topic Re: If PlusNet belongs to BT - where is their landline switchover? in Home Phone

If PlusNet belongs to BT - where is their landline switchover?

ColdharbourDave — Sun, 02 Nov 2025 10:44:49 GMT

I've just had a chat with a friend in Ipswich who like me is still on copper (and in his 70s) - but still on BT.

In his case the engineers are coming in 2 weeks to fit his new router, and existing phones can be used:

Hello Jonathan,
Great news, we're moving you to our Digital Voice home phone service.
What happens next

Your switch over should take place on 21 Nov 2025. We'll confirm once this has happened.
What is Digital Voice?

Digital Voice is our new home phone service that uses your broadband to make and receive calls. It's a big upgrade to keep everyone connected now and in the future. You'll keep your current phone number, and your contract and broadband plan won't change. The main difference is you'll need to dial the area code for all calls.

In my case it's more "Up your Delors"

Vague hints that if I transfer to EE (and lose free PlusNet email) I might be able to keep my number as a VOIP

No guarantees about existing equipment - and no help.

"DO IT YOUSELF"

People of my age will remember Barry Bucknell the BBC TV personality:

"Bucknell often demonstrated techniques to 'modernise' older properties, most typically using cheap materials including hardboard and plywood to cover up architectural detail such as period doors and fireplaces, which at that time were considered unfashionable. This earned Bucknell the moniker 'Bodger' Bucknell. By the 1990s, some critics^[who?] argued that he was largely responsible for millions of home owners altering their properties to a style that, in turn, is now considered dated again." (Wikipedia)

Re: If PlusNet belongs to BT - where is their landline switchover?

jab1 — Sun, 02 Nov 2025 10:57:38 GMT

In a nutshell, @ColdharbourDave EE and Plusnet are separate business units within the BT Group - EE being the 'all-in-one' (BB and phone) providing arm, Plusnet providing broadband only. Which means, if you are a Plusnet customer, you need to arrange your own VoIP service.

There is plenty of help and guidance on the forum.

Re: If PlusNet belongs to BT - where is their landline switchover?

bmc — Sun, 02 Nov 2025 12:05:14 GMT

@ColdharbourDave

You need to cancel the number port to A&A asap!!!!!

As stated, until you are on an internet only connection (SOGEA or Full Fibre) you cannot port your number - it controls your internet service.

A business decision was made within the BT group to make PlusNet a basic internet provider only with no bells and whistles. Therefore they are not offering a Digital Voice service so support staff cannot help.

Your basic choice is to move to an ISP who offers both or set up an independant VOIP account (once you've moved to SOGEA of Full fibre). You have 30 days to do so.

Brian

Re: If PlusNet belongs to BT - where is their landline switchover?

jab1 — Sun, 02 Nov 2025 12:13:23 GMT

@bmc I don't think @ColdharbourDave has arranged anything - it is his friend who is being transferred to the BT 'Digital Voice' - non-standard - service.

Re: If PlusNet belongs to BT - where is their landline switchover?

pvmb — Sun, 02 Nov 2025 12:22:21 GMT

You may, or may not, be interested in replies to this general question I have, out of curiosity, just posted on another thread: https://community.plus.net/t5/Tech-Help-Software-Hardware-etc/A-question-wrt-ONT-PON/m-p/2027106

Not that any replies will help you solve your practical issues, I'm afraid.

Re: If PlusNet belongs to BT - where is their landline switchover?

ColdharbourDave — Sun, 02 Nov 2025 12:36:26 GMT

How about "porting" to Hyperoptic then?

They seem to offer "keep your own old number VOIP" and cheap full fibre.

Plus their CEO people seem to be Serbian and American.

A bit of a loop-back there - when I joined Force 9 in 1994 it was a dial-up service run by a Computer equipment hypermarket in the Chesterfield area. A bit like a northern version of Freeserve. The charge for a year's dial-up was £84 - a bargain at the time. This setup was bought by Insight Enterprises of USA who constantly tried to sell us laser business copiers and such-like. .

I see from Wikipedia that PlusNet/Force9 started ADSL the same day as BT.

But they are not now offering proper customer care to vulnerable customers like BT are they?

As @bmc says "A business decision was made within the BT group to make PlusNet a basic internet provider only with no bells and whistles. Therefore they are not offering a Digital Voice service so support staff cannot help."

Disgraceful. Why would one want to port to EE is that is their attitude?

How about porting to BT and getting the correct customer service long term elderly customers (of 31 years standing) are entitled to?

Re: If PlusNet belongs to BT - where is their landline switchover?

jab1 — Sun, 02 Nov 2025 12:45:26 GMT

I'll leave this to others to answer, @ColdharbourDave - I moved from PN a few years ago, for different reasons, to a company who actually know how to look after customers.

