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When will Plusnet offer FTTP?

Townman
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Re: When will Plusnet offer FTTP?

Ironic that!!

It’s customer service which Plusnet feel puts them above the others in the group ... yet the others in the group seem to want to stack the dominoes against PN in terms of access to and supply of infrastructure technology.

The word cartel comes to mind here!!

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bmc
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Re: When will Plusnet offer FTTP?

@l3v1ck 

I'm sorry - PlusNet are perfectly entitled to not to offer a product if they so choose. Especially as it would involve re-writing their back office systems.

 

However, if OpenReach have installed FTTP to your premises, you're entitled to switch to any provider of a FTTP product using OR's network (taking into account any outstanding time on your current contract).

 

Brian

Capvermell
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Re: When will Plusnet offer FTTP?

Even though EE is supposedly one of BT's cutting edge going places brands in terms of mobile networks and 5G rollout etc oddly enough FTTP is still not available to EE customers either at the present time as a home broadband option and they only support ADSL2+ and FTTC.

 

If you want FTTP your only options with mainstream providers are with BT Retail plus now Sky and TalkTalk (although Zen will also now supply you too for a suitably premium price), who have only introduced their own FTTP services gradually in the last 6 to 9 months (although their internal support rollout in each case now seems to be complete and their FTTP footprint more or less matches that of BT Retail).

 

With Sky you can have FTTP but only up to 150Mbps rather than the 900 Mbps available down the same FTTP cable from BT but at least Sky will also provide you with an FTTP based phone service too and of course bundle in a whole range of tv services if you want them.

 

TalkTalk on the other hand will sell you FTTP at a fast 150Mbps or 500Mbps at £32 or £40 per month (although the 150Mbps was recently cheaper than that in some sale offer of I think £28 a month for a few weeks) but they won't support your phone connection or phone number down that cable at all and nor will they sell any sports, movies or kids channels bundled in with that package.  This seems an odd commercial strategy unlikely to have much success but I am told it is because TalkTalk's FTTP service is to be developed and enhanced in time.  However I notice they have now cut the minimum contract period for the 500Mbps service from the original 24 months to now only the same 18 months as the 150Mbps service.  This brings them in to line with Sky's 18 month contract and also makes the contract period the same as for their ADSL2+ and FTTC services.  Both are 6 months shorter than BT's quite disgusting two year minimum contract term on all their broadband installs combined with early termination fees for breaking that 2 year contract that are way, way worse than both those of Sky and TalkTalk and that in my opinion amount to an Unfair Contract Term in breach of Ofcom's own guidelines.  But if BT's services are so good then why are they so afraid people will want to leave them for competitors and why do they have to constantly lie (which they strangely always seem to get away with) in all their marketing that they have better home wifi coverage devices than any of their rivals.

 

So compared to FTTC you will find FTTP is still only being offered as a more expensive and deluxe service on a patchy basis with fastest FTTP speeds available still only coming from BT Retail amongst the large well known brands (although a few small specialist FTTP firms mainly serving business will also connect your BT Openreach FTTP line at up to 1000Mbps).

 

So far as Plusnet is concerned they will have to offer FTTP some time in the next year or two just as Sky will with Now Broadband at some point but because it is not yet a widely available service in more than 50% of the country they are going to postpone offering it with their cheap brands like Plusnet for some little while yet.

 

Also equally likely is that BT will simply kill off Plusnet in due course (by simply making it a cheaper product range from BT Retail) since as they also own EE they now have too many brands under which they are trying to offer Home Broadband and phone line services....

 

See www.sky.com/shop/broadband-talk/ultrafast-broadband/ and https://tinyurl.com/y6cbhaa2 for the Sky and TalkTalk FTTP broadband options if they happen to already be available on your own telephone exchange and phone number.

ukguy1
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Re: When will Plusnet offer FTTP?

I’ve noticed EE have started offering fttp full fibre in our postcode recently.
This seems to coincide with Sky also offering it. TalkTalk soon.
We’ve had cables for over 3 years but only now starting to see more fttp options.
Capvermell
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Re: When will Plusnet offer FTTP?

@ukguy1 Seems you are right and on my home phone number (which has BT Retail's up to 900Mbps service plus TalkTalk up to 500Mbps and Sky up to 150Mbps FTTP options) I can now also have EE Fibre Max 900 at £60 per month (or £54 or for those who are also pay monthly mobile customers of EE) or £47 for Fibre 500 (£42 for EE Mobile customers) and £39 for Fibre 100 (£35 for EE Mobile customers).

 

It does seem extremely weird how FTTP is being sold at completely different maximum speed grades by different providers and I can't see how Sky can limit the maximum FTTP speed they sell to only 150Mbps when their main competitors are offering either 500Mbps or the full 900Mbps.  Sky seem to have confused themselves by wanting to present G.Fast and FTTP as both being effectively the same thing by badging them both as being Ultrafast...........

