Pricing for FTTC

[#1]

So according to http://community.plus.net/blog/2011/01/26/plusnet-fibre-trials-update FTTC for those of us who haven't been lucky enough to get on the existing trial will now cost £12 extra a month under the beta.
That's fairly steep considering existing packages don't charge extra based on the speed. i.e. if you can get 20mb broadband ADSL2+, that's what you get, for the same price.
I'm fine with paying extra for higher download allowances and/or less throttling. Not so happy with paying extra to get a reasonable speed. I'm stuck with just under 6mb due to my line. If my line was good I could get 20mb ADSL2+ for the same price, but because it isn't I have to pay £12 a month to get FTTC to get a similar speed.
£5 extra would be tolerable but even then I'd hope it was a short term measure.
Is this a cost being passed on from BT then, and will this cost remain once FTTC comes out of beta?
Have to say that my interest has dropped as I'm not likely to pay £12 a month extra.

[#2]

Yep, that is steep, but it does now reflect as was inevitable, that an ISP is going to have to charge people for the Mb/s speed that are connected at, this is how it should have always been rather than the GB/month method they promoted. Yes the way in which BTW charge an ISP was a factor.
Fibre of any kind wont be an option for me in any way for the foreseeable future, of course though why should I pay the same for 2Mb/s as those getting 20Mb/s.

[#3]

I'm not the best at maths but that price can't be correct as BT Infinity then has better deals. One of the big cashback sites has BT with £50 cashback plus 3 months free making Plusnet more expensive?!

[#4]

Looking around for any FTTC products from other ISP's they are generally very expensive for any ISP that has a commercial product. But, in my opinion, Plusnet Value & Extra are looking too expensive compared with the parent company BT. I think Plusnet commercial fibre products, when launched, will have to do better than that if they are to keep/win customers.
Something not clear from the blog post is which FTTC specification it includes, I assume it's the full 40Mb down / 10Mb up and not the 2Mb product (except where it's due to a restricted <15Mb downstream speed).

[#5]

I think being forced to change packages because you're not lucky enough to be on an exchange that was upgraded is unfair.  There are some people out there who were lucky enough to get on the 21CN Trials so could keep their grandfathered product, those not on the trial had to switch.  There are then some people who were on the 21CN Trials whose exchange was upgraded to Fibre (Watford seems to be at least one exchange) so gets again to remain on their current plan through 2 product updates.  My exchange is neither ADSL2 nor Fibre (will most likely get Fibre first) but when it does I'll be forced into changing my package if I want faster speeds.  I have no objection to paying another £12 (taking my package to £33.99/month) for Fibre, even though my package has a peak limit of 13Gb.  If I *am* going to change (and yes, my exchange is getting Fibre soon~ish, I'm in Cornwall) then I'd have to evaluate all the Fibre ISPs and we'd probably be forced to switch phone supplier too 😕

[#6]

As it stands BT Infinity does look to offer better value with 'unlimited' option (reported to be capped at a measly 300GB! ). I would be interested how this affects sign-ups especially given that BT are pushing their product quite intensively?

[#7]

Guys, it's worth considering that FTTC costs us about £13pcm in rental costs at a Wholesale level, more if the upload is uncapped. The last I was aware, the service is also contracted annually, something we're not holding customers to at present.

[#8]

@Bob
Are you in a position to indicate any details of the Plusnet Fibre product that will be introduced in April?  Particularly usage allowances and traffic management.
I'm assuming this £12 thing is just a stopgap measure for the next three months.

[#9]

Bob, I would happily sign up with PlusNet for another 24 months (BB + Phone) and pay an extra £13 month to remain on Broadband Premier Option 1 with an upload capped at my current ADSL limits (I rarely upload).  Of course, you will be signing people up to a mandatory 12 month contract anyhow (new router/modem for FTTC as well as installation costs?), actually contract is the wrong word but I can't think of the word, where you defer, which is the word, a 12 month deferral contract.
It's not a direct comparison, but Aquiss Internet offer a better product for a comparable price, they have free unlimited overnight usage (8pm-7:59am - 4 hours longer than PN - and at a better time for home users) and free unlimited weekends (8pm Friday - 7:59am Monday - again, a better product), a 45Gb monthly allowance for £30/month (40/10) or 80Gb for £40.