Re: If PlusNet belongs to BT - where is their landline switchover?

bmc — Sun, 02 Nov 2025 12:46:49 GMT

@ColdharbourDave

You can port the number to anyone you want - ONCE your internet connection is either SOGEA or Full Fibre.

Depending on your contract you can move anytime you want but may be subject to early termination charges. PN will move you to EE FOC if arranged through them.

If you use PN email then you'll lose the address unless it's already been migrated to Greenby.

Is full fibre available to you and by whom - OpenReach or an AltNet?

Brian

Re: If PlusNet belongs to BT - where is their landline switchover?

bmc — Sun, 02 Nov 2025 12:51:23 GMT

@ColdharbourDave

Just to clarify -

If you move to an ISP who offers both internet and VOIP then the number port happens as part of the transfer to the new ISP and there would be litttle downtime.

Brian

Re: If PlusNet belongs to BT - where is their landline switchover?

Baldrick1 — Sun, 02 Nov 2025 13:13:47 GMT

@ColdharbourDave

I suspect that your friend is paying more for his BT service than you?

If you keep your current Plusnet service things will happen before the old PSTN service is switched off. First your email service will be transferred to Greenby, so will not be lost if you leave Plusnet. You will then have the following options before January 2027.

1. Give up your landline phone and stay with Plusnet.

2. Transfer both your phone and Internet to EE. If you are still under contract to Plusnet this will not trigger any termination charges provided that it is arranged through Plusnet. You can keep your existing phone number.

3. If you are at the end of your contract you can transfer to one of the many other ISPs who offer an Internet and phone service. Again you can keep your existing phone number.

Re: If PlusNet belongs to BT - where is their landline switchover?

bmc — Sun, 02 Nov 2025 13:47:20 GMT

@ColdharbourDave

Just to add to @Baldrick1 post you can move ISP anytime you want - if you are happy to accept the ETC's.

Brian

Re: If PlusNet belongs to BT - where is their landline switchover?

PowerLee — Sun, 02 Nov 2025 14:09:53 GMT

I see the information about keeping your current phone number in the Plusnet user account centre is still wrong, this was highlighted to be fixed several months ago & nothing has been done to correct this misinformation.

Re: If PlusNet belongs to BT - where is their landline switchover?

jab1 — Sun, 02 Nov 2025 14:25:53 GMT

No surprise, @PowerLee .

Re: If PlusNet belongs to BT - where is their landline switchover?

markhawkin — Sun, 02 Nov 2025 17:26:36 GMT

@ColdharbourDave

What I'm uncertain about is what happens when you are on a copper broadband service with Plusnet.

There will come a date (which I suspect is on an exchange by exchange basis) when Plusnet (via Openreach) are not prepared to offer you a landline service.

This may also be triggered by the end of your contract minimum term.

If you are able to have a full fibre service (and would like it) start thinking about what you want to do at the end of your Plusnet contract.

BT will probably be considerably more expensive than your current Plusnet contract for a landline and call package. However with BT it's all one service provider and should "just work". There are other options as others have suggested.

Re: If PlusNet belongs to BT - where is their landline switchover?

Baldrick1 — Sun, 02 Nov 2025 21:36:22 GMT

@markhawkin wrote:

@ColdharbourDave

What I'm uncertain about is what happens when you are on a copper broadband service with Plusnet.

There will come a date (which I suspect is on an exchange by exchange basis) when Plusnet (via Openreach) are not prepared to offer you a landline service..

Whether or not Full Fibre is available is irrelevant. By January 2027 it’s the PSTN phone service that’s being discontinued, not the use of the copper connection to your property.

Whilst there has been no official Plusnet notification, logically at some point the offer to renew phone plus broadband packages will be withdrawn and only a broadband service available.

Presumably, those with a phone and broadband service will be made an offer to transfer to EE. One must assume that if the offer to move to EE involves an increased price for the remaining part of the contract, then affected customers will be contractually able to move to another ISP without incurring ETCs.

Re: If PlusNet belongs to BT - where is their landline switchover?

Anonymous — Mon, 03 Nov 2025 02:46:22 GMT

"PN will move you to EE FOC if arranged through them."

Ee, by gum..

Re: If PlusNet belongs to BT - where is their landline switchover?

pint — Tue, 04 Nov 2025 20:48:13 GMT

Plusnet were running a Voip ( aka digital voice) trial a few years back - i was on it, this is the welcome message for that service

Welcome to the PlusNet VoIP Beta Trial!

Your Broadband Phone Beta account is now active. Please take a few minutes to read through this e-mail as it contains important information about your account.

You will need to configure your software or hardware with the following account information before you can begin using the service.

