Permanent Call barring on Plusnet

[#1]

Nope one small buy to let. So frustrating, everyone has got a 'nearly' solution no one has a real solution. Pity OFCOM never obliged the industry to make Internet only available to homes.

[#2]

Plusnet please make it a priority/New Years resolution to start offering call barring/blocking!! It is a desperately needed service, and a deal breaker for some customers (e.g. myself) - stopping me from moving my line rental to Plusnet.

[#3]

If you get unlimited broadband, it will cost a little more but then you won't get hit with surprise bills. Get the master socket and modem fitted in a lockable cupboard and set to Wifi.  They won't be able to attach phones at all then.  If you are worried you'd have to keep coming out if the modem needed powering off, you can wire via a power switch on the outside of the cupboard.  That way they can also turn off the wifi if they want (some people don't like having radiation pulses all day and night).  And/or you can fit an ethernet socket on the outside of the cupboard and give them an external WAP they can use optionally or remove and insert ethernet cable.

[#4]

How many hoops am I supposed to jump thru to compensate for lack of fitness for purpose of a product?

[#5]

Of course you could just install a BT line?

[#6]

I'm looking at a wider set of call features and will add call barring (along with international & premium call barring) into it.
This is a long(ish) term project and won't bear fruit for many months, sorry.

[#7]

Quote from: netgran

How many hoops am I supposed to jump thru to compensate for lack of fitness for purpose of a product?

What do other landlords do?
If you have a letting agent, what does he advise?

[#8]

Leave the tenant to arrange his own telephone and broadband. netgran's idea to come up with a way of ensuring the tenant has working broadband on the day they move in is very good - shame Plusnet don't want to have the income from a totally unused broadband connection during the period between tenants!

[#9]

Ben's update above to say that Plusnet is looking to add BT-style call barring is nice but comes too late for my current project.
Ben, please consider this market segment. The landlord needs complete confidence that there will be no unexpected bills.
This means call barring with PIN protection (or account holder has to call Plusnet to alter the settings) of both outgoing AND incoming calls because the latter allows reverse charge calls that can be even more expensive than premium rate ones.
Basically, Plusnet need to replicate the security/100% cost predictability that Virgin Media currently offers with it's 'broadband only' deal. It's not the cheapest deal but serves a purpose.
As well as being used by countless landlords already for student lets, this also appeals to groups of students who share a broadband connection.
I recall well sharing a student house and bitter disputes about phone usage!

[#10]

Far simpler would be to offer a 'line only' option, just as AAISP do.  This should be cheaper as well as you wouldn't be paying for the Call Barring feature!
For those who make no use of their land line for telephony it's galling to pay for line rental that includes voice access.  Unfortunately it seems that no-one other than AAISP is brave enough to offer it!
In an ideal world, as I have FTTC, I'd be happy not to have (or pay for) the line from the cabinet back to the exchange but that isn't going to happen

[#11]

Actually it will happen one day, it's only a question of which major consumer ISP leads the charge.

[#12]

I'll certainly take these comments on board but one thing springs to mind - the line will not be usable for 999 calls (normal barring allows operator / reverse / 999). Are you comfortable with that?

[#13]

How many students don't have mobile phones? The only way I can see this being an issue would be if it was somewhere with a poor mobile signal.

[#14]

That was my thought too, jelv.  The OP definitely said the purpose was for people who would be expected to use their mobiles for calls.  It was to provide them with broadband service not telephony.

[#15]

(in reply to Ben 3 posts up)
Insofar as it's no worse than cabled broadband only, yes. The intention was to not even supply a landline handset (or splitter/filter).
Now, BT's and some other systems can block all outgoing chargeable calls and leave 999 etc available.
Their incoming block is debatable as it seems possible to defeat it with a simple code.
So that's food for thought.