The thing I always remind people is that you shouldn't need to pay any more per month to switch from Plusnet Unlimited Fibre Extra to Full Fibre 74

In reply to a post by dect:

The thing I always remind people is that you shouldn't need to pay any more per month to switch from Plusnet Unlimited Fibre Extra to Full Fibre 74

Current pricing I'm offered:

Unlimited Fibre Extra: £24.99 per month, 18 month contract, £70 reward card, voice line included
Full Fibre 74: £24.99 per month, 24 month contract, no reward card, no voice service

So technically you don't need to "pay any more per month" - but they're not going out of their way to make FTTP attractive.

In reply to a post by candlerb:

In reply to a post by dect:

The thing I always remind people is that you shouldn't need to pay any more per month to switch from Plusnet Unlimited Fibre Extra to Full Fibre 74

Current pricing I'm offered:

Unlimited Fibre Extra: £24.99 per month, 18 month contract, £70 reward card, voice line included
Full Fibre 74: £24.99 per month, 24 month contract, no reward card, no voice service

So technically you don't need to "pay any more per month" - but they're not going out of their way to make FTTP attractive.

It is not just about price, as I have said before., it is also the hassle of having it installed.

plusnet says Flexible 24 month contracts, how can a 24 month contract be flexible?
So how fast is your £24 a month connection?

I went for a walk today to get some air and still nothing down the road, but the next road the barriers around the telegraph pole have gone, in the next street again, which is behind my house, I saw some people sitting next to a G.P.O manhole and a roll of cable by it. No idea if they were Open reach or zzoomm. The vans had Highway maintenance on them. So I presumed they were hired. I saw one go past here yesterday with a cherry picker on it.
so i don't know what is what now. I did notice that one of the other estate, the one where zzoomm first started, have now also got open reach fibre. Makes me laugh that Open reach all of a sudden decide to put fibre in our city when they have some competition, they are interested now.

To be honest if I was going for Fibre then I think I would go for zzoomm, that is once they sorted out all the problems, I have plenty of time, my Plusnet contract don't end until June next year, saying that, with the way this year is flying by, that will not be long Also open reach would have sorted out any problems as well by then,

Another problem is I don't want to go into a 2 year contract, 18 months is long enough, We will see, still got 11 months to make up my mind.

In reply to a post by candlerb:

Current pricing I'm offered:

Unlimited Fibre Extra: £24.99 per month, 18 month contract, £70 reward card, voice line included
Full Fibre 74: £24.99 per month, 24 month contract, no reward card, no voice service

So technically you don't need to "pay any more per month" - but they're not going out of their way to make FTTP attractive.

I just checked and I get the same offers here as well

As you say the monthly costs are the same but the overall costs taking into consideration the reward card and the length of contract the FTTC is cheaper than the FTTP

In reply to a post by dect:

As you say the monthly costs are the same but the overall costs taking into consideration the reward card and the length of contract the FTTC is cheaper than the FTTP

I presume that is BT? I would never go back to BT, ever, yeah I know Plusnet is owned by them.

I have just checked on BID and the road works that we were suppose to have for openreach on the 28th august have now been moved to 01/10/2022 - 03/10/2022.
I wonder if they will do something this time.

Edited by zyborg47 (Sun 04-Sep-22 22:17:21)

In reply to a post by zyborg47:

It is not just about price, as I have said before., it is also the hassle of having it installed.

I wouldn't worry too much about that. It's a one-time job, and you just have to be home for a couple of hours while they do it - although I realise that can be difficult to fit in, depending on your job.

The payback is: once you have FTTP your fault rate is likely to be much lower. Therefore, the chances of you having to take a day off work at short notice in future, while they fix your line which has gone dead or crackly, is much lower.

In reply to a post by zyborg47:

plusnet says Flexible 24 month contracts, how can a 24 month contract be flexible?

Marketing guff. 24 months is the *maximum* they are allowed on a residential service.

In reply to a post by zyborg47:

So how fast is your £24 a month connection?

My FTTC was with Plusnet, and its speed dropped over time. In the end it achieved only about 22M down / 4M up. Now I have FTTP with Cerberus, and it's 300/50 (but it's not £24 a month!)

Regardless of the provider, with FTTP the speed does not depend on distance from the cabinet or exchange or other variables like the weather. So if I'd bought an 80M/20M service, that's what I'd expect to get.

Aside: the fibre link actually runs at a fixed speed of 2.4Gbps down and 1.2Gbps up, shared between up to 32 subscribers. They apply rate limiting to your packets to *reduce* your overall speed to what you've paid for.

The usable throughput also depends on the level of congestion in the provider's backhaul network and interconnections to the Internet, and that may vary at busy times.

In reply to a post by zyborg47:

Another problem is I don't want to go into a 2 year contract, 18 months is long enough, We will see, still got 11 months to make up my mind.

It used to be that taking a long term contract was a good thing, as it gave you protection against price rises.

Sadly, now it's flipped the other way round; you're committed to paying for a service for 24 months, but at a price which isn't even known at the time you sign - and will very likely rise above the price that new subscribers pay.

It's really just a marketing ploy to make the headline price look lower. You sign the dotted line thinking that you're paying £X, when you're actually paying £X+Y over the full term.

