Plusnet guide
Is Plusnet down? Live outage tracker
Plusnet is BT Group's value brand, and that lineage decides how its outages behave. Plusnet broadband runs over Openreach, the same national fibre and copper as BT, Sky, EE and most others, and as part of BT Group it also leans on BT's core systems behind the line. So a Plusnet outage is one of two things: a fault on the Openreach connection to your home, or a problem in the shared BT core that can hit customers more widely.
Plusnet problems split the same way most Openreach-based providers do.
The first is a line fault on the Openreach connection to your property, usually local to a home or a postcode area, from a cabinet, exchange or FTTP issue. The board above and your neighbours are the quickest check: only you, it is your line or your kit; the whole street, it is a local Openreach fault.
The second is a core incident on the BT systems Plusnet shares as a group brand. A DNS or core failure on BT's side can take out browsing for Plusnet customers even when the line is fine, the same kind of incident that hits BT and EE, because they sit on the same infrastructure. When that happens there is nothing to fix at your end.
Plusnet signed Ofcom's Voluntary Code of Practice on Broadband Speeds, so it has to quote you a minimum guaranteed download speed at sign-up. If your line consistently falls below that minimum and Plusnet cannot restore it within 30 days of your fault report, you can leave the contract penalty-free.
That is the guaranteed minimum, usually well below the headline speed, so check your contract before you escalate.
For a total loss of service, Ofcom's automatic compensation scheme pays £10.34 for each day you are completely offline beyond two full working days from your report, credited automatically. Like the rest of BT Group, Plusnet now applies a fixed pounds-and-pence annual price rise rather than a CPI percentage, set out before you sign, so a rise above the agreed figure is grounds to leave without penalty.
Plusnet's support runs a scripted check, and evidence moves it fastest. Run a speed test on a wired ethernet connection rather than wifi, and if it is below the guaranteed minimum on your contract, say so to push the case into a fault investigation. Packet loss on a wired connection is stronger still, because a line or sync fault can often be confirmed remotely and an engineer booked.
If you get nowhere, you can escalate to alternative dispute resolution. Plusnet is a member of the Communications Ombudsman, the independent scheme, and you can take a complaint there after six weeks without resolution, or sooner if Plusnet gives you a deadlock letter.
Because Plusnet runs on Openreach, switching to another Openreach provider like Sky or TalkTalk puts you on the same physical line and may share the same BT core for some services, so it will not always help. For a genuinely different network you want Virgin's cable or a full-fibre altnet where one reaches you. The deal finder above shows which networks actually serve your address rather than the "up to" figures in the adverts.