Alternative Network Suppliers – FAQ

1. Are you still moving customers onto the Tiscali LLU platform?
   
2. What is changing?
   
3. Why are we doing this?
   
4. Will my service be available during the switchover?
   
5. Will my telephone service change?
   
6. Will it be as good as the service I am used to?
   
7. Are other ISPs doing this?
   
8. What speeds will be available on an LLU service?
   
9. Will I need to buy a new modem?
   
10. Will I be able to subscribe to a cheaper service if I am on an LLU exchange?
    
11. Will I be able to move away from the service?
    
12. What if the LLU service does not meet my expectations?
    
13. Is it possible to opt-out of receiving the service?
    

1. Are you still moving customers onto the Tiscali LLU platform?
No. We don't plan to move any additional customers onto the Tiscali network. This is result of business changes, rather than a direct result of the problems experienced during the process of moving customers.
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2. What is changing?
Your broadband service currently connects to PlusNet using the BT Wholesale broadband network. Using an alternative network provider for broadband means another company provides the connection from your local telephone exchange to our network. Our trials of the broadband service from the new suppliers have received excellent feedback from participants. There will be no other changes to your PlusNet product or service as a result of this work.

BT will continue to provide your phone service. In the event that an engineer is required to help fix any problems, this will still be a BT Openreach engineer.
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3. Why are we doing this?
Currently we pay a fee to BT for your connection AND for the data you transfer over your broadband service. However, BT Wholesale’s products are expensive and don’t currently offer speeds above 8Mb. A new service, known as Local Loop Unbundling (or LLU), is now available at some exchanges. This allows other companies to install their own equipment and offer service to Internet Service Providers (ISPs) that compete with the BT Wholesale products. Because of lower operating costs at some exchanges, LLU providers can offer a better service at a lower wholesale price. In the UK there have already been more than 1.5 million lines moved to LLU.

We have run trials with two alternative network providers. Concerns over the disruption to service, and changes in our business mean that at the time of writing we are not considering other network providers.
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4. Will my service be available during the switchover?
There will be a short period during which your service (broadband and telephone) will be unavailable. This could be up to 2 hours, but in most cases will be a lot less.

Please note: a small number of customers have trouble re-connecting because they have the wrong connection settings for their modem/router. Please check you are using these settings to prevent any problems:

• VPI = 0, VCI = 38
  
• ADSL Modulation: Auto or G.DMT
  
• Encapsulation Mode: PPP over ATM (PPPoA - RFC2364) or VC-MUX - NOT LLC-Based or PPPoE
  
• Authentication Mode: CHAP
  

If you have always used our recommended settings you should not have any problems re-connecting.
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5. Will my telephone service change?
No. We will not be changing your telephone service. You will continue to pay your telephone service provider for your line rental, as you do now.
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6. Will it be as good as the service I am used to?
Our LLU trials revealed a higher level of customer satisfaction than the equivalent BT Wholesale trials. We are very confident about the quality of the new LLU product, an opinion that is supported by reports that LLU service faults are substantially lower than with BT's network.
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7. Are other ISPs doing this?
Yes, most large ISPs are planning to do this, and many have already started, including Pipex, Demon and Orange.
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8. What speeds will be available on an LLU service?
The service will offer either up to 8Mb download speed and up to 800k upload speed (depending on line quality), or where ADSL2+ is available, download speeds up to 24Mb may be possible. This depends on the line quality, exchange location and your PlusNet product.
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9. Will I need to buy a new modem?
You will not need a new modem to receive an up to 8Mb service, however to benefit from the higher potential speeds (up to 24Mb) available on some LLU exchanges you will need to have an ADSL2+ rated modem (such as the Linksys ADSLMUE, which has a recommended retail price of £40). We will let you know if you’d benefit from a new modem.
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10. Will I be able to subscribe to a cheaper service if I am on an LLU exchange?
No. Using LLU represents a positive step for PlusNet and ALL of our customers, and any savings made will go towards providing an improved service for everyone.
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11. Will I be able to move away from the service?
BT are currently running a trial that allows us to transfer customers from LLU to IPStream.

As this is a trial service we can only submit about 6-10 orders a week. That means you will need to meet one of these criteria before we will move you:

• If you were migrated before 1st June, prior to the introduction of the LLU opt-out and are experiencing issues with the service.
  
• If you were migrated despite opting out.
  
• If you have an ongoing fault that has been raised to Tiscali but is at risk of not being resolved (this is at the discretion of the Support Team).
  
• You did not receive email notifications before and at the point of migation to LLU.
  

Any other customers on an LLU service who want to transfer back to IPStream will need to pay a £40 connection fee. If you want to move to another provider you will need to either cancel your broadband service or find a provider that accepts LLU MAC Keys.
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12. What if the LLU service does not meet my expectations?
If there is a problem with the LLU service, we will do everything we can to fix any fault you may be experiencing. In comparison to BT, the tools provided by our suppliers are more robust and detailed, and allow us to clear faults more quickly than with a BT Wholesale provided service.

In the event of problems that cannot be fixed, we can now move customers back to BT's IPstream products without problem.
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13. Is it possible to opt-out of receiving the service?

Yes. Visit the Help Assistant. Here you can raise a Question asking to opt-out of being transferred to an LLU service.

Please note, your request must be made before we have placed an order to transfer your service. If we have already placed the order, we won't be able to cancel it.
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Additional FAQs have been produced by the PlusNet Usergroup and can be found on the Usergroup website

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