Plusnet Mobile - total shutdown

[#1]

Any indication of timescale yet?

[#2]

Not even, just throwing out my suggestions.

[#3]

I have personally had no issues which is why I chose to mention them

[#4]

I thought I'd let you all know that communications haven't been made yet about the near future of Plusnet mobile so it’s business as usual at the moment for existing customers, we'll be sure to communicate out more info near the time.

[#5]

I can't see any sense in waiting and then maybe having a last minute rush. Plusnet are no longer competitive anyway as a budget virtual operator. I wouldn't have moved just to save a couple of quid as the service was perfectly OK, but knowing it's coming to an end we might as well make that saving sooner rather than later. 

[#6]

Following the logic in my last post I signed up with Lebara, normal monthly price will be 75% of what I was paying Plusnet for the same benefits. As a bonus the first 3 months are half price.  Another benefit is they support WiFi Calling, and the signal at home is better than EE anyway. 

[#7]

I have been with Lebara for 12 months now the best thing I did now stupid price increases every March/April   

Had a special deal via USwich and the Vodafone signal is very good just go for it 

[#8]

I'm the only one in my family not on PlusNet mobile since I had a work-provided phone (on Vodafone) but due to privacy issues over the past year I found myself compelled to take out a second phone for personal use.   I was looking for as low-budget as possible but with a fair (<10Gb) amount of data to allow laptop tethering during commuting (ironically, for work, but work had decided a new policy to disable hotspot on "their" phone - go figure!).

I went through a few different iterations, my experiences:

1. The personal phone is Android and has dual SIM slots.   This made porting between providers extremely trouble-free and I would highly recommend it.   You can even trial a new network for data-only and keep calls/SMS on the existing one without any of that troublesome number porting.   I'd consider dual SIM support an almost essential feature in any future handset now.

2. This is kind-of not so relevant separate issue but moving Whatsapp between (work) iphone and (personal) Android resulted in complete loss of message history.   That was a 1-off pain.   Be prepared, take backups, I think there are ways to do it especially if you shell out for the latest most expensive handsets (but I wasn't prepared to do that).

3. One of the most helpful information websites I found was Kens Tech Tips - it's up-to-date, contains MVNOs not listed on the mainstream comparison sites, independent, full of (almost too much) detail.

4. I went for 30-day rolling deals so switching would be easy without lock-in.   Prices don't seem a whole lot different to contracts anyway.   

5. First deal I tried was a 2022 Black Friday (28th November) SmartyMobile SIM - 30Gb for £8/month.   (By chance I got a fairly memorable number with this SIM, which I decided to keep for future.)  Experience: website dashboard/app was good.   But the network coverage on "3" along my commute was not that great, a lot of signal dropouts.  (This has been a theme, coverage maps can be quite optimistic).   No WiFi coverage on the London underground.

6. After 2 months, discovered Ken's tech tips which led me to RWG Mobile (MVNO on EE).  Took out a SIM at £3.50/month for 2Gb and placed it in the second slot, set the handset to use it for data-only.   Coverage on EE along my route seemed vastly superior to 3, so initiated a number port, bumped it up to £5/month for 5Gb (is sufficient for what I need) and cancelled Smarty, the number port was pain-free on the dual-sim phone.  

7. RWG basically has no mobile app to manage your account and the website is pretty much bare bones.  Support is essentially by email.  In July my data just stopped working possibly after an Android 11->13 update but equally possibly something to do with them (calls & SMS still worked).   Support wasn't really forthcoming and so (despite normal service resuming after several days) I decided to move again.   No WiFi coverage on the London underground.

8. Surprisingly ended up on Virgin mobile, £7/month for 15Gb.  I hadn't considered a more mainstream MVNO would offer anything this cost-effective.   Porting was again straightforward and there's an app and decent website. Excited as they have Wifi hotspots on London Underground, then disappointed to discover that this no longer exists.

9. Virgin announced that mobile is closing, and I'd be moving to O2 in due course, at no extra cost.   I called up and asked if I could move early since this should give me that London Underground WiFi.   This attempt was fruitless though, O2 tried to offer me a more expensive plan with less data so I decided to stick it out to the end.

10. Last week was automatically ported to O2 - and they honoured their promise, I'm still paying £6.99/month - but now apparently have 100Gb of data per month!   I'll never use more than 10Gb but, well, whatever.   The billing actually shows it as £24.50 with a £17.50 discount so I don't know how long this utopia will last.   I almost have London Underground WiFi, the network connects then immediately disconnects, I'm hoping this is an ex-Virgin customer issue and will be sorted out soon.

OK so not strictly a "Plusnet porting" experience but have 3 family members to do, apparently before the end of the year.   Rather wishing I'd put them all on Virgin back in July, now.

[#9]

If you are worried about price rises with 02 I recently got my dad a 02 sim only contract via Uswitch always a lot cheaper than going through 02 direct when his 12 month contract is up I’ll simply transfer his number for a day or two to a pay as you go sim then transfer it back to 02 on another 12 month sim only plan win win. he was previously on plusnet now getting 5G, WiFi calling and roaming in the USA etc for a cheaper monthly price probably the best thing that’s happened Plusnet mobile shutting down

[#10]

O2 prices go up each year by RPI + 3.9% every April ?

You are best looking at Giffgaff on USwitch there are some very good deals and they use O2

[#11]

Thanks that's good to know.
This "RPI +3.9%" is a dirty trick that BT came up with a few years back and the others all jumped on the bandwagon.
The marginal cost of providing a telecom service per subscriber is very close to zero, it's blatant profiteering.
I don't know why OFCOM allowed it, disgusting especially since inflation shot up, expect 10%+ rises (again) this April.

[#12]

Can anyone post here what are the actual EE offers on https://www.plus.net/mobile when you

"Unlock your best available 30 day EE SIM only deals online"

[#13]

It’s not “a dirty trick BT came up with”, it was the maximum in contract increase OFCOM allowed which is why it is the same figure for all the companies who don’t have a fixed charge for the full term.

[#14]

But they could charge a lesser increase and retain more customers.

[#15]

Plusnet are acting like Lyca mobile tell you nothing. Don’t understand how this is a way to run a business, they surely will have an end date give the users a date to work with not spring a date up in a couple weeks time. When I was on Asda mobile before they swapped over to using the Vodafone network they called me letting me know the shut down date and telling me about how the service would change. About 4-5 texts and 3 phone calls and plusnet can’t even do that they have to rely on newspapers to get the word out that they’re closing down their service. I have a friend who drinks in the same pub as me I had to tell him about it, hadn’t got a clue. Very poor.