FTTC Trial pricing - not competitive?

[#1]

Its wise for PN to  commercially  trial the product.
BT are  aready "concerned" about take up rates in certain areas:
This release is from from Mr Hall  Openreach NGA Deployment Director for Wales
"Openreach has spent millions of pounds to ensure that Cardiff boasts some of the best access to modern broadband technology in the UK, but residents in some enabled areas of Cardiff are proving slow to adopt the service"
http://www.btplc.com/News/Articles/Showarticle.cfm?ArticleID=28D93580-39E6-4C97-A36C-31571CBF9188

[#2]

Yeah, I saw that, I think that has a lot to do with what's available in that area though.
For example, 6 months ago there was no FTTC there, but Virgin were selling 50Mb cable products, so many people in those areas will be in a contract with Virgin (as 50Mb vs 8Mb with every other provider will have given them a fair bit of market share I reckon).
I think when they start supplying FTTC where 8Mb was previous fastest there'll be a lot of gain.

[#3]

One exchange to look at would be Leedstown, should be active today, no LLU suppliers just BT, another is Three Waters (obviously I have no idea if PN has customers from these two towns) which again, no LLU (Market 1 areas).  The uptake on these exchanges should be incredibly high, exchanges with LLU or Cable, not so much.  This wont stop BT giving priority to towns which already have LLU suppliers and the like!

[#4]

Thanks Mand for your comments.
I do hope that PlusNet commercially launch FTTC soon, and that it is competitive. I still think it was fair of me to say its not competitive at the moment, given that it does cost more than BT Infinity and has a data cap that Infinity doesn't, and that the service is not production-ready. So the only way it can go to be competitive is if it matches BT for features - especially that data cap, and is at least a bit cheaper.
I will give it a few weeks after my exchange goes live before making a decision; hopefully PlusNet will launch a good package!

[#5]

http://www.utvinternet.com/broadband/fibre.aspx
Thought this link might provide a little insight into what others are offering piggybacking off BT's Fibre service.

[#6]

A few more packages described here: GoogleDocs spreadsheet
The details show that the PN trial package doesn't compare too badly with anything else really, when added to "Extra" at Market 3 rates (and most fibre exchanges are market 3 so far).  The cheaper & matching packages all combine lower usage allowances and a 2Mb uplink speed. Once you bear in mind that it includes the router, has no connection charge, and is still only a 1 month notice period.
I too missed the original cut-off date, but it was even more galling: all our surrounding cabinets went live in December, but ours seemingly had problems with power. It has taken 2 more sets of roadworks, and 3 months, for our cabinet to get switched on.
I predict that the April package shuffle will have commercial FTTC packages, and (from earlier comments) will either be cheaper per month, or at least have cheaper variants - I doubt that all the current benefits will stay intact at the lower prices. But that's merely a guess.

[#7]

And speak of the devil, up comes this: Launch of official fibre packages from April 19th. Strange date to pick though...

[#8]

Quote

18-month contract Plusnet Fibre comes with an 18-month contract as standard.

Thanks.