I wasn’t really complaining about PlusNet all that much, apart from anything else it isn’t as if any of the other broadband suppliers aren’t doing the same thing.

The main points I was trying to make were about the logical inconsistencies. Removing the Option 4 is not simplifying things for the customer who wants (say) 40gb of downloads it is making things simpler for the provider. Having extra bundle deals does not make it confusing for anyone – people can still “pick and mix.”

I actually quite like your explanation for the change and (for me at least) the more honest reasoning – it is based on the ISP’s buying habits and expenses, not the customers – is always the most worthwhile.

Also, thanks for the information on Virgin – I am not a virgin customer as I am still tied into a contract with the truly despicable Pipex – but it is useful to know for the future.

I just wanted to make a quick response to this. I work in the products team at PlusNet and was part of the group that decided to remove Option 4 in favour of leaving it open for customers to ‘roll their own’ product by picking Option 3 and then buying more usage as they need it.

You raise some interesting points, but I can only say that I think you have missed the point a little in terms of what our product sets out to achieve, and just how complicated our sign-up process was once comapred to where it is now. We definately have put off potential customers in the past by making it too difficult for people to decide what to buy, and we are on a journey towards fixing that.

What we are ultimately aiming for is what I describe as the Chinese take-away approach. We want to make every possible option available to customers so they can choose the best product for them. The way I see it is that from a big menu it’s possible to provide a few set meal options for people that don’t know exactly what they want, but at the same time as letting people pick and mix with the items they like / dislike. You don’t need a lot of set meals to achieve that and if you try you really do just end up making the decision harder for people.

Really though, to understand properly needs the economics of broadband to be explained, so you can appreciate why increasing the usage on high end products like Option 4 woulden’t work economically when you take into account broadband buying habits and the wholesale costs to ISPs like us. I’d love to spend some time explaining, but it’s the subject of a longish essay rather than a quick reply (The first part is this: http://community.plus.net/blog/2008/02/28/how-uk-isps-are-charged-for-broadband-the-cost-of-ipstream/ …

Anyway, thanks for taking an interest and for the comment – It’s useful to see what people think, even when we might disagree!

By the way, Virgin cable absolutely do have restrictions on usage – See http://www.cableforum.co.uk/article/339/virgin-traffic-shaping

Regards,

Ian