FTTC become more expensive?

Afternoon,

I'm soon approaching end of contract with BT for Infinity and i've started to browse market.

Interestingly it seems like the market has become less competitive and more noticeably more expensive over the last 12 months?

Once you factor in deals/freebies/cash back, you're looking at £350 a year for a 80/20 service on a line with no call packages.

I'm on a 42/9 line, and looking at £30 a month it's time where it maybe cheaper/flexible to buy a mobile broadband SIM? It's not helped by the fact that the big boys seem to have binned off the 40/10 product in exchange for the 40/2.

Cheers
Matt

I assume you are counting line rental in those figures and if so then that takes a pretty big chunk. There are ways to get cheaper packages but in some you take a hit with support levels or contention.

As far as 40/2 is concerned the only big ISP that has changed that recently are PlusNet. You could try giving BT a ring as they would probably give you a £10 per month discount if you agree to stay another year.

a mobile sim will only be value competitive with very low usage, as the big difference is the usage allowances.

I don't think Fibre Broadband prices have really increased... if anything I think there might be more deals around now than this time last year....

However providers such as Plusnet and TalkTalk (Who have always been known as value providers) have opted for 40/2 wholesale products to saves as much as they possibly can...

However this clearly works for them due to many households not being any the wiser of upload speeds or not requiring them.

I woud suggest asking BT for an offer on Infinity 1 or 2 depending on price differences I would proably go for the lower tier ad sacrafice a meg or 2's download speed.

If you have the time it might be worth calling a few of the larger ISP's they might do you a deal if it means winning a customer from one of their competitors.

Worst case is they say NO

Post deleted by MrSaffron

Edited by adslmax (Sun 27-Mar-16 13:15:28)

Referral begging is not allowed

Hmm, yes... he's been doing this in other threads too, by misinforming potential customers... not on!

You mean he continues to think that Plusnet is a worthwhile ISP to be with, the ISP he has been using for years now.

The fact you have a continuing crusade against Plusnet so frequently fall out with adslmax does not justify your accusation. You are just jumping on a totally irrelevant event to vilify him. I'm fairly sure he hasn't been soliciting referrals in other thread, (the reason for the deletion), either. To me, your post is "... not on!"

FYI I was with Plusnet on FTTC for eighteen months and left because of a spate of problems they were having, which didn't affect me but I was worried they might, and the messed up changes to the support system. As things seem to have stabilised on the support side; have improved on the broadband service side; and I'm now out of my minimum term with AAISP; I am seriously considering returning to Plusnet.

There is no discernable difference between the two services so far as my own experience has been.

Well, I have nothing against Plusnet, I just don't think they're the best provider for Fibre based services...

ADSLMax in another thread has recommended somebody join Plusnet as they 'don't throttle' unlike that person current provider, however this information is incorrect and in fact backwards...

This was made worse by ADSLMax when he posted saying 'avoid Sky.....XYZ" and then messaged me to say he's joining Sky...

The pattern I see is, ADSLMax encouraging people to join Plusnet, sometimes using inaccurate information, on rare occasions asking for new customers to use his name for referral....

Also, I thought you had issues with Plusnet.... I wouldn't of worked so hard to get out of Plusnet if there wasn't genuine problems 'at the time', So switching based on a worry seems a bit rash :L

I think its his manner RobertoS, we know he is staying with the isp due to the price, but he is making comments just based on referral bonuses.

I have little doubt that once plusnet finishes its user migration across different BTw platforms, they will have fixed their performance issues. Of course the other issues remain like their billing and support systems, but from a network view point they have took action which is a good thing. Like you said I think none of us hate them, but we moved out of frustration.

In reply to a post by mlmclaren:

ADSLMax in another thread has recommended somebody join Plusnet as they 'don't throttle' unlike that person current provider, however this information is incorrect and in fact backwards...

Not really. He's correct in that PN do not deliberately reduce the amount of data you can receive below what your connection is capable of receiving. If your line can handle 75Mb/s of data and there is 75Mb of data to send you then it will take one second for you to receive it all. That is what most people would consider to be 'unthrottled'.

What PN does have is a QoS system. This adjusts incoming data to ensure that the 75Mb of data you receive in that second is the most important 75Mb of data that is available. If you cause 100Mb of data to be sent to you in one second then 25Mb of it has to be thrown away or at least delayed. PN's systems just try to ensure that the 25Mb that gets left out is the less important stuff that can be retransmitted without bothering you too much. The result is that time critical services (VoIP, gaming etc) are less likely to suffer issues when your connection is at maximum usage.

So: PN do do traffic shaping. However the goal is not to limit data flow down your connection. The goal is to provide you with a better experience should your connection become 'overloaded'.

Yes I know that, however the point was that ADSLMax was implying that the current provider of the person in question throttles which they do not....

The other provider doesn't manage speeds at all, my point was that Plusnet does manage speeds...

Even if its just for optimization purposes they still intervene with downstream speeds where necessary the other provider does not, I wasn't getting into the nitty gritty the point was that he's trying to mislead someone with bad information.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

improved on the broadband service side;

FYI the problem is definitely not completely solved as there have been a couple of people (including myself) who have seen the multi-threading/single threading issue recently. However it does seem very much less common than it was. I've only seen it once this year and that was back in January. Also don't forget that PN only currently offer 40/2 or 80/20 and the latter only if your line is clearly able to handle the higher download.

But yeah:I've been with PN for over two years now and out of contract since August. I have no current plans to leave

In reply to a post by Chrysalis:

I think its his manner RobertoS, we know he is staying with the isp due to the price, but he is making comments just based on referral bonuses.

I have little doubt that once plusnet finishes its user migration across different BTw platforms, they will have fixed their performance issues. Of course the other issues remain like their billing and support systems, but from a network view point they have took action which is a good thing. Like you said I think none of us hate them, but we moved out of frustration.

+1

In reply to a post by mlmclaren:

Hmm, yes... he's been doing this in other threads too, by misinforming potential customers... not on!

Proof it, where is other threads?

My referral scheme is only from my family & friends of mine. Nothing is from any forum threads!

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

Referral begging is not allowed

Why not? Plusnet are allow it if I recommend people to join Plusnet, it part of referral scheme, nothing wrong with it!

I already have a witness, the thread where this began is enough proof and I never said that you had successfully got anybody from the forums to use your referral, just that you had tried.

Proof it, without it, u are waste of time spreading rubbish rumour talk! Stop accused me!

Edited by adslmax (Tue 29-Mar-16 19:34:59)

Why are ThinkBroadband going to let you make a profit from their forum's.... if they allowed that these forums would be full of SPAM

It's not a rumor if its true...

Have you had a post deleted here for trying to do it... YES

Did you give out inaccurate information in another thread to a Virgin Media customer claiming that Virgin throttled their downstream bandwidth when they do not... YES

PROOF:

In reply to a post by adslmax:

In reply to a post by watercooled:

How do you find single-threaded download speed?

Pretty nightmare to be honest! Downloading is awful throttled! Only getting between 500kbps and 1.8Mb/s compared to my Plusnet FTTC is downloading of 8.8Mb/s at all times.

Edited by mlmclaren (Tue 29-Mar-16 19:46:11)

Because those are the rules of the site.

You have been using our site for long enough to know the rules and if you do not then I suggest a visit to http://forums.thinkbroadband.com/faq_english.php#rules

In reply to a post by mabibby:

Interestingly it seems like the market has become less competitive and more noticeably more expensive over the last 12 months?

It's no less competitive. We all use it more, it's more expensive to deliver it to us, something has to give. Add that to the continuously lower revenue from calls and there you go.

This isn't a bad thing per se.