Broadband Guide

Plusnet fibre optic broadband

Wednesday 04 April, 2012

By Editorial - news@consumerchoices.co.uk

Looking for the “best value” fibre optic broadband? You can now get speeds of up to 38Mb from Plusnet.

Plusnet broadband (www.Plus.net) is offering its new Fibre Optic Broadband package from just £16.49 a month, plus line rental - making it the cheapest fibre service on the market.

It is offering two packages; Value Fibre and Extra Fibre. The Value Fibre package comes with a 40GB monthly download allowance, while the Extra service comes with a more generous 120GB limit.

If you're an existing Plusnet broadband customer, you can simply upgrade to a fibre connection.

As usual with Plusnet packages, the price you pay will depend on where you live as well as the package you choose. Plusnet operates “low cost areas” across around 80% of the UK. If you live in a low cost area, you'll be able to get Plusnet Fibre at the cheapest possible price.

This means the Value Fibre package will cost £16.49 a month and Extra Fibre will be £21.49, with Plusnet’s £12.99 line rental on top.

If you live outside Plusnet’s low cost areas, you'll have to pay extra for your broadband.

What is fibre optic broadband?

Larger quantities of data can travel at much faster speeds through fibre optic cables than traditional copper wires, which is why fibre broadband providers can offer speeds of up to 120Mb and more.

Plusnet’s superfast broadband packages use the BT broadband (www.BT.com) fibre optic broadband network to deliver faster speeds. They use fibre-to-the-cabinet (FTTC) technology, which means that fibre optic cables are run to your green street cabinet, and traditional copper telephone wires connect to your home from there.

Because of this, the distance to your street cabinet, and the quality of the wiring connecting your home with the cabinet, can affect your broadband speed.

But BT says that its Infinity customers, who use the same network as Plusnet Fibre, still receive around 30Mb on average - and a minimum of 12Mb.

Why go superfast?

Fibre optic broadband isn’t just for heavy downloaders and hardcore gamers; anyone with a large family or household that wants to get online at the same time can benefit from a superfast broadband connection.

And with TV downloads, laptops, iPads and smartphones all connected at the same time, there’s never been a greater need for faster speeds and higher bandwidth.

Plusnet explains that a household sharing speeds of just 4Mb would see their connection slow down if they tried to watch the BBC iPlayer in high-definition while someone else surfed the net or watched YouTube.

“With Plusnet Fibre,” added the provider, “five people can watch a HD iPlayer stream, game on the PS3, Xbox, PC and Wii - plus download music, films and browse the web - all at the same time.”

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