Three different Plusnet reps - 3 different Answers

The situation as it happened.
I was looking into switching from O2 to Plusnet. Specifically the Unlimited Fibre Package But I was concerned about what Plusnet call 'traffic prioritisation'. Based on statements made by Thinkbroadband staff I was led to believe that there was an add on package called 'Plusnet Pro' that would opt you out of Traffic prioritisation.
On the Plusnet website this 'Plusnet Pro' add on is discussed in the current FAQ (dated from Dec 2012). However it appears no where as an addon option for ANY of their broadband packages online.

So I rang Plusnet to enquire
Plusnet agent Number 1(Elliot): The FAQ are wrong we don't do Plusnet Pro addon anymore. However the unlimited broadband package has NO 'Traffic Prioritisation'.

Thinkbroadband users & staff insisted this was not correct.

So I rang Plusnet again
Plusnet agent Number 2 (Kelly?): We don't do that any more (Plusnet Pro addon) But the unlimited package has NO 'Traffic Prioritisation'
Me: But the FAQ say it is current & you do do 'Traffic Prioritisation on ALL packages'
Plusnet Agent Number 2 (Kelly?): I don't know then.
Me: Well I'm really interested in switching to you but I need concrete terms 1st. Would a manager know?
Plusnet Agent Number 2 (Kelly?): Yes I'll get a supervisor (Jamie) to call you back shortly he is just on a call.
Me: Thanks that is great.

Plusnet phoned me back
Plusnet Agent Number 3 (Jamie): First he slips up & says that Agent 2 was 'halfway out the door' so got him to take the call for her& he intimates that he isn't a supervisor. He also said that Agents 1 & 2 are both wrong & need retraining. Then he says that ALL packages are subject to 'traffic prioritisation' & that Plusnet Pro Addon does exist & so you can opt out. But agents aren't allowed to 'authorise' it on the phone. And you have to be a Plusnet customer before the website will allow you to see the terms & conditions price etc & add it on after you have already joined.
Me: OK but I'm not joining unless I can see evidence that it exists, is current & can be used by new customers. Three different agents saying different things & FAQ saying something else. I said where could I get written confirmation.
Plusnet Agent Number 3 (Jamie): Go onto the website & use the 'ask Jess feature' it goes through to a different office & they will know more about it.
Me: Ok I'll do that

On looking at the Ask Jess feature it is an automated computerised predictive answer thing. If I type in my question it tells me to phone sales. The same office that said they can't help.

So any Plusnet Agents/Spy/Infiltrators know where the secret information is held? Which Agent is telling the truth etc? Plusnet does look like potentially my best option but I need to know what I'm agreeing to before I will sign an 18mth contract. Thanks to anyone who can shed some light on this.

PS I'm going to ask nicely that any sarcastic types that post just to tell me 'well if you don't like it choose a different ISP', you aren't helping me so DON'T!!!!!!!!!!!

In reply to a post by annie96:

Then he says that ALL packages are subject to 'traffic prioritisation' & that Plusnet Pro Addon does exist & so you can opt out.

Even that isn't strictly correct. The Pro addon elevates certain protocols to higher priority queues, but some protocols are still in higher priority queues than others.

Here you go - it's a faq http://www.plus.net/support/broadband/products/pro-A...

A line on an unlimited account will run up to line speed no matter what type of download you are running. Traffic prioritisation will kick in if the total bandwidth of everything you are trying to do simultaneously on all the connected devices is faster than your line speed. It will ensure that background activity like P2P is slowed just enough to let gaming, VoIP and streaming run at full speed. Traffic prioritisation is there to improve the overall experience.

The Pro add-on will elevate all activities up to gold or better. This may mean that the balance between background tasks and the time critical tasks could be upset.

My question to you is why you would want to spend £5 per month on something which won't increase the total throughput and runs a significant risk of degrading the overall experience?

In reply to a post by annie96:

So any Plusnet Agents/Spy/Infiltrators know where the secret information is held?

It's available as an 'Add-On' via the Member Centre for £5.00/month.

