Deals not available in my area

ashpan

im trying to switch from plusnet to a cheaper option but the best deals (on the MSE comparison tool) arent 'available in my area' which im being offered however are the much more expensive superfast fibre which i dont want as its outside of my budget.
Both shell energy and now tv have both told me that my only option is to stay with plusnet which seems very unreasonable.
Does anyone know how i can access cheap broadband which addresses my requirements and doesnt fix me in for more than 12 months?  I'll wait !!!

The_Fat_Controller

If you live in an area where Openreach have imposed a "stop sell " policy for a ADSL/FTTC then you have no option to stay with Plusnet.

It's all part of the inevitable move to full fibre.

The only other option would be a 4G/5G mobile router.

ashpan

The_Fat_Controller said:

If you live in an area where Openreach have imposed a "stop sell " policy for a ADSL/FTTC then you have no option to stay with Plusnet.

It's all part of the inevitable move to full fibre.

The only other option would be a 4G/5G mobile router.

thankyou, can you tell me more about a 4G/5G router please, im pretty ignorant of all things broadband!

ashpan

And...... do plusnet have to give me the same deal as newbies as its a much better offer than the one theyve given me!!

400ixl

No they don't have to give you the same deal as newbies, especially if that includes things like cash back offers.

However I have always found that outside of the cash back side when coming out of contract you can get pretty much as good a deal for the monthly payment side as a new customer, but likely an 18 month contract with Plusnet.

When does your current contract end, what are they offering you and via what media (email, website, call centre)?

ashpan

£24 pcm for 2 years via call centre

SoftCentaur

There are quite a few ads on tv at the moment promising "£25 a month for 2 years" in big fonts....but the small prints tells you about the inflation + 3.5% every April.. Before  the 2 years is up, it will be pushing £30 a month.

Broadband ads are still very misleading.

BUFF

ashpan said:

£24 pcm for 2 years via call centre

you should be able to get the deals on https://www.plus.net/broadband/ minus the cashback card element.
Do you know what your line is capable of supporting (no point paying extra for it if you can't actually get it)?

ashpan

BUFF said:

ashpan said:

£24 pcm for 2 years via call centre

you should be able to get the deals on https://www.plus.net/broadband/ minus the cashback card element.
Do you know what your line is capable of supporting (no point paying extra for it if you can't actually get it)?

no i dont know what my line can support, i get a message to say superfast fibre broadband is available in my area (apparently only 23% of the country can get this??)
how do i find out?

BUFF

go to https://www.broadbandchecker.btwholesale.com/#/ADSL fill in the details & post a screenshot of the resultant page.

afaik super fast for Plusnet is upto 66Mb - I can technically get the service but I won't get anything near 66Mb on my line & only a few Mb over what the 36Mb tier achieves so I don't pay the extra (even the Plusnet cs rep agreed that there was no point when she looked at the figures) - tbh 36Mb does me fine as I don't stream much, just browsing, email etc..

iniltous

ashpan said:

BUFF said:

ashpan said:

£24 pcm for 2 years via call centre

you should be able to get the deals on https://www.plus.net/broadband/ minus the cashback card element.
Do you know what your line is capable of supporting (no point paying extra for it if you can't actually get it)?

no i dont know what my line can support, i get a message to say superfast fibre broadband is available in my area (apparently only 23% of the country can get this??)
how do i find out?

Those figures are way off , Superfast is defined as 24-30Mb or better   , depending on who’s definition of Superfast is used , but those speeds are available to much more than 23% of the population, that 23% figure probably refers to Hyperfast which is defined as 100Mb or more and generally is FTTP or VM ‘cable’ areas.
As already stated ( although you haven’t actually confirmed it ) if you are in an area where FTTP is available, Openreach can restrict ISP’s signing up new customers onto anything other than FTTP ( to drive customers onto FTTP so the copper network can be retired ) so your options are to stay with whoever you are with ( on copper pair FTTC )  , or move to a new company or upgrade with the current company using FTTP,
You may think that’s unfair,  if ‘cheap’ deals are available in other areas but not yours , but those other areas probably don’t have access to FTTP , so although your complaint is about price , others that get cheaper deals  complain that they don’t have the option of better speed, the fact is that Openreach cannot be expected to keep two networks going simultaneously forever just to keep budget providers happy , there has to be a cut off point , and in your area it’s likely that cut off point has been reached.