UK ISP PlusNet Launch New Truly Unlimited Broadband and Call Packages

As expected PlusNet UK has today introduced its new range of “truly unlimited” packages for both their standard and superfast fibre broadband (FTTC) internet access packages. Prices start from £5.99 per month standalone or just £2.99 (first 12 months half price) when you also take one of the ISPs Home Phone bundles.

The ISPs older “Value” and “Value Fibre” packages have also been renamed to “Essentials” and come accompanied by a slightly reduced price. Crucially PlusNet does not require its customers to be within reach of an unbundled (LLU) phone network, which means that its packages are available to any broadband capable phone line on BT’s national telecoms network.

As usual customers wishing to benefit from the special half price offers (detailed below) will need to take out the PlusNet Home Phone service bundle, which costs an additional £13.99 per month or a one-off annual payment for Line Rental Saver of £125.88 (the equivalent of £10.49 a month). The Home Phone bundle usually adds free evening and weekend UK calls (includes 0845 and 0870).

Plusnet Essentials
* Typical download speeds of up to 16Mbps
* 10GB usage allowance (unlimited overnight usage)
* Free wireless router
* McAfee security available for £2 extra a month
* 12 month contract

MONTHLY PRICE: £5.99 or 12 months half price (£2.99) if you take home phone

Plusnet Unlimited
* Typical download speeds of up to 16Mbps
* Truly unlimited usage
* Free wireless router
* Free McAfee security
* 12 month contract

MONTHLY PRICE: £9.99 or 12 months half price (£4.99) if you take home phone

Plusnet Essentials Fibre
* Typical download speeds of up to 38Mbps
* 40GB usage allowance (unlimited overnight usage)
* Free wireless router
* McAfee security available for £2 extra a month
* 18 month contract

MONTHLY PRICE: £15.99 or 6 months half price (£7.99) if you take home phone

Plusnet Unlimited Fibre
* Typical download speeds of up to 76Mbps
* Truly unlimited usage
* Free wireless router
* Free McAfee security
* 18 month contract

MONTHLY PRICE: £19.99 or 6 months half price (£9.99) if you take home phone

Existing customers can also switch to the new headline pricing (but not the special offers) by contacting the call centre or logging on to their account online, although this will involve you starting a new contract term.

The new packages all come with either a 12 or 18 month contract term, although a “no contract” option is available when you pay an extra £50 set-up fee (reduces to £25 if you take the Home Phone bundle); this is only available on the standard broadband packages (i.e. not Fibre). Note that the NO CONTRACT option also includes a free router (this use to cost extra).

However there are a few things to note about PlusNet’s new packages. Firstly those living in Ofcom’s Market 1 areas (i.e. the last 10% of the UK’s most rural towns and villages), where there is less competition between ISPs and thus the service is more expensive to deliver, will have to pay more. For example, the standard broadband Essentials package will cost £12.99 on the 12 month contract or £15.49 with the monthly option, which is well above the headline price for everybody else.

Similarly PlusNet, despite describing the new packages as “truly unlimited“, does still impose Traffic Prioritisation. This is intended to protect the providers “quality of service” by ensuring that traffic to VoIP (e.g. Skype), gaming and video streaming is protected and given greater priority (i.e. P2P and Usenet file downloads may suffer from slower speeds).

In other words if you’re streaming BBC iPlayer videos at the same time as conducting a P2P download then iPlayer will get most of your speed and P2P will be slowed. But those with superfast Fibre connections probably won’t have to worry about this too much as most should have plenty of capacity to spare.