Stay with Plusnet or Talk Talk (LLU) vs Sky (LLU) ???

Richard_T_

Currently I am with plusnet, in a " high cost area" where according to plusnet "BT Wholesale is the only provider of broadband " at my exchange.
My Current package is:
Plusnet Extra broadband at £17.99 per month with 60GB data
Line Rental Saver ( works out at £9.49 per month)
Talk anytime £4.00 per month
Total cost ( excluding extra calls - ie mobiles) £31.48 per month

However there are also LLU providers at my local exchange, Talk Talk and Sky. (samknows shows them as enabled under LLU providers)
would there be any significant savings in switching to a more honest provider?

brewerdave

When does you line rental saver deal come up for renewal?Remember that such deals are non-refundable if you leave early.
Would certainly be significant savings with Sky if you already have their TV package - they are offering free b/band for 12 months for those who have Sky Sports plus you can pay 12 months line rental up front with them as well.
TalkTalk LLU would also be cheaper -as an example my S-I-L currently pays £21.50 pm for the equivalent package to yourself (but with "unlimited bb allowance)-altho' he is expecting a price rise in October.
The downside of moving away from Plusnet will be that you cannot use the likes of 18185 for cheap daytime calls - but if you currently pay for Anytime service I suspect that this won't be an issue. Also customer service with Sky/TalkTalk is generally reckoned to be worse than Plusnets.
I was recently in virtually the same position -but I stayed with Plusnet because I "negotiated" a cheap 12 month deal for unlimited b/band of £8.49pm. I reckon my "average" telecom bill will be £19 per month for the next 12 months.

penrhyn

I'm a little confused, as Plusnet is a BT company and runs over the BT network how to they get away with charging more where there is no completion at the exchange, or have I answered my own question.

macman

How can you be on a 'high cost' Market One exchange, if both TT and Sky are LLU'd on it? It should be Market 2 or 3,
What is the name of the exchange?
If LLU's are available and the Market status has not been changed, put in a complaint to OFCOM.

macman

penrhyn wrote: »

I'm a little confused, as Plusnet is a BT company and runs over the BT network how to they get away with charging more where there is no completion at the exchange, or have I answered my own question.

BT Wholesale charge more on M1 exchanges. Plusnet pay the same commercial rate for non-LLU access as any other ISP-no special 'BT Group' discount is allowed.

oldagetraveller

macman wrote: »

How can you be on a 'high cost' Market One exchange, if both TT and Sky are LLU'd on it? It should be Market 2 or 3,
What is the name of the exchange?
If LLU's are available and the Market status has not been changed, put in a complaint to OFCOM.

More than possible. My exchange http://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange/WMTEA and many others, I suspect, are market 1 with one or more LLU providers. Both Sky and TalkTalk are available at the exchange. I don't like using the term, but lots of us are being ripped off by this ridiculous situation. We will no doubt be subsidising all these cheap new customer deals on offer to those on Mkt 2 & 3!
Ofcon are allegedly re-classifying exchanges next year to just two types, markets A and B.
Would I be correct that they don't alter an exchange classification on a case by case basis?
I'm sure a complaint to Ofcon would be ignored by them anyway.

Richard_T_

macman wrote: »

How can you be on a 'high cost' Market One exchange, if both TT and Sky are LLU'd on it? It should be Market 2 or 3,
What is the name of the exchange?
If LLU's are available and the Market status has not been changed, put in a complaint to OFCOM.

Samknows exchange search shows this:

LLU operator presence
AOL: Not available
O2 / Be: Not available
C&W: Not available
Digital Region: Not available
Edge Telecom: Not available
Entanet: Not available
Fluency: Not available
KC (Kingston): Not available
Lumison: Not available
NewNet: Not available
Node4: Not available
Pipex: Not available
Redstone: Not available
Rutland Telecom: Not available
Sky / Easynet: Enabled
Smallworld: Not available
Spectrum: Not available
TalkTalk (CPW): Enabled
Tiscali: Not available
Tiscali TV: Not available
WB Internet: Not available
Zen Internet: Not available




Ofcom Classification
Market 1
This exchange has BT Wholesale as the sole provider of broadband services.

My line rental saver expires in November, and the green boxes that BT open reach have put in the streets will be offering fibre from September sometime.
Plusnets fibre prices on a market 1 Exchange where "BT Wholesale is the only provider of broadband " are to put it bluntly extortionate.
I have seen this raised a few times on various other websites, but plusnet dont care they are just happy ripping people off - if it was an issue then you would have thought they would be making some noise over this, as if offcom are to blame for this then they would be making ISPs such as plusnet un competitive.

One thing that appears to have been overlooked is who pulls the strings?
Openreach who run all the exchanges are a BT Group buisness so if they get more money on a market 1 exchange then it benefits BT
Plusnet are also owned by BT, so if they are charging more then they are making more money for BTs ever growing coffers one way or another.

not exactly good honest broadband like they would lead people to believe.

ejv

I'm with Plusnet and pleased with them for past 12 months. However, they had a "take it or leave it" attitude when I asked for a good deal at the end of my contract this month. They refused to match their own new customer deals.

I'm a SKY customer and can avail their cracking deal of Unlimited BB for £3.75 pm(also £110 topcashback;)). Are they any good, especially after taking the O2 ? I've read very mixed reviews and wary of committing 12 months to them.

My other option would be to take DIRECTSAVETELECOM 30 days rolling contract and switch back to PLUSNET after couple of months.(To be honest PLUSNET is a great ISP, and I would like to go back to them and avail new customer deals again)

Any advice from the forum wizards?:o

Thanx in advance:)

caveat_emptor

Richard_T_ wrote: »

Currently I am with plusnet, in a " high cost area" where according to plusnet "BT Wholesale is the only provider of broadband " at my exchange.
My Current package is:
Plusnet Extra broadband at £17.99 per month with 60GB data
Line Rental Saver ( works out at £9.49 per month)
Talk anytime £4.00 per month
Total cost ( excluding extra calls - ie mobiles) £31.48 per month
However there are also LLU providers at my local exchange, Talk Talk and Sky. (samknows shows them as enabled under LLU providers)
would there be any significant savings in switching to a more honest provider?

Would definitely go with an LLU supplier, which one is your gamble. I am on the edge of my exchanges reach and did get 5Mb/s from AOL LLU and now get 1.25Mb/s from BT.

macman

This is purely an OFCOM issue, not a Plusnet/BT issue. Neither ISP controls the market classification.
Plusnet buy from the wholesale division of BT on the same basis as any other ISP.

Plumpton

I cannot find a way to request this from MSE but I think it would be of use to a large number of people if they could look at deals for non-LLU users...or is it different in different areas? I pay a lot from BT for my broadband but get frustrated following all sorts of good deals only to find they only apply to LLU areas. Any one know either how to request this from MSE or of any cheap deals? I pay £26 pm for unlimited broadband plus extra for anytime calls and line rental...in total £46.60 pm.