Potential new user in ADSL Max area

I have a neighbour who is interested in getting broadband. We are in an ADSL Max area with no LLU. I've seen the offer of 12 months free broadband subject to the phone line being with Plusnet but after that it's £17.99 per month and is uncapped. She doesn't need this but I can't find any chepear, capped, deals. They all seem to be aimed at lucky fibre households.

The obvious answer is to take the 12 month deal and then negotiate/move at the end of it

Plusnet deals are typically 18 months minimum contract period. If that is the case, the user would have to spend some time at full price once the free period expires before they can negotiate.

why didn't you check - this one is 12 months

In reply to a post by Oldjim:

why didn't you check - this one is 12 months

The original poster did not give the minimum contract period of the deal, just the length of the free period.

Some deals, including some Plusnet deals, have a discount that does not last the entire minimum contract period. It's important to keep the minimum contract period in mind when considering your options.

The poster didn't but a simple check of the current offer would have shown it as being 12 months contract which has been the case for most of the ADSL offers recently
Of course you could just have looked at the sticky at the top of this board

Which says it expires today. The website says tomorrow night.

and I will lay odds there is another one on its way to the annoyance of existing users

Indeed.

I'm thinking that now I seem to have tracked my troubles with the service down to my router beginning to die, and my computer frequently going very slow or hanging to NetWorx, (which complicated my thought processes given the Plusnet troubles I don't think I suffer from to any worrying degree,) it may be time to seek a retention deal!

Until the end of 26th May - so yes tomorrow night

So the consensus is that there are no other capped ADSL Max tariffs available?

there are but not with such a good deal - look at the BT website

In reply to a post by LFa:

So the consensus is that there are no other capped ADSL Max tariffs available?

Some of the smaller/niche ISPs offer capped packages but the cost per month isn't cheap and they usually want you to take line rental from them as well.

For that type of exchange Plusnet and BT are where you will get the cheap BB deals for new customers, again with uptake of line rental from the ISP to get the lowest discount on BB (Plusnet).

In reply to a post by LFa:

So the consensus is that there are no other capped ADSL Max tariffs available?

Don't forget Pulse8 as well. Its capped at 8Mb download speed. They don't do the cashback and free initial months but their price with line rental is attractive and is unlimited as well.

Broadband does not seem to be dirt cheap any more. Perhaps that is a good thing ?

The high backhaul charges ISPs have to pay on BT Wholesale 20CN (ADSL Max) plus the dwindling number of potential users where 20CN is the only wholesale service available mean that these customers are not a focus for ISP competition.

Zen are in the process of putting prices up for their 20CN customers because of the backhaul charges they are incurring.

In reply to a post by David_W:

The high backhaul charges ISPs have to pay on BT Wholesale 20CN (ADSL Max) plus the dwindling number of potential users where 20CN is the only wholesale service available mean that these customers are not a focus for ISP competition.

Zen are in the process of putting prices up for their 20CN customers because of the backhaul charges they are incurring.

I thought that the prices for service from Market 1 exchanges were set artificially high to encourage ISPs to come in and offer LLU.
Now that fibre of some sort is widespread the expansion of LLU seems unlikely so perhaps there is a case (OFCOM ?) for removing the inflated Market 1 regulated price as it is effectively a BT monopoly and those on Market 1 20CN and 21CN exchanges are paying an unnecessarily inflated price.

Market 1 no longer exists - it's now Market A and Market B.

I haven't kept up with the regulatory issues surrounding end user port costs, but it may well be that the price differential for BT Wholesale end user ports on Market A exchanges has ceased to be a significant driver for unbundling the remaining 'BT Wholesale only' exchanges. The LLU providers are likely to have unbundled those exchanges they feel are commercially viable by now. Those exchanges remaining 'BT Wholesale only' are likely to be small, difficult to reach with fibre because of geographical issues, or both of these.

The future prospects for unbundling the remaining 'BT Wholesale only' exchanges have been further damaged by the understandable tendency of Openreach to connect FTTx in the footprint of a small exchange to a nearby larger exchange. This practice is why there are areas with FTTx but not 21CN ADSL2+. BT Wholesale may well struggle to justify providing 21CN ADSL2+ at a 20CN only exchange which doesn't parent its own FTTx.



20CN backhaul is an issue, as data usage continues to grow and there is only so much that can be done to expand capacity on this obsolescent network. 20CN backhaul is significantly more expensive than 21CN or wholesale LLU backhaul, which is the reason why some ISPs offer different products (or higher prices) in areas that are 20CN only.


There are others on these forums who have a far more detailed knowledge of the regulatory and commercial realities of unbundling than I do.