 

Having said that if I was willing to pay around £60 or so per month I probably would go for the Sky 150Mbps FTTP option because its the only one that will also bundle in the Sky Sports Channels including Sky Sports F1 (the one that I would like to have in terms of my own sports viewing habits).  But I would also like to have a 500Mbps service too so annoying that Sky can't seem to manage to tie up the two different things.

 

EE's website does not seem to make clear at all whether their FTTP service also includes FTTP phone line provision too as it does with BT Retail and Sky but not with TalkTalk...........

 

So only Plusnet now left out in the cold by BT Group management by not having access to any FTTP products.  Surely it is in their interests to add this soon, if only to steal a march in comparison to Now Broadband/Tv, who also don't currently offer FTTP.  But then again as I have said BT might be going to disappear completely in the fairly near future (there are clearly also some very substantial cost and infrastructure savings to be made in doing so)

Townman
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Re: When will Plusnet offer FTTP?

To be fully fair, Zen do some well priced FTTP services and (if your local drop is short enough and BTOR has deployed it) G.fast as well.  Another interesting departure from the pack, with Zen your price remains the same throughout the life of your service with them.

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Capvermell
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Re: When will Plusnet offer FTTP?

@Townman FTTP prices are jolly expensive currently so the last thing I would want is for them to remain the same price throughout my time with Zen.  Instead I would hope and expect that the service would become substantially cheaper as time went by.

 

But given how many other providers are now suddenly all offering FTTP over BT Openreach lines and the fact that Plusnet trialled FTTP for several years some years ago it surely is high time that Plusnet went ahead with its own launch of this now increasingly commonplace home broadband service.

 

When I say FTTP is jolly expensive my current 16Mbps ADSL2+ package with Now Broadband plus landline rental and unlimited anytime calls to landlines and mobiles is only costing me £10.08 per month for 12 months after the received £100 Quidco cashback for signing up with them back in June.  To get the same thing on FTTP at a somewhat faster speed I would have to pay at least 100% more (after allowing for cashbacks) with a longer minimum contract of 18 or 24 months.

 

Requiring minimum contracts of more than 12 months is not in my opinion a sensible way to get existing broadband users to switch over to FTTP.

MisterW
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Re: When will Plusnet offer FTTP?

If you want FTTP your only options are with BT Main plus now Sky and TalkTalk

Not quite true, both Zen https://www.zen.co.uk/broadband/ultrafast-fibre-broadband and Idnet https://www.idnet.com/ will supply FTTP together with some others , see the Openreach list here https://www.openreach.com/fibre-broadband/fttp-providers

Sky are only providing to certain areas, both BT and Zen will supply to my new address but Sky wont as yet.

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Capvermell
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Re: When will Plusnet offer FTTP?

@MisterW Yes suddenly a whole clutch of providers are all offering FTTP over BT Openreach lines (a case of Follow My Leader it would seem after BT having a near stranglehold with FTTP amongst the broadband Big Boys for around 5 years) but generally at a rather significant cost premium (especially compared to ADSL2+, which was often the only previously available broadband service on these FTTP installed exchanges, most of which were bypassed for FTTC) and also requiring you to sign up for a minimum contract of 18 or 24 months.

 

IDNet's only advantage seems to be their minimum contract term of 12 months (shorter than Sky, TalkTalk, EE or Zen's 18 months or BT Retail's ridiculous 24 months) but in all other respects their FTTP services are much more expensive and only really aimed at business rather than home broadband users.

 

Also an important consideration for some customer is if they want to have FTTP phone as well as broadband service given that TalkTalk in particular so far refuses to provide this option leaving porting our your existing copper landline number to a Voip based external service like sipgate.co.uk as the only possible option in their case.

Capvermell
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Re: When will Plusnet offer FTTP?

Plusnet FTTP Trial began in Jan 2012.  See www.ispreview.co.uk/story/2012/01/24/uk-isp-plusnet-details-new-100mbps-fibre-optic-fttp-broadband-p...

 

Yet here we are in 2021 and they are the only ISP in the BT Group still not offering FTTP as a broadband connection option on exchanges and at addresses where the service is now available from the BT Openreach network.

 

From this one can probably surmise that BT Group is not committed to Plusnet's long term survival as a separate ISP.............

 

As to Plusnet "not being beaten on price" their total ADSL2+ and FTTC offerings are generally consistently inferior to Now Broadband re the free of charge inclusive calls package and the level of Quidco cashback offered.  So they aren't even market leading in that area either............

 

Just left as an outdated Cinderella brand by the BT Group Board that they don't ever quite seem to quite get around to finally killing off............

Townman
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Re: When will Plusnet offer FTTP?

