Be versus Plusnet: Who Wins in the Battle of the Online Gamers?

WHETHER you're comparing your weight loss on the Wii fit or getting lost in an online world there's no denying that the online gaming business is booming. And with this rise comes the inevitable - lags, freezing and the need for more bandwidth to unleash your ultimate power online.

But with so many choices of internet service providers, which one is right for you?

Two of the top names in gamer centric broadband are Be and PlusNet. Their interest in online gamers' custom has resulted in a variety of packages to suit almost any usage need. In an effort to find out which one had the highest overall user satisfaction, we asked a random panel of Be and PlusNet users to give their opinions of their ISP.

What Be and Plusnet's online gaming broadband customers say:

Be
Our snap poll of current Be customers revealed a 100% satisfaction rate among 20 respondents. The customers cited reliability of service, fast resolution of problems and network speed as their top reasons for liking Be.

And gamers in particular state that the Be upper level service tiers (Be unlimited and Be Pro) offer superior ping times through FastPath, with pings between 14-16ms, compared to the average 26-30ms.

Another perk for gamers using Be is that console gamers don't need to set up 'port forwarding'. Through the Be setup page, you simply check a box and your PS3, Wii or Xbox 360 is ready to roll.

Be offers 3 month contracts for Be Unlimited and Be Pro during the first year and a free ADSL2+ modem. But bear in mind that you must cancel with 3 months notice to avoid paying penalties during your first year of service.

Be Value however requires a 12 month contract.

The Be Value plan - with max speeds of just 8Mb - would be best suited to non-gamers, not for those who like their MMORPG.

For the avid gamer, there are Be Unlimited and Be Pro. And for those who want special attention, Be Pro offers users priority customer and technical services.

Customers polled from both of Be's service offerings say speed and reliability are equally good. Be Pro subscribers say they get slightly better ping times, but the extra attention from customer service is the plan's real strength.

PlusNet
PlusNet has a solid track record for being a dependable and consistent internet service provider.

Most of the 15 customers we polled reported that they have had few problems with their broadband service overall.

Though PlusNet has previously campaigned under the banner that 'unlimited broadband is a myth' - in an attempt to explain its usage caps to customers - it now offers unlimited deals with what is, by all accounts, a very fair fair-use policy during the day and truly unlimited broadband from midnight to 8am.

PlusNet also has special features in their gamer-specific Pro package package; all gaming and VoIP traffic is automatically put into their titanium queue and receives preferential treatment, thereby separating it from the regular streaming media and email traffic queues.

Those missing their usage caps will be pleased too as the service has a 20GB usage allowance and you can add more to this if you want at a cost of £2 per 2GB (it can't be prepaid for however), although, like Unlimited, it's truly unlimited in off-peak hours - that's midnight to 8am.

Each of the PlusNet service plans offers up to 8Mb download speed with 12 month contracts and a free router (although you do have to pay £6.99 for postage).

Perhaps the biggest deciding factor for gamers has less to do with ping response times and more to do with non-gaming habits.

For example, gamers who also use a lot of P2P and who download bit torrents (especially during peak hours from 08:00 - 23:59) would probably prefer Be's unlimited service plan to avoid the headache of calculating how much you will be charged extra each month for exceeding your usage limit. And with up to 24Mb download and 2.5Mb upload speeds on the Be Pro package, £19.99 per month is a very good deal.

The drawback could be that your gaming traffic is not separated from normal network traffic and therefore you may theoretically have occasional lag, though most Be gamers I've spoken to said they haven't experienced this.

But PlusNet offers more scale in pricing for the budget minded gamer. If you are an occasional gamer, you could do with Premium [Ed: package no longer available, see Plusnet]; so long as your other internet habits don't take you over the 80GB limit, but gaming traffic is prioritised on any Plusnet package.

All in all, both service providers have solid records and their users do not fault them for their broadband service. Though users from both Be and PlusNet have had the occasional problem with customer service and technical support, this can be said of any ISP.

Choosing between the two may come down to how much you can afford versus how much you download on an average month.

But beyond the financial considerations, both Be and PlusNet can offer the dependable service you need to decimate your opponents online.

Comments