Autumn Price increase FAQ's

[#1]

If you have a look at http://www.productsandservices.bt.com/products/landline/line-rental-and-calling-plans
It says

Quote

With Line Rental Saver you pay your home telephone line rental for the whole year in one card payment of £159.84, giving you 12 months for the price of 10.

You could transfer your internet to a non-phone Plusnet broadband product, transfer the phone to BT and finally transfer the phone back to Plusnet, next time they have a special offer.

[#2]

Quote from: glloyd

Once upon a time Plusnet were competitive and gave good value for money. Slowly all the inclusive offers have been chipped away and prices risen to the stage were now there is no advantage staying with Plusnet. Year on year they raise prices when wholesale prices drop that is just out and out greed. I will be one of those looking around for a better deal.

And then they got bought by BT?

[#3]

Not correct
Once they didn't spend any money on capacity to the extent where they were a total disaster
Then they were bought by BT and there was a sea change with extra capacity being bought before it was needed and they were still very competitive
The problem is competing with LLU suppliers
Plusnet are definitely still very competitive with the non LLU opposition but because of the way OFCOM have skewed the market they can't compete on price with the likes of Talk Talk

[#4]

Quote from: slart1

Quote from: glloyd Once upon a time Plusnet were competitive and gave good value for money. Slowly all the inclusive offers have been chipped away and prices risen to the stage were now there is no advantage staying with Plusnet. Year on year they raise prices when wholesale prices drop that is just out and out greed. I will be one of those looking around for a better deal. And then they got bought by BT?

Nostalgia is a funny old thing. I call it selective memory...

[#5]

They did have a very competitive broadband only price a few years back.
That's why I finally dropped dial-up and actually saved money by moving to Plusnets broadband.
Something needs to be done to untangle voice and broadband as it's falsely skewing the market.
If I was back in that position today I would probably end up with a LLU supplier.
Or quite possibly just drop it completely as an expensive unnecessary luxury.

[#6]

I own a few BT shares.
So I'm very keen to see Plusnet's assets sweated intensively.
Especially the Telephone side of things - even though I realise that a broadband company would know little about selling voice capabilities to customers.
I might see a few p extra on the dividends if Plusnet don't screw up too badly.
BTW I see that if you have 80/20 fibre then they insist on you renting a phone-line from them?
Weird.

[#7]

Quote from: vilefoxdemonofdoom

BTW I see that if you have 80/20 fibre then they insist on you renting a phone-line from them? Weird.

No they don't. It costs £2.50 extra though.
http://www.plus.net/home-broadband/broadband-only/

[#8]

So, since I already get unlimited broadband (80/20) without a phone connection with Plusnet for £19-99, I would need to be stupid to switch my telephone "provider" to Plusnet?

[#9]

Quote from: vilefoxdemonofdoom

... I would need to be stupid to switch my telephone "provider" to Plusnet?

Out trolling tonight, Jeremy?
Whichever company your ISP is, it's likely that you are getting a lot more for your money than you did a decade ago.  And whichever company provides your telephone service, you will be paying a lot more in up-front costs than a decade ago (although heavy phone users may benefit from the wider availability of 'anytime' or 'evenings and weekends' packages).  All the major ISPs offer financial incentives to those willing to commit for both phone and broadband and in fact you may not be able to get standalone broadband from some.   

[#10]

Just a bit!
I'm not getting more money than 10 years ago!
In the present climate, no one wants to employ a 60 year old IT worker when they can get a cheap graduate on a zero hours contract.
So I'm unemployed or retired and have been for several years.
I don't mind paying a reasonable amount for the infrastructure - but Plusnet isn't paying for more wiring / fibre is it?
All this stuff was installed years ago and needs little maintenance.

[#11]

Well 10 years ago there was no broadband service in my area.  But 9 years ago I was paying £14.99 a month for a 2 Mbps broadband service with a 'fair use' policy applying some sort of limit to the quantity of material you could download.  In the last nine years that broadband service has seen two step-ups in speed and fibre is just being installed here at the moment (although that is at the government's expense).  So broadband (and the trunk telephone network) has seen a lot of new infrastructure over the last decade.   

[#12]

To put thing in perspective ,20 years ago I was paying BT £50 per month just for rental/calls(not sure exactly how that was split) - now,with the use of Evenings/weekend packages,ALR deals and indirect access provider 18185, I'm spending ~ £15 per month!! Add on £6.50 for unlimited broadband and it doesn't seem bad value to me

[#13]

Quote from: davidj60

doesn't seem bad value to me

Agreed - can't recall what phone costs were but 12 years ago was paying £23.44 per month for 512k connection (Pipex)
Pay less today for unlimited adsl and phone line with E&W calls.

[#14]

For many years phone prices have been falling in relative terms.
This is no longer true.

[#15]

Quote from: vilefoxdemonofdoom

For many years phone prices have been falling in relative terms.

http://www.theguardian.com/money/2012/nov/02/phone-line-rental-rise-quarter
https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/bts-line-rental-cost-soared-071052957.html