Help! Full Fibre for Church/Community Building?

[KentCharlton]

Hi,
I hope someone can advise me, has there been a change to BT/Open Reach policy recently with regards to Broadband/phone lines to Community Centres and Church Halls?
I help run a Community Building which has had a phone line and broadband on a domestic contract for many years.
We are currently with Plusnet and have just come to the end of our contract.
Our current provider no longer offers a phone line option (which we want to keep for incoming calls only).
So, we're looking to move to Full Fibre with Digital Voice.
However, I have tried several times to place the order which is accepted only to be cancelled a few hours later.
I have now been told that the property is classed as non-residential so we will therefore need to open a business account (which is nearly 60% more expensive!!! - Domestic FullFibre150 + Digital Voice = £34.99, Business Essential 150 + Digital Line = £53.94)
We are non-profit organisation offering internet access to our community rooms, we are by no means a heavy user (a few hours during the week and an upload to YouTube every Sunday) we do not require business level support, fixed IP addresses or 24x7 access. I'm aware of several Community Centres, Church Halls and even Scout Huts in the area which currently all have domestic lines and we'll all struggle to justify such a leap in price. 
Is there anyone I can speak to to get a common sense solution to this?
Thanks in advance
Kent.

[gg30340]

You do not need to take the BT Digital Voice.

Keep the broadband with Plusnet if they will just renew it as is and get your phone from a VOIP company. 

[KentCharlton]

It seems it's the installation of Full Fibre (FTTP) which is being blocked.
So even if we stayed with Plusnet, we'd have the same issue. 😞

[licquorice]

Why do you want full fibre?

[gg30340]

The installation of FTTP is done by Openreach not BT. Openreach have nothing to do with the billing of the product to the ISP's broadband customer. 

It is purely a billing matter. It will be up to the provider to decide what to class the property/customer as which will be inline with their policy. 

Have you spoken to anybody at Plusnet?

[KentCharlton]

We're out of contract (so paying through the nose) all renewals or new contracts with other suppliers are being offered as Full Fibre, I assume that's because they are phasing out the copper lines.

[licquorice]

They may be encouraging fibre, but unless there is a stop sell for copper at your location you don't have to move to fibre.

[KentCharlton]

Thanks gg30340,
Yes, I have spoken to Plusnet, they said they are only offering Full Fibre moving forward (with no option for phone line) they tried pushing me to EE (who said they couldn't do a non-domestic property). I'm sure we were with BT on a domestic line before we moved to Plusnet.

[gg30340]

Raise a formal complaint with your present provider, Plusnet regarding their "new" stance on stating you are a business and send an email to the BT CEO requesting clarity on the BT policy regarding Church/Community Halls etc.

I am pretty sure that if the policy, if there was one, has changed, the forum would have had more posters enquiring about the change in policy before now, that is unless you are the first to come up against it.

[jac_95]

Please can you post the results from https://www.broadbandchecker.btwholesale.com/#/ADSL/AddressHome

Obscure the address but please include the notes at the bottom as it will state if you are in a FTTP priority area and therefore under copper stop selling restrictions.