Plusnet Wholesale...

An interesting setup...

http://www.btplusnetpartner.com/

I guess now we see where and why BT got Plusnet. They always had fingers in with some of the workplace stuff, so it finally comes to make sense...

I guess Plusnet has a long term future... of sorts...

Oh dear !!!!!

I thought Plusnet belonged to BT Retail?

This is a BT Wholesale linkup with Plusnet. We know there is no relationship whatsoever between BT Retail and BT Wholesale other than supplier and customer. That way there is equivalence with other ISPs using BT Wholesale.

OfCom says so.

But what if the web page said "With the new BT Wholesale joined at the hip with BT Retail Broadband"?

There is one consolation!

All those people who have been trialling this WBMC service for Plusnet can feel warm inside as they have contributed to the well-being of the BT Group and the circumvention of OfCom rules.

Edited by RobertoS (Fri 10-Apr-09 21:51:27)

The odd thing about that website is that it isn't a BT site and when you go into the presentation there is an alarming confidentiality clause.
The website is registered to
Registrant Company: Free Rein Ltd
Registrant Address: 2, Hadleigh Enterprise Park
Registrant Address: Crockatt Road
and this is what they did http://www.free-rein.net/case_studies/bt_business

Just gets smellier and smellier doesn't it?

And still doesn't explain a direct BT Wholesale promotion of a BT Retail business on the wholesale market.

Post deleted by paddyclark

was an announcement 19th December, just googled it from Plusnet User group

http://usergroup.plus.net/News_081218-BT%20Wholesale...

and another one from BT themselves 2 February

http://www.btplc.com/ClimateChange/News/ShowArticle....

prev post was a duplicate.

Edited by deleted (Sat 11-Apr-09 09:42:33)

http://www.btwholesale.com/

Its a banner on the front page... not exactly secretive...

Are the rules for business different.... I'm sure Andrew or Seb will know?

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

Just gets smellier and smellier doesn't it?

And still doesn't explain a direct BT Wholesale promotion of a BT Retail business on the wholesale market.

Seems quite straightforward to me, BT Wholesale needed a consumer facing CRM system / portal to offer virtual ISP services and chose Plusnet as a partner rather than BT Retail.

In reply to a post by 50pence:

Seems quite straightforward to me, BT Wholesale needed a consumer facing CRM system / portal to offer virtual ISP services and chose Plusnet as a partner rather than BT Retail.

You completely miss the point.

BT used to be one business.

Because of their size they were forced to split into three major chunks, Retail, Wholesale and Openreach. Supposedly strong Chinese walls were set up by OfCom to ensure their monopoly position was not abused at the retail and wholesale level as that would have stifled competition.

All relationships between them are supposed to be subject to "equivalence". Hence the ridiculous rigmarole that users like ourselves have to go through with line/broadband faults, tag removal and the like.

The inter-company pricing already seems to be a question of "negotiation" as though there were a normal commercial relationship between them. I wonder how close the prices BT Retail and Plusnet pay to Wholesale are to non-BT ISP prices?

"Ah but, can be said", look at the volume of business - so bigger discounts are reasonable". Sorry, no! In Retails's case that's the whole purpose of the rules, to stop them pricing out the competition, and in Plusnet's case they aren't that big.

Similarly I wonder what Plusnet are charging Wholesale for these "services"?

This looks to me like a "clever" circumnavigation of OfCom anti-monopoly rules. It isn't even being sold by Plusnet, in similar fashion to Post Office phone/broadband or Vodaphone, it is being sold by Wholesale. Odd that! Something to do with Marketing psychology and credibility?

Or looking at your post another way - this site looks like Wholesale selling Plusnet to the business community. Not the other way round as you suggest. The portal is Wholesale not Plusnet.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

You completely miss the point.

...

Or looking at your post another way - this site looks like Wholesale selling Plusnet to the business community. Not the other way round as you suggest. The portal is Wholesale not Plusnet.

I have not missed the point and I did not suggest the other way around.

Wholesale want to sell OEM BB, business to business, though need to offer a CRM system etc, Plusnet can provide the functionality and support for the latter though it will not be Plusnet branded.