Having just joined up to the site and found this thread, I can offer a "long term user" insight into the experience of being a Plus Net customer.
Having been with them since the days of dial-up only, going through ISDN Home Highway, Bonded 128k lines, 2Mb ADSL and finally onto 8Mb ADSL Max, I can honestly say that they are the only provider I have come across to offer such transparency into their operations together with a very comprehensive range of standard facilites available to all their account holders.

It is true that they offer Tiscali service on an LLU (Local loop unbundling) basis, but again, this is something that you can opt out of at the touch of a button.
It is also true that they are now owned by BT (something that initially worried me) but to be fair, it would appear that they have retained complete autonomy and if anything, service keeps getting better.
All of their customer facing operations staff work out of their Sheffield Head Office and (up to press) I have never had the disappointment of speaking to someone who just reads from a script - a lot more than can be said for a lot of ISP's.
True again is the fact that Plus Net use traffic shaping systems (Ellacoya switches) to maintain a healthy network experience for all their subscribers, BUT it is also true that they light up new pipes (155Mb segments) on a very regular basis to ensure that there is enough bandwidth for all.

99% of anything you will ever need to do can be achieved online and if not, you will get some sensible help from a knowledgable person on the other end of the phone.
You can subscribe to Service Status emails which keep you informed of any issues that may be coming up or existing. Even proposed maintenance and improvement work is posted so you are kept fully aware of everything going on. They even have webcams in the customer support and development offices so you can see them working 24 hours a day..... as I said earlier, totally transparent.

I know that this sounds like the mad ravings of a Plus Net fan, but it is not without justification.
I personally spend a lot of time working with computers and subsequently come across all sorts of installations, with all sorts of different ISP's.
Believe me when I say that having dealt with a lot of the other "also-rans" and experiencing the unbelievably bad customer service they provide, you could do a lot worse than signing up with Plus Net....... a LOT worse.

Research yourselves a few of the annual ISP awards and you will find the answers you need :)

Hi Bob,

Glad to hear everything is all good so far. Let us know if there is anything that we can help with :)

I've now moved over to Plus net - and my speed is back to 1.4M consistently (over the last 10 days). Pipex (Tiscali) didn't even try to argue when I said I was switching so they must be happy to get rid of the old pipex customer base (Other posts on this thread seem to make the same point really).

It is good to be back to (what passes for) normal again :)

cheers

BobG

Rob Barnes:

Pipex will be stopping new consumer connection sign ups from tomorrow and will solely focus on business broadband.

Hiya Rob,

It looks from the Pipex website that they have already started to do this. Residential signup journey takes you to the Tiscali site.

I currently use Virgin and (meanly!!) pay for a 2meg connection - on all the speedtests I have run my average speed is 1.9meg. Very good performance - never had to contact their customer services or tech support - it just works. Purchased a Belkin wireless router for £50 and hey presto

I have also been testing the mobile broadband USB hubs from T Mobile/3/Vodafone - they all work and save the need for a landline subscription....great for low/medium users, average speeds of between 1.8-3.2meg. They are worth a look at as you dont then need to set up a wireless network at home, better security etc etc

You are correct, BT own Plus.net and also Madasafish, although they all trade separately with separate teams and billing

Pipex will be stopping new consumer connection sign ups from tomorrow and will solely focus on business broadband. This shouldnt affect existing consumer customers - however this may have something to do with the loss of speed lately as they re focus their attention on business

Hoopster:

I was with Pipex for about 7 years,when after Xmas last year I noticed a serious decline in my download speeds.I was getting on average about 3.5 Mbps (on an 8Meg connection) but then it went down to about 1 Mbps (if I was lucky!).So last month I switched to Plusnet and my speed once again averages about 3.5 Mbps,which isnt fantastic I guess but a damned sight better than the cr*p service I was getting off Pipex aka Tiscali *spit*.

Id recomend you leave Pipex ASAP.Tiscali have,according to an article I read in Micromart,more or less admited they are throttling Pipex customers connections.Its cheaper for them to get rid of them/YOU than pay for the extra bandwidth.(Allegedly ;) )

BTW I think Plusnet is owned by BT...could be wrong though.

Wasn't Pipex bought by Tiscali around xmas time? Could explain the drop in speed. If bandwidth is important to you eg you use the internets for more than facebook and myspaces. The I would suggest going for BT, Virgin or Bulldog (Not 100% sure about bulldog a mate of mine says they are great) all the other providers such as Pipex etc are just parasites using BT's stuff.

Well well well. If it isn't a fellow Pipex-Homecall sufferer (i mean subscriber). After the July merger with Tiscali is when I saw the same thing happen with evening speeds. Everyday around 4pm is when someone at Tiscali turns the big speed dial back to "really really slow" and laughs all the way to the bank with our money paid to Pipex-Homecall. ARG!

I am moving to PlusNet. Ya they are owned by BT but so far they are run as a separate entity and the support guys are in the same building as the guys to actually work on the network. A plus in my books.

Good Luck!

have u tried virgin media at all? they use a fibre optic cable so its not dealt through the telephone exchange, the 2 mb is standard but very quick and i never had troubles at all and there is no downloading limits either

I was with Pipex for about 7 years,when after Xmas last year I noticed a serious decline in my download speeds.I was getting on average about 3.5 Mbps (on an 8Meg connection) but then it went down to about 1 Mbps (if I was lucky!).So last month I switched to Plusnet and my speed once again averages about 3.5 Mbps,which isnt fantastic I guess but a damned sight better than the cr*p service I was getting off Pipex aka Tiscali *spit*.

Id recomend you leave Pipex ASAP.Tiscali have,according to an article I read in Micromart,more or less admited they are throttling Pipex customers connections.Its cheaper for them to get rid of them/YOU than pay for the extra bandwidth.(Allegedly ;) )

BTW I think Plusnet is owned by BT...could be wrong though.

At present I am with pipex homecall and am getting increasingly unhappy. it seems that my bandwidth is capped at around 256K or lower during the evening (but rises to 1.4M after midnight). As this is a rural area I don't expect to get massively high speeds but this is unworkable.

the decay seems to have set in after Tiscali took them over (although this might just be coincidence) and their system runs over the tiscali network.

My question is would I get the same if I moved over to plusnet? Is plusnet a reseller of the tiscali network in the same way or is it on a different system?

I would probably want to get the phone over at the same time, has anyone had experience of this shift and if so how pain'ful'/'less' was it?

cheers

BobG