PlusNet

On 7 Oct 2004, PlusNet signed a two-year extension to its alliance with British Telecom for its Teleworker services contract. The new agreement will help PlusNet in offering an attractive Internet services proposition to BT’s large business customers.

Cancellation cost is decreased by 11.75 GBP every year for loyal customers. Cancellation fee is further reduced by 25 GBP if modem is also purchased. With monthly contract option combined with the above offer, the one time fee of 11.75 GBP is waived.

In January 2006, the operator introduced a promotional broadband offer ‘surf and talk’ for its residential subscribers at GBP 19.99 per month. The package comprised 10 GB data transfer limit and free phone calls to the UK landlines in the evenings and on weekends. The offer was valid till the end of February 2006.

PlusNet announced its plans to increase the downstream speeds of both its ‘Broadband Home Lite’ and ‘Broadband Home Premier’ services to 4 Mbps and 8 Mbps in future. VoIP solutions are now available with PlusTalk.

In November 2005, the operator set up its online shop to provide the latest information about broadband, computer and entertainment technologies of leading UK players. To celebrate the launch, it offered compact Creative Labs 512 MB MP3 player with FM radio for GBP 65.99 to its subscribers.

In 2Q05, the operator also announced its plans to increase the downstream speeds of both its ‘Broadband Home Lite’ and ‘Broadband Home Premier’ services to 4 Mbps and 8 Mbps in future.

In April 2005, PlusNet revised its ‘Broadband Home Lite’ and ‘Broadband Home Premier’ residential services by offering a standard speed of 2 Mbps.

In 3Q05, PlusNet revised its residential broadband service offerings by phasing out its ‘Broadband Home Lite’, ‘Teleworker Lite’, ‘Teleworker Pro Lite’, ‘Teleworker Premier’ and ‘Broadband Home Premier’ services. It also launched ‘Broadband Premier’ speeds of 4 Mbps and 8Mbps and ‘Broadband Plus’ with speeds up to 8 Mbps in its residential grade.

In 3Q05, PlusNet phased out its ‘Teleworker Lite’, ‘Teleworker Pro Lite’, ‘Teleworker Pro Premier’, ‘Small Business Lite’, ’Small Business Pro Lite’, ‘Small Business Pro Premier’ and ‘Business Lite’ business services. It launched ‘Teleworker Premier 8 Mb’ and ‘Small Business Premier 8 Mb’ business services with speeds of 8 Mbps. The operator also increased the speeds of its ‘Teleworker Lite 512 K’, ‘Small Business Premier 512 K’ and ‘Business Premier 512 K’ services to 2 Mbps, ‘Teleworker Lite 1 Mb’, ‘Small Business Premier 1 Mb’ and ‘Business Premier 1 Mb’ services to 4 Mbps and of ‘Business Premier 2 Mb’ to 8 Mbps in its business grade.

In 2Q06, the operator reduced the monthly rental rates of several of its business and residential plans by up to 60 percent. It also increased the upload speeds of some of its business and residential plans by up to 108 percent.

In 4Q05, PlusNet decreased the monthly rental prices of all its SDSL business services by up to 34 percent. The operator planned to launch its broadband services with speeds up to 8 Mbps in Greater London, Strathclyde, South Glamorgan, Cornwall and Northern Ireland by the end of November 2005 and throughout the whole of the UK by 2006.

On 15 Feb 2005, PlusNet launched trials for an ADSL service with speeds up to 8 Mbps (downstream) and allowed free upgrades to all of its ADSL subscribers. It also decreased the prices of its ‘Broadband Home 2Mb Lite’ residential service by up to 25 percent. Further, it launched wireless broadband on 11 Feb 2005 with a limited introductory offer of free trial until 1 Apr 2005.

In 3Q06, the operator increased the upload speed of all its residential services and several business services by up to 79.2 percent and 3.70 percent respectively. The operator also ceased to offer one of its business services, ‘Broadband Basic’, and launched a new service, ‘Teleworker Pay As You Go’, with speeds of up to 8 Mbps

On 27 June 2007, Plusnet launched a 90-day guarantee special offer for its prospective customers promising complete refund of the 90 day subscription if the customers are not satisfied with the service.

