Plusnet or MAAF????

As a MAAF customer for the past couple of years, my current deal is coming to an end on 3/6/09. I have been looking around other ISPs to see if I can get a better deal. I have been paying £9.65 p/m on my current deal.
I see that Plusnet are offering Broadband 10GB instead of MAAF 5GB for only £5.99 p/m for 18 months as I am in one of their low cost areas, otherwise it would have been £5.99 for the first 3 months then £11.99.
This offer seems excellent and I am very tempted to take this offer up.
I can't say that I have had any major problems with MAAF, and from what I have read Plusnet seems ust as good and for that price I can't really go wrong.
Any feedback on Plusnet v MAAF.

MAAF belong to Plusnet, who belong to BT Retail. I believe quite a few MAAF customers are actually routed over the Plusnet infrastructure now, although perhaps MAAF still have some of their own.

Plusnet should be fine as long as you are aware of the throttling policy and are happy with it. I don't know what MAAF do.

What exchange are you on?

The telephone exchange is Hetton-le-hole with an estimated line speed of 0.5MB.
Yes I was aware that MAAF and Plusnet are effectively the same company. I really don't know what effect the throttling policy will have on me if I move.
MAAF did contact me a short time ago to try and get me to stay and they did offer me the 20GB allowance package for £10 p/m, I never go over the £5GB allowance now so that won't really benefit me , but yes he did mention too that if I was aware that at peak times downloads would be slower on Plusnet and if I was happy with that then I might be better off going with them.

Estimates like that are meaningless once you are connected. We can tell pretty accurately what your particular line is capable of once you are on ADSL.

By the sound of it you are on a fixed 512kbps line? Whether or not, if you post your full line stats from your router/modem we can see exactly how good or bad your line is.

if you don't know how to get the stats have a look here. Once we know the speed you could get we can tell whether the Plusnet throttling would mess you up or whether a package change at MAAF might be better.

The expected speeds can be compared on here. The traffic shaping policies on MAAF are meant to be the same as Legacy BBYW Pro and Legacy PAYG, so if you compare the Value product to one of those you should see what you can expect. I think you should be able to migrate between MAAF and Plusnet without a MAC, but someone would need to confirm that.

I think what you do is sign up for a Plusnet pay as you go dial up account, add you billing details (Credit Card details or Direct Debit details), and then raise a ticket and get them to move you over. At some point you would need to change your username and password in your router.

Phil

I'm in a similar situation and was wondering whether, seeing as they are both owned by BT these days, I could keep my existing Madasafish email address but transfer over to a Plusnet broadband package. Does anyone know if this is possible?