There *are* providers out there with shorter contracts, if that's what matters to you - but you may pay more in the end.

Example: Aquiss will sell you 80/20 FTTP on a 12 month contract, where the first 6 months are reduced to £18, and then after that it's £36. After 18 months it's still cheaper. By the time you've had it for 20 months, you've paid about the same as the full 2 years on Plusnet - although that depends on how much the Plusnet mid-contract price rises are.

(Note that Aquiss don't provide you with a router. They also don't provide you with a voice service, but neither do Plusnet on FTTP).

In reply to a post by candlerb:

My FTTC was with Plusnet, and its speed dropped over time. In the end it achieved only about 22M down / 4M up. Now I have FTTP with Cerberus, and it's 300/50 (but it's not £24 a month!)

I was Plusnet, started 50/10 and when I left it was 40/2. If I could have ordered FTTP-on-Demand I probably would have at least got a quote, but not available in flats. So I ended up with unreliable Virgin Media. I will jump to real FTTP as soon as it is is available, either Openreach or an alt-net.

In reply to a post by candlerb:

I wouldn't worry too much about that. It's a one-time job, and you just have to be home for a couple of hours while they do it - although I realise that can be difficult to fit in, depending on your job.

Maybe, but still hassle, with people in here.

The payback is: once you have FTTP your fault rate is likely to be much lower. Therefore, the chances of you having to take a day off work at short notice in future, while they fix your line which has gone dead or crackly, is much lower.

But I don't have that problem, not since a few years ago and from what i have read over the last few months about Zzoomm, I think my connection is more reliable than theirs.

Marketing guff. 24 months is the *maximum* they are allowed on a residential service.

24 months is a long time, that is the problem.

My FTTC was with Plusnet, and its speed dropped over time. In the end it achieved only about 22M down / 4M up. Now I have FTTP with Cerberus, and it's 300/50 (but it's not £24 a month!)

I get around 37 Mb/s, sometimes more, I have not had any real speed problems over the years, maybe when things get congested, but that can happen on FTTH.
But i was on about speed on a £24 FTTP connection.

i don't need high speed and that is all the adverts say, super-duper high speed, which don't sell FTTH to me as I don't require this super-duper high speed.

Regardless of the provider, with FTTP the speed does not depend on distance from the cabinet or exchange or other variables like the weather. So if I'd bought an 80M/20M service, that's what I'd expect to get.

Believe it or not, I do know how FTTP work.

Aside: the fibre link actually runs at a fixed speed of 2.4Gbps down and 1.2Gbps up, shared between up to 32 subscribers. They apply rate limiting to your packets to *reduce* your overall speed to what you've paid for.

The usable throughput also depends on the level of congestion in the provider's backhaul network and interconnections to the Internet, and that may vary at busy times.

As i said above, congestion can happen on FTTH and FTTP.

It used to be that taking a long term contract was a good thing, as it gave you protection against price rises.

Sadly, now it's flipped the other way round; you're committed to paying for a service for 24 months, but at a price which isn't even known at the time you sign - and will very likely rise above the price that new subscribers pay.

It's really just a marketing ploy to make the headline price look lower. You sign the dotted line thinking that you're paying £X, when you're actually paying £X+Y over the full term.

This is the problem, my broadband increase in price every year, I know everything increase in price, certainly at the moment, but to increase it in the middle of a contract is wrong and should be stopped.

There *are* providers out there with shorter contracts, if that's what matters to you - but you may pay more in the end.

Example: Aquiss will sell you 80/20 FTTP on a 12 month contract, where the first 6 months are reduced to £18, and then after that it's £36. After 18 months it's still cheaper. By the time you've had it for 20 months, you've paid about the same as the full 2 years on Plusnet - although that depends on how much the Plusnet mid-contract price rises are.

I have seen some that have short contracts, but yes the prices are higher.
To be honest it is getting to the stage of me wondering why I have broadband, just more money to pay out, the problem now is that almost everything I do these days require some sort of internet connection, be it streaming video, music, reading as I need the net to download my books, but in theory I could tether my e-reader to my phone as the data is only small. then all the smart home devices.

(Note that Aquiss don't provide you with a router. They also don't provide you with a voice service, but neither do Plusnet on FTTP).

a router is not problem, they are cheap enough to be honest for a basic one. I could always use my old Tp-link if i needed to, it works fine, just the wi-fi is old, but it makes little difference to me as i have very little here that uses 5ghz anyway.

As I above, I have 11 months to make up my mind, what to do, either stay on FTTC, which is what I am likely to do, go to Zzoomm or if openreach FTTP is up here by then, which it should be, go with plusnet FTTP.

Even if Openreach do get FTTP up and running here before my contract have ended, I am not going to do anything until my contract ended. It is not 11 months now, it is 10 months.
As for voice, not bothered, i have a VoIP.

I'm sure by the time your existing contract comes to an end and if Zzoom and/or Openreach FTTP is available in your street you will have made a decision one way or the other.

Looking forward to what you decide to do, if anyone is running a book put me down for £10 on Plusnet FTTP

The alt net digging the other side of town have one price. £25/m for 900/900 FTTP. For 18 months and then £29 a month.