Plus Net further reduces peak limit

There are some changes happening soon as mentioned on the Plus Net website.
I will copy a few points...

Plus will only be offered to new customers as a single product, costing
£14.99 a month and with speeds of upto 8Mb.
The current peak Time data transfer allowance will be changed from 5GB
between 8AM - Midnight, to 3GB between 4PM and Midnight.
After this allowance is reached, usage restrictions will be applied to the
account up to a 10GB peak time SUP limit which counts all traffic. Details
of our new SUP policy are below.
Off-peak usage will not be counted, but this product will receive a lower
priority than Premier, PAYG and Business customers during periods where the
network is running at capacity off-peak.
Permanent rate limits are applied to common protocols used for large file
downloads at all times (This is not a change).

***Note that the £14.99 package is reducing the monthly peak limit from 5gb
to 3Gb.


Premier will be offered with three options (Named 'Options 1, 2 and 3'!)
Each option will have a data transfer allowance, which is not the same as
'clean to'. As usage increases towards the product allowance, gradually
increasing peak time speed restrictions will be applied to the connection
(Details in the management section below).
Option 1 will be offered as 'Up to 8Mb' and replaces the current 'Up to 2Mb
product'. This will be provided with a peak time data transfer allowance of
15GB (Cost: £21.99 per month)
Option 2 will be offered as 'Up to 16Mb' and replaces the current 'Up to 4Mb
product'. This will be provided with a peak time data transfer allowance of
22.5GB (Cost: £29.99 per month).
Option 3 will be offered as 'Up to 24Mb' and replaces the current 'Up to 8Mb
product'. This will be provided with a peak time data transfer allowance of
30GB (Cost: £39.99 per month).
After the product allowance is exceeded, and before SUP (A much higher value
than the product allowance) is reached, any peak time speed restrictions on
standard protocols, such as Web browsing, gaming etc will not be set at less
than 512K, ensuring that a Broadband experience can still be had.
Usage outside of the 4PM - Midnight peak period will not be counted towards
any allowance, and off peak SUP will be removed completely. During off-peak
periods where the network is running at capacity Premier Customers will
receive a priority on our network appropriate to their account option.
Premier customers will be provided with a PlusTalk anytime package.

On Thu, 16 Mar 2006 20:33:25 -0000, "Beck" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>There are some changes happening soon as mentioned on the Plus Net website.
>I will copy a few points...
>
>Plus will only be offered to new customers as a single product, costing
>£14.99 a month and with speeds of upto 8Mb.

I hadn't really read the text fully yesterday before posting, but checked
<http://www.plus.net/support/broadband/products/product_improvements_apr2006.shtml>
and see that none of the accounts listed are above 8000 kbps (it had shown a
few at double and treble that until quite recently).



>The current peak Time data transfer allowance will be changed from 5GB
>between 8AM - Midnight, to 3GB between 4PM and Midnight.

>***Note that the £14.99 package is reducing the monthly peak limit from 5gb
>to 3Gb.

Which is better than reducing it to 2.5 GB (in line with cutting "peak
hours" from 16 hours down to 8 hours!)



>Option 3 will be offered as 'Up to 24Mb' and replaces the current 'Up to 8Mb
>product'. This will be provided with a peak time data transfer allowance of
>30GB (Cost: £39.99 per month).

Somehow I think they decided on a fairly high fee to get heavy users (who
do want the speed, but don't want to pay as much as that) to get a MAC...

I haven't looked at other ISP offerings in detail, but suspect there will
be a number of people migrating once the final details come out formally
in a Press Release and on the website. ADSLguide shows a number of new
accounts (and from services I've never heard of, could be risky!) so a
lot of people will have a lot of decisions to make "do I stay or do I
go" or maybe that's "when do I go, and who to" ? :-))) Peter Morgan

--
UK ADSL <http://tinyurl.com/5jpa4> - Happy to save with Plus.Net!!

poster wrote:

> I haven't looked at other ISP offerings in detail, but suspect there
> will be a number of people migrating once the final details come out
> formally
> in a Press Release and on the website. ADSLguide shows a number of
> new accounts (and from services I've never heard of, could be risky!)
> so a
> lot of people will have a lot of decisions to make "do I stay or do I
> go" or maybe that's "when do I go, and who to" ? :-))) Peter Morgan

I cannot quite work out whether this will apply to new customers only or to
all customers. This is unlikely to affect me as I upgraded to the premier
account and have more than enough for my needs (15Gb off peak). But I
someotimes wonder why Plus Net does this. It only serves to push people
away. They are not doing much as far as I can see to attract new customers
to fill the gaps. Maybe they do not need to. Maybe they can run quite
nicely being a super-lite isp :-)

On 16 Mar 2006 22:46, "Beck" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>Maybe they can run quite nicely being a super-lite isp :-)

They're looking more and more that way, given BB Plus as a way a
user might join, but subsequently upgrade :-) Seen elsewhere on
a user discussion for the users of an ISP which seemed popular a
while back with heavy users leaving Plus.Net:

" I bought a service limited by a maximum bandwidth of 8MBps and
a contention ratio of 50:1. What I get instead is a service
limited by a maximum bandwidth of 8MBps and a contention ratio
of 50:1 and traffic shaping and hidden caps. That's what I and
others have a problem with."

