[Archived] Plusnet

[Clitherover]

I've been with Plusnet Broadband for about five years now, they used to be a great company but recently i've noticed my internet speeds drop below 1mbps although i'm supposed to be getting up to 8mbps.

I recently found out that the company had been taken over by BT last year so that answered a few questions as they are one of the worst companies i've had to deal with.

I've regularly been doing ping tests also to check everything's ok my end and they are averaging very low (around 49) so it's not that.

Even though i've got a really cheap deal it seems like a false economy with the crap speeds i'm getting. So i'm probably going to switch providers this month if it carries on.

Is anyone else on Plusnet and have you noticed your speeds being throttled?

[Mattyblue]

That Yorkshire tit on the adverts means I'll never use them!

[Clitherover]

That Yorkshire tit on the adverts means I'll never use them!

That's also put me off them a bit.

[Biddy]

I was with PlusNet a long long time ago. Really good company back then but then they started introducing really strange traffic shaping without telling anyone and lost all credibility for me.

I thought BT actually took them over a lot longer ago than last year. thought it was something like 2007 so can't really blame them. Also, plusnet are still run as a fairly separate entity although now using the BT backbone.

Remember that all ADSL providers, including BT retail use BT wholesale (separate company) for providing the ADSL lines. Only unbundled companies like Sky and Talk Talk use their own lines so unless you are going to go down that route, speeds will probably not improve.

Of course you only get "upto" 8mb so depending on how far away you are from the exchange, you may not get any better speed. If however it is throttling then as I say earlier, yes, that is why I left PlusNet in the first place. Of course like most companies, they only normally throttle for a specific set of reasons. Normally too much downloading via p2p or newsgroups. Of course some people do find they are hit for unknown reasons like gaming or simply streaming from lovefilm etc. Completely legitimate reasons. ISP's need to clue up in this respect.

I'm just back from the pub so this is probably no use and fairly incoherent.

[Clitherover]

I'm just back from the pub so this is probably no use and fairly incoherent.

Not at all, useful post thanks.

I'm actually considering a switch to Talk Talk although I read that they have crap customer service I know certain people who are with them and they regularly get download speeds that are 3X or more than what i'm getting with Plusnet, then there's the obvious lure of the cheap price.

[LeChuck]

Sorry to hijack a little bit here....

I changed to BT recently (to avoid paying £120 installation charges in my new flat) and I got the deal over the phone.

I've since found that BT throttles the connection at peak times. If I try and use any form of p2p software from mid-afternoon until ten-ish then the best speed I can get is 4kb/s or something equally ridiculous. Through the night it will rocket as I'm paying for 24 meg (real speed about 15). This involves me a] leaving my computer on, and b] having to plan these things in advance, I can't get anything on impulse during these hours.

I'm locked into an 18 month contract but it's doing my head in. Do I have any sort of legal standing to have this contract cancelled as (I'm pretty sure) it wasn't mentioned to me when the customer service employee was reading the contract to me over the phone.

[dazmaz]

Sorry to hijack a little bit here....

I changed to BT recently (to avoid paying £120 installation charges in my new flat) and I got the deal over the phone.

I've since found that BT throttles the connection at peak times. If I try and use any form of p2p software from mid-afternoon until ten-ish then the best speed I can get is 4kb/s or something equally ridiculous. Through the night it will rocket as I'm paying for 24 meg (real speed about 15). This involves me a] leaving my computer on, and b] having to plan these things in advance, I can't get anything on impulse during these hours.

I'm locked into an 18 month contract but it's doing my head in. Do I have any sort of legal standing to have this contract cancelled as (I'm pretty sure) it wasn't mentioned to me when the customer service employee was reading the contract to me over the phone.

You do get t&c and they do state they can throttle heavy users during peak hours and p2p users.

Also keep in mind the home hub is about as useful as trying to scoop runny poo with a siv.

Regardless of what isp state p2p doesnt have that big of an affect as they make out, if 70% of bt customers all used torrents at the exact same time there could be a server overload, and that many people doing that is highly unlikely.

You could be in luck with the 14 day opt out period, ypu should of been advised of that when ordering. If not, kick ua massive fuss any you my get someone who will remove charges, will take alot of calls and complaining to do though

Personally im with sky and the only problem I have had in 2 years is they cocked up my payment and even then they admitted it was their fault and have given me 3 months free (tv, phone and bb) plus movies free for 6 month

[Glenn]

+1 for Sky.

Only issue is they'll happily hand over connection logs to lawyers without a court order, but then so do all the big ISPs and I can't justify the extra expense an A&A connection at home.

[Biddy]

I'm on Virginmedia 30mb and it's superb. Even when I do get throttled it only goes down to 7.5mb.