Apologies for the lack of formatting...

Pro Add On

Upgrades your service to a top-class prioritised connection, ideal for online gaming and working from home. Subject to a 1 month contract.
£5.00 a month
Add now

There is no need for this pro addon thing if your choosing fibre unlimited and i can tell you first hand that everything works, p2p goes full speed as does everything else.

The way the new system works is like this, Lets say you are downloading a torrent at full line speed and someone else in your house wants to do some gaming or use iplayer then the system will try to prioritise gaming and streaming.

Been with plusnet since the 14th feb this year and so far i haven't seen any slow down on p2p or anything even when streaming from iplayer or youtube.

It's also my understanding that this pro addon was more for the older packages where p2p was slowed down at peak times.

In reply to a post by Oliver341:

In reply to a post by annie96:

Then he says that ALL packages are subject to 'traffic prioritisation' & that Plusnet Pro Addon does exist & so you can opt out.

Even that isn't strictly correct. The Pro addon elevates certain protocols to higher priority queues, but some protocols are still in higher priority queues than others.

Yes I saw that yesterday in the little chart in the Plusnet Pro Add-On FAQ. The FAQ two of their agents swear blind aren't current for new customers. And the website link in those FAQ to add it on won't work.

Have a read here.

In reply to a post by JimmyBoy:

In reply to a post by annie96:

So any Plusnet Agents/Spy/Infiltrators know where the secret information is held?

It's available as an 'Add-On' via the Member Centre for £5.00/month.

Apologies for the lack of formatting...

Pro Add On

Upgrades your service to a top-class prioritised connection, ideal for online gaming and working from home. Subject to a 1 month contract.
£5.00 a month
Add now

Thanks for that but as I've said I'm familiar with the FAQ. Two agents say it is no longer available for new customers & the link on that page takes you to a member only page.
I simply want them to clarify either by email or in writing what the situation is either way.

In reply to a post by kasg:

Have a read here.

As I pointed out in the first & subsequent posts Plusnet agents are saying it is no longer current.

In reply to a post by annie96:

Plusnet agents are saying it is no longer current.

OK, I'm not sure which bit is allegedly no longer current, but the bottom line as I understand it is that you can have the Pro add-on with the unlimited product if you really want it, but it is not recommended and you should try it without. As others have explained, there is no slowing down of any protocols, only prioritisation across the protocols if there is a conflict.

As per my other post: If you want to waste £5 per month to mess up your line it's still available for you to do so (only available after your connection becomes active).

In reply to a post by kasg:

In reply to a post by annie96:

Plusnet agents are saying it is no longer current.

OK, I'm not sure which bit is allegedly no longer current, but the bottom line as I understand it is that you can have the Pro add-on with the unlimited product if you really want it, but it is not recommended and you should try it without. As others have explained, there is no slowing down of any protocols, only prioritisation across the protocols if there is a conflict.

Some are saying that there is no traffic prioritisation on any current unlimited package for new customers & the pro addon is only for old customers on old packages. And one was saying he thinks it is current but not until after you sign up.

I just want Plusnet to decide which of their agents is correct. So that I can know whether it is an option or not If I decide I want it.

Have you read http://community.plus.net/blog/2012/12/21/its-unlimi... ?

Dave Tomlinson is the person who looks after the traffic management platform.

You don't need it and this is coming from someone who has the fibre unlimited package
The pro addon is not going to make no difference for the simple fact that peak times are not slowed down like they were on old packages.

The pro addon will not do anything because there is nothing for it to do on unlimted.

If it makes you feel better i am currently uploading a linux torrent at over 1MB's and can stream youtube and I-Player just fine so personly i do not see what this addon is going to do apart from waste £5 of our money for no reason.

I also game while uploading and downloading to without any problems and i am not just saying this for no reason, If there was any type of slowdowns or caps then i would be moaning like hell but the fact is things just work like there supose to without throwing £5 away for no reason.

Edited by deleted (Fri 08-Mar-13 18:13:58)

In reply to a post by annie96:

I just want Plusnet to decide which of their agents is correct. So that I can know whether it is an option or not If I decide I want it.

