PlusNet Broadband & Phone contract renewal options

However

I've just received notification from PlusNet that my broadband-plus-phone contract is coming to an end. It appears I have two and only two options:-:
1. go Fibre, and lose the household phone number that I've had for 48 years.
2. renew my current Unlimited contract (for up to 24 months) and keep my phone number "for now".

That's not how I understand the situation. I understood that current technology might be changing but that existing landline phone numbers would remain albeit using updated technology - one might need new physical phones but the landline number remains.

Is this PlusNet being coy about their offers, giving the impression that their withdrawal from any sort of phone service provision is industry wide when the opposite is true? Having tried a couple of comparison sites, it seems PlusNet has already ended providing a landline for new customers. Only Sky, Shell and TalkTalk appear available at my address. Not even BT. How can that be? In fact, Uswitch has just returned zero offers - zero! So much for consumer choice and competition. It seems I have no choice but to remain with PlusNet for the next two years.

400ixl

Plusnet are not offering (at this time) a digital voice option. If you want that then you will need to sign up with either BT or EE as the groups providers of both full fibre and phone service. Or move to another provider completely.

The other issue is that Openreach have put a cease selling on lots of fibre (copper) services and only those who have their own equipment in the exchange can provide new contracts. However if full fibre is available then you should be able to see more providers.

If you do not yet have full fibre available you can renew the existing service and when it becomes available they will allow you to leave without penalty to join EE or BT at that time. So renewing with Plusnet is not a dead end when full fibre becomes available within that 2 year contract but it does limit your choice .

The other option is to port your number to a VOIP provider and use it over the internet.

However

400ixl said:

you will need to sign up with either BT or EE as the groups providers of both full fibre and phone service.

Full Fibre is not available at my post code and there's nothing anywhere that says when it might be, if ever. I've just checked EE's website it says "while you might be able to choose a Fibre broadband package with optional landline today, this option will be removed when it comes time to renew at the end of your contract. You will then have to change to a Fibre without landline package and lose access to a landline". I expect the same to be true of BT which only offers Fibre Essential broadband & phone but their website doesn't properly explain the consequences of switching to them and merely says that "our latest landlines use a new technology called Digital Voice".

400ixl said:
renewing with Plusnet is not a dead end when full fibre becomes available within that 2 year contract but it does limit your choice .

It seems I have no effective choice but maintain the status quo with PlusNet which fortunately is cheaper than the others and I'm perfectly content with my current non-Fibre arrangement. So I can kick the can down the road for two years. But I still feel I'm being held hostage to fortune.

400ixl said:

The other option is to port your number to a VOIP provider and use it over the internet.

A quick look at what VOIP involves simply leaves me bamboozled with all the breathless jargon. Can nobody write clear English these days? Can't be having it.

But thanks for your response. You've made me investigate a bit more.

iniltous

Your options seem clear , stick with PN nothing in the short term changes but uncompetitive price , stick with PN  for broadband without telephony, new contract with a presumably a competitive price , take the opportunity to move to BT or EE , keeping your phone number but delivered via DV , so the phone plugs into the router not the current phone socket….FTTP is irrelevant unless it’s available and if it is , then apart from staying with PN on the out of contract basis, would require FTTP to be installed to replace the copper pair , but you state that FTTP isn’t available anyway.
PN are moving out of the telephone business and if the brand continues, it will be as a budget broadband only provider, EE will become the mass market brand for residential and BT becomes a business brand ….what type of broadband are you on ? , if it’s exchange based ADSL ( max speed 17Mb on average ) and FTTC ( fibre to the cabinet ) is available , given there is virtually no price difference but potentially much better speed ( upto 80Mb ) why wouldn’t you want that , there is no reason why you wouldn’t keep the number you have on FTTC 

armith

There are some options for keeping your landline number. My (very helpful) ISP took my existing number and converted it to VOIP. The only thing I had to do was unplug my telephone from the BT socket and plug it into my internet router. I think they'll do this regardless of whether you take the broadband from them or not - I get two completely separate bills, one for broadband and one (a couple of weeks later) for the telephone service. The telephone costs me £6 a month and I get 1000 minutes (over 16 hours) a month of inclusive calls - great for me because my mobile phone signal is patchy at home - and the "landline" phone is much more comfortable to use for long calls (for me).

It might be worth you doing this as you are no longer then tied to the schedule that Plusnet/EE/BT have for doing whatever they are doing to landlines. All you're doing is effectively taking a phone service completely independently of your internet provider.

Suzycoll

However said:

I've just received notification from PlusNet that my broadband-plus-phone contract is coming to an end. It appears I have two and only two options:-:
1. go Fibre, and lose the household phone number that I've had for 48 years.
2. renew my current Unlimited contract (for up to 24 months) and keep my phone number "for now".

That's not how I understand the situation. I understood that current technology might be changing but that existing landline phone numbers would remain albeit using updated technology - one might need new physical phones but the landline number remains.

Is this PlusNet being coy about their offers, giving the impression that their withdrawal from any sort of phone service provision is industry wide when the opposite is true? Having tried a couple of comparison sites, it seems PlusNet has already ended providing a landline for new customers. Only Sky, Shell and TalkTalk appear available at my address. Not even BT. How can that be? In fact, Uswitch has just returned zero offers - zero! So much for consumer choice and competition. It seems I have no choice but to remain with PlusNet for the next two years.

hi
yes I am in a similar situation as you . PlusNet has offered me roughly the same as you, but have also raised my monthly price by £19 a month unless I take up the offer you mentioned. Bit like blackmail really.

