topic Re: Changing to Broadband only and no phone in Home Phone

Changing to Broadband only and no phone

Anonymous — Wed, 18 Oct 2023 15:34:10 GMT

In the "olden days" you have to have a landline to get broadband.

I have FTTC.

I see Plusnet are offering a broadband only deal so I could ave a few quid a month and dump mine.

As I still have copper to my house rather than full fibre what has changed to all me to ditch my landline?

Re: Changing to Broadband only and no phone

Baldrick1 — Wed, 18 Oct 2023 15:39:17 GMT

@Anonymous

At your property nothing changes.

Upstream instead of the copper being connected to the exchange with a link to the fibre cabinet near your property, it is disconnected from the exchange, so effectively goes no further than the local fibre cabinet. From there it is all fibre.

Re: Changing to Broadband only and no phone

Anonymous — Wed, 18 Oct 2023 15:51:45 GMT

Sorry - a supplementary question if I may.

From when I tick the box and change to a broadband only connection how long approximately till my landline dies?

Re: Changing to Broadband only and no phone

bmc — Wed, 18 Oct 2023 15:57:40 GMT

@Anonymous

The PTSN is being withdrawn by the end of 2025. To allow those properties who don't have FTTP available OpenReach have introduced a new wholesale product called SOGEA which allows FTTC to continue by using the copper from the FTTC cabinet to your property. There's a similar product for those still on ADSL.

As mentioned, it is the equipment at the Exchange which will be decommisioned and perhaps some of the heavy duty copper wire removed for recycling.

Brian

Re: Changing to Broadband only and no phone

RealAleMadrid — Wed, 18 Oct 2023 18:55:30 GMT

@Anonymous If you change to a Broadband only service (SOGEA) your landline phone (PSTN) will cease more or less immediately.

Re: Changing to Broadband only and no phone

Gandalf — Thu, 19 Oct 2023 14:22:07 GMT

The landline would actually (normally) stop working on the day the product change to the broadband only package completes. While in theory this could be almost immediately if moving from FTTC to SoGEA, it normally takes a few days. After the order is placed though, we should confirm when the change will take place.

Re: Changing to Broadband only and no phone

machare — Thu, 19 Oct 2023 15:02:55 GMT

When I recently renewed my Plusnet 24 month contract it was actually £1 more expensive to just have broadband rather than broadband with phone. I kept the phone although all my calls are made and received using Sipgate VOIP.

Re: Changing to Broadband only and no phone

bgiles — Thu, 19 Oct 2023 17:01:43 GMT

I fail to understand this. In practice you're removing the PSTN support element of your line rental by removing home phone, the bit they don't want to support in 2025, so line rental should come down by moving to SoGEA, not go up.

Re: Changing to Broadband only and no phone

JSHarris — Thu, 19 Oct 2023 17:14:00 GMT

We're paying £29.17 for broadband and a PSTN phone line rental. Just checked and if we switch to SOGEA the price would drop to £24.99.

Looks to me as if broadband over the copper pair to a cabinet is indeed a bit cheaper than broadband plus a phone line.

Obviously these numbers are most likely distorted by the "haggle your own price" nonsense that seems to set what anyone actually pays, but on the face of it we would save around £4/month by losing our landline.

Re: Changing to Broadband only and no phone

bgiles — Fri, 20 Oct 2023 08:15:26 GMT

At what point before a customers contract is due to end, are they seeing SoGEA being offered in the 'Offers and Upgrades' section of the portal?

My contract ends April 2024, but all I can see is 'Keep existing product' or the 5 FTTP upgrade options.

The £24.99 that is being offered to @JSHarris is very enticing.

Re: Changing to Broadband only and no phone

MisterW — Fri, 20 Oct 2023 08:39:11 GMT

@bgiles but all I can see is 'Keep existing product' or the 5 FTTP upgrade options.