Granted they are "upgrading" the systems gradually and most people on the "new and improved" services are reporting traffic shaping like the 4kb/s on p2p. I haven't been affected as yet.

[DE.]

I'm with Sky at the moment, the first month was a nightmare but it was mainly to do with our area being fairly new and the exchange having issues. For two months after that the speed was awful slow - couldn't stream, youtube was a nightmare, downloads were a max of 70 or 80kb/s. The max we were told to expect was 6.5mb from our exchange but it was still very poor, less than 1mb at all times.

I was on the verge of ringing and complaining, but then suddenly one weekend speeds rocketed up. Now get 1mb/s downloads at all times, which is fine by me. Streaming is no longer a problem either. No idea what happened but I'm not complaining - ignoring the initial problems I had I'd recommend Sky. Virgin are also supposed to be very good - we can't get them in our area though so we had no choice. Probably would have picked Sky anyway due to the TV/Phone/Broadband package.

[Clitherover]

Have been looking at what speeds people have been getting in the Ribble Valley where I live using broadbandspeedchecker.co.uk and BE Broadband seem to be far and above the fastest provider in this area at least, having checked them out online they seem to have an excellent reputation also.

I think I may pay the extra few quid it will take per month to get connected with them as I don't really want to take a risk with a poor provider again whilst being tied down to a contract.

[LeChuck]

Be are owned by O2, so if you're an O2 customer get it through them instead and get a discount.

[Clitherover]

Be are owned by O2, so if you're an O2 customer get it through them instead and get a discount.

I'm on giffgaff which are owned by O2 if that counts.

[Tris]

We've been with Orange since early 2008 ... although it was hassle getting the initial set-up sorted - it took 8 weeks and we've still got two Liveboxes (routers) after they sent us an extra one in error - really haven't had a problem since.

Supposed to be 8 meg but hovers around 4-5 ... but the real benefit is that we get free phone calls, 24 hours a day 7 days a week, pretty much worldwide. Includes USA, all EU, Australia, NZ, SA, including mobiles in those countries, and of course UK landlines. Doesn't include UK mobiles which aren't on Orange, but we can call those free from our mobiles anyway.

Tenner a month -- have never seen a better deal for what we need.

[Tom]

I'm on BT because I get it free through work (no surprise there), however I'm only on 2meg maximum when I spend my working days planning high speed broadband! Frustrating.

[Baz]

Due to the massive spikes in complaints relating to Broadband advertisement of both "up to" speeds and "unlimited" packages OfCom is beginning to recognise and sort out the industry. Its recommending typical speed ranges and removal of the term "unlimited" unless actually it means unlimited. Its also looking to regulate "fair use" policys too as currently most only offer downloads covering a small % of the download time available - these limits dont seem to be following the increase in download speeds - also the penalties far outway the actual costs to the suppliers.

At the moment its looking at bringing this in as a voluntary code of conduct across the industry, but IMO will probably have to legislate it to make it work.

Ofcom Report

[dazmaz]

I'm on BT because I get it free through work (no surprise there), however I'm only on 2meg maximum when I spend my working days planning high speed broadband! Frustrating.

I managed to keep my employee breadband from bt for about 5 months afrer I quit, even then I only lost it because I moved to sky.

Have to say bt do have the worst customer service, especially when it comes to technical help (not that you can say much, just like I have to say expedia are the greatest company in the world :-P )

[Tom]

I managed to keep my employee breadband from bt for about 5 months afrer I quit, even then I only lost it because I moved to sky.

Have to say bt do have the worst customer service, especially when it comes to technical help (not that you can say much, just like I have to say expedia are the greatest company in the world :-P )

I think we save the worst of it for our internet computer helpdesks! For a telecommunications company it's baffling

[thebigguy]

Please dont say throttling when your actually speed has decreased because this is actually not throttling.

Throttling is a term used for when one set of traffic can use your full internet speed but another set is limited to like 4kb/s. Not when your actual internet line decreases.

This is sometimes annoying because more and more companies(mostly just gaming compaies for patches or the actual game) are using p2p more.

[Biddy]

Please dont say throttling when your actually speed has decreased because this is actually not throttling.

Throttling is a term used for when one set of traffic can use your full internet speed but another set is limited to like 4kb/s. Not when your actual internet line decreases.

This is sometimes annoying because more and more companies(mostly just gaming compaies for patches or the actual game) are using p2p more.

No, that's traffic shaping.

[Clitherover]

Don't you just love it when someone tries being a smart-arse then gets it wrong.

[roverandout]

when someone calls something 'good, honest' it usually means its cr*p!!