet surfing you do and if you’re maxing out your bandwidth (i.e many devices all doing a lot at the same time) which is difficult to do on fibre (but not impossible).

Now that we’re no longer applying traffic prioritisation to Unlimited products, the Pro Addon basically provides a similar feature by prioritising time sensitive traffic. For example, putting more bandwidth to apps such as Skype, FaceTime, Gaming and taking it away from downloading etc.

A bit more info over here: https://www.plus.net/help/broadband/about-traffic-prioritisation/

Anoush

[#3]

Thanks for this, Anoush.

I think what's confusing me is that when I originally subscribed to the Pro add-on (back in ADSL days), it was sold to me on the basis that it removed traffic shaping from my line, so that I received line-speed service, across all protocols, 24/7.

It seems that Unlimited Fibre Services now provide line-speed service as standard, so is this why the focus of Pro has become prioritisation of traffic on individual customers' lines, rather than across the service?

In other words, have I understood correctly that Pro will only give me benefit if there is internal competition for bandwidth between users of my line? In that case, it's probably not giving me much benefit on a 64Mb line, right?

[#4]

It seems that Unlimited Fibre Services now provide line-speed service as standard, so is this why the focus of Pro has become prioritisation of traffic on individual customers' lines, rather than across the service?

As far as I'm aware it's always been individual customers' lines, but it was more useful on our packages back in the day when we used to rate limit bandwidth.

In other words, have I understood correctly that Pro will only give me benefit if there is internal competition for bandwidth between users of my line? In that case, it's probably not giving me much benefit on a 64Mb line, right?

On a 64mbps line I wouldn't expect the Pro Addon to have much effect, unless the connection is being used very heavily which will be difficult to do with a speed like that in my opinion.

[#5]

Thanks again, Anoush.
One more question: does Pro affect upload as well as download speeds? Because I use online backup, there are times when I do max out my 18Mb upload speed, so it may be that Pro provides some benefit there.

[#6]

No problems.

It'll only affect the downstream speeds.