Of course, the ISP they moved to was bought up by a bigger fish,
and the users are less than happy about the changes (where've we
heard that one :-)



--
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On 16 Mar 2006 22:46, "Beck" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>I cannot quite work out whether this will apply to new customers only or
>to all customers.

I think the "only" was wording to clarify that where there had been shown
several speeds, so someone wanting Broadband Plus had options costing the
basic 14.99, but also 24.99 and 34.99 (giving double and treble Max DSL's
"up to 8000 kbps") the situation is that they seem not to have managed to
arrange with the LLU service (Easynet, or was it someone else?) for their
higher speed options. Academic to me anyway, because Easynet is not only
*not at my exchange* at present, but I doubt it'll change *for a while* !


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poster wrote:
> On 16 Mar 2006 22:46, "Beck" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
>> I cannot quite work out whether this will apply to new customers
>> only or to all customers.
>
> I think the "only" was wording to clarify that where there had been
> shown several speeds, so someone wanting Broadband Plus had options
> costing the basic 14.99, but also 24.99 and 34.99 (giving double and
> treble Max DSL's "up to 8000 kbps") the situation is that they seem
> not to have managed to arrange with the LLU service (Easynet, or was
> it someone else?) for their higher speed options. Academic to me
> anyway, because Easynet is not only *not at my exchange* at present,
> but I doubt it'll change *for a while* !

I think they are unnecessarily making this complicated for themselves. Its
the same thing BT broadband services does. Have loads of options to a point
of confusing the customers. They then pick the wrong service and have to
upgrade/downgrade or whatever. What the hell is wrong with light usage and
heavy usage services? lol

poster wrote:
> On 16 Mar 2006 22:46, "Beck" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
>> Maybe they can run quite nicely being a super-lite isp :-)
>
> They're looking more and more that way, given BB Plus as a way a
> user might join, but subsequently upgrade :-) Seen elsewhere on
> a user discussion for the users of an ISP which seemed popular a
> while back with heavy users leaving Plus.Net:
>
> " I bought a service limited by a maximum bandwidth of 8MBps and
> a contention ratio of 50:1. What I get instead is a service
> limited by a maximum bandwidth of 8MBps and a contention ratio
> of 50:1 and traffic shaping and hidden caps. That's what I and
> others have a problem with."
>
> Of course, the ISP they moved to was bought up by a bigger fish,
> and the users are less than happy about the changes (where've we
> heard that one :-)

Well I think many isps will be going the same route. I know alot of people
hopped off to Zen Internet all bright and breezy knowing they have no
limits. But they will change in time. The change in BT wholesale prices
and provision will force the currently uncapped isps to rethink their
products.

On 17 Mar 2006 09:56, "Beck" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>hopped off to Zen Internet all bright and breezy knowing they have no
>limits. But they will change in time.

They already have - existing users can keep "unlimited" on speeds up to
2000 kbps, new users can get "unlimited" only on 250/250 but all of the
other accounts have a download quota of either 20 GB for 24.99 or 50 GB
for the higher fee, and additional GB can be bought for 1 pound per GB.

I suppose with uploading being a fraction of the download speed, they'd
assume outbound traffic is less of a problem, and considering some ISPs
offer a lot more (overall) quota for a similar price (I think Demon may
be one of the few without any quota limits at 24.99) they presumably do
have their accounting heads on and feel they'll more than cover BT cost
of any non-LLU traffic.

>The change in BT wholesale prices and provision will force currently
>uncapped isps to rethink

One did, within 2-3 days of announcing an 8000 kbps "unlimited" account
and they decided that all "unlimited" accounts now have a 100 GB quota,
so they've annoyed some existing customers, just like latest change for
Freedom to Surf customers...

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On 17 Mar 2006 09:52, "Beck" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>What the hell is wrong with light usage and heavy usage services? lol

They need a few shades of grey in between, else the heavy usage seems too
costly for most users (I exclude leechers, who are ready to dig deeper :-)

I don't think there are too many options, TBH, as the temporary removal of
the 2x and 3x 8000 kbps means they can add those later if they ever get an
agreeement and can price them at a level where people don't go direct (the
service is being bought in, so how high are the odds against having the PN
account cheaper than the LLU service itself... I'd go to the LLU firm, if
the pricing was similar and there was no "traffic calming" - VoIP isn't of
interest when the other effects of "management" from Plus.Net mess with my
traffic too much, or time/quota/other restrictions - could affect me). PM.

--
UK ADSL <http://tinyurl.com/5jpa4> - Happy to save with Plus.Net!!

poster wrote:

> I don't think there are too many options, TBH, as the temporary
> removal of the 2x and 3x 8000 kbps means they can add those later if
> they ever get an agreeement and can price them at a level where
> people don't go direct (the service is being bought in, so how high
> are the odds against having the PN account cheaper than the LLU
> service itself... I'd go to the LLU firm, if the pricing was similar
> and there was no "traffic calming" - VoIP isn't of interest when the
> other effects of "management" from Plus.Net mess with my traffic too
> much, or time/quota/other restrictions - could affect me). PM.

I do like the limit on the plusnet £21.99 package, its just right for me.
So I guess it is a good idea that if people do want more, they do pay more.
Aside from downloading xbox360 game demos or videogame trailers I do not do
much more than that. if high users are willing to pay that bit extra then
there should be a package for them.
If plusnet decided to reduce the limit to 10Gb a month then I would have to
reconsider but then that would be months away as I am only a few months into
annual contract. So far happy with what I have.