Ah. Thanks but. I forgot you were already with them when you got FTTC and phone.

I should have asked when you signed up for fibre and phone? I don't think you had phone before did you?

I join Plusnet as ADSL (8Mbps in 2010 December) then later upgrade to ADSL2+ in 2011 August and then upgrade to FTTC (last February 2014) then join Plusnet a phone transfer from Zen two months ago (May 2014). I join Zen phone line from BT April until May 2014 as I was with BT as a line rental from 2007 until 2014.

Edited by adslmax (Fri 25-Jul-14 01:17:22)

Thanks.

That gives me some arithmetic to do, but probably won't give me the result I was hoping for.

Not tonight!

I think you are absolutely right.

Plusnet will not offer me any sort of broadband deal because my line rental is with Primus.

If I moved my line rental to PN I could get a broadband deal but the line rental would cost another £9 which would effectively negate any overall saving plus the deal would only last for 12 months and then I would be worse off than now and dependent on negotiating another deal.

Looking on the positive side at least Plusnet do offer a broadband only service which many other ISPs do not. Its just annoying that they play silly games with respective charges - which I suppose is all the marketing types have to fill their working day.

A shame PN can't seem to offer a "no-nonsense" service like they did before BT days! (That [censored] with the blender annoys me!)

In reply to a post by therioman:

The "line rental" is for the copper circuit ...

...

(a) Apart from administrative efforts, paying someone line rental is mandatory for any BT Wholesale based broadband services, and the logic is that this pays for the upkeep of that copper line network.

So surely with so many FFTC enabled cabinets, the amount of copper installed and in use is reducing, a fibre should be more reliable, and so the maintenance costs are reducing. So line rental is reducing I would hope.

An FTTC cabinet adds to the amount of copper in use. The tie cables between it and the PCP.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

An FTTC cabinet adds to the amount of copper in use. The tie cables between it and the PCP.

But if you aren't using the landline, the copper between the cabinet and the exchange is not 'in use'. At least, as far as I know if that copper was completely removed the broadband would still work fine.

I don't know how the copper from exchange to cabinet works. Is there a separate copper connection between cabinet and exchange for each line connected to the cabinet, or is there more logic in the cabinet to reduce the need for dedicated cables?

Ah, I see what you are wrongly assuming .

Your phone line to the exchange remains as is, and I expect the vast majority of the population still use it.

A basic guide to FTTC on this page.

Yes, the user line from PCP to the exchange is a dedicated pair for each number connected.

In reply to a post by godsell4:

In reply to a post by therioman:

The "line rental" is for the copper circuit ...

...

(a) Apart from administrative efforts, paying someone line rental is mandatory for any BT Wholesale based broadband services, and the logic is that this pays for the upkeep of that copper line network.

So surely with so many FFTC enabled cabinets, the amount of copper installed and in use is reducing, a fibre should be more reliable, and so the maintenance costs are reducing. So line rental is reducing I would hope.

The copper network still exists and runs just as far (the fibre ends at the cabinet, so the bit to your premises is still copper, the but from the cabinet to the exchange or the voice side is still copper too).

I suspect the "fibre network" also needs maintenance (ever picked up a bill for repair of damaged fibre), or the electricity for the extra cabinets, etc etc.

I think strictly speaking the correct term is that it pays for the "local access network" (eg the "local loop") - but it isn't really the point - the wholesale price for line rental is not rising massively and has not done so. The retail price is going up considerably at an alarming rate.

In reply to a post by StephenTodd:

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

An FTTC cabinet adds to the amount of copper in use. The tie cables between it and the PCP.

But if you aren't using the landline, the copper between the cabinet and the exchange is not 'in use'. At least, as far as I know if that copper was completely removed the broadband would still work fine.

I don't know how the copper from exchange to cabinet works. Is there a separate copper connection between cabinet and exchange for each line connected to the cabinet, or is there more logic in the cabinet to reduce the need for dedicated cables?

You can indeed, in theory do without the copper from PCP to Exchange for FTTC broadband yes. There is no technical requirement for it to deliver the FTTC bit.