Vulnerable user - phone and email

[#1]

I am trying to work out the best way to support my father through the changes to his plusnet service.

He is a vulnerable 85 year old reliant on his landline and email for communication.  He has FTTC and landline from Plusnet and he has an emergency alarm conected to the landline.  He cannot use mobile phones due to sight and hearing difficulties.

I am aware of the upcoming changes with Openreach dropping landline support and Plusnet not offering VOIP and with the outsourcing of email.  I spoke to a Plusnet support person yesterday who was not very helpful and did not seem to appreciate the problems with expecting an old person to change either the phone number they have used for 30 years or the email of 15 years.  He did say that if my father was registered as vulneranle with an alarm then his line would not be changed, althoughI am not clear what this means when Plusnet stops supporting landlines.

To retain the phone number it seems we should move broadband and phone to EE - I have read forum comments about moving to SoGEA and VOIP and the loss of the phone line for up to two weeks would not be acceptable - but this would cause a loss of his email address.

I have devised a plan that might get around these issues and would welcome any comments

1 - ensure my father is registered vulnerable with an alarm with Plusnet to stop any line migrations until we are ready

2 - wait for the migration of plus.com email addresses to Greenby (any date ?)

3 - work with alarm provider to move to an IP-based service, which should be available

4 - move broadband and phone to EE - this seems to be the only option where I can retain the landline number without risk of significant outage.

Hopefully by delaying any moves until after the email has moved to Greenby he can retain his email address when he moves to EE, subject to paying the £15 annual charge.

It would be really useful if my father's account could be marked such that I needed to be consulted on any changes.  Does anyone have any experience with setting this up with Plusnet?  He does not have the technical understanding and I think we are lucky that Plusnet told him there was a 20 minute queue when he tried to call them in response to the email about changing the landline service so he hung up.

W

[#2]

Hi W,

A warm welcome to the forums.  Take a look here - Digital Accessibility | Help | Plusnet - which covers the full spectrum of associated and delegated authority on an account.  In the absence of a lasting power of attorney third parties cannot approve chargeable changes to an account.

Your outline approach is very sound; however, depending on the time line, there might be a beneficial additional step, if the end of the current contract is earlier than the anticipated migration of the @account.plus.com mail accounts, which based on the known phasing will be later this year.

Your plan might entail paying out of contract rates for a few months until after the email service has been migrated.  That could be a moderate wedge of money.  One way to avoid that would be to renew the existing contract AS IS (FTTC + PTSN) via COTS (not on-line).  You could then put off the migration to EE until a later date, possibly sometime mid to late 2026 when BT Openreach start closing individual exchanges.  If migrating to EE for digital voice requirements, Plusnet waive the ETCs. but that migration MUST be arranged via / by Plusnet.

[#3]

Thanks for those comments.  I will check his contract but I think it runs at least to the end of this year.  I will get him to submit the form relating to being a vulnerable user and I see the page does indicate that he could ask that I be contacted regarding any changes.

I am happy to work with Plusnet and make any arrangements necessary for the changes, I understand technologies and services change, I have worked in the industry for many years.  As a former Plusnet customer (I left when they could not supply FTTP) I have usually found them supportive but when there are perhaps non-standard requirements I can take the responsibility for ensuring all the steps happen in the right order to minimise the impact on the end user.

[#4]

@doubleu 

You appear to have a sound understanding on what's required. Might I add the need for battery backup in the event of a power cut - VOIP doesn't work without power.

While I believe it has to be your father who does it, you can be registered as an "authorised" person on you fathers account to allow you to speak in detail about your father's account. You should check his account online to confirm he's registered as vulnerable.

It's already been stated that you can move ISP rather than go to EE - the closer he is to the end of his contract reduces the ETC's he would have to pay. Moving ISP is the easiest way to get a phone service. The likes of EE or Zen Internet (or others) supply the equipment required. Whereas staying with PN and using an independant VOIP supplier requires work to ensure phones work.

If he could do without his own phone number for a few days then the likes of A&A might be worth a look as an independant VOIP while staying with PN for internet. You can set up an account with a generic number at a very lost cost and then ensure it's works with the Hub2 - you would need to buy an Analogue Telephone Adapter (ATA) to plug into the Hub2.

Once it's up and running you then move the internet service on PN to a SOGEA line, When confirmation is received that this has happen you have 30 days to port the number to A&A. They can handle ceased line numbers.

Once the port is complete you terminate the generic number with A&A leaving only the original number live.

https://www.aa.net.uk/voice-and-mobile/voip-information/

At the moment I would leave things as they are but continue to get ready for the move.

Brian

[#5]

@doubleu 

One other thing has just come to mind.

Does you father use house extensions or does he have a Dect based phone? I ask because with the former the house extensions would no longer work with VOIP.

Brian

[#6]

He has a mix of extensions and DECT.  But extensions are not a problem with VOIP - my house uses the old wired extensions from the VOIP port on my router with a suitable connector, after disconnecting the incoming openreach wires from the master socket.

