Broadband + phone

[#1]

Just looked at the EE Broadband + Digital Home phone offer....

In big bold type it states from £27.99 a month but then in standard size type states £31.99 from March £20.26

Which means it's never going to be from £27.99 for me?

Also in the small print it says with the switch to Full Fibre I'll lose the current phone number and be given a new one, which defeats what I'm trying to do.

[#2]

Why are communications from communication companies so bad....I'll give Plusnet a call to try and get some clarification.

I would have thought it would be much easier to offer a phone service with fibre and digital technology.

Email switched, broadband to terminate and phone to be cut off.

[#3]

@christmas  Do you have a preference as to who you want to supply your phone & broadband?

The "easiest" solution, if you want to keep your current phone number (without having to port it to another provider) is to ring up BT & take broadband with them as well. My sister also has phone with BT & broadband with Plusnet. She received a letter from BT which included an "offer" of £25.99 for 150Mbps full fibre & £12 for unlimited anytime calls. She phoned them up yesterday & the order was completed there & then.

She is currently on full copper (ADSL), so will have full fibre (FTTP) installed during the change over from Plusnet to BT on 22nd July.

Have you received any letters from BT with offers of taking broadband with them?

You can, of course, opt to stay with Plusnet (or go with any other ISP), but you will need to arrange to get your current phone number ported to a separate VOIP provider. As @jab1 says, your number will be quarantined for 30 days, to give you time to transfer it to an alternate VOIP provider.

[#4]

I'm going through this exact scenario myself right now. Email from PN saying unless I take action they'll move me to EE on current pN terms. I am looking around and there's a "special' price for PN customers that is 28 pounds per month. This is 26 pounds for briadband and 2 pounds a month for pay as you go phone service. Price will rise to 32 pounds in March 27 and then 36 pounds in March 28, this is for a 24 month contract.

There are better offers for EE as a new customer by looking at the MoneySavingExpert comparison site and also Top Cashback. Both show the total cost over the 24 month period and factor in cashback and/or prepaid gift cards on offer for new customer signups.

The alternative for me is GigaClear, no other full fibre is available and we are not on a priority exchange for FTTP. 

[#5]

@BlueEagle365 Have had a look at the EE offers...very, very confusing re the plans available and the pricing. 

Think I will check with Plusnet first and see what they say, also I need to check if I need a new router and phones..

[#6]

@RadioFox Only I've had from BT is one saying I can no longer take broadband and a landline from different providers and I need to take action. No offers.

[#7]

Having looking at the options available on the BT website, I phoned them to clarify a few things. 

BT insisted having different providers for broadband and phone is not allowed.

Oddly over the phone the Full Fibre 74mbps was said to be dearer than Full Fibre 150mbps, also the prices given where different to those shown the BT website....very confusing.

I was given the BT technical phone number to ask if it was possible to change the SSID of the Hub BT would supply, went round in circles and eventually told there was a 20 minute queue...I hung up. 

[#8]

Attempted to phone Plusnet for advice and told the queue wait time is 20 minutes...I hung up.

[#9]

BT insisted having different providers for broadband and phone is not allowed.

Not true!.

All new phone services are provided over a broadband connection using VOIP (Voice over Internet protocol).  Whilst most of the big providers have their own version of voip , often called 'Digital voice' which is tied to their broadband connection, there are third party voip suppliers whose services will operate over any providers broadband connection. So it IS perfectly possible to have different providers for phone  broadband. 

[#10]

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@MisterW wrote:

So it IS perfectly possible to have different providers for phone  broadband. 

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And as you well know @MisterW , it's also possible to use multiple VoIP accounts over the same connection which very few people on here seem to appreciate.

E.g. Use a cheap 'hosting' service such as A&A for incoming calls to, say, a ported landline number, whilst using another of the many companies who provide much cheaper outgoing calls whilst sending the A&A number as CLI for those calls.

Obviously the user needs to have equipment which can handle two or more SIP accounts.

[#11]

Obviously the user needs to have equipment which can handle two or more SIP accounts.

Unfortunately the commonly recommended Grandstream HT801/802 ATAs dont support multiple accounts. I prefer the Gigaset N300  which supports up to 6 concurrent voip accounts and a dialplan allowing outgoing calls to be routed as appropriate.

[#12]

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@christmas wrote:

...Oddly over the phone the Full Fibre 74mbps was said to be dearer than Full Fibre 150mbps, also the prices given where different to those shown the BT website....very confusing...

Although the prices were different, were they acceptable?

Assuming my sister got her figures right, the 150Mbps broadband & call package were both cheaper than the website prices. 

EDIT...having said that, the website prices I see, are as a non-customer, so don't know what prices an existing customer would see.

[#13]

@HPsauce I'm in the same situation: BT landline and PN ADSL.

Could you point me to how you ordered the "NEW FIBRE line (FTTC, no FTTP here) from PN installed alongside existing"?

When I try and go along the route of ordering fibre, the Plusnet website forces me onto a 'here are the amazing upgrades for you' page that isn't very clear what is being ordered and whether it would coexist with the existing ADSL/landline.

[#14]

@WNewall4 I had to phone in and explain VERY VERY CAREFULLY that I was ordering a new SOGEA line alongside existing ADSL on BT POTS.

This also required a new account for that line, obviously without email etc. (not that I've used that in ages).

Openreach subsequently made contact (by text IIRC) to confirm an additional line was being installed.

My old account, service long terminated, still exists in the Member centre. When I did terminate it I explained to the agent what was going on and they ended the ADSL service immediately with no penalty as they could see the new Fibre service was up and running and I'd paid an installation charge on it.

[#15]

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@HPsauce wrote:

For guidance (in summary) what I did to minimise disruption was: 1. Order a NEW FIBRE line (FTTC, no FTTP here) from PN installed alongside existing. 2. Once running okay cancelled the old PN ADSL broadband leaving the BT phone active.

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I don't know how long ago this was and am ready to be corrected, but my understanding is that any changes to an ADSL line now will result in the service being discontinued. Assuming that this is correct, cancelling the Plusnet ADSL broadband would now automatically also switch off the BT phone service.