Thinking of leaving O2 for Plusnet Unlimited

I've been with O2 for 3 years, but am leaving due to desperately slow speeds in evenings. I sync at 8.5Meg and speed tests in daytime give 7.3/4 downloads, but in the evenings it slows to 1-2Meg and it's difficult/impossible to even watch iplayer.

I don't want to go to FTTC, even though my exchange (Droitwich) was very early enabled as it would mean extra cabling in my house which I don't want.

I'm looking at the £9.99 per month unlimited ADSL2 package. Does it do what it says on the tin? I've been on LLU for years and years (with various ISP's) so I've not had to suffer BT's BRAS profiles - how do things run with Plusnet?

I don't do P2P so no huge volumes, but don't want to have to worry about usages when streaming TV etc, so that's why I go for unlimited.

You look to have lots of options:

http://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange/WMDRO

I suspect its the O2 network that is not working for you when it is busy at night

ADSL: You can go to 3rd party providers, like vivaciti.co.uk or as you said to plusnet. Look at the resellers section of this board to see the players. Just make sure the service is not supplied via the O2 networks and you should be fine.

FTTC: Again the core players are all open to you (BT, TalkTalk, SKY, Plusnet etc) You could also again use the 3rd party providers mentioned above, as most now have a FTTC option. When I took out FTTC, I did not move the master socket, but rather used Powerline adapters to use the mains cabling as a cable. Just make sure you get the 500M ones if buying new.

I think this is all about price now. Go with the one that is in you price band.

In reply to a post by iand:

I suspect its the O2 network that is not working for you when it is busy at night

ADSL: You can go to 3rd party providers, like vivaciti.co.uk or as you said to plusnet. Look at the resellers section of this board to see the players. Just make sure the service is not supplied via the O2 networks and you should be fine.

So far as I know, none of the major O2/Be resellers use the O2/Be network, except perhaps AAISP. Just the exchange DSLAM, with other backhaul.

They would still use the backhaul from the exchange until a handover point. This would be somewhere both ISP's have kit and can have an interconnect. So contention at the exchange will affect resellers in the same way as O2 customers.

In reply to a post by 5km:

They would still use the backhaul from the exchange until a handover point. This would be somewhere both ISP's have kit and can have an interconnect. So contention at the exchange will affect resellers in the same way as O2 customers.

Firstly, I can confirm we use O2 Wholesale, so I can answer this with clarity.

The details you state above are 100% correct. In the same way BT Wholesale have backhaul from the exchange, this is is also how O2 Wholesale operate, so if an exchange has been picked up as having capacity issues it will have a knock on for all resellers.

However, most exchanges, if not all, have multiple backhaul links, so if we get reports of exchange issues from a customer, we can quickly work with O2 to confirm things and in all cases to date, get the customer moved to a less busy bit of backhaul (ie: different VPs). Again how BT Wholesale operate.

Hopefully this helps everything in this thread.

We switched from O2 to Plusnet and stayed on ADSL2+. To be honest if price wasn't an issue, we would have stayed with O2. Saying that, we never had any slow down in the evenings like you have mentioned. Interleaving wasn't an issue and Annex m was also a nice option.

With Plusnet, if you don't switch off your router or reconnect often (ever, more like), you'll be fine. I do reconnect 2-3 times a day because our router does not work well with Plusnet's PPPoATM system (be aware of that if you use a Netgear DGND3700 router). We were activated 2 weeks ago and we were syncing at 14723Kb/s, now we are on 6653 and steadily decreasing while I test beta firmware for the router.

In the short time we have experienced full line speed with Plusnet so far, there was no problem whatsoever.

Another complex matter is switching your phone number, if you are on O2. It's physically possible to do it, but they wouldn't do it for us. If you have BT line rental, it obviously won't matter.

In reply to a post by haggismn:

Another complex matter is switching your phone number, if you are on O2. It's physically possible to do it, but they wouldn't do it for us.

Do you mean O2 would not let you keep your number when moving away?

Yes, but our move was rather more complex. You are better off calling and finding out for yourself, they might allow you to migrate it.

In reply to a post by haggismn:

Yes, but our move was rather more complex.

Oh right, this was a house move? I was thinking it was just a billing switch; porting numbers on internal Openreach WLR transfers should never be an issue.

It was a transfer of the o2 account to a different house and switching to Plusnet at the original property. Yes I agree, it shouldn't be an issue, but ask them to be sure. The people I spoke to at O2 weren't sure what would happen (they weren't familiar with the terms WLR and NoT) , in the end they cancelled the line and we got a new number.

So really it was a house move plus a fresh provision. Was the O2 phone contract moved as well, or terminated?

It was all moved, a new line installation, and a phone number there too of course.

In reply to a post by Oliver341:

In reply to a post by haggismn:

Another complex matter is switching your phone number, if you are on O2. It's physically possible to do it, but they wouldn't do it for us.

Do you mean O2 would not let you keep your number when moving away?

I've always kept the phone with BT irrespective of ISP in case of problems whilst switching ISP.

My late Father-in-law switched his phone (unknown to us) from BT to Southern Electric - probably as a result of an unsolicited sales call - and it was not easy to wrest it back from them.

No he shouldn't http://www.plus.net/support/broadband/products/low_c...
It is £9.99 in Market 2 or 3 with a 12 month contract or £12.49 no contract

Edited by deleted (Sun 17-Feb-13 18:47:04)

Edited by deleted (Sun 17-Feb-13 18:55:32)

You seem to have the Plusnet products and pricing very confused?

Are you talking about your Dad moving to an ADSL2+ product or a FTTC product? The £16.49 you give, is that the broadband, or the broadband and phone bundle?

Exactly which broadband product please?

Are you saying you have swung something by phoning Plusnet? If the exchange was Market 1 then it still is - it doesn't change just because an LLU ISP moves in.

He's talking about the price of Unlimited ADSL only in a Market 1 exchange. It is the advertised price.

He's under the common misapprehension that Market 1 auto changes up when other providers appear.

In reply to a post by pcoventry76:

I'd be interested in your experience. I have just asked to switch my dad from Business to residential due to cost and he's going to be pay £16,99 for unlimited market 2 exchange.

He's not bothered about anything as long as he can carry on streaming TV through the net like he does now - so if it's not unlimited he will be disappointed.

This is where the confusion started

Michael,
I made the change from O2 to Plusnet Unlimited last week. The move was effortless. Download speed has increased from 7.2 Mbps to 8.3 Mbps the only downside was the upstream dropped from 1.1 Mbps to 0.38 Mbps. The modem from Plusnet worked straight from the box but the wireless range was not as good as my Netgear modem router. Unfortunately the Netgear DGND 3700 just would not connect to Plusnet.
Bill

You can ask for the upload to be uncapped in the help portal. Takes a few days, but it'll go back to normal/what it was.

In reply to a post by Bill_753:

Michael,
I made the change from O2 to Plusnet Unlimited last week. The move was effortless. Download speed has increased from 7.2 Mbps to 8.3 Mbps the only downside was the upstream dropped from 1.1 Mbps to 0.38 Mbps. The modem from Plusnet worked straight from the box but the wireless range was not as good as my Netgear modem router. Unfortunately the Netgear DGND 3700 just would not connect to Plusnet.
Bill

Bill - Many thanks - that's really helpful.