topic Re: Phasing out home phones in Home Phone

Phasing out home phones

susanm — Wed, 29 Nov 2023 16:09:59 GMT

I've been reading that in 2024 home phones will change . This worries me as my contract ends in April . I'm an oldie and rely on my home phone as I can hear more clearly . Using mobile is often uncomfortable as the voices fade in and out . I like to speak to my friends daily for up to one hour as we all live alone. I'm sure you can understand my concerns . I don't want to lose my 1 hour package and I don't want to lose my home phone . Can someone put my mind at rest . Thankyou

Re: Phasing out home phones

Baldrick1 — Wed, 29 Nov 2023 16:27:38 GMT

@susanm

There is a lot of confusion being caused by BT. BT retail, not Plusnet are in the process of transferring their customers to digital phone and I guess that this is what you have seen. All phones will have to be transferred by the end of 2025 but that is 2 years away. The time to make future arrangements is when your current contract expires next year.

Re: Phasing out home phones

bmc — Wed, 29 Nov 2023 16:39:36 GMT

@susanm

You have time to consider your options. When your landline goes you'll be notified in advance.

OpenReach are in the process of phasing out analogue phone services (PSTN) but the copper line between you and the Cabinet will remain.

Internet will be supplied under SOGEA so there would be no change to you from this. It's the phone service that'll go. PN have decided not to offer VOIP services.

To keep a landline (with or without your current number) you would need to set up a VOIP account and move the phone to them or change ISP to one would provides both Internet and VOIP as one package.

Look around for VOIP providers. A&A are one such beast who seem to offer good deals and are used to transferred PN customers. They also havd a good FAQ page for explaining what's what with VOIP.

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

Brian

Re: Phasing out home phones

Mark280 — Thu, 30 Nov 2023 00:16:15 GMT

@bmc wrote:

... PN have decided not to offer VOIP services.

Where is the public/official information - where have Plusnet actually stated that ?

Wouldn't it be more accurate to say 'Plusnet do not currently offer a VOIP (digital landline phone) service - and the unofficial word/rumour/belief on the forum is that they are not planning to. (?)

One other thing that I find curious is - has Plusnet actually contacted any of their existing analogue phone customers yet, telling them their phone service is about to end?

N.B. I'm asking specifically about Plusnet initiated 'mid-contract' analogue phone service termination.

I can't see any Plusnet forum messages relating to this happening - even though BT retail have supposedly already been switch their own customers to digital voice in large swathes of the country.

[P.S. I know that many customer initiated 'upgrades' and other such changes, are already likely to 'force' the loss of analogue phone service, due to BT's September 'Stop Sell'.]

Re: Phasing out home phones

susanm — Thu, 30 Nov 2023 09:23:14 GMT

To be honest all this is like speaking another language to me and I'm finding it a bit scarey in case it comes at greater cost but also my contract for home phone and BB ends 31st March 2024 . If PN are not renewing home phone contract I will have to look elsewhere because in 2025 I would be stuck in a contract I can't get out of . I appreciate all your advise but I don't have anyone at home to advise me which way to go forward. I've been with PN years and never had any issues . Excellent service and I wouldn't want to leave

Re: Phasing out home phones

Baldrick1 — Thu, 30 Nov 2023 09:59:42 GMT

@Mark280
The current situation is that Plusnet contract lengths are a maximum of 2 years. There is over 2 years (just I agree) before the PSTN switch off. So currently there are no contracts that will involve a mid contract analogue switch off.

We will have to see how this changes in the new year.

Re: Phasing out home phones

Baldrick1 — Thu, 30 Nov 2023 10:03:14 GMT

@susanm

Appreciate your concern but suggest that you do not panic at this stage. There will be advice available on this forum once things clarify.

Re: Phasing out home phones

198kHz — Thu, 30 Nov 2023 10:46:07 GMT

@susanm You may find this of interest

https://community.plus.net/t5/Home-Phone/change-over/m-p/1936776#M37845

Re: Phasing out home phones

susanm — Thu, 30 Nov 2023 15:13:10 GMT

Thankyou all so much for advice . I will read up on the links given and think about this 6 weeks before my end of contract . Appreciate all your help x

Re: Phasing out home phones

Mark280 — Thu, 30 Nov 2023 19:19:14 GMT

@susanm wrote:
... I will read up on the links given and think about this 6 weeks before my end of contract . Appreciate all your help x

Hi Susan,

Also worth looking at Sky Broadband & Phone.

Unlike Plusnet, Sky do already have a digital phone service - I believe that all new Sky customers who want a phone service with their broadband now get their digital phone service (VOIP) (as with almost all providers, analogue phone service no longer available).

The Sky broadband 'router' has an inbuilt analogue phone socket - same as BT and EE routers now do - where an 'old' analogue phone (or DECT phone base unit) must be plugged into (instead of the eventually obsolete 'BT' wall phone socket/filter).

Nice thing about Sky - they're similar low price to Plusnet - and have one of the lowest customer complaints levels according to Ofcom...

Report: Complaints about broadband, landline, mobile and pay-TV services - Ofcom

Sky will even refund (credit your Sky account) up to £100 of any early termination fees that may be incurred when switching to Sky from your existing provider.repayment - albeit requiring various proofs to be emailed to them...

Credit for switching your TV or broadband to Sky | Sky Help | Sky.com

From time to time, you may even find them offering 'Gift Card/Vouchers' - as do Plusnet, BT, etc, of course - albeit sometimes the card/voucher is only offered through third party sites such as...

