New Plusnet Fibre Packages

[#1]

Quote from: Bob

Quote from: machare Will the Plusnet fibre product be available to anyone connected to an FTTC enabled cabinet, or will there be line speed/signal loss restrictions? I see that BT now have a product (BT Option 3 with fibre)  for customers who can't get 15mbps.  As long as your speed estimate is above 5Mbps then you should be fine. Anything below this and it's unlikely we'll offer the service.

Thank you for your reply.
Why would you not want to offer a service below 5Mbps?  How does this benefit Plusnet?

[#2]

It is BT that will not offer the service which in turn means Plusnet can't either.
When fibre was originally trialled, BT would only install it if the estimated speed was going to be above 15Mbs (i.e. comparable to ADSL2+ speeds). As the trial progressed and more cabinets were fitted out, BT reduced the minimum estimated speed to 5Mbs, below which is was not commercially viable to install and configure the equipment.
It is possible ths speed will be reduced further but for now 5Mbs is the minimum FTTC/FTTP speeds that BT will allow.

[#3]

the thing i would like to know , is there a updated list of dates when FTTC is going to be available for the exchanges where at the moment havent been upgraded !
mine is, Undercliffe ,bradford  and it says no FTTC available but how long do i have to wait for it .

[#4]

Quote from: WWWombat

I was looking at the pricing, and wondered why the "new customer" price was only quoted as being from £16.49, with no indication of what the cost of "Extra" was. Then I realised that, from the "existing customer" prices, there is an implication that the fibre pricing is going to be different on the different market exchanges. Is that right?

There are three price points for the Vanilla DSL Value and Extra products. They are dependent on the Market area your exchange is in as well as what other providers there are operating in your area:
The ongoing price for Value is either £6.49 (Market 3), £10.79 (Market 2) or £12.99 (Market 1/2).
The ongoing price for Extra is either £11.49 (Market 3), £15.79 (Market 2) or £17.99 (Market 1/2).
When opting for a fibre installation, there are only two price points and they're based solely on the Market area.
The ongoing price for Value Fibre is £16.49 (Market 3) or £22.99 (Market 1/2).
The ongoing price for Extra is either £21.49 (Market 3) or £27.99 (Market 1/2).

Quote from: phil4

With you guys I only get 2Mbit upload,  With BT I can have upto 10!!!!!   But I can't have a static IP, which I need for home working.

A static IP is available on our 'Extra' package for a one-off charge of £5.

Quote from: phil4

And as I say, would have quite happily paid an extra tenner a month for 10up and static.... but not offered on either!

As I've mentioned elsewhere, we haven't completely ruled out the possibility of a 10Mbps upload option, it's just very unlikely to be something we offer at launch.

Quote from: cja

Either commit to a date for 10Mb or I am afraid you're too late, and a good number of us feel that way. Please re-think quickly.

Quote from: phil4

Between now and the 19th is my deadline.  Please do get on with it.

Apologies if it's been covered elsewhere, but are either of you actually on fibre enabled exchanges/cabinets at the moment? Or do both of you have enablement dates set not to far in the future?

Quote from: phil4

I guess that depends on the router supplied etc.  An guessing a BT home hub won't.

It will be a Netgear WNR1000.

Quote from: SteveA

I'm with Graham on this one. Cheltenham has no Fibre date set so PN's rules means that when, and if, we get it then I'll basically be asked to fork out a lot of money purely because BT didn't do my exchange in the first wave. So PN will basically be discriminating against people like Graham and myself because of BT's plans.

We're not discriminating Steve, we just can't ignore the commercials. Whilst we'd love to offer continued free installations for the masses, I'd imagine we'd lose far to much money in the process.

