Plusnet add-ons questions

I see the 'Pro' add-on is £5pm more. Does one's monthly downloads get affected? Last time I looked it was Value, Extra or Pro, and Pro was limited to 20GB, while Extra was 60GB. Is the add-on now an extra fiver and you keep the 60GB?

Also, why is the Max Premium add-on free to those on ADSL2+, but not ADSLmax? Why is it £7.83 (£6.52 + VAT) per month?

While I can understand there might be a small activation (admin) fee, why the monthly fee, but not for ADSL2+ customers, who are basically 'lucky' to be on a 21CN exchange. Surely the 21CN exchanges have had more costs applied to make them 21CN?

Is this another case of the market 1,2 thing, where BT enables choice exchanges to compete with others, then the ADSL2+ customers get extra upload speeds to keep them from jumping ship, while the Max customers, having little option pay more for the same deal (a la Markets 1 & 2)?

I see the 'Pro' add-on is £5pm more. Does one's monthly downloads get affected? Last time I looked it was Value, Extra or Pro, and Pro was limited to 20GB, while Extra was 60GB. Is the add-on now an extra fiver and you keep the 60GB?

You keep the normal usage amount on your product, so Extra customers adding Pro would have 60GB and Value would have 10GB.

Also, why is the Max Premium add-on free to those on ADSL2+, but not ADSLmax? Why is it £7.83 (£6.52 + VAT) per month?

It's charged at a wholesale level per month on ADSL, whereas on ADSL2+ it's part of the product for the line to be uncapped where requested.

While I can understand there might be a small activation (admin) fee, why the monthly fee, but not for ADSL2+ customers, who are basically 'lucky' to be on a 21CN exchange. Surely the 21CN exchanges have had more costs applied to make them 21CN?

As above, on 20CN there is a monthly wholesale charge which is why we charge an ongoing fee.

Is this another case of the market 1,2 thing, where BT enables choice exchanges to compete with others, then the ADSL2+ customers get extra upload speeds to keep them from jumping ship, while the Max customers, having little option pay more for the same deal (a la Markets 1 & 2)?

It depends on whether the exchange has ADSL2+ capability or not.

In reply to a post by chrisparr:

You keep the normal usage amount on your product, so Extra customers adding Pro would have 60GB and Value would have 10GB.

Thanks for that. Basically what I was asking for six months ago, but then it was 20GB Pro or 60GB extra.

In reply to a post by chrisparr:

It's charged at a wholesale level per month on ADSL, whereas on ADSL2+ it's part of the product for the line to be uncapped where requested.

My concerns are two-fold on this. First, do ISPs know why this is so? What I mean is, has someone asked BTW why there is a charge for ADSLmax customers?

Second, are ADSL2+ customers (either Plusnet, other ISPs, or from BTW somehow) made aware of the cap? Not having a go at PN, so much as wondering if many customers are not aware of the option.

In reply to a post by chrisparr:

As above, on 20CN there is a monthly wholesale charge which is why we charge an ongoing fee.

Per point 2.

In reply to a post by chrisparr:

It depends on whether the exchange has ADSL2+ capability or not.

That's the rub. It seems that once again customers with no option to upgrade their product (ADSL2+) are charged for a service they would have for free if they could upgrade. Doesn't that seem inherently unfair? I wouldn't whinge even slightly if ADSL2+ customers also had to pay a fee. I am prepared to discuss the validity of the fee amount however.

All I see in this is that some customers get a better 'offered' service for the same price.

(Offered meaning subject to individual line conditions, distance from exchange etc.)

Max Premium was mainly intended for business users. In addition to the higher upload speed it also gives greater priority on the BT network (I believe it has proved beneficial to some users on contended exchanges).

In reply to a post by jelv:

it also gives greater priority on the BT network (I believe it has proved beneficial to some users on contended exchanges).

Yes, and lower pings, I found (I tried it for a very short period). It raises the question if such prioritisation is afforded to ADSL2+ in the same way, or if Max Premium is specifically prioritised alone?

I have at the back of my mind that there is a similar option on 21CN (higher priority) but it's not something Plusnet currently offer.

Ah ha - looking at http://aaisp.net.uk/broadband-premium.html it seems there is an option as I thought.

Very good!

So it's actually an anti-contention option, with the benefit of increased upload, rather than the other way around. Ta for that.

Hi,

The BT Wholesale equivalent of Max Premium for 21CN is called Elevate. It offers the prioritised network speeds etc, we only offer this on business accounts though, and again it incurs an extra charge.

The higher upstream on ADSL2+ is natural progression, and IMO would be strange if a product that offered more than twice the downstream speed didn't also have a higher upload speed.

The original IPStream products had a lower upload than IPStream Max, and this continues throughout the BT Wholesale product set.

My original ADSL product's upstream was half the downstream. How about 3.3 Meg upstream please?

No problem, but you will need to move to a Fibre area