I was under the impression that the question was regarding broadband provides and broadband migrations. In which case my answer was correct.

To clarify, James seems to have confirmed my interpretation re-broadband fees. Going forwards plusnet will charge as follows:

New broadband provide - £30
BTW broadband migration - £30
LLU broadband migration - £30

I assume if its full LLU (eg. TT, some Tiscali, some Sky, Opal) then you have to get the phone line back to BT either as return-to-donor or as a new line and then its a new broadband provide.

You have the option to pay or defer the fee. If you defer the fee then after 12 months plusnet absorb the charge. If you leave before the 12 months is up then you just owe the fee. So as I see it its never worth pre-paying as that only makes PN more money if you do stay for the 12 months. The same applies to the their router if you take that.

Basically £10 of it is the old BTW migration charge and £20 compensates PN for the lost profit if you do migrate out early. Its a mild incentive to make you stay. I think the other benefit for such a mass market ISP is that its simple - always the same and to avoid the cost most punters will accept the 12 month contract option and not even realise that its not a severe lock in.

In my opinion what PN forget is if you are worried that the throttling may not suit you its another reason not to risk it. Their £30 is close to most LLU setup charges so the short term risks/costs balance out. Were I, say, tempted to try plusnet and only move on to a C&W reseller (eg. Xilo, Vivaciti, Aquiss) if I didn't get on with the throttling then now I pay an extra £20-£30 which would have paid 50-90% of my LLU setup charge!!