If you want, as a matter of principle, all of the Plusnet agents to say exactly the same thing, then that is your prerogative. One of the reps may come on here to clarify but, in the meantime, I think you now have the information you need.

In reply to a post by kasg:

In reply to a post by annie96:

I just want Plusnet to decide which of their agents is correct. So that I can know whether it is an option or not If I decide I want it.

If you want, as a matter of principle, all of the Plusnet agents to say exactly the same thing, then that is your prerogative. One of the reps may come on here to clarify but, in the meantime, I think you now have the information you need.

No. I want, as I have stated in the post you quoted to know which is the correct information. As such it is quite clear I do not have the information I need yet.

I meant that a number of posters have give you the information, I guess you do not consider it authoritative.

In reply to a post by annie96:

No. I want, as I have stated in the post you quoted to know which is the correct information. As such it is quite clear I do not have the information I need yet.

Even if Plusnet Pro is an option still, which it seems to be, does the fact that it doesn't fully opt you out of traffic prioritisation pose a problem to you?

In reply to a post by Oliver341:

does the fact that it doesn't fully opt you out of traffic prioritisation pose a problem to you?

Oh, I thought it did, I thought that was now the only thing it did, to the possible detriment of the customer's experience.

In reply to a post by kasg:

I meant that a number of posters have give you the information, I guess you do not consider it authoritative.

I'm extremely grateful to particularly those of you who have taken the time to post your experiences & what you know of the situation. It is helpful to hear how it affects them. But I still just need clarification about which of their reps was correctly describing the current terms & conditions & options for NEW customers. Because Plusnet are contradicting each other & many of you.

In reply to a post by kasg:

Oh, I thought it did, I thought that was now the only thing it did, to the possible detriment of the customer's experience.

http://forums.thinkbroadband.com/plusnet/t/4218660-t...

In reply to a post by Oliver341:

In reply to a post by annie96:

No. I want, as I have stated in the post you quoted to know which is the correct information. As such it is quite clear I do not have the information I need yet.

Even if Plusnet Pro is an option still, which it seems to be, does the fact that it doesn't fully opt you out of traffic prioritisation pose a problem to you?

Initially I would have said yes it would be a problem. But I am swayed by the experiences posted here by current Plusnet customers. And of course looking at their little table thing in the FAQ. So now I would probably say no it wouldn't necessarily be a problem that it isn't a complete opt out. But the point is moot unless it is actually still available to new customers. Two out of three reps said it wasn't .

Just what do you want clarified?

If it's whether traffic management is applied to Unlimited accounts read https://community.plus.net/blog/2012/12/21/its-unlim... The rep(s) who told you the truth are those whose answer match that article.

If it's about whether you can spoil your broadband experience by wasting £5 on the Pro add-on see http://www.plus.net/support/broadband/products/pro-A... Note that it describes it as removing rate limits - there are no rate limits on Unlimited to be removed. But that page confirms it is available for Unlimited users.

You might want to look at how many of the users on http://community.plus.net/ping-graphs/ have the Pro add-on. There's a lot of power users in that collection that were on Extra with the Pro add-on before they moved to Unlimited.

In reply to a post by annie96:

['.[/b]


before I will sign an 18mth contract. Thanks to anyone who can shed some light on this.

PS I'm going to ask nicely that any sarcastic types that post just to tell me 'well if you don't like it choose a different ISP', you aren't helping me so DON'T!!!!!!!!!!!

I note your PS but would ask you to consider the fact that any ISP that needs to tie people into a long contract shows a lack of confidence in their products and support.

You my do better to put the extra £5 towards a service that you can ditch with 1 month's notice if it's not right for you.

I get the very real impression that the ISPs that come in for the most flack are those with long contracts driven by low prices and generally undemanding customers.

As you have found,they also seem to lack properly trained staff at the call centre level.

In reference to www.plus.net/support/broadband/products/pro-Add-On-faq.shtml:

It's available with Plusnet Essentials and Unlimited for both standard and fibre optic broadband. For details of availability on older products, please see our Broadband product archive.