If you do not already have any software, you can download our recommended softphone at this link:
http://www.xten.com/index.php?menu=download

Your account details
--------------------

Your Trial account type: Broadband Phone 240
Your phone number: 01xxx xxxxxx
Your SIP ID: 88xxxxx
Your user name: 88xxxxx
Your SIP password: xxxxxxxxx
Your voicemail pin code: 12345

Your server settings
--------------------

Your SIP domain: sip2.plus.net
Your SIP proxy: nat.plus.net:5082

You will need to update the server settings in your softphone or VoIP device configuration pages. For more setting information please go to the link below:
http://www.plus.net/support/broadband_phone/info/voip_trial.shtml?supporta=voiptrial#connect

The VoIP Trial Services Control Panel is where you can track your use and manage your account. This can be accessed by visiting -
http://voip.plus.net

Before you start using your account, we recommended that you change your Control Panel password and SIP password to something more memorable. This can be done using the 'Contact Details' link found in the Control Panel.

VoiceMail
---------

We provide a free Voicemail service. If you are offline, then
messages will be taken and forwarded to you via email. You can
access the voice mail service by dialing *1 from your phone.
Alternatively, you may dial 0870 861 6661 from any telephone line.
When prompted, enter your mailbox number (8810020) and your
pin code (xxxx).

Who Can I Call?
---------------

Once you've got your account working, please try and make some test
calls to a geographic (01/02/03) number. This will deactivate the international call barring applied to prevent and protect you from fraud. You will only need to do this the first time you make a call. After this you can ring any non-premium rate phone number on the public network including international numbers.

You need to have credit on your account if you want to make telephone calls to non-geographic numbers that are not included as part of your monthly allowance. For example, calls to mobile phones and 0845/0870 numbers.

Credit can be added to your account in increments of GBP 5 or GBP 10 by raising a ticket to our support team -
http://www.plus.net/support/broadband_phone/info/voip_trial.shtml#topup

You can ring your friends, who are also using the PlusNet trial, for free.
Simply dial their SIP ID or their geographic (01/02) number. If you have friends using other VoIP services, they can ring you by dialing xxxxxxx@sip2.plus.net.

You can also ring 160, which is an echo test. This will replay your
voice to you as it is received, so you can determine the latency
on this service.

We also have a speaking clock on 123.

We hope you enjoy using your Trial account and look forward to receiving your feedback. If you have any questions, suggestions for improvement or things you would like to see then please visit our Community Site discussion forums -
http://community.plus.net/forum/index.php/board,9.0.html

If you need to contact our support team then please get in touch by raising a support ticket on your account at the following address -
http://trials.plus.net

Further details regarding the Broadband Phone VoIP beta Trial are available on our website -
http://www.plus.net/support/broadband_phone/info/voip_trial.shtml

Thanks for your interest in the trial.

Re: If PlusNet belongs to BT - where is their landline switchover?

Baldrick1 — Tue, 04 Nov 2025 21:19:12 GMT

@pint

The fact that Plusnet once ran a trial of VoIP is totally irrelevant. The corporate management of BT has decided that the Plusnet brand shall be a ‘broadband’ supplier only. There is no point in quoting what might or might not have been the Plusnet management aspirations before the brand was fully incorporated into BT Retail.

The die is now cast!

Re: If PlusNet belongs to BT - where is their landline switchover?

ColdharbourDave — Tue, 04 Nov 2025 22:24:13 GMT

I think I will have to go to Age Concern for help understanding if migration to EE will allow me to continue top use my BT200 phone for deaf people.

It is tempting to go with Hyper-optic just to spite the [-Censored-].

Re: If PlusNet belongs to BT - where is their landline switchover?

pint — Tue, 04 Nov 2025 22:53:19 GMT

I have a voice service running on Voip, the service is from a company called Voiphone and it uses a device called an ATA into which my analogue phones are attached, the ATA was purchased from Voiphone - its unlocked so can be re-configured if i want to change voip provider.

The whole set up was incredibly simple - infact too simple as i like to have a little look at things and a bit of a tinker ( as long as i can go back to the last good config)

1: Signed up with voip provider and then soon after purchased the ATA from them

2:ATA box arrived in post, pre configured (Grandstream HT801)

3: ATA is powered by a micro USB lead - got loads of these floating around, plugged one of these into the back of my routers USB port to power the ATA, and plugged the ethernet cable into the Ethernet port on the ATA, voiphone packaged a BT plug to RJ11 adaptor, the RJ 11 end was plugged into the ATA, and phone to the other end

4: Ported landline number to Voiphone

5: it just works - the supplied ATA was password locked, and voiphone supplied the username/admin log in details, logged into it, left the settings alone and the whole thing just works.

Its something that could be easily sold on a plug and play basis by the likes of BT and would work on any ISP adn would easily resolve the issues that people will have if they are told their voice service is being ceased/closed etc.

It wouldnt take much to pair it all up with a simple UPS that could even be powered by a basic powerbank that offers quick charging so vulnerable people can easily get new batteries in the event of a prolonged power cut