Broadband Network Capacity Status: High Demand

Subject: Broadband Network Capacity - NEW

A new service status category has now been added to our website. This represents the current status of our broadband network capacity. Please see this page for more details:
http://www.plus.net/support/broadband/quality_broadband/load.shtml

The current broadband network capacity status is: High demand operation

Although we are operating within our designed capacity, we have seen an increase in general daytime and evening usage during the last 10 days. One factor of this is believed to be the current school holiday period. As a result the expected speeds as specified on our website may not be achieved at certain times. This will especially be the case for non interactive downloads such as P2P, Usenet and File-sharing websites. The packet drop graphs demonstrate the periods when download speeds may be most affected by this situation: http://www.plus.net/support/network_performance/broadband_bandwidth_usage.shtml

Our next 155Mb/s BT Central segment is due to be deployed during the week commencing 2nd July. We will also be performing planned maintenance work to our Broadband network platform, which will be announced via a separate alert in the next few days.

Kind Regards,

Bob Pullen
Customer Support

I have to say this is all new to me. Did anyone else know this was coming?

What's hilarious is that you click the link and it tells you that "High Demand Operation" kicks in "in situations where unusual events drive demand."

Examples of this are, apparently: "Live8, 9/11 or even severe weather that increases the number of customers online and downloading."

However, the email itself tells us that this 9/11-style event is actually... wait for it... the Whitsun school holidays! What's even more bizare is that this appears to have affected the network "during the last 10 days." To be honest, I thought that kids were back at school now (they certainly are near us) - would anyone care to differ? Whatever, I am shocked that a school holiday should cause such an unusual internet situation that it can be likened to the slaughter of thousands of innocents in one of the worst terrorist attrocities ever to befall mankind. Still, if plus net say this is the case, then this must be the case.

There is, of course, the second possibility:

"Another situation where we would move to 'high demand operation' would be if provisioned capacity was behind budgeted capacity for example where a BT central pipe delivery was behind schedule. "

Ahh... phew! It's not akin to a major terrorist alert, after all! It seems that plus net are just bleeding the capacity dry again.

Ho hum, and roll on 2nd July!

EDITED TO ADD:
In contrast to the amber alert status of a 9/11 event, a red alert "Disaster situation" is apparently one where plus net "lose a central pipe." Let's hope that doesn't happen any time soon.

Where would 7/7 feature on PN's scale, I wonder?

Edited by channel (Thu 07-Jun-07 01:33:17)

Typical of these forums - Plusnet announces a new pipe (all segments on the existing pipes are in use so it must be a new pipe) and instead of being welcomed, a way of criticising PN is found!

I welcome the new pipe (Roll on 2 July!)

Hopefully it will mean that, next Whitsun, we will not have to contemplate whether the school holidays were either:

a) an extraordinary event on the scale of 9/11; or,

b) the straw of user demand that broke the back of the camel of capacity when PN was caught out having oversold its bandwidth (again!)

Channel is a customer of Plusnet, an open minded and honest person and I would class as having integrity.

What he says has a fair point and like he says if 2 weeks of holidays can bring PN down, whats it going to be like in Summer?

Theres 6 or 7 weeks if I remember so they should be bringing 3 segments online?

Edited by soundsystem (Thu 07-Jun-07 04:31:46)

In reply to:

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What he says has a fair point and like he says if 2 weeks of holidays can bring PN down, whats it going to be like in Summer?

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Hi,

Let's keep things in perspective here. The network has not been brought down, speeds on lower priority protocols are merely slower to an extent where customers will notice the difference compared with the weeks/months previous. Surely it's a good idea to acknowledge this to stem the questions that may arise as a result?

Speeds across certain things like P2P and Usenet are not going to be consistent all the time. They will depend on network trends and factors that influence these. This is really what the new Service Status category is about. To provide some indication as to what should be expected.

On the other hand I think the wording on the high demand portal pages may be worth revisiting. There's a clear message that we need to communicate and if that message is being misconstrued then the new Service Status category isn't doing what we want it to.

Kind Rgds,

> On the other hand I think the wording on the high demand portal pages may be worth revisiting. There's a clear message that we need to communicate and if that message is being misconstrued then the new Service Status category isn't doing what we want it to.

Bob is right - I reckon a 9/11 style event could well send us Red here (perhaps more so if it was in this country, or was something that directly impacted our lives) and the descriptions need some work. During the last couple of weeks we have been seeing about 200Mb/s more 'Gold' (HTTP etc) traffic than ever before, and while there haven't been a huge amount of complaints (As Bob says, it's not like the network is crippled), Usenet and P2P speeds are obviously going to be affected by that.

Regards,

Ian

In reply to:

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Let's keep things in perspective here. The network has not been brought down, speeds on lower priority protocols are merely slower to an extent where customers will notice the difference compared with the weeks/months previous.

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And what does this say about your network where the already heavily restricted speeds can't be delivered and need to be reduced even further? How much slower can PN deliver before accepting that the capacity is overstretched?

In reply to:

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And what does this say about your network where the already heavily restricted speeds can't be delivered and need to be reduced even further? How much slower can PN deliver before accepting that the capacity is overstretched?

---

Hi,

Perhaps this is something else that hasn't been made too clear? We're talking mainly about off-peak speeds where customers became used to seeing close to full-line rate and have recently noticed a change.

I may have misinterpreted your post but it seems to contain reference to the advertised rate limits. During peak times these are still pretty much in line with what's published on the portal.

Kind Rgds,

"Let's keep things in perspective here."

Hi

Lest also be honest, yes you have brought 2 sections online, and have another 1 on order so to speak, I bet you are glad that BT bought you, as you know as well as me, there is no way the old Plusnet would have brought 3 sections online in 6 months.

It's great to see that BT do want to put things right for their customers and any improvements are welcome.