Landline number after SOGEA

[#1]

Trying to plan in advance how is the best way to keep my landline number after BT disconnect this service and Plusnet don't offer a VOIP service.

Plusnet say phone them for my options, WHY? 

Surely if they want to keep customers they can say publicly what the options are, even if it is not a special deal to migrate to BT or EE. like they did with Plusnet mobile.

I know I can get a VOIP from another provider and link it to my Plusnet broadband, but why should I, I want one supplier and one bill.

Why the secrecy, why make it difficult for customers who have been loyal to Plusnet since it started, surely we deserve better? 

[#2]

@PurpleNeon 

A commercial decision has been made that PN will be a basic broadband provider with no frills - including a phone service. Group companies BT & EE will do the bells and whistles stuff.

As you are aware to stay with PN you need to go to a VOIP provider for your landline. You can also keep the services together by moving to a new broadband supplier althoguh you would lose PN email if you use it.

Brian

[#3]

It's not a very sound Commercial descision is it, telling your loyal customers to go somewhere else to get a service that Plusnet have been providing. I can't see how Plusnet gains at all, nor why it's being sidelined. Can't have it too successful Perhaps? 

[#4]

It might be a commercially sound decision if the demand is so low it will cost you more to supply than they make back. I would imagine they have looked at the revenue they make from phone usage and have decided they will leave that market to BT/EE. Remember they are all BT group companies so they aren't really loosing any revenue.

[#5]

Thank you for your reply flanzm. Surely whether Plusnet make any money or not is determined by the cost of supply and "Like for like" packages, Presumably from BT Wholesale? These days most services come as packages, Cars come with Servicing included, Gas suppliers also provide electricity, Broadcast services like Sky and Virgin provide Broadband and often Mobile Phones. The package is cheaper. Unbundling a Package and becoming specialist is surely a hiding to nothing unless your price cannot be beaten? Which it can be in a package by robbing Peter to pay Paul. 

[#6]

I think part of the problem is currently Plusnet are wholesaling WLR3 which is an Openreach product, that already exists and doesn't cost Plusnet money in terms of development or running. Once the PSTN network is turned off, there is no equivalent wholesale product so ISPs have to build and run it themselves, or buy in a third party solution. I would imagine Plusnet have looked at the cost and hassle of doing this themselves and decided for their market, it just isn't worth doing.

In all the cases you highlight you are bundling products that people actually want. The volume of landline calls made is dropping substantially each year, and sadly it's not a product that the majority of the population want. Also if you are trying to attract a budget market it makes sense to me to not offer expensive adds on such as Voice.

[#7]

It is clear from public anouncements that the BT Group are positioning their brands (BT, EE & PN) for different marketss and that PN are the basic broadband supplier.

They are withdrawing from the Business market and Mobile (indeed, I've just ported my number out today) and e-mail is under threat though no anouncements have been made. New customers don't get offered it.

Brian

[#8]

Thanks for your reply bmc. PN no longer hosting email? That seems less like repositioing in the market, more like giving up. I've had email there since not long after they began as an independent. They host my domain etc. I guess I'm going to have to look elsewhere for email and perhaps Broadband. In all these years I've never looked elsewhere, but now PN seem to be walking away. 

[#9]

@danludlow the email situation, so far as is known at the moment, is 'as you were' - there is no official notification of closure at this time, merely speculation, fuelled in part by badly trained first-line support. If/when it is decided that the PN brand is going to withdraw it, then they should give adequate warning.

domain hosting is ''legacy', and if I was you, or anyone with a PN hosted domain, I would be moving it to a dedicated hosting provider - support on here is close to non-existent.

[#10]

@danludlow 

As far as I'm aware PN no longer offer Domain hosting or webspace (and haven't done so for some time) but legacy accounts are still active. If I remember correctly I still have a website but have't looked for a while.

There is no news on PN e-mail - it may or may not survive but if it goes I suspect we'll be given plenty of time to make alternative arrangments - not something I would look for ward too for PN has been my e-mail provider since U joined then after LineOne

Brian

[#11]

Thanks for your reply John, Food for thought. Times and things change rapidly these days, perhaps they always have, although I think change has accelerated. in the 21st Century. 

[#12]

Thanks Brian, I don't look forawrd to making alternative arrangements either, but if there's no choice, I guess looking at changing my/our ISP is the likely outcome. 

[#13]

Whether a new customer gets offered any e-mail at all (even a single e-mail addess on a non-subdomain for things like billing information) is something I am currenly unaware of. All I can say is that when requesting a totally new account I provided an email address. That (external to Pnet, domain and mail hosting) e-mail address has been receiving updates on the provisioning of the new service.

I had already ported out my domain/e-mail provisioning from an old Pnet legacy account.

I'll feed back my own experience after the new service gets activated.

My opinions...

Existing accounts (as far as I know/can ascertain/imagine) will continue to have their e-mail provisions serviced, However, support may reduce over time (seen it all before).

Of course, all this is *very* off-topic for a landline question. But there's a lot of inter-related questions as the product line provided by Pnet continues to develope/change.

[#14]

Thanks for your reply greygit1. Food for thought. 

[#15]

I got my fingers burned years ago with a disappearing ISP when my email address went overnight.   I decided that I'd never allow this to happen again (at the time it caused a hell of a lot of hassle) so I bought my own domain and use Fasthosts to provide an email server on it.  If the worst happens and Fasthosts go bust overnight I'll still own the domain so can just set up another email server with a different provider.  It's not expensive for the peace of mind it gives.