Plus.net service announcement 22/3/06

[KingPhoenix]

Got this in my inbox this morning, thought some may be interested.

This is a service announcement from PlusNet with important information about product changes, speed upgrades, traffic management improvements and other service updates.

Free broadband product upgrades!
================================
We're delighted to announce that from 30th March 2006 we'll be upgrading our Broadband Premier, Plus and Pay As You Go customers for free.
The main changes are:
- Up to 8Mb speed upgrades! (subject to availability).
- Addition of PlusTalk minutes on our broadband phone (VoIP) service.*
- New usage allowances and traffic management.
Thereââ‚ƚ¬Ã¢â€žÂ¢s no upgrade fee or change to subscription and you will not be asked to begin a new 12 month contract. You donââ‚Âà ‚¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢t even need to change any settings †“ weââ‚ ¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢re doing everything for you!
Your product will be upgraded on your first billing date after 30th March 2006. If you pay annually this will be the same day in the month as your annual subscription, e.g. the 15th. Speed upgrades will follow over the coming months - see below.
Customers on other products (products not currently sold) will be upgraded separately and we'll be contacting you by email if this applies to you.

Up to 8Mb speed upgrades
========================
High-speed broadband is here and if youââ‚Âà ‚¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢ve got broadband youââ‚Âà ‚¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢ll be getting upgraded for free!
It will take BT several months to upgrade the thousands of PlusNet broadband customers, so priority will be given to customers on the up to 4Mb and 8Mb products. Weâ₠¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢ll then ask BT to upgrade our customers in the order they joined PlusNet, as recognition for loyalty.
Weâ₠¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢ll contact you by email when BT performs your upgrade. And remember: 'up to 8Mb' really does mean 'up to'. Many factors affect broadband speed, including line quality, distance to the BT exchange and the weather. Our 8Mb trials showed an average speed of 6.1Mb - a huge speed increase!
Itâ₠¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢s important to remember that a small percentage of customers will be unable to get a speed upgrade because their line cannot support it. You will be contacted by email if this happens to you.
If you have been paying for an up to 4Mb or 8Mb broadband service and are unable to get these speeds we will refund you, providing you havenââ‚ƚ¬Ã¢â€žÂ¢t exceeded your usage allowances.

Changes to your broadband product
=================================
Faster speeds are just one of the changes weâ₠¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢re making. See how else your broadband product will be improved:

Broadband Premier
-----------------
The current Broadband Premier range includes †™up to 2Mbââ‚Âà ‚¬Ãƒâ€¹Ã…“, †™up to 4Mbââ‚Âà ‚¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢ & †™up to 8Mbââ‚Âà ‚¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢ options. These will become Broadband Premier †˜Option 1â₠¬ÃƒÆ’¢â€žÂ¢, †™Option 2â₠¬ÃƒÆ’¢â€žÂ¢ & †˜Option 3â₠¬ÃƒÆ’¢â€žÂ¢, respectively.
Option 1 includes 15GB of usage at peak times (4pm †“ midnight) and no usage limits during off-peak hours. Options 2 & 3 will get even more usage at peak times. See the 'Broadband Product Update †“ April 2006' support article for exact figures - http://www.plus.net/go.html/broadband_product_update/2j7uFcwYevb4
Premier customers will also get a fantastic 240 minutes of PlusTalk broadband phone calls (VoIP) included each month.*
Broadband Premier will continue to offer you a premium service and is the ideal product if youââ‚Âà ‚¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢ve gone beyond simple email and web surfing to music and video downloads, sharing your broadband around the home or the other great entertainment options now available online.

Broadband Plus
--------------
Broadband Plus up to 2Mb, priced £14.99, will get 3GB of unrestricted usage at peak times (4pm †“ midnight) and a possible 50GB during off-peak hours.
Customers on the current Broadband Plus †™up to 4Mbââ‚Âà ‚¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢ & †™up to 8Mbââ‚Âà ‚¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢ options will enjoy greater usage allowances and will also be automatically upgraded, for free, to up to 16Mb & 24Mb respectively, once these speeds become available. These products will not be offered to new customers or as upgrades.
See the 'Broadband Product Update †“ April 2006' support article for exact figures - http://www.plus.net/go.html/broadband_product_update/2j7uFcwYevb4
Weâ₠¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢re also including PlusTalk PAYG broadband phone calls (VoIP).*
Broadband Plus is suitable for browsing, email and making occasional downloads. If you have greater needs than this, we recommend upgrading to Broadband Premier.

Broadband Pay As You Go
-----------------------
Great news - all usage between midnight and 8am will be FREE. Thatâ₠¬Ã¢â€žÂ¢s 8 hours of free broadband a day!
Pay As You Go customers will be upgraded, for free, to up to 24Mb speeds once available, making this a great way to get really fast speeds for a low monthly price.
Weâ₠¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢re also adding 120 minutes of evening and weekend PlusTalk broadband phone calls (VoIP) each month.*

How we guarantee quality broadband
==================================
Traffic management can sometimes sound like a bad thing for customers, but itâ₠¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢s the opposite; itâ₠¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢s the best way to guarantee everybody gets the best service possible for their money, especially as faster speeds allow higher usage.
Our network will cleverly prioritise traffic based on type of usage, e.g. browsing, online gaming, streaming media or peer-to-peer. Because some types of usage are more time sensitive than others, they will get priority, e.g. browsing and online gaming. This means you get the level of service thatâ₠¬Ã¢â€žÂ¢s appropriate to your needs.
Our network will also be able to manage the small percentage of customers who use their service unsustainably, to stop this from affecting the majority of our customers.
Other ISPs are starting to follow this approach, but as industry leaders we are in a better position to guarantee quality broadband to our customers.
Key changes:
- Peak-time hours defined as 4pm †“ midnight.
- New peak-time usage allowances for some products (see above).
- Improved View My Broadband Usage tool.

New View My Broadband Usage tool
================================
Youââ‚Âà ‚¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢ll also have access to an improved version of the popular VMBU tool when we upgrade your product. Itââ‚ ¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢ll let you monitor every aspect of your usage:
- Simple summary of your usage each month.
- Detailed breakdown of type-by-type usage, such as browsing, gaming, and peer-to-peer.
- Full record of peak-time and off-peak usage amounts.
- Management level notices to let you know if you use more than your peak-time usage allowance.

Binary Usenet service update
============================
Binary Usenet is a technical service used by a small minority of customers to download large files. Because very few customers have been using our Binary Usenet service it will no longer be available from 3rd April 2006 onwards.
We will continue to offer an excellent text-only Usenet service and customers can of course continue to use third party binary Usenet feeds and providers.
You can find more information in our dedicated forum posting - http://www.plus.net/go.html/binary_usenet_pn/2j7uFcwYevb4

We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your continued custom.
Kind regards,
PlusNet Customer Support

* Customers who already have a PlusTalk service will not be affected by these changes. Included PlusTalk minutes can only be used to call UK landline numbers beginning with 01 & 02.