FTTC - pricing, limits, expectations

[#1]

Having hit my monthly allowance (Broadband Premier Option 1 - which no longer exists as a purchase option) I'm finding FTTC to be not much better than ADSL2+ - even legitimate stuff like previewing purchases in itunes is very painful.
What do Plusnet propose for FTTC installations after the trial? considering ADSL2+ @ just under £17 per month has a 60GB limit,surely some customers will prefer that than a more expensive FTTC product with a slightly higher download limit considering once the limit is hit "light restrictions" mean you might as well have not bothered with FTTC in the first place.
No customer is going to thank you for taking a day off work (for the Openreach engineer) only to get an even slower service once they hit some kind of usage limit.
Expectations with super fast fibre for paying customers will mean a whole different approach to how they feel with regard to restrictions.
At the moment, having "light restrictions", FTTC is practically useless to me - I know the deal, but when the deal strikes, its not very nice.
Any FTTC product offered should be at a premium (£21 per month) but should be limitless - "super fast" fibre broadband is a joke otherwise.
Regards,
Ashley

[#2]

Stayed up last night and watched BBC iplayer in HD on my TV. Only watched 30-40mins of later after 00.30am.
looked at usage this morning and I used a massive 2.5 gb.
I agree ashley, the packages on offer must match the technology available. At the moment because of my previous slow speeds I only needed a 10gig allowance typically using 6gig. Since using FTTC I can easily see my usage exceeding 60gig.
kel

[#3]

Thanks guys, I'll feed it back.

[#4]

You're welcome Dave, I understand part of the trial is to check expectations vs. bandwidth management.
One thing PlusNet could consider is a proportional limiting of speed which would be a great way of encouraging customers to take more expensive services, depending on the financial analysis of course.
By proportional I mean limiting at a percentage of line speed, although those on the end of a long loop might have to be excluded - they may be already, by default, due to overall download speed achievable on their lines at any time?
I think the next few years is going to be very interesting - a lot of services will move to IP delivery, kit like Apple TV will become more popular and it may be that content providers, hardware manufacturers and ISPs have to work together and provide end user products as an entire package which includes the limits and bandwidth to support the content on offer.
Thanks again,
Ashley

[#5]

Quote

By proportional I mean limiting at a percentage of line speed

As someone who has had to put up with crap speeds since the uptake of DSL. i dont like this idea.
IF i got 15mbit, and someone closer to the cab gets 40mbit, and we make it a percentage of the line speed (e.g. 25%)
Limiting one person to 3.75mbit and another to 10mbit i dont think is particularly "Fair"
While im all for giving ideas and passing them up the chain, id expect a service which is fair to all.
However im aware its not going to be a particularly 'fair' service because of how vdsl works.
(and yes i know you've stated this, but it wont have to take much variation in speeds for you to start upsetting customers)
Id want to see from PN in terms of available bandwidth would be 150gb+ ... Or less if PN considered moving the "Peak time" (e.g. 12:00 - 22:00)

[#6]

I would tend to agree with this too.  Something will need to change when this product goes live for people to buy.  Even if I flick youtube on to look at something where on ADSL I would be waiting for the video to download I could watch the part I wanted then just closed the page where as now it downloads that quickly that it uses unnecessary MBs of your limit.  The current monthly allowances just won't work for speeds this quick.
What might be useful would be a tool that you could use to throttle speeds depending on what you are doing.  I suppose QoS would be good for this if I'm not mistaken.

[#7]

You can already get apps for windows et al that do this sort of thing Goose.
NetLimiter is perhaps something you should look at (there are free alternatives too)
Regards

[#8]

Thanks Matt, I'll maybe check it out.  I'm not on youtube that much but it is something that I've noticed that might affect others.

[#9]

I've got to say, that i've been on the trial for a few months, and although my usage has more than doubled (especially when my son is home from uni, because he does stream alot of TV), I haven't yet come close to my 60Gb limit.
I agree that as more services are accessed down the line, including TV, usage is bound to increas dramatically, but there's still a long way to go before I drop my Sky package for the dubious benefits of downloading telly.
John

[#10]

I’m on Value and so have a 10GB monthly usage allowance. Before I was connected to FTTC, my ADSL2+ service was giving up to 18Mbps download, so in practice the fibre service doesn’t really enable me to do much more than I was doing before. I didn’t watch TV on my PC then and I don’t now. While the HD iPlayer stuff looks good, it isn’t really HD and I also prefer to watch programmes on a real television. If I want to download a lot then I do after midnight.
However, when I do need to download, the fibre service allows me to download at twice the rate, which is definitely worthwhile. Plus, uploads are 20 times as fast which is a real bonus.
So, in conclusion, I would say that high speed should not necessarily mean a high usage allowance but rather a mix and match range of packages should be considered.
Dave

[#11]

Quote from: daveplus

So, in conclusion, I would say that high speed should not necessarily mean a high usage allowance but rather a mix and match range of packages should be considered.

That I think is what would work best, for some they want the faster speed but the lower usage allowance is fine while for others 60GB is plenty and for some they want more than 60GB. Exactly what we'll do hasn't been decided yet, we're still a way off so feedback now is very useful. I know that some people have restricted their usage from what they could do if they had a higher allowance so it will be case of balancing what's right and what costs in.

[#12]

I'd do three options. Up to 20mb with 40gb usage, up to 40mb with 60gb usage and unlimited. Just my imput!

[#13]

I like that, although I think it's safe to assume there won't be an unlimited product but that doesn't mean you wouldn't look at something higher than 60GB. For us the hard part is picking the right usage allowance to price as it has to fit in with the costs. We pay BT £13 for the FTTC service with 2Mbps up and £14 per month for 10Mbps up, bandwidth on top of that costs just under £50 per Mbps per month. Then add on VAT, hardware and all the other costs and it quickly adds up.

[#14]

I'm on FTTC, getting about 25Mb/s down, 8Mb/s up now so very pleased.

However, I am on the Pro package (20GB/month) and this month I have gone through over 40GB (costing me an additional £25 on top of the normal subscription), without really trying. Mainly things like iChat AV, software updates, some biggish Apple developer downloads, and so on. Goodness knows how much I would use if I streamed a lot of iPlayer HD.
It is fairly obvious that the allowances for Fibre would have to change from what they currently are for ADSL, as streaming of HD TV becomes the norm.
I note BT Infinity FTTC costs £17.99 for 40GB/month, with a 2MB/s upload speed.  
or their Option 2 UNLIMITED allowance (I assume a FUP) up to 40Mb/s down, 10 Mb/s Up  for £24.99 - that is what you have to match (or beat) PlusNet.

[#15]

Quote from: gm4jjj

I note BT Infinity FTTC costs £17.99 for 40GB/month, with a 2MB/s upload speed.   or their Option 2 UNLIMITED allowance (I assume a FUP) up to 40Mb/s down, 10 Mb/s Up  for £24.99 - that is what you have to match (or beat) PlusNet.

The FUP is 300GB so its pretty good.