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Broadband Plus - experience

Service
Keywords: broadband | usage | traffic | management | products Summary: Traffic management information for the Broadband Plus product
This page refers to our Broadband Plus product*. Check our support section for information about Broadband Your Way residential products.
* This product is not available to new signups.

This page explains how we manage Broadband Plus to ensure you get the right experience for your product. For more detailed information about how we manage our network read these articles:


Product Design

Broadband Plus is designed for surfing, email, chatting and shopping.

It is NOT suitable for file sharing and large downloads.

Broadband Plus is designed for a maximum usage of 4GB peak times (4pm-Midnight) and 50GB offpeak (midnight-4pm) in any given month.

If your usage goes over 4GB during peak times or 50GB offpeak in a given month, your service will be heavily restricted until the start of your next billing month when your usage is reset. If you are downloading large files you should do this outside of the busy periods. If you want to download lots of music or video we recommend Broadband Your Way.

What does 4GB actually give me?

Not sure how much a GB is? See what you can do with a GB.

Monthly Data Transfer Examples
1GB 3GB 10GB
Surfing 4 hours a day 12 hours a day 24 hours a day
+ + +
Email with attachments 15 a week 45 a week 150 a week
+ + +
Email 100 a week 300 a week 1000 a week
+ + +
Downloading songs and short video 10 songs or clips a week 30 songs or clips a week 100 songs or clips a week
+ + +
Listen to online radio 2 hours a week 6 hours a week 20 hours a week

Broadband Plus Experience

Because all PlusNet broadband products are provided over a shared network we cannot guarantee exact speeds. This industry-wide method is proven to provide a fast and reliable service at an affordable price. Tdhe table below shows the expected experience assuming the network is not under abnormal load.

Application
Peak hours
Off-peak hours
Browsing
Fast
Fast
Email
Fast
Fast
VoIP
Very fast
Very fast
Gaming
Moderate
Very fast
Streaming
Moderate
Fast
VPN
Restricted
Moderate
P2P/Binary USENET
Restricted
Moderate
TV/Radio/Movie downloads
Restricted
Moderate

Very fast - Excellent experience for real-time applications. This traffic has the highest priority on our network.
Fast - Good experience for interactive applications. Customers shouldn't notice any slowdown unless the network is very busy.
Moderate - Non-interactive experience. Customers will see restricted speeds whenever the network is busy.
Restricted - Non interactive experience with speeds heavily restricted or blocked completely.


Broadband Plus expected maximum downstream speeds

The information shown below represents what speeds customers can expect to receive under normal network conditions. Please note that speeds are shown on an individual protocol basis and that interactive protocols (e.g. web browsing, streaming and gaming) will run at your line speed.

For more details about how these speeds are delivered and what we would do if this information is changed please see our Expected Speeds page.

Time
2am to 12pm
12pm to 2pm
2pm to 4pm
4pm to 6pm
6pm to 8pm
8pm to 10pm
10pm to 12am
12am to 2am
Peer-to-Peer
750Kbps
256Kbps
128Kbps
100Kbps
100Kbps
100Kbps
100Kbps
256Kbps
Binary USENET
750Kbps
256Kbps
128Kbps
100Kbps
100Kbps
100Kbps
100Kbps
256Kbps
External FTP
750Kbps
256Kbps
128Kbps
100Kbps
100Kbps
100Kbps
100Kbps
256Kbps
Download sites
NR
NR
NR
512Kbps
512Kbps
512Kbps
512Kbps
NR
Download servers
NR
NR
NR
1Mbps
1Mbps
1Mbps
1Mbps
NR

Key

Downstream speeds
NR - No restriction*

*Even though there are no individual restrictions, the speeds you receive are still affected by traffic prioritisation and the activities of every other customer who is sharing the network.

 

Why do we have to manage traffic on our network?

Like other ISPs we deliver our broadband service over a network which is shared amongst our customers. This means we have to manage our network to ensure we provide a sustainable quality broadband service to all our customers. 

The principles of PlusNet's network management policies:

  • To make sure that time-critical applications like VoIP and gaming are always prioritised
  • To protect interactive applications like web-browsing and VPN from non-time sensitive download traffic
  • To flex the network under demand to cope with normal peaks and troughs from day to day and month to month
  • To flex the network more gracefully than other ISPs in the event of unusual demands in traffic or disaster situations such as a network failure
  • To provide a service relative to the amount each customer pays in terms of usage and experience

For more detailed information about how we manage our network please read these articles:

Read the PlusNet Broadband 'Blueprint'
See PlusNet's Future of Traffic Management
Managing our Network Under Abnormal Load

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