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alexwaddell
1) Plusnet staff, assets and customers transfer to new operator, the Plusnet brand disappears.
In this scenario the staff should be protected under TUPE regulation (http://www.cipd.co.uk/subjects/emplaw/tupe/tupe.htm?IsSrchRes=1), assets are transferred (no issues there), and customers transfer to new packages under a t&c change (30 day notice of course).
Good things about this scenario are that as customers we should benefit from a more resilient network, staff remaion but are supplemented by other experienced staff who know how to run a much larger ISP, customer services scaled to handle the volume of customers.
A bad thing that could of course come out of this is that we have increased costs as customers if they decide to throw away our existing packages.
2) Plusnet remains an independent brand but uses the network and customer services from the new operator.
Bad things about this are that staff could well be affected, as could the "added value" extras we get as part of our packages.
Good things are that essentially as customers we get a better service.
3) Plusnet remains as is, BT use them as a test bed for new technologies and then scale up for their own customers.
I cannot see this happening - BT Labs at Ad Astral park essentially do this already so why setup another one?
My view
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I think that if BT are to takeover Plusnet, they will go for Option 1, injecting much needed cash into the Plusnet network and platform but move customer services into BT-land. At the same time they will reduce the techiness of Plusnet so that it is more "consumer friendly" (let's be honest, large numbers of Plusnet customers simply do not care about the detail - all they want is something as reliable as the phone/water/electricity).
They will then rollout the Plusnet workplace solution to their existing BT broadband customers as this will reduce their cost-per-user (remember BT still have �14bn debt to pay off so every penny counts). Where I work we use the workplace solution and it's damn good too - the Plusnet-BT integration piece is already quite far down the track as far as I can see.
Plusnet have invested heavily in the Ellacoya solution. While there is debate as to whether or not BT or Plusnet are better at running it, you cannot doubt that Plusnet are using far more of the product that just about anyone else in the UK today.
BT want (or rather need) to be in that space - their BT vision product is heavily dependent on QoS from customer to host. The recent changes in BT broadband to enable QoS fit brilliantly with the Ellacoya solution - BT are hosting the content for their BT vision solution so they can give guaranteed service to customers.
They are also hemorrhaging money on bandwidth, since OfCom ensured that BT Retail and BT Wholesale have to operate independently, BT Retail have to pay just as much for bandwidth as other ISPs - as they have more customers than anyone else you can see where the money is going...
BT could of course simply poach the techies from Plusnet, however that would still require huge investment in infrastructure to make it fit with their systems. To me it makes sense for BT to invest in upscaling Plusnet, then just migrate their existing customers onto the Plusnet solution instead.
Anyways, food for thought....
Regards,
Alex.
Plusnet 8mb PAYG Broadband - bring it on!
Linksys WAG354G - do it wirelessly!
Linksys WAG354G - do it wirelessly!