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

By Lorrie Kelly Staff Writer Tuesday, 23 October 2007

Which Broadband Package is best for Online Gaming? “Choosing between Plusnet or Be may come down to how much you can afford versus how much you download on an average month.” THE BE PACKAGES The Be Pro package £22 per month £24 connection fee Up to 24Mbps download speed Up to 2.5Mb upload speed No download limit 3-month contract only Free static IP address The Be Unlimited package £18 per month £24 connection fee Up to 24Mbps download speed Up to 1.3Mb upload speed No download limit 3-month contract only Free static IP address The Be Value package £14 per month £24 connection fee Up to 8Mbps download speed Up to 1.3Mb upload speed No download limit 12-month contract THE PLUSNET PACKAGES The Plusnet BBYWP package £19.99 per month £40 connection fee (free if you opt for 12 months contract) Up to 8Mbps download speed 10GB usage (unlimited off-peak) 3-month contract only The Plusnet Option 1 package £9.99 per month £40 connection fee (free if you opt for 12 months contract) Up to 8Mbps download speed 1GB usage (unlimited off-peak) 1-month contract only The Plusnet Option 2 package £14.99 per month £40 connection fee (free if you opt for 12 months contract) Up to 8Mbps download speed 8GB usage (unlimited off-peak) 1-month contract only The Plusnet Option 3 package £19.99 per month £40 connection fee (free if you opt for 12 months contract) Up to 8Mbps download speed 20GB usage (unlimited off-peak) 1-month contract only The Plusnet Option 4 package £29.99 per month £40 connection fee (free if you opt for 12 months contract) Up to 8Mbps download speed 40GB usage (unlimited off-peak) 1-month contract only

WITH the latest array of gaming consoles and PC games coming onto the market, the online gaming industry 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 in writing 3 months ahead to avoid paying penalties during your first year of service.

Be Value however requires a 12 month contract for the first year which then goes to 1 month notification for cancellations after year one.

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 is 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 but some are annoyed by the new billing tiers which have been recently implemented.

Though PlusNet has launched a campaign stating that ‘unlimited broadband is a myth’ – in an attempt to explain its practices to customers, most are not warming to the idea of having bandwidth throttling and usage caps on their accounts and are accusing PlusNet of being ‘stingy’.

Having said this, it should be noted that PlusNet’s capping scheme could accommodate most users within one of its 5 tiers and many gamers would do well to break PlusNet’s upper limits set at 40GB during peak hours on the Option 4 plan by just gaming alone.

PlusNet also has special features in their gamer-specific Broadband Your Way Pro 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.

But the drawback to Plusnet’s BBYWP is its monthly usage cap of 10 GB for peak hours, which most diehard gamers could easily exceed.

Each of the PlusNet service plans offers up to 8Mb download speed, 1 month contracts and a free router, excluding BBYWP which has a 90 day contract. But if you cancel within the first year of service on any of their plans, you will be required to pay for the router they have supplied.

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 plans 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, £22 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 Option 2; so long as your other internet habits don’t take you over the 8GB limit - at which point you can be charged between £1.50 - £1.80 for every 2 GB in excess of your cap.

Though PlusNet offers a gamer specific plan with BBYWP, perhaps the best options offered by PlusNet for gaming enthusiasts would be found in Option 3 or Option 4. Both of these offer more substantial usage limits as well as PlusNet’s standard preferential treatment for gaming traffic in their gold queue.

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.

Interested in a Be broadband package for gaming? You can sign up here...
Interested in a Plusnet broadband package for gaming? You can sign up here...

Compare broadband and bundle services
Back to broadband guide