Plusnet tie you in to a contract because when Plusnet order an FTTC connection from BTw they are tied in to a long contract by BTw - that is the same for all ISPs.

There is a non-contract option on standard ADSL because there is no long contract imposed by BTw.

yep until ofcom lean on openreach to stop that anti competitive practice, plusnet will stay long term only, and for that reason I can udnerstand why the OP is been fussy, because its now a huge risk to join any FTTC isp due to the lack of a trial period and lack of a short term contract.

Call them again, advise that you are recording the call (record the call) and if you get the answer you want then sign up. If then you don't get what you want take them to court.

They might train their staff properly in future.

If their T&C's aren't to your liking after you sign then you should be able to cancel with no penalty.

In reply to a post by broadband66:

and if you get the answer you want then sign up.

I have yet to establish what answer the OP does want and why the Pro add-on is such a big deal.

In reply to a post by Oliver341:

In reply to a post by kasg:

Oh, I thought it did, I thought that was now the only thing it did, to the possible detriment of the customer's experience.

http://forums.thinkbroadband.com/plusnet/t/4218660-t...

Yes, OK, it changes the prioritisation rather than eliminating it. http://usergroup.plus.net/prodcomp1.php is always a good resource for this sort of thing.

Edited by kasg (Sat 09-Mar-13 15:35:13)

In reply to a post by Chrysalis:

yep until ofcom lean on openreach to stop that anti competitive practice, plusnet will stay long term only, and for that reason I can udnerstand why the OP is been fussy, because its now a huge risk to join any FTTC isp due to the lack of a trial period and lack of a short term contract.

Openreach currenlty require a 12mths min term from all isp's So why are the Likes of BT retail /Plusnet all pushing a 18mth min term, the MAX for a home connection should be 12mths and or there should be a longer cooling off period of say 1 mth for FTTC products, because of the fact DLM cannot be reset by the isp remotely or disabled ,and the fact that no one can know how FTTC will perform untill it's active on each line,Definatey there should be some safeguards in place that would allow customers out of any contract period penalty free if FTTC underperformed

Edited by tommy45 (Sat 09-Mar-13 15:16:44)

In reply to a post by tommy45:

Openreach currenlty require a 12mths min term from all isp's So why are the Likes of BT retail /Plusnet all pushing a 18mth min term

Probably so they can offer better deals. For instance, on Plusnet Unlimited Fibre Broadband only they charge £50 inc vat for installation, but they have to pay Openreach £96 (and it goes up again next month).

Yes £80.00 + vat is the current openreach charge for install of FTTC
Which will rise next month,

Probably so they can offer better deals

They would probably claim that is the case,
But they won't allow a customer to pay the full install fee and also the option of a 12mths contract instead will they,even though Openreach only require a 12mths term So these "better deals" are better for who in the end?

Edited by tommy45 (Sat 09-Mar-13 16:15:36)

In reply to a post by tommy45:

So these "better deals" are better for who in the end?

For the hundreds of thousands of customers who sign up, I suppose.

In reply to a post by broadband66:

Call them again, advise that you are recording the call (record the call) and if you get the answer you want then sign up. If then you don't get what you want take them to court.

They might train their staff properly in future.

If their T&C's aren't to your liking after you sign then you should be able to cancel with no penalty.

No way that is mental, I want clarification before I sign an 18mth contract.

Hi there,

You can only order the Pro add on once your account is active, however you can order it as soon as that is the case if you wish. I would say that makes it available to new customers?

However as others have posted here, if you have unlimited it basically removes the prioritisation that's on there (note that's prioritisation rather than throttling - so if you're streaming say and downloading from usenet the stream will take priority over the download, but if you're not streaming you'll get the download at line speed).

I'm sorry about the conflicting information and will pick this up with our call centre guys.

Hope that helps explain, and sorry if I've missed something.

In reply to a post by orbrey:

Hi there,

You can only order the Pro add on once your account is active, however you can order it as soon as that is the case if you wish. I would say that makes it available to new customers?