It may be that your exchange is 'Fibre priority' , in which case new copper based products e.g SoGEA can't be ordered

Use the BT Wholesale checker here https://www.broadbandchecker.btwholesale.com/#/ADSL/AddressHome put in your postcode and select your address. Look in the 'Exchange restrictions' section

Re: Changing to Broadband only and no phone

bgiles — Fri, 20 Oct 2023 08:47:36 GMT

@MisterW

Thanks for the info, however it shows it is NOT a 'FTTP Priority Exchange', as per the attached, hence puzzling.

Re: Changing to Broadband only and no phone

MisterW — Fri, 20 Oct 2023 08:53:35 GMT

@bgiles In that case I can only suggest that its due to how far from contract end you are. Changing to SoGEA is not really an 'upgrade' whereas FF is probably considered as one. They probably wont offer SoGEA as an online option until you are closer to contract end. However you MAY be able to change by calling Customer options

Re: Changing to Broadband only and no phone

JSHarris — Fri, 20 Oct 2023 09:10:54 GMT

@bgiles , My contract ends in May 2024. I got the SOGEA price by just using the checker with my postcode, I didn't bother to log in to my account. My reason for not checking by using my Plusnet account was because of the daft "call us and haggle your own price" faff, where prices shown via your account page may well be higher than those shown if you just check using your postcode. Ringing up usually means you get offered a better price, at least as good as the new customer price you get by not logging on.

Re: Changing to Broadband only and no phone

Mustrum — Fri, 20 Oct 2023 09:16:04 GMT

@bgiles the table you posted is incomplete - can you post the rest of it - the bit to the right of what you have posted should show if VDSL and SoGea is still available to order.

Re: Changing to Broadband only and no phone

bgiles — Fri, 20 Oct 2023 09:38:39 GMT

@Mustrum

Thanks for raising the point, attached is the complete checker, which does indeed show SoGEA is available to order.

I've just spoken with the Plusnet support team, and successfully changed over to SoGEA.

I had to agree to a higher figure than @JSHarris was offered, but still cheaper the my current FTTC with landline.

So thanks everyone for your advice, and fingers crossed it all goes through without a hitch.

Re: Changing to Broadband only and no phone

JSHarris — Fri, 20 Oct 2023 10:07:15 GMT

@bgiles wrote:

I had to agree to a higher figure than @JSHarris was offered, but still cheaper the my current FTTC with landline.

I wonder why you had to pay a higher price?

I have just re-checked and Plusnet are offering this price for SOGEA:

Re: Changing to Broadband only and no phone

bgiles — Fri, 20 Oct 2023 10:26:42 GMT

@JSHarris The screenshot you show is for 24 - 35 Mb, whereas I'm on 62 - 72Mb, that would explain the difference.

And the out-of-contract for SoGEA is £30, compared with £54.39 for Unlimited Fibre Extra with Home Phone, which is why I wanted to change.

Re: Changing to Broadband only and no phone

Mustrum — Fri, 20 Oct 2023 10:22:53 GMT

@JSHarris you are obviously further away from the cabinet than @bgiles who is paying a little more for twice the speed you can get.

Re: Changing to Broadband only and no phone

JSHarris — Fri, 20 Oct 2023 10:28:21 GMT

@bgiles wrote:

@JSHarris The screenshot you show is for 24 - 35 Mb, whereas I'm on 62 - 72Mb, that would explain the difference.

And the out-of-contract for me is £30.

Still seems odd, as that speed is simply a function of the length and condition of the copper pair. It's only ever an estimate, too. In our case we don't get that speed, it tends to sit around 18Mb/s. I thought that pricing was solely based on the type of connection, not the length of the copper pair from the cabinet. AFAIK, Openreach don't adjust their wholesale pricing in relation to the copper pair length.

Didn't happen at our old house, either. There we suddenly got a big jump in speed simply because Openreach replaced a cable in the street. Didn't change the price we paid.