Question about Plusnet exchange presence

Hi

can anyone tell me how Plusnet's exchange presence works, where they can and can not offer the 'cheaper' deals?

as plusnet dont appear to have any LLu (unless samknows doesnt list them) then I would liike to know how we know which exchanges they operate in where they offer cheaper deals? I assumed that it might be WBC enabled exchanges...is this correct?

I know someone who is with Plusnet getting 18Mbps (ADSL2+ so is on WBC and his exchange is WBC enabled) and is on a 60Gb limit, he needed unlimited but Plusnet would not give him the cheaper unlimited deal saying he is in a 'Market 1' exchange and does not qualify? and only offered £1 month off? this person has now signed up with BT unlimited for more money than what unlimited plusnet is because of what the rep told him?

How exactly does Plusnet presence work? what makes an exchange 'plusnet enabled' and how can we tell?


thanks

Edited by paulb100 (Tue 12-Feb-13 00:17:30)

Evening,

It's all based on OFCOM's classification of the exchange in question.

http://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange_search

Search for your exchange in SamKnows, it will probably confirm as you've been told that you are a "Market 1" exchange which means that BT Wholesale is the sole provider of broadband services. In other words, you don't have any other LLU providers on your exchange and therefore PlusNET don't need to be as competitive with their pricing, because their only competition is other BT WBC offerings.

As LLU providers jump onto your exchange (Sky/TalkTalk) your exchange becomes a Market 2/3/4 exchange and therefore PlusNET offer their most competitive pricing.

Cheers
Matt

In reply to a post by mabibby:

As LLU providers jump onto your exchange (Sky/TalkTalk) your exchange becomes a Market 2/3/4 exchange

Not automatically or continuously. It requires Ofcom classification and this is only done occasionally.

There is no Market 4; only Hull Area.

In reply to a post by mabibby:

....As LLU providers jump onto your exchange (Sky/TalkTalk) your exchange becomes a Market 2/3/4 exchange and therefore PlusNET offer their most competitive pricing.
Cheers
Matt

Don't hold your breath, if you on a small or rural exchange it may never happen...!

However, watch out for BT's half price and/or other offers, PlusNet will match them, just do it every 12 months and you can save quite bit.

Regards,
Martin

PlusNET don't need to be as competitive with their pricing, because their only competition is other BT WBC offerings.

This is a tad unfair on Plusnet. The reason they can charge less on Market2+ exchanges is because BT Wholesale are allowed (by Ofcom) to charge less to Plusnet on those exchanges. Plusnet, unlike other ISPs, are passing that lower pricing onto the customer. It is not that Plusnet don't need to compete so much it is that the costs to them of provisioning on Market 1 are higher.

Other ISPs charge the same no matter what it costs them so those on the Market 2+ exchanges could be thought of as subsidising the Market 1 exchanges.

A lot of people deride Plusnet for their pricing whereas they are actually basing it on what it costs them - everyone else's pricing model could be considered unfair because they don't pass on the wholesale cost savings.

What people consistently miss is that where BT Wholesale is allowed different pricing, it was also given freedom to negotiate deals with service providers

Plusnet may have a better discount that some other providers, particularly due to the volume of customers compared to everyone else apart from BT Retail

In reply to a post by mabibby:

It's all based on OFCOM's classification of the exchange in question.

Search for your exchange in SamKnows, it will probably confirm as you've been told that you are a "Market 1" exchange which means that BT Wholesale is the sole provider of broadband services.

For the reasons that XRaySpeX explained, the bold & underlined part there is no longer necessarily true.

Many exchanges that were not LLU'ed at the time of the last classification (Decemer 2010) have since got TalkTalk and/or Sky, and some that had Orange no longer have it.

In 99.9% of cases the classification given by samknows is correct, whatever the LLU list shows.

The next revision is not due until March 2014, with the classification rules likely to change at the same time.

Actually I did miss that - didn't realise it was the case. Would be interesting if a BT owned company gets a preferential discount from a BT owned company...

They don't because it would be illegal

@RobertsS:

I'm very much in doubt that SamKnows is 99.9% correct. I know of at least 5 people in 3 different towns around here that are connected to exchanges with 2 or more LLU providers but SamKnows still show them as Market 1. Exchanges in question have been LLU'd for well over a year.

My own town (Tenby) has both Sky and TalkTalk LLU but still says Market 1 and has done since the last LLU was installed in October.

Approx. number of lines is well off too - Openreach Engineer told me a while back that our Exchange serves well over 7k lines but the SamKnows page shows just 3,240.

Edited by WelshWArrior (Tue 12-Feb-13 11:21:54)