Home phone - but Plusnet pulling the plug

Howarewetoday

My elderly relatives have a broadband / home phone package from Plusnet. No complaints. It's due to end in early May 2026. Plusnet won't include a home phone in any renewal. They advise moving to EE instead. Presumably EE offer a VOIP service. The folks also have Sky tv via an old sky box and dish. Its a Sky sports and tv package. They will be out of contract with sky in July

With the latest price hike from Sky they are now paying £60 pcm. Plusnet is £30

They want to keep our phone number and a broadband service and ideally Sky sports and tv.

There are 2 parts to their situation: broadband / home phone and tv

The pressing need is to resolve the impending loss of their home phone. I'd value advice on this please. Any sky tv type wisdom would also be great thanks

An option is to go for Sky BB, TV and phone. However I don't like the lack of details about price rises from Sky. I'm also a bit (perhaps irrationally) bothered about all eggs in the sky basket.

Sky looks like Full fibre at £25 pcm plus talk anytime at £18 (so £43 pcm with potential increases whilst in contract) … and then the TV malarkey on top of that

Another option is EE for the phone and BB. This package looks like £75 per month after 3 months with TNT Sports rather than Sky sports. (Home phone through VOIP is £18 pcm)

Or to stay with Plusnet BB at £25 (same price as Sky by the looks of it) and get the A&A or similar VOIP service. A&A looks like £1.80 per month plus call costs @ sub 4p per minute.

or get a different broadband package and get the A&A VOIP service.

Key things are keeping their phone number, the reliability of the home phone, viable broadband and keeping costs under control.

I'd also guess that if they would ditch Sky sports they could get their tv through a legit firestick.

I know very little about this technical stuff so please advice slowly. many thanks

tia

Howarewetoday

My elderly relatives will lose Plusnet home phone in early May 2026. They want to retain theit number and the ability to make and receive calls. They have a mobile but prefer their home phone. The currently pay £30 which would rise to over £50 out of contract.

Plusnet offer a transfer to EE for BB and home phone.

Alternatives would be to use a VOIP service such as A&A.

They also have Sky for tv and Sports. Their contract ends in July. If they stayed with Sky and added home phone and BB, the phone element would be £18 and the BB around £25. They'd be looking at north of £100 plus the potential for undisclosed Sky increases within a 2 year contract…

They can't get Virgin or City Fibre as they are rural.

Key requirements are to keep their home phone number. To have a reliable BB. To keep a tv service and Sports (could be TNT; could be Sky) and not to spend the earth for the pleasure.

any thoughts and general wisdom would be great please

tia

iniltous

EE phone and broadband isn’t anywhere near £75 , with Plusnet and EE being sister companies, moving broadband and phone to EE is the simplest option and the least risk as far as the telephone number being kept (presumably they want to keep the number they already have ) EE currently is 3 months free then £31 , goes up £4 in a years time March 2027 , phone is usually £3 for PAYG or £12 for unlimited ( after negotiations) so target price with EE is mid £30’s to mid £40 depending on which call plan you take , that’s half what you think …Sky is not dissimilar in price , both will provide telephony via the broadband router …TBH there is little between them as far as price , reliability, customer service etc, TBH I’d pick the one I have faith in rather than just the cheapest if the price difference is negligible .

Staying with PN and a separate VoIP provider may be a little cheaper for telephony and therefore overall, but it’s not a massive saving, and you need extra kit so a one off cost to buy an ATA or a phone with an ATA built in , plus a little configuration may be needed so not plug and play like EE or Sky , separate services is a little pointless in some respects, if the broadband is off , telephony is off , that’s the same with EE , Sky or VoIP .

TV is totally separate, EE can provide TV , as can Sky obviously, but Now is probably a better bet if it’s Sky channels that are needed , Sky prefer to sell their streaming puck rather than satellite these days anyway so again dependent on broadband, the EE TV box has a terrestrial tuner , but the existing TV probably has one anyway .

Brie

I don't have all the answers (would love it if I did!!) but know that VOIP will be coming their way at some point no matter what. We're with EE with a landline and were sent a box (free) to attach to our wifi to enable this to continue. Because we are lacking some mobility we've yet to be able to set this up and so have been without the LL since February. EE said they could send someone to us to do it but would charge about £75 (I think). But they did also suggest a "elderly service" which I think is all volunteers that might do it instead for free.

Hope you help them get it all sorted.

elsien

double posted here

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6663915/home-phone-but-plusnet-pulling-the-plug

Grumpy_chap

AIUI, Plusnet and EE are the same company so does this change merely mean a change of branding?

littleboo

If the phone service is important to your elderly relatives, my suggestion would be to go with a service which is bundled with the broadband and fully managed up to the analogue port on the router. This most closely replicates an analogue landline service, with the exception of the requirement for local power. And even then the provider may offer a UPS in some situations. It does mean that your relatives have one provider who is responsible for the service in its entirety.

A&A are very good and I use them, but they are not offering a "landline replacement service"

https://www.aa.net.uk/voice-and-mobile/voip-information/

Neil_Jones

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81960959#Comment_81960959

All owned by BT.

It used to be that the plan was for EE to be the consumer brand and BT the business brand (what would happen to Plusnet in that scenario was up for debate) but that philosophy went out the window last year IIRC because somebody high up in the company moved on and their replacement said yeah we're not having that.

For the OP, while A&A isn't a landline replacement service it would do the job of capturing any calls to the landline number and you can send them to the mobile phone. The alternative is to move to a provider doing digital voice, which isn't Plusnet who have made no secret that they won't be offering it, and the cleanest solution is EE if you need that option.

Stuart_W

For the sake of simplicity, I would honestly recommend going with the managed plusnet to EE transfer, the broadband will probably be about £35 and an extra £5 for the landline service (or £18 for unlimited calls if that's preferred) based on EE standard prices - there may be some initial deals available so it could be better than this. EE may also offer to supply some handy kit including free battery back up or you could purchase their hybrid landline phone that works for 8 hours in the event of powercut and uses an EE mobile signal if necessary to make a call. Involving other companies as part of the transfer from copper to VoIP introduces opportunities for errors, particularly with number porting. My inlaws ended up in a bit of a mess. I think if the priority of an understandable working phone line solution is the top need, saving a couple of quid each month is worth putting on the back burner for now. A phone line is too important.

Yorkie1

Thank you, OP, for asking the question and to everyone else for their responses. I have the same dilemma (minus the TV aspect) re. Plusnet and think I will look at the migration to EE offer.

Really interesting to read the pricing info, too.

Yorkie1

EE currently is 3 months free then £31 , goes up £4 in a years time March 2027 , phone is usually £3 for PAYG or £12 for unlimited ( after negotiations) so target price with EE is mid £30’s to mid £40 depending on which call plan you take

@iniltous - I wondered whether you had any thoughts about the practicality of trying to negotiate down to £12 from £18 for the unlimited calls tariff, as part of a switch to EE from Plusnet?