Unlimited Fibre Extra

Evening all
I am thinking of leaving Virgin as my 18 month contract has just finished in June & want to save some money, i was on there 100Mbs service which was great, but i never hardly use it now as i'm at work a lot so use there internet. i have a few questions please.

1 Is Plus Nets service reliable & stable as Virgins was rock solid.

2 i'm In London is there anyway to find out if theirs congestion in my exchange.

3 can i get away with using the modem/router that Plusnet supply.

4 is it an unlimited service.

Thanks for any help advice in advance.

Edited by jamesgooner (Tue 01-Jul-14 22:24:39)

The first thing to check is what speeds you might get. I assume your phone is on VM Cable as well as the broadband.

If it is, then take the Address option from this page. Do not use the postcode option!

If it isn't, then use the phone number entry on the page, as that is the best checker.

It would be best if you just copy and paste the table of results and the line immediately above the table, editing out the phone number or address of course .

The FTTC service from any supplier could be less solid than a good VM cable connection, but far better than a poor VM one. Having said that, with a good connection speed with Plusnet you should be fine, barring line faults that would involve Openreach. (With any FTTC ISP).

Plusnet phone support for normal user questions is fine. For hairy stuff the Community Forum or here is better - the same (excellent) Digital Care reps are on both, with the Community one taking priority of course.

On FTTC exchange congestion is highly unlikely. BT Wholesale capacity has been hugely increased throughout the network. On a few London exchanges there can be limited availability of FTTC due to high demand. The exchange given by checker I gave will be useful information.

For wired use the (optional) Plusnet router is fine, though it is an entry-level one wrt GUI facilities. The wireless can be a bit weak, depending on the building type and location wrt the user kit.

Yes, completely unlimited. No tricks or small print.

Thanks for that do have cable & phone service, i tried that link here is what i got.

BT BROADBAND AVAILABILITY CHECKER
on Exchange WALWORTH is served by Cabinet 52
Featured Products

Downstream Line Rate(Mbps)

Upstream Line Rate(Mbps)

Downstream Range(Mbps)

Availability Date

High Low High Low
FTTC Range A (Clean) 79.6 59.9 20 19.6 -- Available
FTTC Range B (Impacted) 70.3 41.3 20 13.9 -- Available

U better off with the cheaper product Unlimited Fibre 40/20 as it will save u money if u don't use internet much.

is that unlimited as well.

Yes Totally Unlimited! And a bonus u get upload 20Meg too.

thanks for that will have to look into price difference tomorrow & compare packages.

U can ring up retention team to get discount if u are bring phone line over to plusnet with unlimited fibre 40/20.

My parents had signed up 2 years contract with a discount of £2.49 every months for 2 years. .

Edited by adslmax (Tue 01-Jul-14 23:26:04)

Thanks just checked prices its only about £5 a month more for Unlimited Fibre Extra i thin id rather pay the extra £5 for the faster service, where is the retention's number please.

Of course that's up to u - your money. U will get £10.00 off for the first six months offer reduce your unlimited fibre extra from £19.99 to £9.99 only if u bring the phone line over to plusnet. The retention teams is on 08004320200.

As for me, I would choose fastest FTTC.

Here is mine: http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/3598373164

Edited by adslmax (Tue 01-Jul-14 23:35:10)

Thanks a lot for all your help, ill all Virgin tomorrow see what kind of deal they will give me, if i'm not happy with what they say ill cancel there BB /Telephone line.

Thanks again for everyone's help. will update tomorrow if i'm joining plusnet or sticking with Virgin.

No worry. I left Virgin Media as I get fed up with their price creep up twice a year, they don't care. As I used to be on 152/12. Pretty pointless as I only getting around 30Meg or less with poor congestion in my area and left virgin media. With Plusnet FTTC 80/20, it never let me down since activated last February. Very good overall.

Virgin Media did asked me to return Superhub 2 or otherwise they charged me £60 for not returned it.

Edited by adslmax (Tue 01-Jul-14 23:40:48)

my service has been great with them i just want to save some money as im on there VIP ackage, what area are you in, sounds like your happy with Plusnet, did you retutn the Superhub.

Yes I did return the superhub 2 and Virgin Media is not good in my area in Telford. Very high congestion because too many virgin media customers in my area when there is only ADSL2+ available. But, my FTTC went live last February and I took it straight away and never look elsewhere.

Glad you happy now with Plusnet,like i said i will update tomorrow, im sure Virgin wont do anything to keep me as a customer so fingers crossed ill be ok with Plusnet.

You mention 40/20 but then talk about price of the 80/20 service? Which is it?

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/isp/plusnet/package/14...

No need to ring retentions team to get the £10 off for six months deal it is a standard offer for NEW customers. Retentions is also meant for existing customers not totally new to Plusnet people

It was adsl who mention it. I was just saying for about £5 more im better off with 80/20, ill be ringing virgin when i wake up see what deals they will offer me as my 18 months is up, thanks for your help yesterday.


Standard User adslmax
(knowledge is power)
Tue 01-Jul-14 23:09:48
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Re: Unlimited Fibre Extra
[re: jamesgooner] [link to this post]
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U better off with the cheaper product Unlimited Fibre 40/20 as it will save u money if u don't use internet much.

Hello James, thought I'd put my 2p worth in, I'm not far from you, Camberwell, but am on Brixton exchange, have not had any problems with PN since switching from BT, like you to save money, due to crosstalk my download speed has dropped slightly from 80Mb/s to 78Mb/s, but I don't notice any difference, you'll actually be paying less than me at first, because they dropped the price, since being connected I have had no reason to contact support for anything.