On 12 July 2007, Plusnet enhanced its customer service by offering advanced support on Mac based queries to its customers.

In 2006, PlusNet was a finalist for the Comms Channel Awards – 2006 and a winner in the uSwitch.com Broadband Customer Satisfaction Survey. PlusNet also won a customer award named ‘PC Advisor 2006’ for providing the best customer service including excellent technical support.

On 2 August 2007, Plusnet launched a social and discussion site, http://community.plus.net, directed towards its 200,000 customers. Plusnet aims to get online and real time feedback on all its products and services enabling it to innovate and enhance future value for customers.

On 2 November 2007, PlusNet launched a PlayStation3 gaming server for its online gamers. The operator also plans to add various gaming services in the future.

6 Mar 2008: Plusnet was selected for 2008 ISPA Awards for best consumer and business ISP as well as best broadband finalist.

In Q107, the operator offered a 30 days free trial of services and free migration to new users who switch from other ISP's.

On 26 June 2007, Plusnet launched a broadband service tailor-made for the Polish community in the UK. The service includes traffic prioritization on broadband lines enabling better performances for applications such as Skype, VoIP, webcams and Gadu-Gadu for online chats. The operator also launched its website in Polish with a dedicated contact centre to assist Polish speaking customers.

On 19 September 2007, Plusnet launched Broadband Your Way Pro package for its online gaming clients. The package uses the operator's the traffic management technology to deliver a fast low latency connection which is imperative for online gamers.

As of December 2007, PlusNet was offering 12 DSL broadband products, all bundled with telephone services to some extent. Broadband Your Way Options 1 to 4 offer usage levels up to 40GB, with free overnight usage. Broadband Your Way Pro differs in providing higher priority to the customer's traffic over the PlusNet network. PlusNet makes a point of not providing an "unlimited data download" offer on the grounds that such offers always have to be limited in pracrice by a fair usage policy.

PlusNet's three "Package" options bundle the broadband offer with phone service and line rental.

The product range is completed with four products aimed at business users, scaling from teleworkers through small businesses (with up to 10 PCs), larger businesses (with 10 or more PCs) to an SDSL offer.

On 28 Aug 2007, Plusnet announced that spam filtering is its priority focus area to improve its email facility for customers.

1 May 2008: PlusNet launched a new “bandwidth usage calculator” for its customers enabling them to keep a check on their Internet data transfer limit.

11 April 2007: Plusnet revamped its broadband service offerings by phasing out earlier packages and launching four new services with usage limit of 1 GB, 8 GB, 20 GB and 40 GB under its 'Broadband Your Way' banner. The packages includes additional usage charges or capped speeds on additional usage for a month, letting the customers opt for one of these. 'Broadband Your Way' also allows the customers to set the maximum cost for a month, specially useful for parents who want to keep a check on their children's internet usage.

In September 2007 PlusNet closed the websites for two brands it was continuing to operate independently, Force9 and Free-Online, and ceased to offer services with these brands. Existing customers were able to continue with the same billing details, email addresses etc.

In Q107, the operator introduced its referral program which provides a discount of GBP 5.50 on on the monthly rental for each recommendation of its services to new prospective users.

In August 2008 PlusNet launched its "Essential Package", bundling a basic broadband service (GBP 6.99) with telephone line rental (GBP 10) for a competitive GBP 16.99 per month.

5 December 2008: Plusnet signed a new Ofcom voluntary code to be more transparent in its communication with the customers. As per the code, the operator is required to inform the customer the true broadband speed the customer's line can support and what factors would result in loss of speed for the customer. The code also requires the operator to explain the fair usage policy to its customers and alert them when they have been violated.

In September 2009, Plusnet announced it will be reducing the length of its broadband contracts from eighteen months to twelve months and there is to be a price reduction too.

1 December 2008: Eclipse reduced the prices of its services as a result of fall in VAT from 17.50% to 15%, effective immediately.

8 October 2010: Plusnet promised standalone broadband at the lowest price in the UK to all its customers irrespective of the region they stay in. It committed to match the lowest price of its competitors in all the regions.