However as others have posted here, if you have unlimited it basically removes the prioritisation that's on there (note that's prioritisation rather than throttling - so if you're streaming say and downloading from usenet the stream will take priority over the download, but if you're not streaming you'll get the download at line speed).

I'm sorry about the conflicting information and will pick this up with our call centre guys.

Hope that helps explain, and sorry if I've missed something.

Fantastic! I just needed confirmation either way from someone official so I know exactly what I'm signing up for, 18mths is a long time. Plusnet is probably where I'm headed. Just don't move your call centres overseas.
Also can I get a static IP with fibre unlimited? I have one with O2 but we are shortly to become refugees they are giving us over to sky, thus my need to change ISP.

Yes
There is a £5 one off charge for it

In reply to a post by orbrey:

However as others have posted here, if you have unlimited it basically removes the prioritisation that's on there (note that's prioritisation rather than throttling - so if you're streaming say and downloading from usenet the stream will take priority over the download, but if you're not streaming you'll get the download at line speed).

That's an odd paragraph, the first half states there's no prioritisation, the second half states there is.

In reply to a post by Oliver341:

That's an odd paragraph, the first half states there's no prioritisation, the second half states there is.

No, "it" = "the Pro option"

In reply to a post by kasg:

No, "it" = "the Pro option"

Right. Although he said "if you have unlimited it basically removes the prioritisation that's on there", but Pro isn't applicable to just unlimited, it's applicable to all products.

In reply to a post by Oliver341:

"if you have unlimited then the pro option basically removes the prioritisation that's on unlimited",

In reply to a post by BatBoy:

In reply to a post by Oliver341:

"if you have unlimited then the pro option basically removes the prioritisation that's on unlimited",

Same is true for Essentials though, and all other products, not just Unlimited.

The sentence makes much more sense when changed to: "if you have pro it basically removes the prioritisation". Although that said it reduces it, not removes it.

But the OP is only interested in Unlimited.

In reply to a post by Oliver341:

That's an odd paragraph, the first half states there's no prioritisation, the second half states there is.

Not quite! Yes, the 1st half states Pro removes prioritisation while the 2nd half which is in brackets defines what is being removed, "prioritisation", as opposed to "throttling".

In reply to a post by XRaySpeX:

Not quite! Yes, the 1st half states Pro removes prioritisation while the 2nd half which is in brackets defines what is being removed, "prioritisation", as opposed to "throttling".

"it" is quite ambiguous in this instance, it is usually used to discuss the last thing which has been mentioned, in this instance "unlimited".

But the good news is that the OP understood it and is happy. I thought I understood it too until the clarifications arose

Hi annie96,

So it seems you've been provided several different answers, although it seems the forum users have been able to shed light into how our products actually work as jelv pointed out;

In reply to a post by jelv:

A line on an unlimited account will run up to line speed no matter what type of download you are running. Traffic prioritisation will kick in if the total bandwidth of everything you are trying to do simultaneously on all the connected devices is faster than your line speed. It will ensure that background activity like P2P is slowed just enough to let gaming, VoIP and streaming run at full speed. Traffic prioritisation is there to improve the overall experience.

The Pro add-on will elevate all activities up to gold or better. This may mean that the balance between background tasks and the time critical tasks could be upset.

My question to you is why you would want to spend £5 per month on something which won't increase the total throughput and runs a significant risk of degrading the overall experience?

The pro add-on would only be available to take up once your service is active, but it would/should be something that isn't needed on our unlimited product. If you feel it is needed then it can always be added.

Your line will always run at line speed, as previously linked too, this and this may help explain it, we use this simply to give the best customer experience we feel possible.

In reply to a post by chrispurvey:

Hi annie96,

So it seems you've been provided several different answers, although it seems the forum users have been able to shed light into how our products actually work

The pro add-on would only be available to take up once your service is active, but it would/should be something that isn't needed on our unlimited product. If you feel it is needed then it can always be added.

