The reason why Plusnet...

[#1]

I reckon the reason why PN are introducing seriously low upload speed clamps on their low cost fibre service is the increasing use of remote archiving of PC files. Cloud based systems such as Dropbox, Sugarsync, Google all add to the upload traffic of the network. When you follow a marketing led growth model and suddenly bring on lots of new users at a low income stream it must be very easy to get your sums wrong and have demands on the infrastructure which require heavy investment to fix. The ADSL transmit model is decidedly asymmetric, built on the model that the main traffic flow is downloads.  When the user load patterns changes to a more symmetric pattern the impact on required investment is disproportionately large.
This leads to the marketing speak explanation of improving services by cutting them.

[#2]

There may be something in what you say; it is certainly the reason I want decent upload speed.  However, even though FTTC is asymmetric (with Plusnet's 40/20 being the least so), I suspect that most of the infrastructure further back is pretty symmetric.
An oddity in BT's current pricing is that 40/10 is £10 (or £12.50 depending on where you look), but that 80/20 is a £30, a huge £20 difference.  Until recently the typical difference between 40/10 and 80/20 has been around £5 or a little more for most providers.  For Plusnet, just £5 for the difference between 80/20 and 40/2.

[#3]

Just checked that - or tried to - and BT.com redirects to home.bt.com which is down
Have I got a problem with an invalid redirect or is it  broke

[#4]

Now working again and the prices have rocketed to
40/10 40GB limit £10
40/10 Unlimited £20
80/20 Unlimited £30 although this includes evening calls as well
Note there are no special offers

[#5]

This countries internet infrastructure is not capable of giving everyone in the UK fast reliable speeds, even if BTOR got of their butts and upgraded the network from tip to toe, the nation's backbone capacity is just too limited, so, high speeds are like fast cars, if you want to go faster, you've got to pay more money...

[#6]

the car analogy is slightly flawed in that all cars are capable of getting to the maximum speed allowed to drive at in the UK.
so i can buy a cheap car and go just as fast as a more expensive one.

[#7]

I never mentioned speed limits...
Plus if you were to drive to the speed limits, a cheaper, smaller engined car would consume more fuel to maintain that speed than a larger, slightly more expensive engined car would...

[#8]

@oldjim If you go via quidco or similar you end up at a page that still shows £10 for Infinity 1 Unlimited (or, if you prefer, £10 for Infinity 1 with 40GB limit).  3 days left on that one
http://www.productsandservices.bt.com/products/affiliate-packages-broadband

[#9]

which is correct but the fact that BT have just changed their main prices indicates that it probably won't be repeated after it expires

[#10]

Quote from: twocvbloke

I never mentioned speed limits... Plus if you were to drive to the speed limits, a cheaper, smaller engined car would consume more fuel to maintain that speed than a larger, slightly more expensive engined car would...

limits are a major consideration though.
FTTC limits at 80, driving limits at 70.
smaller engined car would actually be more economical than a larger engined car.
so your analogy totally fails.

[#11]

Quote from: chenks76

so your analogy totally fails.

Not thinking the way I am, if you have a 100 mile road, and you have two cars, one say a Fiat 500, the other a Honda NSX, both carrying a package that is the same size and weight, fuel is unlimited, and you then have them drive at full speed along the road, which will arrive first? It's the same as the comparison ISPs did (some still do) of how quickly you could download files, more bandwidth available, the faster you receive the data, just as with a faster car, the sooner you get from one end of the 100 mile road to the other...
So my analogy works, you're just incapable of seeing it logically...
But referring to the internet as roads is a good analogy anyway, as with more people accessing the web, the more traffic is travelling along the "roads" of the internet, yes you could have a Bugatti Veyron of internet technology to drive on them, but the rutted, washed out, muddy farm tracks this country has for "roads" to the information superhighway makes it difficult to get there, hence why the networks need serious investment to make sure we all have decent speeds to access the web without ending up with digital gridlock...

[#12]

both cars are not allowed to go faster than 70 though, the NSX may get to 70 quicker, but they are both not going faster than 70.
the NSX will have much poorer fuel economy too.
the bandwidth is the road in your analogy, not the car.
the road has a limit of 70. the speed capabilities of the car is irrelevant.
the router would be the car in your analogy.

[#13]

Logic totally missed again (though I wasn't surprised with that to be honest), this isn't about the speed limits on British roads nor fuel economy, this is about the top speed differences, just as you would compare dialup to ADSL to FTTC VDSL to full-on backbone-access fibre-op (not available to the average punter, you need serious money for that), the more you pay, the faster the technology, aka "The car", you get...

[#14]

the top speed theoretically available to everyone in the country on FTTC products is 80Mbps.
whether they are physically capable of getting that or not is not down to how much money the customer pays, but down to the infrastructure (ie the "road").
the "car" is what you use to drive on the "road".
the car is the router, the road is the telephone/cable line.
my line is close to the cab and can get close to 80Mbps, however if i use a [Censored] router than i may only get 60Mbps actual usage.
is problem caused by the router (car) or the line (road) ?

[#15]

Monthly access costs (guesstimated, not including line rental, activation charges, call packages or other nonsense they tack on):
Dialup - depends on the ISP
ADSL - starts at a couple of quid with most ISPs
FTTC - between £10 and 30
FTTP - £100+
Dedicated backbone connection - £few thousand minimum
Whether it's available to people, I don't care, I was simply pointing out that to get faster access, you have to pay more, you started talking rubbish about the speed limits of british roads slowing down cars, all I did was liken the access technology to the speed of cars and the price changes the faster they go, a simple, basic, easy to understand and accept analogy, nothing to do the speed limits and fuel useage (after all, does your modem run on petrol or have to sit at traffic lights going nowhere?!?), only ill-understanding waterheads come up with that kind of stupid response...