Edited by The_Voyager (Wed 02-Jul-14 13:05:11)

Do you mean cross-talk (more uptake on your cabinet) has caused your sync speed to drop? Congestion can only affect throughput, and neither 80Mbps nor 78Mbps throughput is achievable on the 80/20 product from any BT Wholesale based ISP. The highest IP Profile is 77.4Mbps.

Okay, I'm getting old and forgetting the right words, my original connection speed was 79992 which has since dropped to 78200 over the year, so 80/78 was a near estimation.

BT IP Profile of 77.4Mb are the maximum that BT are limit on it. The Sync rate of 79992k is about right (The crosstalk will drop the max attainable rate only but your line probably stay at 79992k as you are saying u have FTTC over a year now)

Mine is start off attainable rate of 113,000k but now drop to 92,000k but still on sync rate of 79995k. I have FTTC for nearly 5 months now.

I was just worried by the word "congestion", as whenever anyone looking for an ISP sees that they run a mile. It's one of the few times the exact word matters.

Loss of sync speed due to increased takeup on the cabinet is normal (as you know but the poster may not), and affects all ISPs not just BT Wholesale ones. That's what all the talk of vectoring is about.

Keep wondering when vectoring will be implemented on my exchange, seeing as my router is now capable after the recent firmware upgrade. JOOI was that the one that we could opt out of or was that something else, i seem to remember opting out of something, due to my router not being capable at the time.

Does crosstalk affect the frequencies and thus the signal attenuation leading to a lower attainable rate? If the BT profile tracks the sync rate (which I guess can not be higher than the attainable rate) then it's perhaps only the BT profile (and the PN profile) that one should be concerned about in terms of throughput?

Can't remember what my attainable was, but was around 81,000+ now it is 78,512, I have noticed that if I do a IP reconnect about 08:00 I can sync back to 79992, but then a day or so later it will start to drop off until it gets back to 78200, so I'm just letting it stay at that now, seeing as I don't really notice any loss.

Crosstalk affects noise margins, not attenuation. Attenuation is a physical characteristic of the transfer medium and usually constant. Adding more cable/joints/deteriorating joints can change attenuation.

Even fibre optic cable suffers attenuation, just so low that it is ignored normally.

The sync can be a bit higher than the attainable, as the sync speed is fixed between (re)connections but the attainable fluctuates constantly as the noise levels change. (As referred to by MrSaffron).

At a sync, the noise from cross-talk basically causes fewer or zero bits to be assigned to the tones at the frequency of the noise, just as on ADSLx.

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

Crosstalk affects noise margins, not attenuation. Attenuation is a physical characteristic of the transfer medium and usually constant. Adding more cable/joints/deteriorating joints can change attenuation.

Even fibre optic cable suffers attenuation, just so low that it is ignored normally.

How is attenuation measured, is it measured across the full range of frequencies? Through differing mediums and conditions wont certain frequencies be more attenuated than others? For example ADSL2+ can have a higher attenuation than ADSLMAX (~3dB) possibly due to greater loop loss on the ADSL2+ frequencies?

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

The sync can be a bit higher than the attainable, as the sync speed is fixed between (re)connections but the attainable fluctuates constantly as the noise levels change. (As referred to by MrSaffron).

At a sync, the noise from cross-talk basically causes fewer or zero bits to be assigned to the tones at the frequency of the noise, just as on ADSLx.

OK I follow that: attainable can be variable but on a resync sync speed will be established according to the level of noise affecting the attainable at sync time.

Whilst connected cross talk noise will affect the bits assigned to the tones and not change the signal attenuation - the modem will receive all the signal frequencies, including cross talk noise indicated by a drop in SNRM, and not detect an increase in signal attenuation?

Two main ways in xDSL world

At a fixed frequency e.g. 300KHz or 600KHz or a calculated average across all the tones

Thanks a lot for your 2p worth lol, i am just going to ring Virgin this minute see what deal/deals they can do for me.

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

Two main ways in xDSL world

At a fixed frequency e.g. 300KHz or 600KHz or a calculated average across all the tones

Thanks Andrew

Update.
Just rang Virgin & have drooped my package from VIP to Big Kahuna, i was paying £122 a month now i'm paying £62-49p a month, cancelled Sports & Movies & have standard Phone package but keep my BB Package which now is 120MBS but will rise to 152MBS later this year, just want to thank everyone for there help & advice.

Regards
James

£62 a month still too much in my view! You could join sky tv full package for half price for one year as a new customer with free sky+ HD box and free sky go and take plusnet phone & fibre extra for another discount, job done. Virgin Media offer u no deal really because they just removed your packages & downgrade.

I pay Sky TV (full packages with HD) including sports / movies £31 a month (one year half price discount) with free of charge Sky+ HD box with wifi inbuilt and sky go for two devices on the move. No need sky broadband or phone.

Virgin Media is expecting another price rise later this year for some tv/phone and broadband

Edited by adslmax (Wed 02-Jul-14 17:02:55)

I'm 200m away from my cab and sync'd at 79995 for nearly 6 months. It has recently dropped to 77500 due to crosstalk.

It still blows away ADSL and 4G around here though.

Sky is increasing their charges as well.

In reply to a post by broadband66:

Sky is increasing their charges as well.

Sky sent me a letter saying I won't be affecting by this because I only joined Sky two months ago. The new customers and some customers will get a rises in September 1st. So, I am lucky I won't be affect until September 1st 2015.

Remember i called Virgin yesterday & downgraded my package, did a speedtest today & got this.

http://www.speedtest.net/result/3601715665.png