topic Re: New to plusnet today , landline no longer working in Full Fibre

New to plusnet today , landline no longer working

Redmen1892 — Mon, 16 Mar 2026 21:47:04 GMT

Hi, due to family circumstances my wife needs to work from her elderly mothers house for the foreseeable future, prior to this morning all that there was at the property was a bit landline. We requested a full fibre 74 connection which was installed by the engineer today, but my mother in law has told us that her landline no longer works, have we missed something here as we required the existing landline to stay as is and just have a broadband connection so my wife could work from her home. As I am not at the property I don't know what's been installed or whether our expectations weren't right as to what would happen after the ff74 was installed, as the call center doesn't open until 0800 GMT I'm after some quick advice, many thanks Jon

Re: New to plusnet today , landline no longer working

jab1 — Mon, 16 Mar 2026 22:16:32 GMT

@Redmen1892 New BB installations have been for some time just that - no phone element - which you should have been advised about when you placed the order. I suspect, due to the way this happened, I doubt you will be able o recover the phone service over the PSTN network, but the number should be quarantined for 30 days after the installation, to enable you to arrange moving it to a VoIP service.

If this is actually a Full Fibre install, that service is definitely without a phone service - the line simply does not have any voice capability at all, and it is clearly advised as such online.

Re: New to plusnet today , landline no longer working

Redmen1892 — Mon, 16 Mar 2026 22:20:44 GMT

Thanks, either I missed that or it wasn't abundantly clear, I am now in a position where I have to hope they can regress the install, we can't be bothered with the hassle of getting a VoIP connection for a 90 year old, we just wanted a big standard internet connection rather than tethering phones.

Re: New to plusnet today , landline no longer working

jab1 — Mon, 16 Mar 2026 22:25:01 GMT

I would call support ASAP, but I have my doubts that you will be able to regress the install. I assume your M-I-L did not have an internet connection at all, previously?

Re: New to plusnet today , landline no longer working

Redmen1892 — Mon, 16 Mar 2026 22:25:15 GMT

Having read up it doesn't look like it's possible to revert back, this has left us in a awkward position

Re: New to plusnet today , landline no longer working

Redmen1892 — Mon, 16 Mar 2026 22:30:02 GMT

No, all she had was a BT landline, it doesn't look like it's possible as the old copper connection gets disconnected, presumably because the old technology is being phased out in 2027. If I had known this I wouldn't of signed up, I can't really blame plusnet, although it wasn't immediately clear and obvious, I should of researched it a bit more thoroughly.

Re: New to plusnet today , landline no longer working

jab1 — Mon, 16 Mar 2026 22:33:11 GMT

You are correct - the PSTN network is currently scheduled to be totally switched off January 2027.

Re: New to plusnet today , landline no longer working

Redmen1892 — Mon, 16 Mar 2026 22:34:44 GMT

Thanks for all your help and quick responses

Re: New to plusnet today , landline no longer working

Penny — Mon, 16 Mar 2026 23:00:26 GMT

@Redmen1892 wrote:
Hi, due to family circumstances my wife needs to work from her elderly mothers house for the foreseeable future, prior to this morning all that there was at the property was a bit landline. We requested a full fibre 74 connection which was installed by the engineer today, but my mother in law has told us that her landline no longer works, have we missed something here as we required the existing landline to stay as is and just have a broadband connection so my wife could work from her home.

@Redmen1892 I don't know what may be possible but I have escalated your post on the offchance that something could be arranged within the BT group (different parts of the group offering different facilities).

Very much a longshot but worth a try. I'm guessing if there is any resulting modification of the set-up there might be a financial cost involved but from what you've said that might perhaps not be the primary consideration.

As I said, this is very much a longshot, but better to ask than not.

I'll post back with whatever I'm told is decided, in due course.

Re: New to plusnet today , landline no longer working

Redmen1892 — Mon, 16 Mar 2026 23:05:44 GMT

Thanks Penny, appreciate the help. I guess other options are VoIP or moving across to the EE solution that PN describe in their FAQ, but it needs to happen quickly as I've erroneously Left a 90 yo without a landline.

Re: New to plusnet today , landline no longer working

Baldrick1 — Mon, 16 Mar 2026 23:09:41 GMT

@Redmen1892

Apart from the cost of an ATA I would doubt that the cost of connecting the existing phone handset to VoIP would be any more expensive than the separate landline phone, depending on n the number of outgoing calls it could be considerably cheaprt.

To be honest I doubt a non technical elderly user would notice the difference.

The only difficulty that can creep in is if there’s any wired extensions or care alarms that use the PSTN.

