BT - out, PlusNet - in?

I obtained a MAC from BT (while still in-contract) as I feel that their latest price rises are unreasonable. I'm currently on Phone + Infinity 2, typically getting about 60Mbps. The service has been generally satisfactory since it was commissioned in April, although getting there was a nightmare owing to BT's lamentable customer "service". That's one of the reasons I'm contemplating moving; the thought of dealing with BT's customer disservice, if I had problems in the future, fills me with dread but I must say that, at a technical level, the product seems mostly OK. I'd be moving both Phone and Internet provision.

So, questions.

1. Will a move to Plusnet make any real-world difference in performance or reliability (the latter being paramount for me, with prompt repair in the event of a fault)?

2. How much infrastructure do the two companies share, and how far down the line do the two part company, if at all?

3. Anything I ought to consider but have forgotten? I use an Openreach modem and have no desire to change any hardware. I seek as near-transparent a transition as can be achieved.

Thanks.

Edited by deleted (Tue 23-Sep-14 20:03:20)

Your line problem move from BT to Plusnet will be the same. Unless u try this for one month free to fix your broadband issues here: http://www.aa.net.uk/broadband-trial.html

Edited by adslmax (Tue 23-Sep-14 20:05:05)

In reply to a post by adslmax:

Your line problem?
your broadband issues?

I currently have no issues. It's merely the thought of having to deal with BT if I had!

Reliability is generally high, but there have been a few issues in the last 2-3 months when they have introduced extra kit.

The infrastructure is the same until Plusnet take a standard WBC feed from BT Wholesale. Which nearly all ISPs do, then it goes through their own routing and peering systems out to the internet. Exceptions are BT Retail itself and EE.

Your OR modem just carries on. Your Home Hub can almost certainly also be used but I don't know the detail. Which one is it? It's worth taking the "free" Plusnet router as a backup.

You might like to take a look at these Plusnet graphs. Each "Portal" is a WBC feed, and the "Gateways" are entry points from those to the Plusnet routers.

I'm due to switch the day after tomorrow and I'll be reporting how it goes. Obviously I won't be able to comment on long term reliability, and I hope I won't be able to comment on any other problems. The small amount of interaction I have had with Plusnet so far has been more efficiently handled than the small amount I have needed from BT over a couple of years.

I'm planning to continue with the HomeHub (3b) at least initially; I'll probably try out the Plusnet router at some point.

I already know I won't be getting the same download speeds as I am going from Infinity 2 80/20 to Plusnet 40/20: actual download sync right now around 65Mbps.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

Your OR modem just carries on. Your Home Hub can almost certainly also be used but I don't know the detail. Which one is it? It's worth taking the "free" Plusnet router as a backup.

Thanks for that... I'm not worried about the modem and router kit: I don't, in fact, have a home hub (other than an HH5, never used) but I was purely interested in the viability of the modem, which you have confirmed. As Plusnet do not appear to 'force' customers to use a Plusnet-supplied device, it's safe to assume they have a fairly sensible policy in the event of line faults.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

Reliability is generally high, but there have been a few issues in the last 2-3 months when they have introduced extra kit.

Do these appear to be transient 'teething' problems or are there signs that things are becoming f***ed up as they pull-in increasing volumes of business. How quickly did they resolve the network issues after punters started complaining?

It appears that BT Retail customers are deserting in droves, largely over the belief that they are, in effect, subsidizing BT's effort to become a player in the world of television sport. As a matter of unrelated interest, the BT drone to whom I spoke was adamant that the television business is self-supporting (from advertising etc.) and not in any way subsidized by broadband customers who didn't use the service.

By the way, as I'd be moving both phone and broadband to Plusnet, I'm interested in comments on their phone service too!

Edited by deleted (Wed 24-Sep-14 10:32:12)

In reply to a post by PlutoX:

It appears that BT Retail customers are deserting in droves, largely over the belief that they are, in effect, subsidizing BT's effort to become a player in the world of television sport. As a matter of unrelated interest, the BT drone to whom I spoke was adamant that the television business is self-supporting (from advertising etc.) and not in any way subsidized by broadband customers who didn't use the service.

Its good they've noticed. None of that side of BT's business is regulated, so if they choose to slightly increase all broadband prices to cover the expenditure into TV sport, they can.

The beauty of the free market is that we are free to move to another provider with lower prices

I dont think they resolved, the gateways that crashed now have less user's on, plusnet are not aggressively loading them up like before which suggests they dont have the confidence to do so.

As a result the older gateways are more loaded and I am seeing congestion on those gateway's having to hop around.

This new CEO that plusnet has I suspect he is cutting costs e.g. the digital care team used to be a separate pool of staff, now its been absorbed by the complaints team. We are as a result of that seeing less activity by plusnet staff on forums etc. Noticeably as well waiting times for tickets/calls are not improving either and if anything are getting worse.


With plusnet actually hitting sessions limits of the kit they use is a worrying sign as well, that something I last heard about years ago when they were known for really high contention ratios.

Edited by Chrysalis (Thu 25-Sep-14 01:39:36)

I just completed the BT->Plusnet switch this morning.

Slight hiccup as the BT disconnection worked smoothly, but somehow the Plusnet activation didn't happen properly.
I rang service (20 min wait) and they sorted it during the call (about 5 to 10 mins?).

Using the Plusnet router right now as I switched around when the connection did't work; I'll probably switch back to HH3.

Basically things went as expected apart from that:
1) The modem is showing an unbroken DSL level connection; from BT working to nothing to Plusnet working.
2) Plusnet download speed is lower as I went from Infinity 2 to the Plusnet 40/20 package; around 38Mbps as I expected.
3) Upload is the same at 18.5Mbps
4) Ping is improved; bbc ping down from 29ms to 19ms. BT had absurd routing for everything Winchester->Sheffield->London which added around 9ms.

I hope that interleaving will be removed soon (DLM put it in last weekend), if so I expect bbc ping to reduce to around 10ms. I have seen before that 8ms delay on the stats seems to add marginally above 8ms to ping times.

Browsing feels marginally faster on Plusnet so far; but I suspect a placebo effect rather than anything real!

Edited by StephenTodd (Fri 26-Sep-14 11:57:18)

In reply to a post by PlutoX:

By the way, as I'd be moving both phone and broadband to Plusnet, I'm interested in comments on their phone service too!

I've been with Plusnet for BB (FTTC) and phone since January. The phone has just worked. Don't think there has been any problem with it (nor the BB for that matter)