Pricing is difficult to discern.  As far as I can tell, Zen provide the service over what ever technology is available.  The middle block on their site says "Super Fast FTTC & FTTP".  I just did a search for a property where (I believe) FTTP is the only option (300mbps was offered as an option) and up to 35mbps comes out at £30pcm.  Though that is a bit more than PN's FTTC product (during contract) it is cheaper than the out of contract £35+pcm.

I guess that if the price for new users after the minimum term contracts is lower, then one could seek a new contract on the then available terms.  If FTTP is the only game in town, it might be an attractive deal.

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Capvermell
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Re: When will Plusnet offer FTTP?

@Townman FTTP is normally only the only available fixed broadband connection option on new housing estates where no copper has ever been laid under an unhealthy monopolistic agreement between Openreach and the housing developer.

In other areas where FTTP has been overlaid on top of existing copper (as is the case where I live) then sometimes slow (but not always depending on location re exchange) but frequently very cheap ADSL2+ is still available, in some case with only a 1 month contract term from providers such as Now Broadband.

A major impediment to people upgrading to FTTP in copper overlay areas is the long new minimum contract term imposed (2 years with BT Retail) and higher prices for the FTTP services than the ADSL2+ ones.

Where I live out of 17 flats with the FTTP cable passing their door only three are connected to it (and it was only two until three months ago) over five years after the FTTP cable was installed in the building and the services became available to order.

BT Retail plays a game of not itself selling ADSL2+ services at addresses where FTTP is now available but then they are still available through Plusnet, EE, Sky, TalkTalkTalk and numerous other ADSL2+ providers that BT Openreach also still does business with.  So BT Openreach itself has not so far stopped offering copper phone services (even to newly contracting customers) in these ADSL2+ enabled areas, although it may well be that Ofcom would not yet allow it to withdraw them at the present time...................

Capvermell
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Re: When will Plusnet offer FTTP?

Plusnet has also just announced (Jan 2021) it won't take new orders from customers for YouView boxes.

 

See www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2021/01/broadband-isp-plusnet-uk-to-stop-taking-youview-tv-orders.html

 

Although the days of YouView (originally known as Project Canvas) may well themselves be numbered this withdrawal of future support for new Youview customers strongly suggests to me that BT Group is not committed to the future of Plusnet as an ISP.......

 

In short if an FTTP cable passes your door and you want to connect to both it and other more modern tv and broadband services BT Group is trying to tell you to look elsewhere for your future ISP as otherwise it wouldn't be refusing to provide FTTP services through an ISP that first trialled them 9 years ago this month..........

 

And if you bother looking closely even Yorkshire Jo was recently retired from their Call Centre IVR systems in favour of some more standard and non regionally accented female voiced IVR message system......

Capvermell
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Re: When will Plusnet offer FTTP?

Seems Plusnet's recently launched "That'll Do" marketing campaign must be making reference to its customers being stuck with either technologically obsolete ADSL2+ or FTTC and no prospect whatsoever of ever getting FTTP technology without moving to newer and shinier marketing icons in BT's Broadband Stable............

 

See www.prolificnorth.co.uk/news/marketing-services-news/2020/10/thatll-do-plusnet-introduces-new-ad-cam...

 

The company is playing on its Yorkshire foundations as it seeks to create “a unique position” within the Consumer division of the BT Group and focus on 3 core messages: “simplicity, reliability and award-winning customer service.”

“People don’t come to Plusnet for elaborate packages or add-ons they don’t need or will never use. They don’t expect bells or whistles. Our mission is to make the basic things brilliant, clear and simple for our customers and give them exactly what they ask for - great value broadband that just works,” explained Sam Calvert, Marketing Director, at Plusnet.

“Starting with our new ad campaign today, every part of our brand and communications will now focus on these core messages as we look to redefine expectations of value broadband for our customers.”

 

So clearly FTTP must be a Bell or Whistle that Mr Calvert is convinced Plusnet's customers don't need.  If you want technologically cutting edge service then don't come to Plusnet seems to be the clear marketing meessage being given here by BT Group.....

Townman
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Re: When will Plusnet offer FTTP?

"clear marketing message being given here by BT Group....."

Does rather sum it up nicely.  Sadly I fear that Plusnet's destiny is not in the hands of people who know what they are doing any more.  BT is not really a commercial organisation, many of its attitudes towards customers remain rooted in its civil service (GPO) origins, where the customer is not king and the customer can make do with what's provided at a time which suits the provider.  "That'll do" has been BT's operating model for decades, it means you get what they think will suffice, not the technology excellence which once marked out Plusnet for the rest of the market players.

At one time Plusnet was a serious contender to BT Retail, so instead of BT stepping up their game, they bought up Plusnet and have since proceeded to crush it under foot.  But given how anti-competitive is BT, should we really have expected anything different?

Superusers are not staff, but they do have a direct line of communication into the business in order to raise issues, concerns and feedback from the community.