This topic

Digital upgrade decision

Biz55 — Sat, 14 Feb 2026 14:09:40 GMT

I currently have BT for landline and Plusnet for Broadband.

BT have just informed me that I can no longer take landline and broadband from different providers due to digital upgrade and have offered me a deal of £27.99 for Fibre 2 plus £12 for Unlimited Minutes.

Do I have any other options ?

Re: Digital upgrade decision

licquorice — Sat, 14 Feb 2026 15:06:12 GMT

At those prices I would snatch their hand off.

You can't have broadband and telephony from different suppliers with Digital Voice, why would you even want to, far more expensive than a combined package.

Having said that, you could always use a third party VoIP provider if you want to keep your broadband with Plusnet

Re: Digital upgrade decision

iniltous — Sat, 14 Feb 2026 15:11:04 GMT

You have the same choices you have always had , the only choice you don’t have is to stay as you are .
What you have been offered by BT is new customer type pricing so in that respect it’s a decent offer , but you could chose to use whoever you like , obviously depending on if they service the area you are in and they can offer the facilities you need , but clearly you don’t have long to decide on something different.

I dare say that the price you have been offered by BT to supply the exact same things as you currently have is much lower than what you were paying for them individually to BT and Plusnet .

Re: Digital upgrade decision

Biz55 — Sat, 14 Feb 2026 15:08:27 GMT

Thanks.
Can I use a different provider for Digital Voice + Broadband if I find one that is cheaper?

Re: Digital upgrade decision

iniltous — Sat, 14 Feb 2026 15:16:49 GMT

No, why on earth would you want to …..the only way you can have a separate account for your telephone service is to use a standalone regular VoIP provider and a standalone broadband service, FWIW , Digital Voice is BT/EE’s proprietary telephone service , unfortunately its like vacuum cleaner manufacturers calling their devices ‘hoovers’ , when Hoover is a brand , DV isn’t really the generic term for VoIP but a few other providers call their telephone DV , those that can provide a telephone service with their broadband.

Re: Digital upgrade decision

Biz55 — Sat, 14 Feb 2026 15:20:17 GMT

Thanks. So I can go elsewhere for a broadband plus landline package if I want to.

Re: Digital upgrade decision

WSH — Sat, 14 Feb 2026 15:39:50 GMT

As has been said, DV is BT's version of a digital phone service.

Other providers now offer similar but under different names. For example, Sky's offering is "Sky Talk" and you can take their broadband only or their broadband + Talk. What you cannot do is take Sky's broadband + BT's DV or BT's broadband + Sky Talk.

Edit: Yes, as @iniltous says below, you can get broadband and a separate VoIP service. VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) is the generic name for a digital phone service, and some companies do provide this as a separate service through a box plugged into the hub. For example, Vonage. They do not provide their own broadband, however. That would have to be a separate provider.

Hope that makes it a bit clearer.

Re: Digital upgrade decision

iniltous — Sat, 14 Feb 2026 15:42:47 GMT

If what you want is the absolute best value, which is odd given that you have been paying way more than necessary by using separate providers for (presumably) decades then Yes , contact whoever you want to use ,( beware not every broadband provider offers to bundle telephone services with their broadband ) , and let them arrange the switch , that’s if you want to have the same provider for both , just not BT , otherwise pick a separate Voip provider , purchase the extra equipment ( if it’s needed often a special VoIP phone , or ATA is required with these type of independent VoIP suppliers ) and then pick a standalone broadband provider and contact them both separately, have in mind this may result in a break in service if they don’t migrate you from BT and Plusnet in the correct order and with sympathetic timescales.

TBH , given the obvious resistance to change you have shown so far ( as witnessed by being on a shared metallic path facility product not actively marketed for decades) it’s a little weird to not simply take what’s on offer as it’s clearly the easiest thing to do , and it’s at a decent price , but that’s up to you.

Re: Digital upgrade decision

imjolly — Sat, 14 Feb 2026 15:49:48 GMT

if you decide to go with another ISP then you need to check you are not still in contract with plusnet otherwise you will have termination penalties

Re: Digital upgrade decision

Biz55 — Sat, 14 Feb 2026 15:57:23 GMT

"the obvious resistance to change you have shown so far"
You do realise that some of us live in areas where the "metallic pathway" has been the only option until very recently?

