Price increase email.

[#1]

Having read through the email I received about the forthcoming price increase in my home phone line charge I'm still not certain what is on offer.
Do I understand what is being said correctly i.e. that my current service (FTTC with 40GB limit) is available under a new name and if I sign up for another 18months then I save £8 a month for 3 months or is there something more hidden amongst all the blethering?

[#2]

Since you mention home phone charges increase I assume you currently pay £13.99 per month line rental with inclusive evening and weekend calls, and probably inclusive anytime calls for £4.00 per month. These will become £14.99 and £4.50 per month after 1st Oct (total £19.49 per month).
I assume your current broadband product is Value Fibre which costs £16.49 per month in Market 3 or 2 areas. This was withdrawn from sale on 18/12/2012 being replaced by Essentials Fibre which costs £15.99 per month in Market 3 or 2 areas (if home phone is with Plusnet). Home phone with this product is £14.50 per month with inclusive weekend calls; inclusive evening and weekend calls cost £1.50 per month more (total £16.00 per month). Inclusive anytime calls cost £5.00 per month (total £19.50 per month).
What Plusnet appear to be offering you is half-price broadband for 3 months if you move to the Essentials Fibre product with new home phone product and sign up for 18 months. After 3 months you would pay 50p less than you do now. (If you have anytime calls, after 1st Oct the total costs of the old phone and new phone products are identical bar a penny). If you are happy with the new 18 month contract the deal seems a good one to me.

[#3]

I'm on Plusnet Value Fibre £16.49, Talk Anytime International 300 £6.00 and Line rental£13.99 and as far as I can see the increase in price is going to be £1.50 ( +£1 on the line and +£0.50  Talk Anytime International) which is a little bit more than the saving being offered by the 3 month sweetener. If I sign up for another 18 months then the difference becomes less because my line rental would be £14.50 not £14.99 but still an increase.
I can also choose between 40GB per month at up to 38MB for £15.99 or unlimited at up to 76MB for £19.99.  The best speed I've ever recorded is around the 30MB mark and it's usually more like 20MB so is the unlimited offering using different technology? Where does the potetnial for a doubling in speed come from?
I still can't see this other than as an increase in price coupled with an attempt to lock me in to another 18 months.  I accept that costs rise but I find it difficult to decide what is best for me. The email certainly doesn't help me and to say that I am being made an offer because I am a valued customer when the same offer is there for any new customer makes me smile.

[#4]

[cynic] You must be a 'valued customer' as opposed to a 'not-valued customer' since you were offered a 'special deal' (these are normally only available to new customers or those who ask to leave), I was only offered the increase in my line rental and calls package. [/cynic]

[#5]

Quote

I can also choose between 40GB per month at up to 38MB for £15.99 or unlimited at up to 76MB for £19.99.  The best speed I've ever recorded is around the 30MB mark and it's usually more like 20MB so is the unlimited offering using different technology? Where does the potetnial for a doubling in speed come from?

The 'up to' 76Mb uses a different profile (17a) see here for explanation of theoretical maximum speeds http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Very-high-bit-rate_digital_subscriber_line_2 . In reality these higher speeds are only possible where the distance to the cabinet is relatively short. If your current speeds are not close to the 38Mb maximum on your existing product then you are unlikely to see much (if any) increase in speed on the upto 76Mb product. You would still, however, have unlimited bandwidth allowance rather than the 40Gb/month on the alternative product.

[#6]

Quote from: MisterW

The 'up to' 76Mb uses a different profile (17a)

No it doesn't, all FTTC uses the 17a profile, the only difference with the 40/10 product is that the upload/download speeds are capped. If you only get 30Mbps download speed on a 40/10 product you will not see any increase by moving to 80/20 and may even see a decrease due to the uncapping of the upload speed.

[#7]

Hi longedge,
It seems you've got the grasp of what is on offer for you. It is entirely your choice as to whether you decide to take the offer provided, worth looking at if you're not planning on going anyway or stay as you are with the pending price increase.
Your current download speed is on 39.9Mb/s even though your estimate is 31.1Mb/s. Moving to unlimited may see your speeds increase as we could place you on the 80MB/s product although there are no guarantees that it will increase.

[#8]

I am also in receipt of the Email as I manage granny's internet. It gets used by visitors mainly as gran does not have her own computer.
I put her onto Plusnet due to the low add-on cost to her landline. She loves the simplicity if her BT phone line and would be loathe to move to a complicated package.
With BT she gets a disabled persons Directory service and simple 18185 access to call relatives abroad for a lengthy natter at an affordable rate.
So the price increase for her means a 25% increase on the cost of this very low usage Plusnet service.
I am not pleased as it does not seem very long ago that I put her up to this apparently very economical offer.
What I would like to know is that this price rise means in terms of policy for Plusnet.
The real cost of providing internet (at a given speed and connection type) is falling, not rising.
So did Plusnt misprice this at an unprofitable level to begin with? Was it just a marketing ploy to get people signed up before a pre planned price hike?
I recommended Plusnet to a number of people, now I feel a bit embarrassed having done so.
For the take if just unbundled local look internet, is there no cheaper offer than the new £8/month one?

[#9]

Quote from: netgran

With BT she gets a disabled persons Directory service and simple 18185 access to call relatives abroad for a lengthy natter at an affordable rate.

I don't know about the directory service but, once again, 18185 works perfectly well on a Plusnet line.

[#10]

BT has a legal obligation to allow access to 18185 directly.
Yes, Plusnet allows it currently (as I noticed in other forums).
But as we see from this price increase, terms can change adversely and at short notice.
With PN I guess there is no legal obligation to allow 18185.
On reason gran was happy to return to BT from Talktalk some while back was such simplicity, as well as predictable costs for 90845, 90870 and 0844 numbers.

[#11]

Quote

No it doesn't, all FTTC uses the 17a profile, the only difference with the 40/10 product is that the upload/download speeds are capped

Quite correct, my mistake

[#12]

Sorry, wrong thread. WIll post in other one.

[#13]

Quote from: chrispurvey

Your current download speed is on 39.9Mb/s even though your estimate is 31.1Mb/s. Moving to unlimited may see your speeds increase as we could place you on the 80MB/s product although there are no guarantees that it will increase.

I don't think it would the ancient copper is my problem. Now if it was fibre all the way I might just be tempted  
I had a look at the total price after 3 months and going to unlimited in the hope of speeding up a bit would cost me around about £6 a month more. Seeing as I generally use around 20-25GB out of my 40 it makes no sense for me at the moment.

p.s. The forum notification of replies doesn't seem to be working for me. I didn't realise there were replies until I popped in to have a look around - just bye the bye.....