[#10]

Bear in mind the Aquiss prices you quote are net so these are really £36 and £48.

[#11]

You're quite right, I didn't notice that!  It'd be (quick count) £2 more than my current package (£21.99) on Fibre with 32Gb more peak hours allowance.  I'm Market 3 (when classification changes) so switching to Extra at £11.49/pm with the £12 would be £23.49/pm.  It just doesn't make sense to me that I'll get removed from a package whose cost to me is about £120 a year greater than if I switch to Extra.  That is £120 a year *less* that PlusNet would get from me each year, and I'm not even a "heavy" user, I sometimes go over 13Gb peak rate, very very rarely (maybe once or twice) have I hit 17Gb and I think twice I've gone over 20Gb, once due to Windows 7 Beta download and once due to a DDOS against me by some idiot.
Looking at my last 3 usage history, my off peak has been, 65Gb, 64Gb and 27Gb (27Gb may be incorrect due to the history issues PN had) with my total usage being 78, 79 and 37Gb, so I'm well within the Extra realms in relation to usage.  Yes, it would make financial sense for me to switch to the Extra package, it'll probably be 2013/2014 before my exchange is Fibre (hopefully 2011 but I'm not holding my breath!) so between now and then I could easily save over £200, but I like my plan, and am willing to pay to continue to use it, it's unfair that people who are in the trials not only get to keep it, but get to keep it at their current price (I may be incorrect on the price point and would happily be corrected if I am!).

[#12]

I'm looking forward to seeing Plusnet's fibre packages. My cabinet is due by the 30th March 2011, although that could change but hopefully the packages will be out by then. So far, all of Plusnet's packages have been lacking in either usage or off-peak times so I've simply stayed on Premier Option 1. Are there any plans to allow legacy packages to be migrated to fibre products at a later date?
I wouldn't say it's unfair for trialists to keep their original package. Many of them undergo serious problems with connectivity throughout the trial and with no compensation. It only makes sense to reward these people for the trouble they have gone through in being the guinea pigs.

[#13]

Murphy's Law - cabinet due to be enabled by 2nd Feb so no fibre for me, I'm afraid 

[#14]

I have to say that the packages are less than generous.  Ignoring startup specials PN FTTC Extra will come in at £23.49 with BT at £25.60.  The kicker is that PN give you 60Gb download and BT give you "unlimited" (300?).  I suspect anyone using catchup TV services to any extent is going to rapidly bump against the 60Gb barrier - HD content seems to come to about 1.2Gb / BBC hour (50-55 mins).
Personally I'm sitting pretty.  I managed to get into the trial and I'm now grandfathered in on an 80Gb allowance.  However, it does mean that if this proves inadequate (unlikely as I am not a heavy TV viewer) there is currently no PN upgrade route for me.  I think there is a strong case for offering an Unlimited (and possibly even a pro-unlimited) package.  Certainly the Pro package looks a dead loss on FTTC - what use high-speed downloads at any time of the day if you can burn though your month's allowance in an afternoon?

[#15]

Quote from: Bojangles

I wouldn't say it's unfair for trialists to keep their original package. Many of them undergo serious problems with connectivity throughout the trial and with no compensation. It only makes sense to reward these people for the trouble they have gone through in being the guinea pigs.

I'm not saying it's unfair for them to keep their package, I'm saying it's unfair to those of us who have 0% chance of getting into the trials to be forced off our packages if we want faster speeds.  I have 0% chance of being in the trials (and millions of others too) simply because my exchange wasn't chosen for an upgrade, if however my exchange had been upgraded then I'd be able to keep my chosen package, if I were to switch to Extra (it has now changed so I am classed as Market 3) I would cost PlusNet more money than I currently cost them (I use around 13Gb/month 4pm-midnight) because I would have 60Gb to play with during peak hours, so I would use it which in turn costs PlusNet money, in other words, I would use up to 60Gb peak rate as well as however many gigs I decide to download off-peak when currently, my peak time usage is well under 20Gb and my total usage can easily be under the 60Gb given to Extra, yet I'm paying double, I'm no financial genius but it seems to me that giving PlusNet more money is a good thing for them?