24 month renewal of Plusnet bb with copper landline

onomatopoeia99

donglefan said:

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.

Buy a UPS to keep the ISP router working during a power cut if that's a concern.  It's really, really easy to install them, you plug it into the mains and plug the router in to the socket on the UPS.

I had a power cut at 9.30am on Christmas day and it was out until about 12.30, then others of multiple hour durations on the 26th and 27th, as well as a whole series of under two minute interruptions on all three days.  For this reason I have a Tesla powerwall for the whole house and a separate 3000VA UPS for the server and router so everything kept working (note : I don't recommend this approach to everyone, I'm just explaining what is possible if continuity of mains supply is a concern).

donglefan

Thank you.  People in metropolitan areas might not understand: in rural areas, and I am by no means in the most rural, mobile phone telephony sometimes goes down when there is a power cut. 
It would be useful to preserve community hubs of PTSN for emergency use.
It would also be useful for disabled and elderly people who have those red emergency button systems to have PTSN, because power backup systems do not last for as long as power cuts which last for days in some areas.

tghe-retford

donglefan said:

Thank you.  People in metropolitan areas might not understand: in rural areas, and I am by no means in the most rural, mobile phone telephony sometimes goes down when there is a power cut. 
It would be useful to preserve community hubs of PTSN for emergency use.
It would also be useful for disabled and elderly people who have those red emergency button systems to have PTSN, because power backup systems do not last for as long as power cuts which last for days in some areas.

It is also an issue in a few urban areas too, including in a few parts of Inner London. And in one part of the town I live in. There are places which will simply not get FTTP due to financial viability and the residents are unlikely to be able to afford the cost of building the infrastructure to serve them (ie. council estates with elderly people). The only option for those individuals is either Starlink/satellite Internet (very expensive) or 5G mobile/terrestrial broadband. In the same place of said town, customers of Three are served by a 5G mast which was struck by lightning and took it out of action for a few weeks. The service from the distant masts would have made for a miserable experience if you were reliant on more than texts and phone calls.

[Deleted User]

I posted on a new thread and now I can't  find it so posting here.

I haven't  been well and 'all this' has become a bit beyond me.

I too have only just renewed my contract with Plusnet Broadband, 'phone (what I call ordinary landline) with evening and weekend calls included for 24 months.  It's  manageable and is what I can afford just now.

I honestly don't  know where I stand but had to make a decision and it's  done now.  Plusnet have always given me really good technical help - and I'm glad to have great help from  MSE Forums too.

I hope, when my health picks up, I'll be able to understand better what all this  means.

For now,  with my newly renewed  24 month contract,  I'm still with Plusnet and have my 'ordinary' landline.  I thought I had bookmarked  my own thread but I can't  find it now.

Thanks to all the good contributors here - very helpful and really appreciated.  Of course we have to move with the times - it can be a bit overwhelming  when you don't  feel all that well.

QrizB

Retired_Saver said:

I posted on a new thread and now I can't  find it so posting here.

Your thread on this topic is here:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6494832/plusnet-contract-renewal-in-january-2024

You can find all your threads, and all your comments, from your profile page:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/profile/[Deleted User]

[Deleted User]

Thanks very much, QrizB.

donglefan

I don't know what the daily mail has printed.  Regardless, it seems to me that the uK is in danger of losing a service on which many older, less able and less wealthy people depend for their safety and peace of mind.  
Elderly, disabled and ill people who live alone have emergency assistance buttons worn around their neck or on their wrist.  This connects to the pstn phone line.  It gives a lot of peace of mind to this group of people.  I've read that they will be offered back up power systems that will last only a few hours.
The new system has no power backup, so that in a power cut the above groups will have no access to emergency aid, no contact with family and friends.   Home power supply backups can last for a few hours, power cuts can take out mobile masts and last for days.  Who but the most wealthy in UK society can afford a Starlink with associated personal substantial power backup apparatus? 

donglefan

Residential Starlink, which could provide a service with comparable reliablity to ptsn, is currently priced at £75 per month, plus setup cost of £450.

QrizB

donglefan said:

Regardless, it seems to me that the uK is in danger of losing a service on which many older, less able and less wealthy people depend for their safety and peace of mind.

It might seem that way to you but that doesn't make it true.

donglefan said:

Elderly, disabled and ill people who live alone have emergency assistance buttons worn around their neck or on their wrist.  This connects to the pstn phone line.  It gives a lot of peace of mind to this group of people.  I've read that they will be offered back up power systems that will last only a few hours.

What makes you think the existing PSTN lasts any longer than that? It needs power to the exchange, after all.

The changeover was announced in 2017. Alert button service providers will have had eight years to deploy new equipment compatible with digital voice.

donglefan said:

 Home power supply backups can last for a few hours, power cuts can take out mobile masts and last for days.

Despite your claims, I would suggest that almost everyone in the UK has power for at least 99.9% of the year (not more than 9 hours of power cuts per year). This would suggest that, even without battery backup, only 0.1% of alarms will be missed. Add a domestic UPS and the number will be even smaller.

400ixl

donglefan said:

Residential Starlink, which could provide a service with comparable reliablity to ptsn, is currently priced at £75 per month, plus setup cost of £450.

Starlink receivers also need power so how do you come to the conclusion you have?

The majority of power cuts that last for more than a hour or two tend to be in specific rural areas of the country which are prone to extreme (for the UK) weather. If they haven't prepared themselves then this is just one of many issues.

As for backup power, if this is really important to the resident then you are only needing to power the router itself so a small UPS (about the size of a PC) would be able to power this for days. If you need it for other devices which connect to the PSTN system, then you would already need ways to ensure these have power so that problem already exists and does not change.

Most medical systems these days connect to the mobile network rather than the PSTN phone system, that trend will on increase s we go forwards.

Agree it needs thinking about and the right questions asked and solutions put in place. None of it does not have a practical solution.

To be a doom sayer and not a preacher of the solutions is being part of the problem. Education needs to happen and be positively re-enforced.