FTTP Just arrived in my area but I have 19 months left on PN.

[#1]

I am in a predicament at the moment, Road was dug up a year ago for FTTP. My contract came to a end 11/12/23, so to avoid out of contract price i signed up to 20 months with PN due to no one offering FTTP. So today I received a ISP offering me 900mb for £3 more then what im paying now to PN for 40mb.

So that's 22 x times faster speed for £3. I immediately went to bt checker to see if FTTP was active so I can upgrade with PN. but nothing available.

So if im right i have to calculate my monthly fee and multiply that by 19 months to get out of this contract?

Any help/suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks 

[#2]

@Faizan786  It looks like you have a Altnet FTTP provider, so not Openreach and therefore not available via Plusnet so if you leave Plusnet you will have to pay early termination fees.

[#3]

So if im right i have to calculate my monthly fee and multiply that by 19 months to get out of this contract?

[#4]

@Faizan786 

Who made the offer?

I believe you have to phone in to Support to get a early cancellation fee figure.

As an aside I would suggest you don't need 900mb down unless you are (or plan to be) a very heavy user. A lower speed might work out costing less than you currently pay.

Brian

[#5]

Im currently paying £23 for 40mb.

Been offered £25 for £900mb.

We've struggled to download Playstation games with current speed as it was only option.

[#6]

Are you sure you are on a 20 month contract ?,  I thought Plusnet only did 24, 18, and 12 month contracts

[#7]

Yes on 20 month contract showing 19 months left. If only my previous contract ran out in 2024 I would have jumped to FTTP.

[#8]

[#9]

@Faizan786 

"So if im right i have to calculate my monthly fee and multiply that by 19 months to get out of this contract?"

AFAIK, you will get a small discount because you will have to pay up front, ie Plusnet will get their money early ratehr than in 19 monthly instalments. Also, I think that you will get a bit more off to cover Plusnet no longer having to provide you service.

If you call them, they will calculate the exact figure for you.

[#10]

@Faizan786  - another way to perceive your predicament !

Rather than paying off your Plusnet contract and receive nothing in return for your money,

have you considered keeping your Plusnet contract until it expires AND having the alt-net FTTP installed (perhaps at a lower speed and lower cost tier), and swapping your home router for a dual-WAN router model that supports load balancing ?

That way, your home LAN can use the combined bandwidth of two internet connections, you double the reliability of your external internet connection as the load-balancing will seamlessly use whichever connection is working, and you're not throwing away your money for nothing to pay off Plusnet.

Just an idea.

[#11]

Or you could think about why you need such a huge increase in speed and ask yourself whether upgrading to Full fibre now rather than in 19 months is worth circa £400.

[#12]

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@Faizan786 wrote:

Im currently paying £23 for 40mb.

Been offered £25 for £900mb.

Be very careful to read the alt-net small print on pricing AFTER the introductory period.

I was offered a similar alt-net FTTP 900mb package,  but hidden deep in the T&Cs after the initial contract period the monthly cost went to £79.99 !

I chose to stay on VDSL SoGEA, and optimise my speeds with a better modem, and a router with QoS to minimise latency.

[#13]

@Anonymous 

"Be very careful to read the alt-net small print on pricing AFTER the introductory period."

Also, the annual price increase might be based on a higher figure:

About a year ago I was offered 900MB FTTP via an AltNet ISP for £30 per month. This was presented as a normal price of £60 per month, with a discount of £30.

When I delved deeper, it became apparent that the annual CPI +3.9% increase was applied to the £60 price, and then the £30 discount was applied.

In numbers, (I think that the increase generally was 14.9% ?):

A base price of £30/month would have increased by £4.47. to £34.47

With this £60/month base price, it would have increased by £8.94, to £68.94, less £30 discount = £38.94

[#14]

Not all altnets follow the annual CPI+3.9% trend - I moved to Gigaclear and for new 18 month contracts they only apply one increase, and it was a smaller %ge.

Also when you recontract you don't pay the out-of contract price anyway (similar to Plusnet).

Since Plusnet do apply the annual CPI+3.9% increase, the altnet price after the fixed term may still be competitive - and you have a faster connection.

[#15]

I can remember when PN didn't jump on the 'out of contract' price bandwagon, i.e. when your contract ended you carried on with the same price.