Yep, thanks very much, your colleague Orbrey gave me the official confirmation earlier. If I can have a static IP as well, I'll be well happy. Thanks again & to everyone that helped. I'm much happier now I know exactly where I stand.

Since cross-posting is naughty I would be grateful if you could take a look at this link please.

I think you will find it is on topic for this thread.

Yes you can have a static IP

Batboy did tell her to post here

Just a minor point annie .

The Pro option is contractually nothing to do with the 18-month main one. (Or the 12 month one on ADSLx, in case anyone wonders about that). So you can add Pro at any time, and remove it at a month's notice, if you want to see what difference it makes.

In reply to a post by donegal:

Since cross-posting is naughty I would be grateful if you could take a look at this link please.

I think you will find it is on topic for this thread.

You dopey apeth I told you to come and ask here. It's exactly the same subject as my thread so it isn't cross posting & it isn't naughty
Anyway they may not be willing to post in there if they are official reps so just ask the question here.

Edited by deleted (Mon 11-Mar-13 19:51:45)

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

Just a minor point annie .

The Pro option is contractually nothing to do with the 18-month main one. (Or the 12 month one on ADSLx, in case anyone wonders about that). So you can add Pro at any time, and remove it at a month's notice, if you want to see what difference it makes.

Thanks for that appreciated.

Post deleted by MrSaffron

Removed spam

I have just become a PlusNet Fibre Unlimited customer with the "Pro" add-on. I'm not sure if it helps, but you can only "activate" the add-on after your service has become active.

One of the sales reps (spoke to several in the course of the week just gone) said that the "Pro" add-on removed Traffic Management from the account entirely (Which isn't the case!)

Another more accurately told me that the "Traffic Priority Levels" were upgraded with the "Pro" add-on (NOT Disabled!), but that with "Fibre" you probably wouldn't notice the TM.

I also suggested that they work out a system where Pro add-on users could alter the TM to their own requirements [They prioritise VOIP and Gaming - neither of which I use on a regular basis, so if I had a choice I would make these low priority!] - they said they would pass it on to the management to consider.

I personally wouldn't mind paying a bit more than the current £24.99/mnth to have TM totally disabled!

Do you have any intention of trying it without - to see if it makes any difference?

That could save you £5 per month, and give useful feedback for everyone else .

I'm going to be trying that pro add one of the months coming, but i've only joined last monday so still on my 10 day training period of my fibre, and with PN having all these gateway problems, meaning you need to start juming gateways to get your speed back, evening times around 7pm, making high pings and dropping speeds very low, when your on a problematic gateway.
But last night i was on a good gateway i think, because speed was not dropping so much, and my ping stayed around 10, i hope the problem as been sorted.
What i have been reading on the community forum, this fault as been going on far too long.

In reply to a post by nuke_me:

I'm going to be trying that pro add one of the months coming, but i've only joined last monday so still on my 10 day training period of my fibre

Hint - there is no 10-day training period on fibre.

In reply to a post by peterhoult:

They prioritise VOIP and Gaming - neither of which I use on a regular basis

I cannot see any point at all in your paying for the Pro add-on if this is the case. Why do you want to disable traffic management? I don't get it.

In reply to a post by kasg:

I cannot see any point at all in your paying for the Pro add-on if this is the case. Why do you want to disable traffic management? I don't get it.

I've not had traffic management for years, first UK Online, then O2 and now Sky. From the way some people talk about PlusNet's traffic management, you'd think connections are literally destroyed without it.

Really not the case.

And from the way you talk about it one would think it does destroy the connection.

For the vast majority it is irrelevant, and for those who used to need Pro on the earlier products it is now likely to be a hindrance.

In reply to a post by Oliver341:

From the way some people talk about PlusNet's traffic management, you'd think connections are literally destroyed without it.

Really not the case.

But that's not the point, is it? You are paying £5 a month to have the traffic management removed/amended. For most people this is of no benefit and possible disbenefit. I still think people are confusing traffic management with throttling. There is no throttling on Plusnet Unlimited.

Edited by kasg (Sat 16-Mar-13 12:47:04)

But in order for some traffic to be prioritised, other traffic must be throttled?

