PlusNet reducing capacity?

I see that the main plus net site is currently lauding the fact that they have added a bit of capacity to their network.

"Those of you that haven�t been keeping abreast of our Service Status feed may have missed the posts we made last week about us increasing the amount of central capacity available on our 20CN and 21CN broadband platforms."


It wasn't so long ago that PlusNet reduced their capacity and extinguished a few pipes, so that they could squeeze a few extra punters onto the handful of remaining congested and shaped pipes.

As I remember - jelv took credit for bringing this reduction to the public's attention and I believe there was a kitz site that recorded this as well - I can't locate these references at the moment, though.

I searched long and hard but the reductions in bandwidth don't seem to have been things trumpeted on plus net's home page; this is in stark contrast to their publicity around the latest capacity upgrades. I'd be interested in being proven wrong!!

Does anyone have links to pages which recall plus net's decision to flex capacity downwards - I can't find 'em but I know it used to happen? It would be good to reflect on the extent to which plus net has either lit or extinguished pipes over the years. Plus net's front page doesn't currently reflect the previous cuts that were foisted upon users like me.

PS: I'm a very happy Be* customer at the moment, but I did endure PN for many years, and campaigned against their wrongdoings rather sooner than some of the other people on this board.

As far as I'm aware we've been increasing capacity for at least the last 3 years as required.

It wasn't so long ago that PlusNet reduced their capacity and extinguished a few pipes

If it did happen, it was over 3 years ago, possibly longer and many things have changed in Plusnet and the ISP marketplace over that period.

I don't have the links to the pages you've referenced, sorry.

Edited by chrisparr (Wed 05-May-10 08:56:46)

Not quite right.

The complaint was a failure to increase capacity at a rate to match the increase in user numbers - but you are going back some time.

I can't remember them ever actually decreasing capacity, although once or twice there has been some jiggling around which made it difficult to track.

Kitz used to track the capacity announcements here, but it hasn't been updated since the back end of last year.

Edited by jelv (Wed 05-May-10 08:56:06)

the amount of central capacity available on our 20CN and 21CN broadband platforms

I haven't read the full text where your quote comes from, but the words used could cause a little confusion.

On the 20CN platform Plusnet have a large number of BT Centrals, located at Plusnet premises, and all ADSL Max traffic is routed through those.

On the 21CN platform they will have MSILs instead of Centrals, located close to one or more of twenty BT Wholesale WBC/WBMC nodes around the country. All ADSL2+ traffic is routed through those.

In a way MSILs can be called "central" capacity, but in fact they are a totally different technology and not to be confused with "Central" capacity.

I wouldn't be surprised if there hasn't been some transfer of ADSL Max customers onto IPSC (IPStream Connect) as well. Though I am just surmising and no doubt a Plusnet rep will confirm or contradict. IPSC is where ADSL Max traffic is routed from the exchange to different MSIL(s) at up to ten of the 20 WBC/WBMC nodes.

See this page on my website for a fuller explanation.

So as more exchanges are WBC-enabled by BT Wholesale it is quite likely the BT Central count will be reduced, but the overall IPSC (20.5CN?) and WBC/WBMC capacity will be increased to more than compensate.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

the amount of central capacity available on our 20CN and 21CN broadband platforms

I haven't read the full text where your quote comes from, but the words used could cause a little confusion.

The full text is here.

On the 20CN platform Plusnet have a large number of BT Centrals, located at Plusnet premises, and all ADSL Max traffic is routed through those.

The centrals are terminated at our data centres yes, but then so are the hostlinks that serve our 21CN customers.

On the 21CN platform they will have MSILs instead of Centrals, located close to one or more of twenty BT Wholesale WBC/WBMC nodes around the country. All ADSL2+ traffic is routed through those.

We don't have any MSILs as we're using WBMC and *not* WBC, that's not to say that traffic doesn't still pass through MSILs though (they're just not ours). From the MSIL traffic is routed to the main WBC nodes and then via host links to our data centres. It's the bandwidth capacity of these host links that we increased. As an aside we don't just have ADSL2+ customers on the 21CN network, we have ADSL 1 customers too.

In a way MSILs can be called "central" capacity, but in fact they are a totally different technology and not to be confused with "Central" capacity.

The two shouldn't be confused but we try to avoid adding too much complexity to the capacity announcements. In all honestly they're probably too technically orientated as it is. It's probably better to think of the host links on 21CN when it comes to capacity increases and not the MSILs themselves.

I wouldn't be surprised if there hasn't been some transfer of ADSL Max customers onto IPSC (IPStream Connect) as well. Though I am just surmising and no doubt a Plusnet rep will confirm or contradict.

We ran a limited trial for a short period of time but there have been no mass migrations and we haven't any customers using IPSC at the moment. We have been migrating ADSL 1 customers across to the 21CN network where their exchange is enabled.

So as more exchanges are WBC-enabled by BT Wholesale it is quite likely the BT Central count will be reduced, but the overall IPSC (20.5CN?) and WBC/WBMC capacity will be increased to more than compensate.

We've done nothing but add capacity to both platforms for at least the last three years.

Thanks for that Bob .

Quite a complex routing setup!

I am a little bit baffled as to why a former disgruntled customer suddenly feels the need to return to campaign for us. I am sure most of us have given due consideration to our options (both with and without PN) and are happy to live with the decisions we have made.

Meldrew

In reply to a post by bpullen:

We've done nothing but add capacity to both platforms for at least the last three years.

Wasn't it three years ago that PlusNet secretly switched off the central known as 'PlusNet 1' -- reducing capacity by 20%?

In reply to a post by pr100:

In reply to a post by bpullen:

We've done nothing but add capacity to both platforms for at least the last three years.

Wasn't it three years ago that PlusNet secretly switched off the central known as 'PlusNet 1' -- reducing capacity by 20%?

Why do you think they did that?

It was over 3 years ago, and never accounted for anywhere near 20% but IIRC we did decommission some BT capacity when we had moved a large number of customers to alternative networks (with appropriate bandwidth allocated elsewhere).

As Bob says, we've consistently added bandwidth across all platforms for around 3 years.