24 month renewal of Plusnet bb with copper landline

donglefan

I just signed up for a 24 month Plusnet renewal which will end in January 2026 (I was told a shorter contract would raise monthly cost.)  I would like to ask advice about this here during the 'cooling off period' regarding the cessation of the traditional landline service.
I want the traditional landline for as long as possible, for backup, as it is a rural area.

I asked CS guy what will happen if the copper wire connection ceases during the contract period and he said I would be offered an alternative.  My concern is whether I would be tied into the the 24 month contract in that situation, as it could oblige me to accept something more expensive until the end of the contract.  Is there any information about what will happen in that situation?
Thank you for any information about this.

alanwsg

What happens if you want to cancel or switch suppliers half way through the contract?
i.e. what's the penalty?

400ixl

There is no cooling off period on a broadband renewal as all you are doing is extending an existing contract with a new minimum term. Cooling off period only exists on new contracts (e.g. with a new supplier).

As for the landline, currently there are no plans for Plusnet to offer digital voice, so when the current service gets switched off latest 2025 (but could be before for different exchanges) you will lose the landline if you stayed with Plusnet. Currently customers in this position will be allowed to move to EE or BT without penalty who do offer digital voice. Whether that means entering into a new minimum term contract at a different price I don't know but would think that likely.

There is no ability to move to any other provider penalty free if still in the minimum term.

400ixl

alanwsg said:

What happens if you want to cancel or switch suppliers half way through the contract?
i.e. what's the penalty?

Unless you switch to EE of BT then you have to pay off the remainder of the minimum terms contract, as you would any ISP.

iniltous

It’s not clear to me what you are actually asking , if the question is , if FTTP becomes available, can you stay on the  copper pair for the entire minimum term , then that’s not a problem, in areas where FTTP is available, no one is forced onto FTTP , but if renewing a contract or changing provider in an area where Openreach FTTP is available , then you will have to take the FTTP service, or remain on copper but on an out if contract basis which may be poor value .

It may be , at some point in the distant future, Openreach will require users to move to FTTP or  be disconnected , but that’s way off into the future.

I suspect you are conflating the PSTN switch off ( traditional phone service from the exchange equipment ) and the eventual removal of copper pair services…..copper pairs will be around for many years for some people, if the copper pair is only from the ‘cabinet’ as with FTTC ( fibre to the cabinet ) the phone service ( should the customer want one ) will be via the broadband router , this has been the case since September 2023.

As you have renewed with Plusnet , who no longer offer a phone service ( they direct their phone customers towards BT if they want to  keep the phone service,)  presumably you are a broadband only Plusnet customer , if by some quirk, you have renewed with Plusnet , but keeping a PSTN  phone  service, then by December 2025 at the latest you will have to make other arrangements for your phone as it cannot remain on PSTN .

donglefan

iniltous said:

 , if by some quirk, you have renewed with Plusnet , but keeping a PSTN  phone  service, then by December 2025 at the latest you will have to make other arrangements for your phone as it cannot remain on PSTN .

That's the situation.  I'm unclear as to what  will happen at that point, since the phone network will be switched off before the end of my contract which includes the phone line.

In this rural area there can be power cuts and the phone masts can go down with them.  Currently the pstn phones still work in that situation.    When it is switched off I think people will be completely cut off in that situation.

littleboo

donglefan said:

iniltous said:

 , if by some quirk, you have renewed with Plusnet , but keeping a PSTN  phone  service, then by December 2025 at the latest you will have to make other arrangements for your phone as it cannot remain on PSTN .

   When it is switched off I think people will be completely cut off in that situation.

You can invest in a UPS if you need to maintain a service through power interruptions. The amount of time a UPS will power the router is fairly short so not suitable prolonged power outages. 

iniltous

TBH , Plusnet are something of an oddity, a BT Group company in most areas use exactly the same infrastructure as BT ( so lines provided as WLR which no longer exists) but before BT bought PN they did have some network of their own ( so an LLU not WLR provider in some areas ) .

If you are on WLR ‘line’ , you should not have been offered PSTN telephony , and told your options as far as sticking with PN with no telephony, moving to BT , or finding a new provider , if somehow you are on a rare Plusnet LLU service ( and that’s not very likely ) they may not be affected by the WLR stop sell , but other LLU providers like Sky and Talk Talk although they don’t use ‘BT’ for telephony ( so never were WLR )  they are also migrating their LLU customers to their own versions of IP telephony .
Your situation seems unusual, personally I would be asking many more questions of PN , as what you have been told ( or possibly your interpretation of it ) seems wrong .

donglefan

Is there, or has there been a campaign to maintain the pstn system as backup?  When there is a power cut in this rural area sometimes the phone masts go down too.  Inevitably lives will be lost when all telecoms are down.

littleboo

The PSTN is end of life, parts are not available and the number of people able to maintain it is diminishing. On top of that, the rollout of fibre only makes sense if the copper network is retired. 

iniltous

Was there a campaign to keep leaded petrol for those that ran old cars that couldn’t use unleaded petrol ?, was there a campaign to keep analogue TV for those that didn’t have a Freeview TV  ? ,No , technology moves on , old tech isn’t kept going for the Luddites, has any one tried to buy  or rent  a VHS tape  lately,  ?
The safety aspect of having a telephone that goes off during a power cut is resolved by having a battery back up or uninterruptible power supply, in my opinion it’s a typical ‘Daily Mail’ style faux outrage, ask yourself this , if your traditional landline was faulty , do you move out of your home until it’s fixed ? you don’t , so why are you so frightened about the tiny chance that during a power outage that you simultaneously need to ring the emergency services and your  mobile phone isn’t working , it’s no more likely that needing to call 999 while your traditional phone is out of order .

Its frankly ridiculous to imagine a private company having to run a two networks , one only for ‘backup’ , if this was mandated by the Government , who should pay for it , everyone , even those that don’t want landline telephony ( so an income tax ) that would be a hard sell , or only those that want that safety blanket should pay , if it’s only those that demand that this backup is available that pay ( presumably someone like you ) , how much would you personally be prepared to pay for this backup service , ( given that it will only be a few thousand people concerned sufficiently to be prepared to pay ) , there are approximately 6000 local telephone exchanges , say each one would cost £5000 to keep going per year , that’s £30 million , being generous and assuming 10000 people would want to keep this old system going and will pay the upkeep, that’s £3000 each ( on top of whatever you pay now )  for something you probably will never need to use ….still prepared to pay for it ?