Phasing out home phones
This would lead to loss of customers or is this a BT group plan to phase out the plusnet brand in favour of the premium ones currently on offer?
Its not a phase out of the Plusnet brand. PN/BT have decided there are a large percentage of customers who do not require a landline. Therefore PN can continue to provide a service without the costs of establishing and supporting a voip platform.
@MisterW wrote:
@MixerBIscuit wrote:
This would lead to loss of customers or is this a BT group plan to phase out the plusnet brand in favour of the premium ones currently on offer?
Its not a phase out of the Plusnet brand. PN/BT have decided there are a large percentage of customers who do not require a landline. Therefore PN can continue to provide a service without the costs of establishing and supporting a voip platform.
Oddly enough, I was sitting here in my high backed chase lounge, with a open fire warming my tootsies whilst smoking my pipe when all of a sudden....
My BTSH (used on my PN Fibre connection of which the cabinet resides approximately 1500 odd metres away and thus I only have a small length of copper serving my line) started producing this pink fluff out of the air vents on my router and I nearly choked on my pipe.
Then my BT Diverse 7150 started producing the same and having retched further (due to the pipe now entering my windpipe) I then knocked my malt whisky onto the fire, causing a roaring fire!
It's fine though a some of this fluff went up in flames, yet you wouldn't believe what happened next....
My phonograph started playing by itself at the exact moment a man entered the room with a pull along vacuum cleaner and started sucking this pink fluff away, and no he wasn't my butler!
"No Fluff" is what I'm sure I heard from my phonograph
"My ears" (<- spelt the same anyway) I proclaimed!
This random guy just smiled and walked away.
I'm going to be having a ruddy nightmare when our friends and family realise what this switch off means for them.
I think I'm simply going to advise those whom wish to remain and long term loyal Plusnet customer that they get used to using something like WhatsApp to call us via their home WiFi (and/or up their portable telephone data plan) or indeed walk or summon a horse drawn taxi to get them to a pay phone if they need to call a digital landline.
For incoming communications that cannot use an App or why-f'eye I will suggest they ask those persons, in advance of this loss of service, to send a posted letter 
Anybody want an old Facsimile Machine?
My outlaws, sorry, my M-I-L calls every blooming day and at least losing this method is the only bonus I can see.
With all that I've been reading, I really am not looking forward to what I'm surely going to have to endure. There is no way on this here planet that most of my older friends are going to be able to navigate their way into this modern evolution without a great deal of help, myself included to a degree. I doubt my (already in a bad place) mental health can hold up in totally honesty. Overall I'm really not a happy bunny 
but understand why PN are going back to basics. I will leave this subject here.
Except to say in my most humble opinion somebody couldn't have read the memorandum correctly, but will that person from wherever you work happens to read this long reply and wants to go out and sort my elderly friends and family and my neighbours out - PM me and I'll give you ALL of their details. Thanks in advance. In my cul-de-sac there are 28 houses, with a rough count that 23 won't know how to sort this. And yes there's at least 2 that have never ever had an internet connection and one of those has or at least had a life line.
Oh one more thing, and I will become an observer again, are any other ISP's (not including BT) also allowing their customers to continue with an included voip/digital phone service? It's just so I could advise those I've mentioned that they could jump this ship, even if it means paying E-T-F's.
@DS wrote:With all that I've been reading, I really am not looking forward to what I'm surely going to have to endure. There is no way on this here planet that most of my older friends are going to be able to navigate their way into this modern evolution without a great deal of help, myself included to a degree. I doubt my (already in a bad place) mental health can hold up in totally honesty. Overall I'm really not a happy bunny
Except to say in my most humble opinion somebody couldn't have read the memorandum correctly, but will that person from wherever you work happens to read this long reply and wants to go out and sort my elderly friends and family and my neighbours out - PM me and I'll give you ALL of their details. Thanks in advance. In my cul-de-sac there are 28 houses, with a rough count that 23 won't know how to sort this. And yes there's at least 2 that have never ever had an internet connection and one of those has or at least had a life line.
This is going to be a very real problem unless someone forces providers to do something to address it. Our neighbours don't use the internet, like us can't use mobile phones as there's no signal here, so rely on their landline phone. I've already spent a fair time trying to help them get ready but, if I'm honest, I think everything I've said has gone in one ear and out the other. Their view is that they've not been told anything by whoever provides their phone service and so it's up to that provider to make whatever changes are needed. I can't help feeling that they may be in for a rude awakening when the PSTN gets turned off.
In a perfect world we'd rely on Ofcom to make sure that all providers keep their customers informed and put processes in place to ensure that no one loses any of the facilities they currently rely on that are provided via their landline. In reality I fully expect that tens of thousands of people will lose access to things like linked alarms of all sorts and many more will most probably lose their phone number and possibly their landline phone functionality. I doubt that Plusnet are the only provider that's walking away from offering any sort of landline service in future.