Plusnet to provide unlimited broadband

[Qtx]

Home broadband firm Plusnet is to free its customers from monthly download limits and will offer unlimited broadband access for the first time.

Until now the company has set download caps on its home broadband packages. But from Wednesday the Sheffield-based broadband company is allowing new and existing customers on its basic deal to upgrade to an unlimited service for an extra £4 a month.

The service will appeal to users making greater use of data-heavy services such as BBC iPlayer and other on-demand media applications. It will also be welcomed by those in rural areas who are more likely to only have two reasonably priced broadband options – BT and Plusnet.

Plusnet will launch unlimited broadband on both copper and fibre products. Plusnet Unlimited will provide up to 16Mbps at £4.99 a month for the first 12 months for new customers who take its home phone package, and £9.99 thereafter.

Existing customers who want to stay on the cheaper capped 10GB service can do so and will continue to pay £5.99 a month. Those who want to upgrade to the unlimited service will pay £9.99 a month.

Meanwhile, its superfast option, Plusnet Unlimited Fibre, which offers speeds of up to 76Mbps, is available at £9.99 a month for the first six months if you take its home phone package. This will rise to £19.99 a month after six months.

Plusnet Essentials Fibre will start from £7.99 a month for six months when you take the home phone deal, rising to £15.99 a month thereafter. This is still a capped product, limited to 40GB a month.

In making the "unlimited" move the company has brought itself into line with other big providers such as Sky, which already offer uncapped services.

Jamie Ford, Plusnet's chief executive officer, says: "Customers' internet habits have changed considerably over the past 12 months. People are using more bandwidth and services that demand faster speeds. But at the same time we know some people still want a broadband supply for limited day-to-day use at the best price possible. We believe our new Essentials and Unlimited products meet either demand."

In recent years the company has made much of the fact its call centres are in Sheffield rather than Asia, which anyone who has called BT recently might value. It has also done well in customer satisfaction surveys and is a Which? "best buy".

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2012...ited-broadband

Was looking at Plusnet before as they were so cheap but didn't like the small download limits. Typical that this gets announced the day I get Sky installed. Someone tell me they have really bad traffic management or something!

[Graham M]

From experience PlusNet are really good. (You have 7 days to cancel Sky)

[Zee]

Best thing with Sky is its truly unlimited with no traffic management (If you're within their network) so i think you're much better of with Sky...

[Qtx]

74Mbps speeds with line rental on top makes it £24 a month for the first 6 months and £34 after. £4 on top for anytime calls but they do a line rental saver too.

This could be a good choice for tons of people.

---------- Post added at 01:32 ---------- Previous post was at 01:29 ----------

Originally Posted by Zee

Best thing with Sky is its truly unlimited with no traffic management (If you're within their network) so i think you're much better of with Sky...

No traffic management was what sold me on going to Sky. Now seeing the on demand download, its obvious you could do 30 gigabytes in one night by setting of the game of thrones to add to the planner.

Still interested to know if traffic mange heavy or if they are going to drop that kind of stuff too.

[Chrysalis]

Plusnet I did look at when going to FTTC.

They still do traffic shape and that wont change with this new package, they dont just shape p2p, they also shape streaming, ftp etc. However they do have cheap static ip's and also have a pro package which I believe removes all rate limiting so nothing is hard capped (but doesnt remove the prioritisation system).

They look potentially a nice choice of an isp but I didnt go with them because every so often they hit a crisis where they critically short of capacity and that put me off. But these events are much less frequent than they used to be.

The usage limit didnt put me off as its still unlimited off peak and the peak limit is actually probably still enough for me.

[Qtx]

Was telling my parents that they were a good choice as they were cheap and more than enough for their needs. For those not wanting a tv package, they could become the main player.

[qasdfdsaq]

It's marginally cheaper than BT Infinity and probably marginally more shaped too.

[Chrysalis]

Originally Posted by qasdfdsaq

It's marginally cheaper than BT Infinity and probably marginally more shaped too.

A lot cheaper with static ip's.

BT dont shape streaming,ftp, gaming traffic and other non p2p traffic that plusnet shape but on the other hand plusnet shape p2p less than BT.

[Matthew]

I cannot fault PlusNet one bit, have been with them since I got dial up off them in 2003 and any issues I have had they sort them asap. Always get to speak to someone in Sheffield to where their call centre is.

[bpullen]

Originally Posted by Chrysalis

They still do traffic shape and that wont change with this new package, they dont just shape p2p, they also shape streaming, ftp etc. However they do have cheap static ip's and also have a pro package which I believe removes all rate limiting so nothing is hard capped (but doesnt remove the prioritisation system).

We haven't officially released details regarding traffic shaping on the new products?

For the benefit of those reading this thread though, the new Unlimited products will not have any rate limits applied at all. There will still be prioritisation that will classify time sensitive traffic like gaming and streaming above other stuff but for all intents and purposes your internet activities will run at line speed across our network throughout the entire day.

The new Essentials product will be managed in a similar fashion to the existing Value product. That does have some pretty severe rate limits on certain traffic at certain times of the day.

Best regards,

[Chris L]

So is there any traffic management on peak streaming with the up to 76mbps Fibre package?

[bpullen]

Originally Posted by Chris L

So is there any traffic management on peak streaming with the up to 76mbps Fibre package?

At the moment yes. Peer-to-peer and Usenet traffic is rate limited to 2Mbps between 8pm-10pm each evening. After Wednesday this will change as per my previous post.

the new Unlimited products will not have any rate limits applied at all. There will still be prioritisation that will classify time sensitive traffic like gaming and streaming above other stuff but for all intents and purposes your internet activities will run at line speed across our network throughout the entire day.

I've been testing the new profile for some time now and excepting congestion outside of our network all of my traffic has been at line speed regardless of the time of day.

Best regards,

[Chrysalis]

Originally Posted by bpullen

We haven't officially released details regarding traffic shaping on the new products?

For the benefit of those reading this thread though, the new Unlimited products will not have any rate limits applied at all. There will still be prioritisation that will classify time sensitive traffic like gaming and streaming above other stuff but for all intents and purposes your internet activities will run at line speed across our network throughout the entire day.

The new Essentials product will be managed in a similar fashion to the existing Value product. That does have some pretty severe rate limits on certain traffic at certain times of the day.

Best regards,

Interesting indeed.

I only read your tbb post about an hour or so ago, so after I had made the above post.

[Qtx]

So is there a link to show what traffic Plusnet slow down and at what times of day, on this Unlimited package?

[ferretuk]

Originally Posted by Qtx

So is there a link to show what traffic Plusnet slow down and at what times of day, on this Unlimited package?

There is no link to this information as they don't!