Yep, we used to visit Hampstead quite regularly,it was nice up there walking on the heath.
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BT also encompasses EE (Everything Everywhere) which became part of BT when EE changed its name from Orange.
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Your phone will only continue to work after Full Fibre installation if your Internet Service Provider offers a Digital Voice (VOIP) service.
Plusnet is not offering this service - their full fibre broadband packages do not have an option for a home phone.
As you say, Plusnet are a subsidiary of BT but they seem to have decided on a policy of offering the Digital Voice service only to BT customers and not to Plusnet customers.
So once the old phone landline has gone and full fibre broadband to the property has been installed, Plusnet customers who particularly want to keep a home phone will have to either switch to BT or switch to another Internet Service Provider which does offer a VOIP phone option - or stay with Plusnet and sort out a VOIP service from a 3rd party provider - there’s quite a few of them to choose from but most of their basic offerings start about £10 pm,
I guess BT / Plusnet are thinking that most Plusnet customers will take the easiest option and either give up their home phone and stay with Plusnet for cheaper Broadband or switch to BT which is more expensive Broadband but includes the option of keeping a home phone via Digital Voice for no extra cost.
I think they are bound to lose some customers to competitors, though - there’s other Full Fibre Broadband providers who also offer the Digital Voice option too,
Either way, there will be an extra monthly cost to keeping a Digital Voice home phone line, whether it shows as an add-on charge to the basic price of Broadband or whether it’s “built into” a more expensive Broadband package like BT - which is a bit of a rip-off when your phone will only be using the broadband service you’re already paying for.
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Plusnet are pulling out of the mobile phone market, as well as the home phones.
I was advised by Plusnet that they were ending their mobile phone services and I was free to move to another provider. If I didn’t move, my contract would automatically switch to EE.
(I moved to another company)
It looks like the BT / EE Group strategy is not to compete with each other for the same type of business.
Plusnet has always been less expensive than BT so it looks as if they have dropped the extra services to focus on the no-frills cheaper Broadband.
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No doubt there will be a hike in charges for people like me who like their home phone chats , oh it does make me annoyed . All my friends like their home phones all are now concerned . Guess I’ll have to re think in 18 months time
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All the more reason to go with a provider who will let you connect your landline phone to your broadband router and, additionally, provide free facilities, including calls - with BT, it’s a £8 per month for a home phone service with 700 monthly minutes, or £18 per month for a home phone service with unlimited minutes included.
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It might not be the end of the world most internet providers here offer a free VOIP line with their Internet service where you either pay a few cents per call or the calls are free. My router even had a port for it built in so it didn’t need a separate device - but they only cost a few bucks anyway.
My landline was like that for years, as I say it was only ever used by scammers so I disconnected it but I still “own” the number and it still appears on my invoice each month as a $0 so all is not lost, just pick your ISP carefully.
I no longer have a landline phone .
Mobile only now, Giffgaff £6 a month no contract.
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We were told years ago that “Fibre” is good for you
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Anyone faced with their service being changed from a landline to “via the router” might seen the need, as I did when Virgin Media did it, to see whether 999 calls are still available WHEN THERE IS A POWER CUT!.
The circuit that VM put in here does not…
They coupled up, via the router and. I did read some pamphlet saying that 999 calls would not be the same…
So, I switched the router off, and tried to make a simple phone call - it did not work!
A deeper look at the "instructions received, before it was done, reveals that Mobile Phone is now the 999 Option!
Imagine that if you don’t carry the mobile in your pocket, or if the mobile battery is down…
The documentation also said that a battery handset could be provided, but it never was,
Make sure you know how to get around this before they leave!
If the power down happens and is part of the cause of your need to dial 999 how will you make the call?
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Calls cannot be made via landlines in a power cut . It is suggested that a mobile also be kept with battery always charged . So mobile should be kept somewhere easy to find and also by bed just in case . Now , we have very elderly folk who live alone and people who don’t understand mobiles , or being forgetful they may not charge the phone .
When the landline service came from Boxes, not far from the houses, those boxes had batteries to ensure power was there in these circumstances.
You can get battery supplies for these routers or you can buy an uninteruptable power supply (UPS) for them so you always have them available.
Originally I had a UPS (still do) and the low current drawn by the router, phone and wifi meant that it lasted for hours - they were originally designed to enable computers to be shut down gracefully in the event of a power cut. However having a generator rendered it superfluous.
It does take a bit of extra preparation but fibre is not necessarily unavailable in the event of a power cut.
BTW cordless phones don’t work either in the event of power being removed from the base station so power cuts can affect even copper landlines.
They should just keep them honestly.
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That depends on whether you have a battery backed base station or not. My Gigaset set-up has battery back-up and will work during an area power cut.
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I have just renewed my deal with BT for another two years and the subject of this thread was not even mentioned.
Which suggests either I am already set up for this-an engineer did call and do something when my broadband went down a while back-or it isn’t coming as soon as we think.
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Update…this was not explained by the person I was talking to!
I am receiving a new hub from BT on Wednesday in connection with this switchover.
Biggest pain will be getting my printer in sync with the wi-fi again!
Yep, we had to have a new router, ain’t been able to get the printer to work since.
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BT sent me an EE router .My phone is connected to the hub ( and working-I phoned myself!)and I have managed to connect the printer.
But I had to turn off my Sky Box and TV to do it.Causing interference.
Never had that issue before…but I’ll have to remember that when printing concert or rail tickets!