landline + broadband

[Poppy4]

hi, we currently have a bt landline and use plusnet broadband. I'm trying to upgrade the broadband but plusnet do not offer anything with a landline option. As we live in an area with poor mobile signal even outside and frequent power cuts, we are not willing to give up the landline. Is there any option to move the broadband to Bt? There isn't full fibre here + its not likely to come for a while.

[jac_95]

@Poppy4 

Here's PlusNet's FAQs about their phone service: https://www.plus.net/broadband/phone-faqs/

You maybe able to ask to switch to either BT or EE who like PlusNet are part of the BT Group of brands. EE a d BT offer a Digital landline home phone service.

To note, traditional analogue home phone services are no longer available so it will be a Digital based phone service that runs over the internet connection.

When making the order, let the customer advisor/guide know about the poor mobile service and they'll go through available solutions to allow the phone service to continue in a power cut.

See below  for more information on the switch to digital based landline phone services:

EE Digital Voice: https://ee.co.uk/broadband/digital-home-phone

BT Digital Voice: https://www.bt.com/broadband/digital-voice

More on the switch to digital based landline phone services: https://landlinesgo.digital

[iniltous]

You have a BT landline but Plusnet broadband ? , are you saying you get two separate bills , one from BT only for your telephone service  and a second broadband only bill from Plusnet ? , that’s the only way you can currently have a BT landline if Plusnet provides your broadband , and this is a very rare setup called SMPF (shared metallic path facility) most pay the same provider for both services if they have both , I suspect you currently don’t have a BT landline, and have no contractual relationship with BT , thinking all Openreach ‘lines’ are ‘BT lines’ , they are not.

PN offer a migration to BT/EE as they are the same group (sister companies) , but this will require the new telephony service to be ‘DV’ , so the phone connects to the router with the ‘drawback’ that local power is required and obviously without mitigation won’t work in a power cut …..if that’s not acceptable, stay (for now) with PN , if that’s on an uncompetitive out of contract basis, you need to chose what’s more valuable, not having the best financial deal or not being susceptible to power outages.
FYI , you can buy BBU/UPS ( battery back up , uninterruptible power supply ) to maintain the router and therefore the telephone for short power outages

[Poppy4]

Thanks iniltous for your reply. We have 2 separate bills, 1 from pn and one from BT because different people pay them. I'm trying to get them reduced to one and get a better deal. Hoping it would be easy as pn owned by bt.

[Anonymous]

To add to @iniltous's point about UPS battery backup for your router, is your current broadband service FTTC, (Fibre to the Cabinet, then copper wire to your home), or ADSL which is copper all the way from your home to the local telephone exchange?

If you are not sure, what download speeds do you currently get? ADSL offers a maximum of 24Mbps, whereas FTTC can go up to 80Mbps. (This is just a guide, not a hard rule).

This is relevant because AFAIK, the back up batteries in the green street cabinets are only spec'd to power the cabinet for up to 30 minutes if it loses mains power. After that, your broadband will go down regardless of how long your own power back up lasts for.

ADSL on the other hand is powered directly from the telephone exchange and usually benefits from backup batteries and diesel generators that will happily keep everything running for many days - even weeks in some cases!

.

[Poppy4]

Hello @Anonymous. We are on ADSL on a very basic 10Mbps out of contract deal which was good enough for us until now. Since streaming more tv, the need to upgrade is needed.

[iniltous]

SMPF , paying separate companies for telephone and broadband was the way things were  done probably more than 15 years ago when broadband was first becoming a ‘must have’ , most customers were persuaded by their broadband provider to remove BT from the equation and join the ISP for telephony as well as broadband a decade or more ago , those few that remain on SMPF will be tiny in number , probably paying way more than is necessary but will be safe (for a while ) from migration to ‘DV’ type telephony , as you can’t have two separate suppliers when on an IP telephony service like DV , but eventually these people will need to decide to move to a single supplier .

In this case , as Plusnet don’t offer telephony to new customers and want to be an ISP only , joining PN for both phone and broadband isn’t an option,   PN don’t want to be in the business of offering telephony to anyone , so the OP choice is pretty simple , join BT or EE for DV telephony and broadband for ‘free’ , no exit costs etc. it will have to be DV telephony though .

There are other options, including staying as they are with PN for the time being , but accepting it’s not good value , Jan 2027 is the current ‘final’ date for the old style telephone service.

[J462]

This sounds like my set up.  I have been paying IDNet for the adsl broadband for many years without any problems. It uses the BT landline which my father paid separately to BT.

BT recently sent a letter saying the landline was changing without saying what the changes actually were.

I have now received an email from IDNet saying they had received a migration request so would be ceasing the broadband, which I have NOT requested.

what is the best course of action to ensure my broadband stays as per current arrangements?

I plan to move over to fibre in a few months but there are currently no power outlets  in the part of the house that the fibre would connect to so we cannot migrate until we have some rewiring work done. This is planned after building works due to start in a couple of months.

thanks

[iniltous]

Recently Openreach (not BT) advised the industry that they were going to increase the prices ISP pay for legacy WLR based products, (but not till next year )  to encourage/incentivise these companies to get their customers off WLR products and onto more modern equivalents

….as far as I know BT have not arbitrarily ceased any ones WLR phone line yet  (that’s what you have with BT  ) triggering an automatic cease of the associated ADSL broadband ( presumably what have from IDNET)  , but IDNET may have decided to cease your broadband rather than paying Openreach more for the product they supply to you ….but that’s only a guess, it may be something else , like someone has misidentified your address as their own and started a migration with a ISP , that has affected your service in error (this other consumer or their  ISP’s error , not your error  , not BT , not IDNET’s error ) 

You say you BT sent a letter , to give a more informed view you need to quote exactly what that letter said , you also need to contact IDNET and ask why they are ceasing your ADSL service .

You ask what you can do to stay as you are , the chances you can’t  do anything , but (and this is the key part ) why one would you want to , your power outlet issues are completely irrelevant, you join BT for both services, or join IDNET for both services ( assuming they offer telephony) both likely to be at a substantially less cost than your current two providers arrangement, and will almost certainly provide much faster broadband based on SOGEA , and this doesn’t affect your existing setup , apart from the phone will connect to the router not the socket on the wall , so if BT are chosen to supply service it’s via their SH2 router , if IDNET , from however they supply service , if IDNET don’t provide a telephone service and you require it , then BT seem a more obvious choice to join for both services and not IDNET .

You obviously also have the choice to join a completely different company and drop both BT and IDNET  if that’s your preference