Should PlusNet compensate users for peak time slow downs?

[#1]

Quote from: AlaricAdair

This the nature of a Contended Service. It is many people sharing the same capacity at the Exchange.

Not really - this is different. Normal contention (BT don't actually work on 'contention ratios' so to speak anymore) should ensure there is sufficient bandwidth to be shared by all users at all times. In these cases, the capacity to and from exchanges are not being upgraded to account for the increased demand of services like fibre. In theory, when usage crosses a certain level, it should trigger capacity upgrades. This is something that does not seem to happen sometimes. What I am struggling to understand is how the same problem can affect the same exchanges 2-3x in a 12 month period.
If Plusnet's network saw significant slow downs at peak times due to poor network planning and lack of upgrades, these forums would be inundated with people wanting to cancel or get refunds.

[#2]

I wonder how many of the people voting no might have a different view if they'd suffered a month of the internet being unusable at the times they wanted to use it?

[#3]

Is it really unusable, or just not the 77Mbps they're used to?
If you want compensation if FTTC speeds drops to ADSL speeds - would that be the ADSL speed of the individual? In which case some people would be eligible for compensation if their speed dropped below e.g. 15Mb, while others, paying the same price, would have to put up with anything above their previous 2Mb or whatever.

[#4]

Quote from: ejs

Is it really unusable, or just not the 77Mbps they're used to?

Depends on what you mean by "unusable". Even though your speeds may drop to 2Mbps, this does not mean that you can easily browse websites, stream videos, play games online etc. In fact, some of these things become virtually impossible to do (just have a look at some of the congestion threads on here).
There is an "acceptable range of speeds" based on your IP Profile and type of service (e.g. ADSL/FTTx) which is clear when you run the Further Diagnostics on the BTw Speed Tester. That should surely be the definition of what is an acceptable level of service, otherwise what is the point in it?
There's a FTTP user with BT Retail who is on the 300/20 (Infinity 4) service also paying for BT Vision. His speeds drop literally to 0 and he cannot do anything (this has been going on for 2 months now). He has had several engineers out already to check his connection, but found no issues. Should he not be entitled to a refund or part refund on the £60-80 he must be paying a month?

[#5]

There's also the 12Mb for 15Mb+ lines, or 70% of line sync speed, for less than 15Mb FTTC lines "Minimum ‘Best Efforts’ Planned Downstream Throughput (Mbit/s)" in the WBC FTTC handbook, and the 2Mb upstream fault thresold rate. And then there's also those minimum speeds for 90% of the 3 busiest hours.
When lots of people have 70Mb connections, it doesn't take that many people fully utilising their connections to suddenly use up far more bandwidth than expected. Just estimate the total Plusnet bandwidth from the usage graphs and the total number of Plusnet customers. Divided between all the customers, there's really not very much, the whole system only works on the basis most people aren't using any bandwidth most of the time. Perhaps a cheaper solution will be to stop selling it as unlimited (again!), and kick off the people using up too much bandwidth.
If there's ever not enough electricity for everyone (e.g. when we close down old polluting power stations, don't build enough new ones, and it's too windy / not windy enough), you'd just get rolling blackouts, which aren't supposed to be for longer than 24 hours, and you get compensation if you're switched off for more than 24 hours.

[#6]

Here's your 2p refund for your 23mins at slower speed for today.
Awards for joke suggestion/thread of the year.

[#7]

@ ejs - But what happens when you're on FTTC you do not get the minimum throughput of 12Mb/s for that 90% of the busiest 3 hour period?
BT Wholesale's document even says their network should provide this as a minimum: Our network dimensioning rules are designed to ensure that customers receive a given IP throughput based on the product they have purchased, regardless of the activity of other users within this shared part of the network to allow users to achieve a throughput of
They cannot ensure this going by the problems people have had lately.
What I am struggling to understand is how BTw provide this kind of assurance, yet when they fail to meet it, there is no set rate of compensation for their customers like PlusNet.

[#8]

@Plusnet
Here's a suggestion on how you can increase your profits. It appears that there are a considerable number of users who would not expect any compensation if you capped their speeds at peak times - this should reduce the amount of bandwidth you need from BT.