Market A exchange to Low Cost Area?

Just had an email from PlusNet to say that at the end of May I will be classed as being in a low-cost area, which is great as I will be saving £7.50 per month, however is this something happening to others on a Market A exchange?

I've used the dslchecker from BT but this still says Market A exchange and no other info. Any other ways to tell what's going on?

New house builds meaning more lines? Why spend hours trying to find this out? - just enjoy the lower prices!

Probably the exchange now has WBC.

I too have had the email from Plusnet saying that at the end of May I will be classed as being in a low-cost area. I'm on Nettlebed exchange (THNB).

Forgive my ignorance, RobertoS, but what's WBC?

Wholesale Broadband Connect?

BT wholesale showing Nettlebed as having WBC

BT wholesale showing Nettlebed as having WBC

Can you please give me the URL for that?

As timl says. It is the broadband part of 21CN. Initially it provided ADSL2+ from BT Wholesale. Nowadays all the FTTC stuff goes through WBC exchanges as well, though not necessarily the same exchange as your copper line.

A lot of Plusnet high cost exchanges were still 20CN, but BT Wholesale are upgrading those. 21CN wholesale prices are much lower than 20CN. Though Plusnet did continue to charge their higher price even when the upgrade happened .

I just put the exchange postcode (from SAMknows) into the BT Wholesale ADSL availability checker https://www.btwholesale.com/includes/adsl/adsl.htm?s...
,you could just use your phone number

Having put my telephone number into the BT Broadband Avilability Checker, I am indeed presented with a screen showing Nettlebed as having WBC. However it still says my line is on a Market A exchange. Should I expect this to change over the next few weeks?

No. Market categorisations change very rarely, and are determined by the number of suppliers that have their own equipment in the exchanges. (Except that Virgin Media cable also counts).

If there is just BT Wholesale and the ISPs that sell their WBC, then it is Market A. It needs there to be one of the ones on the samknows LLU list for the exchange for it to become Market B. If and when there is another Ofcom review. The last one was in 2014, the one before that 2010.

Changes in the suppliers between reviews don't alter the classification.

Few ISPs charge extra in Market A anyway. Plusnet did, possibly stiill do in some, and EE have or had an even stranger setup, where the exchanges that had Orange LLU are/were cheaper than all other exchanges.

Much the same with my exchange - Market 1. Now if I could get rid of having to pay any money at all for a phone I don't use, that really would be the icing on the cake but I'm certainly not going to sniff at the £7.50 a month saving.

Market 1 etc classifications disappeared in 2014. Now Market A and Market B, with large numbers of Market 1 becoming Market B. Samknows just hasn't bothered to update any of them.

Ofcom lists. PDF pages 59-70 inclusive.

I�ve had an email from Plusnet which said �where you live will now be classified as a low-cost area (it's currently a non low-cost area, which means you pay a bit extra for your broadband)� � which is good news. I will save £6.50 per month. I have 10 months left on a 24month contract with a discount of £x per month.

I contacted customer services to upgrade from unlimited fibre (40/10) to unlimited fibre extra (80/20). I was put through to a very aggressive and unhelpful agent in retentions who told me that, in order to upgrade, I�d have to take out a new contract and lose the £x per month discount. He offered me a smaller discount. This contradicted the information on my product change page which showed that, for £5 per month extra, I could upgrade for the remaining 10 months of my contract. There was no mention of losing my existing discount. Does anyone know who is right? I don�t want to upgrade online, only to have to unpick it if they try to take away my discount.

Phone the Customer Options Team again and you will probably speak to another COT agent who might offer a better deal if a target is to be reached by the month end.

The first time I tried this I got a far better deal when I phoned the second time however the following year I spoke to 3 COT agents who must have had the same script of a worse deal than the previous year so I migrated to JL BB who happened to have offers on at that time, the JL BB is provided by PN.

The thing is, though, that I don't want to sign up to another deal at this stage. I want to keep my options open in 10 months time.

Ah OK I see what you mean having read your post again, having never been in the position to upgrade the BB connection online in the Members Centre when with PN I can't comment from actual experience on how it would go for you.

I would try again and ask why the product change page was showing different information if they wanted to start a new contract. Maybe ask for a supervisor.

Thank you both for your suggestions. I bit the bullet and took out a new contract at the faster speed.
I got a very good deal indeed - was it because it was the last day of the month I wonder?

In reply to a post by LFa:

Thank you both for your suggestions. I bit the bullet and took out a new contract at the faster speed.
I got a very good deal indeed - was it because it was the last day of the month I wonder?

no, it'll be because BT puts it prices up in September and PN will do the same - so they try to sucker people in to make their stats look good before people leave En masse to get a better deal elsewhere thanks to the termination clause in the code of practice

Been there, done that with PN, twice..