Broadband Checker: Compare Broadband in Your Area

I've switched back and forth between Plusnet and Sky a few times over the last 20 years - there's little or no practical difference in service between them - to date - EXCEPT that Plusnet currently don't offer any landline phone service to new customers.

As ever - beware end of contract price hikes - but if you don't get offered a competitive 'contract renewal' be prepared to switch - again, same as Plusnet and most others in that respect.

Of course, if money is no object then BT, EE are good options - but I much rather pay Plusnet/Sky prices.

Re: Phasing out home phones

greygit1 — Fri, 01 Dec 2023 01:57:56 GMT

"So currently there are no contracts that will involve a mid contract analogue switch off."

Hair splitting...

Unless you move properties? When the new property will be subject to BT's "stop sell"? And the new property only has fibre?

(admittedly, I didn't renew my current contract before the move because of the upcoming incompatiles...)

Re: Phasing out home phones

davidj66 — Fri, 01 Dec 2023 09:08:10 GMT

@Baldrick1 - not sure that you are correct re potential enforced loss of a PSTN line. I'm contracted until July 24 but as far as I can see, my exchange is being "switched off" in the Spring - cannot believe that PN customers will be kept on the old system for an extra few months ?

Re: Phasing out home phones

RealAleMadrid — Fri, 01 Dec 2023 09:21:43 GMT

@davidj66 Where have seen evidence of your exchange being "switched off" I suspect it could be information from BT retail about changing customers to digital voice by a certain date. This does not apply to Plusnet and other suppliers using copper phone line voice services which will continue.

Re: Phasing out home phones

davidj66 — Fri, 01 Dec 2023 10:30:55 GMT

@RealAleMadrid Phone call from BT ? The salesperson told me that my analogue phone line would not work after Spring 24 as my "small" Welsh village exchange is being changed over early next year. I argued that I wasn't with BT Retail but she insisted repeatedly that " it doesn't matter who currently supplies your phone line"

Obviously trying to get me to change over to full fibre with BT Retail and their VOIP service HOWEVER surely Openreach must have a threshold set for PSTN support ? Otherwise they are going to be maintaining the exchange kit for ~ 18+ months for a very small and steadily decreasing number of customers.

Re: Phasing out home phones

RealAleMadrid — Fri, 01 Dec 2023 11:30:23 GMT

@davidj66 So a salesperson called, as we all know they will tell you anything, pushing to get you to move to BT. Just as I expected Spring 2024 is scheduled for BT retail Digital Voice switchover in Wales. It doesn't apply to other suppliers.

Openreach have announced the withdrawal of the PSTN service by the end of 2025 so presumably they will continue to keep exchanges running until then, however there has been speculation that if a particular exchange equipment fails it may not get repaired and PSTN abruptly stops.

ISPs are likely to announce that they are withdrawing PSTN some time before the deadline so customers can sort out what they want to do.

So it's basically wait until your supplier informs you that PSTN is switching off, not believing the scare tactics of BT sales.😠

Re: Phasing out home phones

Dan_the_Van — Fri, 01 Dec 2023 14:09:20 GMT

@davidj66

How did you verify the caller was actually from BT sales?

These are interesting links Digital switchover and scams risks and Shift from UK Analogue to Digital Phone Lines Breeds New SCAMs

Re: Phasing out home phones

JSHarris — Fri, 01 Dec 2023 21:36:52 GMT

A village not far from us has already been "switched off". In their case it was because there was a major fault on the line supplying them, Openreach declared that it wasn't economically viable to replace the cable when their plan is to remove it in a couple of years, so instead ran FTTP. A consequence of this is that they all lost their landline.

My understanding of the PSTN switch off is that 2025 is the date for the LAST PSTN service to be disconnected, not that everyone is OK UNTIL 2025. I stand to be corrected if I'm mistaken, but having read about the fuss created with the community referred to above (who were without any connectivity at all for over four weeks, and, like us, they struggle to get a mobile signal) I don't have any confidence that everyone is OK until the end of 2025.

Re: Phasing out home phones

davidj66 — Sat, 02 Dec 2023 09:22:49 GMT

@Dan_the_Van - I didn't verify the caller's identity but would have done if I'd had any intention of moving my line. BT have been bombarding us with flyers tho'.

Re: Phasing out home phones

davidj66 — Sat, 02 Dec 2023 09:27:25 GMT

@JSHarris - I suppose OR could use that as a convenient "excuse" to cut off customers from PSTN once numbers become low enough.!!

Re: Phasing out home phones

Baldrick1 — Sat, 02 Dec 2023 13:24:26 GMT

@JSHarris wrote:

A village not far from us has already been "switched off". In their case it was because there was a major fault on the line supplying them, Openreach declared that it wasn't economically viable to replace the cable when their plan is to remove it in a couple of years, so instead ran FTTP. A consequence of this is that they all lost their landline.

Did they all lose their numbers or were they quarantined and available for porting to VoIP, be it not to Plusnet, for 30 days after customers were advised of the switch to FTTP?

My understanding of the PSTN switch off is that 2025 is the date for the LAST PSTN service to be disconnected, not that everyone is OK UNTIL 2025. I stand to be corrected if I'm mistaken, but having read about the fuss created with the community referred to above (who were without any connectivity at all for over four weeks, and, like us, they struggle to get a mobile signal) I don't have any confidence that everyone is OK until the end of 2025.

My interpretation is that the PSTN will be switched off at the end of 2025 except for any exceptions such as the example you quoted and a couple of exchanges that have already been converted. However, providers will need to move customers to VoIP at some time over the next 2 years, there will be no last minute ‘big bang’ when a switch is thrown to simultaneous switch everyone to VoIP. Hence BT are already swapping customers to VoIP region by region.