Quote from: machare

Quote from: Bob Quote from: machare Will the Plusnet fibre product be available to anyone connected to an FTTC enabled cabinet, or will there be line speed/signal loss restrictions? I see that BT now have a product (BT Option 3 with fibre)  for customers who can't get 15mbps.   As long as your speed estimate is above 5Mbps then you should be fine. Anything below this and it's unlikely we'll offer the service. Thank you for your reply. Why would you not want to offer a service below 5Mbps?  How does this benefit Plusnet?

In these situations the BT Availability Checker itself will say fibre is not available. It's this availability checker that we'll be using to ascertain a customers eligibility.

Quote from: rongtw

the thing i would like to know , is there a updated list of dates when FTTC is going to be available for the exchanges where at the moment havent been upgraded ! mine is, Undercliffe ,bradford  and it says no FTTC available but how long do i have to wait for it .

One of the most recent lists I've seen, is the one here.
Edit: 07/11/2011 - corrected pricing in first quoted reply.

[#5]

Quote from: Bob

Quote from: phil4 And as I say, would have quite happily paid an extra tenner a month for 10up and static.... but not offered on either! As I've mentioned elsewhere, we haven't completely ruled out the possibility of a 10Mbps upload option, it's just very unlikely to be something we offer at launch. Quote from: cja Either commit to a date for 10Mb or I am afraid you're too late, and a good number of us feel that way. Please re-think quickly. Quote from: phil4 Between now and the 19th is my deadline.  Please do get on with it. Apologies if it's been covered elsewhere, but are either of you actually on fibre enabled exchanges/cabinets at the moment? Or do both of you have enablement dates set not to far in the future?

Yep, FTTC go-live scheduled for Wednesday (6th April), so yes, near future.

[#6]

Quote from: Bob

When opting for a fibre installation, there are only two price points and they're based solely on the Market area. The ongoing price for Value Fibre is £16.49 (Market 3) or £17.99 (Market 1/2). The ongoing price for Extra is either £22.49 (Market 3) or £27.99 (Market 1/2).

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/news/4627-plusnet-announce-cheapest-fibre-to-the-cabinet-broadband-pro... says £21.49 for extra?
Why aren't the important details like traffic shaping and upload limit mentioned in the launch details? If there was a proper F.A.Q on the products then you could have people placing their orders today so the engineer visits could be scheduled before hand.
The current system whereby you only pay for the activation and equipment if you left within 12 months is a brilliant idea. Will you be keeping this for the new 18 month contract?

[#7]

With regard to Bob's last post about FTTC availability, the most up-to-date list I've seen (dated 15th March) is this one from Openreach:
http://www.openreach.co.uk/orpg/home/products/super-fastfibreaccess/downloads/fttc_pot_exchs.pdf
The BT availability checker is probably the most accurate guide once your cabinet's almost ready.
Graham

[#8]

that's a good one - bookmarked for the future as it is the only one which gives a date for my exchange (unfortunately March 2012)

[#9]

By the way, Bob, are those prices quoted above for Value Fibre correct - i.e. for Market 1/2 customers is FTTC really only a fiver a month more than Value?
If so, that's good news for those customers, and it's good to see the distinction between Market 3 and (most of) Market 1/2 being reduced from £6.50 to £1.50 (and I say that as someone in a Market 3 area).
But if those prices really are correct, why is there still a £5.50 difference between Market 3 and Market 1/2 for Extra Fibre? OK - it's £1 less than for Extra, but why not keep the differential in line with Value Fibre?
Graham

[#10]

The link to the WNR1000 in Bob's message seems to be case sensitive, see http://www.netgear.com/home/products/wirelessrouters/simplesharing/WNR1000.aspx

[#11]

Quote from: phil4

Quote from: Bob Apologies if it's been covered elsewhere, but are either of you actually on fibre enabled exchanges/cabinets at the moment? Or do both of you have enablement dates set not to far in the future? Yep, FTTC go-live scheduled for Wednesday (6th April), so yes, near future.

Then why not request to go onto the trial and you'll be able to take advantage of the 10Mbps upload?