Re: Digital upgrade decision

licquorice — Sat, 14 Feb 2026 16:09:36 GMT

You are entirely missing the point. It is nothing to do with having a copper line, it is the fact of having different suppliers for broadband and telephony sharing that line.

Re: Digital upgrade decision

iniltous — Sat, 14 Feb 2026 16:18:38 GMT

Nonsense, you really are uninformed,

shared metallic path is not ‘code’ for a ordinary copper pair service, it’s a legacy product that only a tiny few consumers still use, big providers like Talk Talk and Sky haven’t even offered it for decades , the overwhelming majority of consumers on Openreach taking advantage of the enormous choice in providers on offer , like Sky , Vodafone, Talk Talk , Zen , Plusnet , EE (I could go on) ….

you are falsely conflating this with FTTP (full fibre) availability , you may not have FTTP yet , but you have for the last 10-15 years had a massive amount of choice , but you , for whatever reason , chose to stay on SMPF when you had much better value choices , that’s why it’s fair to say you were resistant to change , you could have done what you are now obliged to do , 15 years ago .

No one made you stay on SMPF , the majority abandoned that when Sky and TT (in the main ) started to offer their own telephone service completely separate from BT and gave their customers an ultimatum, join us for both , or find a different broadband provider.

Re: Digital upgrade decision

WSH — Sat, 14 Feb 2026 16:25:46 GMT

Again, just to be clear, DV will run quite happily over copper. It does not require Full Fibre (FTTP), although there is a push to get people to do both changes at the same time, where possible. Some exchanges now are flagged as not offering new copper services and so a change of service may well involve switching to full fibre. If you enter your details here, and it says you are on a Fibre Priority Exchange, I believe that to be the case. (I'm sure I'll get corrected if I'm wrong).

https://www.broadbandchecker.btwholesale.com/#/ADSL

I personally was on DV over copper for two years before switching to FTTP last September. DV works fine over copper.

Re: Digital upgrade decision

pippincp — Sat, 14 Feb 2026 20:22:32 GMT

You do realise you could have transferred you phone service to plusnet as well as having broaband broadband service. You chse to stick with BT for your phone which elicided @iniltous statement.

Re: Digital upgrade decision

WSH — Sat, 14 Feb 2026 20:45:13 GMT

I had heard that Plusnet were not offering a phone service. Is that not true then?

Re: Digital upgrade decision

Biz55 — Sat, 14 Feb 2026 20:54:32 GMT

Yes. I checked today. Perhaps in the past ?

Re: Digital upgrade decision

jac_95 — Sat, 14 Feb 2026 21:06:10 GMT

@Biz55

Plusnet don't offer a phone service anymore and on renewal if wanting a phone service will offer either EE or BT package for broadband and phone instead

https://www.plus.net/help/my-account/changes-to-broadband-and-phone-faqs/

Re: Digital upgrade decision

iniltous — Sat, 14 Feb 2026 21:48:18 GMT

The OP had years to join Plusnet for telephony as well as broadband if that was what they wanted , it’s only relatively recently that PN have decided to leave the telephony game.
Although the need to change would be similar , instead of BT making the offer to add broadband to the ‘existing’ BT telephony, leaving PN broadband in the process, if the OP was with PN for both PN telephony as well as broadband, Plusnet would be pushing the OP towards EE if they wanted to keep a telephone service , relinquishing the PN broadband provision to EE , it all being somewhat academic given it’s the same underlying group for BT , EE and Plusnet .

But in this case it’s the SMPF nature of the OP’s current ‘connection’ that is driving the need for change , to get them off SMPF /PSTN /WLR not Plusnet leaving the telephony game , if the OP doesn’t want or need telephony any longer they could leave SMPF/WLR , dropping the BT involvement completely, and just become a Plusnet broadband only customer , the assumption here from BT and PN is that the OP wants to keep telephony as they haven’t so far made any indication that they want it removed.