Broadband speed drop after giving up my landline phone.

[#1]

After a few messages from Plusnet saying phone lines on the old copper wire system are being discontinued by open reach and Plusnet would not be offering an alternative, i decided to take their advice and remove the landline from my account. In doing this I would save money on not having to pay for line rental and as the landline has not been used very much for many years it seemed like a good idea. However on the downside, the so called upgrade involved a reduction in download speed for the broadband. This service will still be delivered by a part fibre system with fibre coming to the green box in the village and then to my home via the old copper cable. My original download speed sat comfortably at 45mbps for years but my upgrade has now diminished to 36-37mbps. I would hardly call this an upgrade! I have saved £3.73 by not paying line rental to the detriment of the download speed. I can’t  full fibre because the infrastructure is not here yet so am stuck. However if you search what’s on offer to a new customer at my address they offer a faster service. I don’t really understand what is going on and our hand is being forced a little bit due to the changes to the landline phone system. I would like to hear any thoughts on this or similar experiences had by people on this forum.

[#2]

@caney97 The removal of the voice component (telephone service) is merely an administrative (throw a switch, if you like) operation, and should have no effect on your speed.

Which router are you using?

[#3]

They told me the speed would drop as part of the landline switch off. There was only the one offer and not easy to dispute as everything is encouraged to be done online. Therefore i do not think it is anything to do with the router which is the one supplied by Plusnet (which is a cast off from BT rebranded with Plusnet colours). It seems the the service on the old phone line system is being downgraded generally in favour of looking after those that can sign up to full fibre (which is great if the infrastructure has reached your village/town).

[#4]

@caney97 has your speed actually changed as a result of the change ?

The way in which speed 'estimates' are produced seems to be different for upgrades but the actual speed when dropping the phone service should be no different.

[#5]

What they (who?) told you about the speed reducing as a consequence of losing the voice component is/was a - to put it politely - load of bull. If anything, you should possibly see a slight increase in speed.

[#6]

Yes the speed has dropped. Prior to giving up the landline phone the speed was a steady 45mbps and now it has dropped to 36-37mbps. I was told it would change from 45mbps to 40mbps with a minimum download speed of 38-40mbps. If I look to sign up as a new customer i can get an offering of 50-71mbps for £1.00 more per month, but as an existing customer I have not been offered this. It’s back to offering new customers the best deal and not looking after the existing ones.

[#7]

@jab1 it is a load of bull. I would have been okay with the speed staying the same but would probably get some more bull about contention rates on the old lines needing the drop in speed. It stayed at 45mbps for years so there was no need for them(Plusnet) to drop the speed. We do manage with what speed we have got, its the principle.

[#8]

OK. Something screwy is going off here. You were clearly on the 'Fibre Extra' - up to 80Mbps - package previously, with what looks like a fairly long 'last mile' of copper from the cab to your home. The SoGEA (no phone) service is delivered over exactly the same wires, so should, as said previously, remain the same/slightly improve.

BTW - if your speed was previously ~45Mbps, it cannot magically hit 70. The laws of physics comes into play here.

[#9]

@caney97 

On a SOGEA (internet only) FTTC connection PN only offer one speed now - 80/20. However I understand they may provision you at 40/10 if that's what the system thinks is the highest you can get due to the line.

I wonder if that's what has happened here.

Brian

[#10]

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@bmc wrote:

@caney97 

I wonder if that's what has happened here.

Brian

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A possibility, @bmc  - well spotted.

[#11]

Yes maybe so but if i hadn’t dropped the phone line I would still be getting 45-46mbps. Me helping them out as they need people to drop the phone lines by 2026 has resulted in a downgraded service for my trouble.

[#12]

@caney97 Can you post your Technical Log - assuming you have a Hub2 - obscuring your user name, please. This should help us to advise further.

[#13]

@caney97 

I don't know how it works but the provisioning may be automatic. If so, you need a staff member to manually change the provisioning to 80/20.

You can either wait on here for a staff member to pick up the thread or phone support and ask what speed you are provisioned at.

Brian

[#14]

This my technical log from Hub2

[#15]

@caney97 that's DEFINITELY been provisioned on a 40/10 profile. From the noise margin figures ,  your line is certainly capable of better than that. 

You can either try calling support and requesting that the line is changed to an 80/20 profile OR wait for a help team member to pick this up.

NB another of the SU's has already escalated this