As regarding the land line I'm not sure when land lines are being shut down ?  I need to keep mine for now as my elderly father struggles with a mobile and still rings me on the landline.

I am in the middle of shopping round and can see that NOW broadband still has the land line option available and their prices are also reasonable. No knowledge of what their service etc is like though

If you use Top cashback you can also get money back 


Hope that helps 

Take care 

However

iniltous said:

what type of broadband are you on ? , if it’s exchange based ADSL ( max speed 17Mb on average ) and FTTC ( fibre to the cabinet ) is available , given there is virtually no price difference but potentially much better speed ( upto 80Mb ) why wouldn’t you want that , there is no reason why you wouldn’t keep the number you have on FTTC 

It's ADSL ('Unlimited') and I can renew the contract and keep landline and phone number at some 25% more. FTTC is available from PN ('Fibre') but if I convert I lose the landline and phone number, and it's some 30% more. If I can port my phone number to a VOIP-only provider (I'm not clear whether PN allows that), I have a further chunk on top (plus the upfront cost of replacing all handsets (one master station with three slave wireless handsets, and two traditional phones one of which is my back-up in our frequent power cuts - being vulnerable, Southern Electric actually phones me on the phone when there's a power cut - try that with VOIP!). If I stay with PN Unlimited, to retain email and home phone, I have to pay some 25% more unless I can haggle them down. If I move from PN to retain my long established home phone number, I lose my email address which was established many years ago, and I'd still have to pay a chunk more for an separate phone service.

armith said:

There are some options for keeping your landline number. My (very helpful) ISP took my existing number and converted it to VOIP.

That option is not available from PN. That's the issue - they are abandoning telephony.

I've moreorless decided my approach will be to renew my existing contract with PN, retaining status quo for 24 months (until mid December 2025) because I cannot face what will be involved in changing my email address. With twenty-odd years of contacts both personal and household and worldwide, I no longer have the energy; I recall the effort involved changing from pre-broadband dial-up email (freeserve) to PN. Perhaps in two years time, as the deadline nears, the penny might drop that a forced and not fully understood migration from bundled broadband/phone/email to a fragmented set up might not be quite as smooth as first hoped. If the penny-drop can happen with heat pumps and EVs, then it can happen with the internet....

[Deleted User]

I think I'm the same as However - the upheaval would be like running a marathon with little energy and having to change everything over.  When I had a new router it was (for me) a mammoth task connecting everything to the new router.  Thankfully my landline was without difficulty and was completely unchanged.

When the time comes does it sound as if Plusnet will charge about 19% more than their present rate and, for a time at any rate, leave the telephone and number unaffected?  19% would be a huge increase for me but I would dread the upheaval involved in having to change ISP and all that, that would involve.  I don't understand what the different types of telephone 'services' involve and hope things will become easier and more straightforward to understand - when the change from "ordinary" landline becomes essential.

iniltous

What you apparently don’t appreciate is the exchange equipment, the System X and System Y ‘switches’ are around  30-40 years old and increasing hard to maintain and liable to failure, not least the engineering staff that were trained on this gear are approaching retirement themselves as well as the equipment…IP telephony for those that  want it ( increasingly people don’t even want a landline phone service ) will all be IP , and although you may be ‘safe’ until the final PSTN switch off in December 2025 , I wouldn’t bank on it , if you were ( for arguments sake ) the only one left on an exchange switch, the chances are you would be offered a migration or withdrawal of your service…..your situation is a little more complicated because you use a Communication Provider that doesn’t want to be in the Telephony business, frankly it’s a shrinking market , that is only going to get smaller , young people just don’t make landline phone calls.
Although you have made a choice , I think in your situation the obvious thing to have done was take PN offer to migrate to BT with DV keeping your existing phone number , as at least that would not have an impending deadline, all you have done is delayed the inevitable for possibly two years , but I suspect it will be much less than 24 months before you are deciding to abandon PSTN telephony with PN completely , or switch to someone else using IP technology 

[Deleted User]

My Plusnet contract does not run out until next year.  I'll try to get my head round what the different terms mean and, although reluctant, I'll have to move with the times.  From reading here I guess I have, at present,  PSTN telephony (BT landline) with Plusnet Broadband and landline.

There will be good and reliable information on the MSE Forums, very much appreciated, but my heart still sinks a bit at the prospect of essential change - especially anything technical.

It is a different subject but, just as an example, I accept that smart meters for gas and electricity are going to become inevitable but, for now, I am happy to delay the inevitable - as well as a likely increase in the cost of the service being provided.  The prospect of power going off and having to reconnect things afterwards is, for me, also quite daunting. 

I think, although not all, many older people, like me, struggle with the seemingly rapid advances and changes in technology. 

iniltous

The switch to DV ( if using BT as an example ) is as easy as on the day advised , you unplug the phone instrument from the wall socket ( the broadband remains plugged in here ) and plug the phone into the phone socket on the router ( if the router isn’t compatible, BT send you a SH2 router that does have a phone socket ,)  Plusnet routers are rebadged BT ones anyway ….so even technophobes should be able to manage the change