Quote from: Bojangles

Quote from: Bob When opting for a fibre installation, there are only two price points and they're based solely on the Market area. The ongoing price for Value Fibre is £16.49 (Market 3) or £17.99 (Market 1/2). The ongoing price for Extra is either £22.49 (Market 3) or £27.99 (Market 1/2). http://www.thinkbroadband.com/news/4627-plusnet-announce-cheapest-fibre-to-the-cabinet-broadband-pro... says £21.49 for extra?

It *is* £21.49. I've corrected the typo in my original post.

Quote from: Bob

Why aren't the important details like traffic shaping and upload limit mentioned in the launch details? If there was a proper F.A.Q on the products then you could have people placing their orders today so the engineer visits could be scheduled before hand.

We're not accepting orders until we officially launch. The pre-registration site is there to attract interest/attention between now and when we launch.

Quote from: Bojangles

The current system whereby you only pay for the activation and equipment if you left within 12 months is a brilliant idea. Will you be keeping this for the new 18 month contract?

Yes, the deferred contracts will still be for 12 months.

Quote from: grahamt

With regard to Bob's last post about FTTC availability, the most up-to-date list I've seen (dated 15th March) is this one from Openreach: http://www.openreach.co.uk/orpg/home/products/super-fastfibreaccess/downloads/fttc_pot_exchs.pdf

*bookmarks*

Quote from: grahamt

By the way, Bob, are those prices quoted above for Value Fibre correct - i.e. for Market 1/2 customers is FTTC really only a fiver a month more than Value?

Err, no
Have amended the post in question.

Quote from: godsell4

The link to the WNR1000 in Bob's message seems to be case sensitive, see http://www.netgear.com/home/products/wirelessrouters/simplesharing/WNR1000.aspx

Also corrected. I clearly wasn't on form on Sunday!

[#12]

Quote from: Bob

Quote from: grahamt With regard to Bob's last post about FTTC availability, the most up-to-date list I've seen (dated 15th March) is this one from Openreach: http://www.openreach.co.uk/orpg/home/products/super-fastfibreaccess/downloads/fttc_pot_exchs.pdf *bookmarks*

Unfortunately, you now need a new set of bookmarks: For April's update, Openreach have decided to split that into 3 separate documents. PDFs are:
http://www.openreach.co.uk/accepting_orders
http://www.openreach.co.uk/coming_soon
http://www.openreach.co.uk/future_exchanges
The 3 documents are linked from this page: http://www.openreach-communications.co.uk/superfast/where-and-when/default.htm
The same data is available in DOC and XLS formats too.

[#13]

And even they seem a little out of date - the coming soon lists my exchange as Jun-11, whereas it was enabled and taking orders on 6th April (the date of the "Accepting Orders" doc.
In short, use the Broadband checker, because I think that's a bit more accurate.  Well, technically as I've not actually got FTTC working for me, I don't know that's true.... I'm just hoping it is.
adie:quote

[#14]

Thanks for that update WWWombat.
But - aargh! BT has now put the date for my exchange back yet again. It was originally going to be Dec 2010, then March 2011, then June and now it's back to September. I suppose I should be grateful it's still in 2011, but it looks like it's always going to be jam tomorrow.
Oh well, I guess it gives Plusnet time to iron out the problems with installations after the full launch. Given that the availability checker tells me I can expect only around 28Mb/s with FTTC, I'm half-tempted to go for Virgin's 'up to 30Mb/s' cable offering, which is available now and might even end up being cheaper. And they'd do HDTV, which we won't get here on terrestrial until sometime next year. I just can't quite bring myself to commit to them, though.
Phil4 - I'm sure the availability checker is more accurate in your case.
Graham

[#15]

Scrub those remarks about Virgin. I've just done their 'Customise my Bundle' thing and it's a ridiculous amount to get the equivalent of what I'd have once Plusnet FTTC and Terrestrial HD arrives. The devil's in the detail...
Graham