Re: New to plusnet today , landline no longer working

Baldrick1 — Mon, 16 Mar 2026 23:16:00 GMT

@Redmen1892 wrote:
I've erroneously Left a 90 yo without a landline.

Can you leave them with a mobile phone?. If there’s no mobile signal then there are several cheap monthly contract mobile providers that support WiFi calling.

Re: New to plusnet today , landline no longer working

Redmen1892 — Mon, 16 Mar 2026 23:16:28 GMT

I don't believe there are any of those considerations in play, the only issue with an ATA is that the hub is probably in a different room to where the phone sockets are. I'll have to go round and work out what is the best way forward

Re: New to plusnet today , landline no longer working

Redmen1892 — Mon, 16 Mar 2026 23:19:39 GMT

She used to have a mobile and may still do, trouble is she suffered a stroke 2 weeks ago and whilst it hasn't diminished her mobility or speech / memory it just makes things more difficult because it's confusing for her, hence my wife moving in with her for the time being, they'll be a way forward it's just how we minimize the stress

Re: New to plusnet today , landline no longer working

Marksfish — Tue, 17 Mar 2026 07:08:50 GMT

We moved our landline to voip and use an app on the mobile to receive landline calls. Benefit if there is no mobile signal, is if the mobile supports wifi calling. No cost to transfer to my provider, but a £3.60 monthly fee.

Mark

Re: New to plusnet today , landline no longer working

Baldrick1 — Tue, 17 Mar 2026 08:41:31 GMT

@Redmen1892 wrote:
the only issue with an ATA is that the hub is probably in a different room to where the phone sockets are.

The ATA needs an Ethernet connection to the router. You could either run an Ethernet cable or telephone extension between the two locations. Easier still, use a pair of Powerline units to feed the ATA located in the traditional phone location.

One thing to watch out for is that Plusnet hubs have no QoS setting capability. Consequently, voice traffic might become disjointed if there is a very heavy data load at the same time as a call is in progress.

If this becomes a problem there are plenty of cheap routers available that will allow the voice service to be prioritised.

Re: New to plusnet today , landline no longer working

Townman — Tue, 17 Mar 2026 08:54:26 GMT

It seems odd that the provision of FTTP to a property which had no broadband provision at all should result in the termination of an associated BT Phone service. One wonders if something "odd" happened with the provisioning of the FTTP service - any reference to the phone number presently at the property used purely for identification SHOULD NOT have caused the service to be ceased.

One wonders if on installation the (unhelpful?) engineer chopped the existing phone circuit ... resulting in a "faulty" line. Alongside contacting Plusnet, I would be inclined to contact BT and say there's a fault on the PHONE line ... coincident with the provision of a completely separate service / connection the phone stopped working - WHY?

That said, the BT PTSN service will be a candidate to move to something different as they plan to switch off such services early in 2027. At present BT does have the means of providing voice only services without broadband for those who do not want / need broadband.

If this is a direct consequence of the provision of FTTP, the swiftest solution is to get the likes of A&A to provision a VoIP service on the phone number within 30 days, during which the number can be recovered.

Re: New to plusnet today , landline no longer working

Redmen1892 — Tue, 17 Mar 2026 09:09:52 GMT

Thanks, I'll be heading around there later today to see how many extensions she has and where power sockets are. I really don't know how the elderly community in the UK who aren't tech savvy are going to be able to understand all of what's happening with the ptsn shut off, in some ways I'm glad that we found out now because i bet come January 2027 the line would of stopped working because she would of thrown away any letters pertaining to the switch over.

Re: New to plusnet today , landline no longer working

MisterW — Tue, 17 Mar 2026 09:15:17 GMT

I suspect, if the OTS system is used, that the system requests transfer of ALL services at the property. However, since Plusnet dont provide a phone service with FTTP, then they will place a 'transfer of ownership cease' on the phone service.

@Redmen1892

Thanks, I'll be heading around there later today to see how many extensions she has and where power sockets are.

Its possible to wire existing extensions into an ATA, have a read of this https://support.aa.net.uk/VoIP_How_to:_Voice_reinjection.

In your case it should be simple to disconnect the incoming line (since its no longer used) at the master socket and connect the ATA to it, thus leaving the extensions working.

Re: New to plusnet today , landline no longer working

Redmen1892 — Tue, 17 Mar 2026 09:13:04 GMT

Thanks I've just pinged my wife to also ring BT as well. I'll have to work out what needs to be installed and stuff ordered in order to get her a phone service running again, assuming that by some miracle they can't restore the service