Fibre to the Premises

[#1]

After what seems like forever waiting for my cabinet to be upgraded to fibre (exchange was upgraded years ago) I've today checked the Openreach site and there's a message saying that they're now planning Fibre to the Premises for us.

Is this something that Plusnet support or will I have to look for a new ISP?

[#2 · Accepted solution]

First you must be an existing Plusnet broadband customer

Then, check with BT if you are able to get FTTP using the BT Broadband checker at http://www.dslchecker.bt.com/adsl/adslchecker.welcome?
The results will need to look like this

If the first line of the "Featured Products" says "WBC FTTP" then you can apply for the trial at http://trials.plus.net/

Another way is to go to the BT Retail website and see if you can buy Infinity 4 from them (FTTP at 330Mbps download). If you can then you can also apply to join the Plusnet trial or use BT or even Zen (the latter 2 offer FTTP as a product not just a trial)

Finally Plusnet only offer 2 speeds for FTTP, 40Mbps down/10Mbps up or 80Mbps down/20Mbps up. Use BT if you want faster.

 There is a complete list of all FTTP providers at

Openreach Ultrafast fibre suppliers

Edit: to correct upload speed on 40Mbps download package

[#3]

Moderators Note.
Moved to the FTTP trial board

[#4]

Why aren't Plusnet able to offer FTTP at its maximum connected speed? Seems daft that you have to change suppliers if you want faster than 80/20, it defeats the whole purpose of going fibre all the way.

As speeds and technology improve surely PlusNet should grow with them?

[#5]

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@danludlow wrote:

Why aren't Plusnet able to offer FTTP at its maximum connected speed?

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I agree - particularly as FTTP is going to start rolling out all over the place over the next couple of years.

Once it's confirmed as available to me it's likely to be the thing which finally moves me away from Plusnet after a silly number of years (I started with Freenetname!)

@dvorak - Can you please explain to me why you moved my thread?  I wasn't aware that this trial and board existed and imagine that I'm not the only one.  Surely it would have been better to leave it in the main broadband forum so other users with the same query could see it?

[#6]

Simply, because this is the correct board for it. It's not a current mainstream PN product and the other boards deal exclusively with FTTC and ADSL.

[#7]

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@danludlow wrote:

Why aren't Plusnet able to offer FTTP at its maximum connected speed?

I'm going to hazard a guess that a 7 year old trial is all do to costs and that lack of back office systems that can handle things correctly.

The back office systems are so old that Noah is the first customer.

And it cannot handle products like FTTP. Indeed the restriction that you must already by a Plusnet customer is so that you have a broadband account setup BEFORE it can be amended to FTTP!

Once the back office is sorted out then PN just need to train all their staff about FTTP. And only then can they launch a commercial product. Which may or may not feature ultrafast speeds. That will be a commercial discussion at board level. Would BT Group really like Plusnet to take sales from BT Consumer?

Just my guess why things are the way there are.

[#8]

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@dvorak wrote:
Simply, because this is the correct board for it.

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@dvorak I think we'll have to agree to disagree on that.  Now that FTTP is rolling out in larger cities it's going to become something that people are querying more regularly.

Whilst not a mainstream product for Plusnet, it is something they offer (from what I have read, nobody has ever been refused access to the "trial").  I'm sure that users coming to this forum looking for information on FTTP will look in either the Broadband or the Fibre boards as I did - they certainly won't be hunting around for this board.

[#9]

Or they could use the search function...