Switch Guide Book

[#1]

"You’ll soon receive a guide book in the post that contains more information about what will happen as part of your switch to EE, including what happens in the event of emergencies such as power cuts."

Just curious, having received a reminder email from PN about the switch, has anyone received this guide book?

[#2]

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@geriatrix wrote:

Just curious, having received a reminder email from PN about the switch, has anyone received this guide book?

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... not received here 😐   I got the "Moving you to EE if you don't take action" e-mail on 06/05/26.

As far as I'm aware, there should have been both a related letter and a guide book sent out at about the same time.  The post deliveries here are intermittent at best, so I figured it might take a few days, but neither materialised.

Having discovered that full fibre isn't available where I live (well there's Full Fibre On Demand but that is AIUI an expensive proposition) I opted for giving up the landline number (rarely if ever used) and asking to transfer to SOGEA (ie staying with PN).

However was also aware that PN itself would subsequently have to deal with the removal of the landline number which can otherwise (somehow) cause a linked broadband account to be cancelled.

I (still) don't really understand the technical side of all this but SOGEA seems to be basically the same as the previous broadband connection [FTTC ie fibre-to-the-cabinet] but with the landline removed from the equation.

I went and looked up SOGEA in the 'Technical Jargon' post at https://community.plus.net/t5/Tech-Help-Software-Hardware-etc/Technical-Jargon/m-p/1919108/highlight... .

SOGEA – Single Order Generic Internet Access – "SoGEA stands for Single Order Generic Ethernet Access, this is VDSL2 service without analogue telephone service" - https://www.draytek.co.uk/support/guides/kb-openreach-sogea (useful link).

The switch to SOGEA happened on 20th May, two weeks after that first e-mail.  All done remotely, no engineer.  No hassle.

I could have retrieved the landline number, after that, if wished, for use with VOIP [eg via https://www.aa.net.uk/voice-and-mobile/voip-information/] but decided not to proceed with that.

During the two weeks from receipt of the "Moving you to EE if you don't take action" e-mail, I asked a lot of questions in the SU group [I'm the only non-techie "superuser"] because I really struggled to understand how the new set-up would work.

Got some brilliant answers to a great many questions.

So if anyone else here doesn't even understand the basics - eg one of the questions I asked was: "in my hallway there is a BT box into which the cable from the router is plugged.  If I transferred to SOGEA (and removed the cable from the BT box) how would the signal get to the router (?)"  then feel free to ask on this thread.

Some people can do "techie" stuff - and some of us can't, for whatever reason.   But hopefully I could perhaps copy to here some of the questions I asked, and the SU-group responses, if of interest to anyone here.

Or maybe no-one else who visits these forums, struggles as much as I do, with even the basic techie-type stuff : )

It's been over two months now since the original "switch" e-mail arrived here and I think eight weeks since the actual move to SOGEA - and that booklet never arrived.  Hopefully other people's letters/booklets did arrive, at some stage : )

If not, and you have any related questions, please just ask them here.

.

[#3]

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@Penny wrote:

Having discovered that full fibre isn't available where I live (well there's Full Fibre On Demand but that is AIUI an expensive proposition) I opted for giving up the landline number (rarely if ever used) and asking to transfer to SOGEA (ie staying with PN).

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@Penny -

1. Did you check to see whether any 'AltNet' (non-Openreach) full fibre providers have coverage in your postcode ?
2. When you went FTTC to SOGEA, did you stay on your existing Plusnet contract (just without the phone) or did you have to start a new 24 month contract when the line changed to VDSL2 only.

[#4]

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@ExForce9 wrote:
Did you check to see whether any 'AltNet' (non-Openreach) full fibre providers have coverage in your postcode ?

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To be truthful, no, I didn't - no inclination.  Was with NTL -> V/Media, a long while back, I think from when cable was first installed where I lived - endless messages "we're increasing your speed", every year or so, endlessly-rising prices alongside, and a service that progressively deteriorated, to the point where I was having to re-boot the router literally every day.

Have since been with PlusNet (ADSL/broadband, not sure how it started) since mid-2013 (had been on PN dial-up prior to NTL iirc) and no broadband issues at all in recent years, just steady reliable predictable service.  So, completely disinterested in the possibility of "altnets", tbh : )

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@ExForce9 wrote:

When you went FTTC to SOGEA, did you stay on your existing Plusnet contract (just without the phone) or did you have to start a new 24 month contract when the line changed to VDSL2 only.

Not sure of the precise technicalities but switching from 'broadband' to 'SOGEA' is (afaik) a "product change" because they are somewhat different in nature.  So I'd sort-of expected there would be a "new contract" associated with the change. 

TBH it didn't make a lot of difference either way because the prices for broadband and SOGEA seem to be pretty similar, and with regard to contract length, makes no difference to me because I wouldn't have wanted to leave PN in any case.  Did have to move the big website (back in 2023) because PN weren't able to offer https (wouldn't have moved it elsewhere, otherwise) but hoping to keep the broadband with PN for the indefinite future. 

They're a really nice crew and - back in the day, when I first started with Force 9 - spent a lot of time talking me through the basics (most of which I really didn't understand) and also doing bits to help with the site (the first html layouts for the Directory, the mailing list set-ups for the newsletter, providing a visit counter for the pages, etc.).

There's been a lot of help over a lot of years, and some really nice people both at F9/PN and in these forums, so tbh I'm really disinclined to walk away on the offchance that some 'altnet' might generate webpages quicker.   

I know these days everyone wants "more speed" but I don't honestly need more than SOGEA is providing and it uploads websites at speed and downloads films from iplayer etc. without 'buffering'.  I understand/realise that some families have gamers and several TVs and actually *need* high-powered connections, but the present set-up works okay for me. 

And likewise for a lot of people here, I'd have thought, if they don't get shunted into EE without realising they could have stayed with PN and just made alternative arrangements for the landline number move to VOIP in due course.

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[#5]

Seriously, has anybody received this guide book? I haven't yet received anything regarding this switch apart from a Plusnet reminder" email last week. I've had nothing from EE at all.

[#6 · Accepted solution]

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@geriatrix wrote:

Seriously, has anybody received this guide book? I haven't yet received anything regarding this switch apart from a Plusnet reminder" email last week. I've had nothing from EE at all.

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I received this booklet not long after my first email about the transfer to EE within 30 days.

I've scanned it & attached it here...