In reply to a post by BatBoy:

But in order for some traffic to be prioritised, other traffic must be throttled?

Depending on your definition of "throttling" I suppose you could argue that, but if no traffic is prioritised then all traffic is "throttled", not just the non time-sensitive traffic - which would you prefer?

I prefer the truth.

In reply to a post by BatBoy:

I prefer the truth.

Well we all prefer the truth, are you suggesting someone is lying?

In reply to a post by kasg:

In reply to a post by BatBoy:

I prefer the truth.

Well we all prefer the truth, are you suggesting someone is lying?

The truth is that something doesn't smell right.

In reply to a post by BatBoy:

I prefer the truth.

I'm not quite sure if that means you don't fully understand Plusnet's traffic management strategy and you're still trying to get to grips with it, you're pretty sure you do understand it and your understanding is different from what has been said here by others, or you believe the explanation of it given by Plusnet is different from what it really does. Have I missed any possibilities?

Here's my version of the truth (bearing in mind the PN prioritisation scheme has no impact on upstream traffic apart from downstream ACKs affecting upstream flow control):

1. Traffic to the line is well below its capacity (IP profile):
There's virtually no difference at all between "standard" Plusnet traffic prioritisation, Pro prioritisation and no prioritisation. There might be some very slight instantaneous differences in latency between different traffic types, since traffic flows are statistical and there will be very short, instantaneous peaks in utilisation that require data buffering in PN's gateway router before the traffic can be shipped off down the line. But in practice, this effect will be imperceptible.

2. Traffic to the line is near (or at) its capacity:
With "standard" prioritisation, lower priority traffic types will see increased latency and high priority types will experience very little increase in latency. The change in latency increases with decreasing priority. With the Pro add on there are only 2 priority classes. Traffic in the lower class will experience increased latency, traffic in the higher class will be little affected. With no prioritisation, all traffic will see an increase in latency.

3. Traffic to the line exceeds its capacity:
As for case 2, but in addition some packets need to be dropped to match the throughput of the IP profile and to flow control the traffic sources. I guess this is what would be called "throttling". With "standard" prioritisation, some traffic in the lower priority classes will be dropped, that in the higher priority classes will not (unless the line is severely congested). The lower the priority, the more likely the traffic will be dropped. With the Pro add on, again there are only 2 classes, so the lower priority class traffic gets dropped first. With no prioritisation, traffic is dropped randomly, affecting all types of traffic fairly equally (or at least, in proportion to the volume of traffic of each type).

But... In practice the connection is rarely in one of these 3 "states" for long, but is switching between them continuously. All networks experience "throttling" when demand exceeds capacity for long enough. Assuming the same sized buffers, all networks will drop pretty much the same amount of traffic. Plusnet just tries to manage this in a way which probably helps the majority of its customers, by managing latency and "throttling" lower priority traffic in preference to higher priority traffic. And you get a choice of 2 priority schemes: standard and Pro. Standard offers finer grained control based on use of more priority levels (so is really more sophisticated than Pro!). If your traffic levels rarely exceed your line capacity, you're unlikely to see any difference between the 2 Plusnet schemes and "no prioritisation".

Anyway, I think you know all this already

In reply to a post by xtermy:

The truth is that something doesn't smell right.

A packet's been in a buffer too long and it's gone off?

What sort of something?

With half-price offers and cashback that some switching to PN have achieved (a saving of 150 was possible some weeks ago) then with the Openreach install and line rental fees, PN was still not "breaking even" in the first 12 months.

For the OP, the Pro add-on was very much a limited requirement for those who didn't want to see the previous traffic throttling measures. If I can find the web link, I will - but in essence, before the December launch of these Unlimited accounts, a few types of traffic were restricted (to 2 Mbps part of the day, and much lower during the 'home users' peak hours in the evenings). You are really unlikely to benefit from the Pro facility, and it might be worth highlighting the discussions you had read which suggested it would be worth considering (I assume they were regarding the 'Extra' or 'Premier' {?} accounts which were common in 2011/12.