W

[#7]

---

@bmc wrote:

I ask because with the former the house extensions would no longer work with VOIP.

---

It's a simple matter to make them work using Voice Reinjection, provided an ATA with an FXS port is used and not a DECT-only solution such as a Gigaset IP device.

https://support.aa.net.uk/VoIP_How_to:_Voice_reinjection

Edit:  @doubleu types faster than me.

[#8]

@doubleu 

I know it's easily done with Full Fibre - as stated you just disconnect the old incoming OR copper wire.

With SOGEA you need this for internet to work. I would imagine you would need to disconenct the extension wiring from the Master Socket and wire it into a new indpendant phone socket.

Brian

[#9]

Yes you are right - I had forgotten the internet will be using the copper.  I can disconnect the extension circuit and reterminate it.

W

[#10]

Heres what i have done with the phone and full fibre:

Internet: plusnet

Phone (voice service) Voipfone home 100 (£6/month 100 minutes) 

The ONT and router are plugged into a small UPS  (https://www.amazon.co.uk/TalentCell-Uninterrupted-27000mAh-Wireless-Smartphone/dp/B08FBB4Q8V) - i have two of these an older one on the UPS and a newer one on the router 

The voice service runs through a Grandstream HT801, the Grandstream analogue telephone adaptor is powered via a USB port on the router, the grandstream HT801 was purchased pre-configured from Vodafone , and it's unlocked so can be reconfigured if i want to move to another voice provider

The Grandstream HT801 has two phones plugged into it, an old school line powered corded phone, and a Dect phone.

 The Dect phone takes a 5volt input on the base station, the newer talent cell UPS has a 5 volt usb type A ( and C) output

 I had a spare power cord for the DECT phone, powering the DECT phone from the UPS was a simple case of cutting the spare dect phone power cord and (safely) joining it to a USB type A ensuring that the 5volt +/- wires were correctly joined.

I managed to do a 4 hour test run with the whole lot disconnected from mains power and it  still had plenty of power remaining, it could easily manage a power cut of 8 hours, possibly 12 or more keeping wifi and phone active in theory if it came to it the talent cell UPS units could unplugged and re-charged somewhere else with power and then returned 

[#11]

@doubleu, does your father happen to receive any of the benefits that would make him eligible for a social tariff?  If so, then I'd suggest moving phone and broadband to BT rather than EE as a social tariff is much cheaper and just as good. I have a relative that is not really aware that the land line is now VoIP, and the switch from Plusnet to BT was pretty seamless (the phone was out of action less than 10 minutes, and managed via text messages back and forth to check each step was working before the next step).
If you wait until email is transferred to greenby , then nothing will have obviously changed from your father's perspective.

As for care alarms, when I checked for my relative it transpired that it had already been changed to one that uses a SIM rather than the land line so wasn't an issue - it may be worth checking with your father's care line provider.

[#12]

An update

As suggested, I helped my father to complete the Plusnet form to indicate that he was a vulnerable user with a landline-dependent alarm.

Within 24 hours he had been called by Plusnet about his requirements and he had asked them to speak to me.

I had a discussion with [CSA Removed] who was extremely helpful.  He reassured me that as far as he could see Openreach has not yet set up any plan to migrate landlines in my father's area, so nothing is imminent.  I explained the situation and how I wanted to ensure the order of activities so that we could retain both email address and phone number and Adam was understanding and assured me he would help if needed.  He also helped with some reorganisation of my father's account including registering me as an approved contact and registering my Power of Attorney.

This was good customer service for me - not even a customer - and my father, and makes me regret that we will have to move to another service provider at the end of the process.

W

Moderators Note: CSA name removed

[#13]

The only necessity to change provider would be to keep the billing for both broadband and digital phone services with a single provider.

Broadband could stay with Plusnet and VoIP being provided by whoever.

Good to hear of a great customer service experience in sorting out the service care arrangements for your father.

[#14]

@doubleu 

Good to hear things have gone well so far. I would certainly wait until nearer the end of your fathers contract before you taking furthere action. Other than researching what to do when the time comes.

As stated, he doesn't have to leave PN. Yes, it's more convienent and easier but not perhaps the cheapest option. Splitting the phone and internet gives choices in the future if required.

If looking at this option consider getting a secondhand FritzBox 7530 from CEX. Apart from better WiFi it has a built in ATA and a DECT base station. I got one recently for £35. It is the router supplied by Zen Internet so they have Help pages if required (you just change their details to PN ones).

If moving, then consider Zen Internet - highly regarded and a good quality router.

Brian

[#15]

The billing is not an issue, it is the indeterminate duration of the loss of the landline service caused by a migration to SOGEA and then the recovery of the ceased landline number by a VOIP provider that would not be acceptable.  I need to be able to move landline and broadband together, to minimise downtime, and then I can separately look at options for alternate VOIP providers.