leaving and email

[#1]

Like others I am having to leave Plusnet after 20+ years because they do not (and appear to have no target date to) support FFTP.  We currently have a slow and not very reliable ADSL service).  I had a very unhelpful chat with customer support about retaining an email account.  Was told categorically that this was not option  and that it was stopped 2 or 3 years ago.  Email service would end the day contract terminated.  Now by chance I read these threads and that information appears to be wrong. 

Please confirm that it is possible to retain the email account and instructions about how to do it.  Also - as I appear to be not alone in this confusion - please instruct your customer support team to update their advice.  Unusually for Plusnet the advisor was not only rather abrupt and unhelpful but also wrong.  I switch on 21 March.

[#2]

See this somewhat more current topic:https://community.plus.net/t5/Email/Account-ceased-retaining-email-service/m-p/1858693#M38901

[#3]

Moderators Note
This topic has been moved from ADSL Broadband to Email.

[#4]

It is not entirely a matter of Plusnet not support FTTP (presently) but is it actually available in your location?  There are still many idyllic rural areas where BT have not provisioned any form of fibre service FTTC or FTTP.  Plusnet have signposted FTTP availability this year.

Email service retention has been in flux recently arising out of Plusnet examining the position of email in the offerings and user agents getting it wrong.  As things stand, users may still retain their email services when terminating their broadband services ... though I am sure that you can understand the reluctance to deliver any service against zero revenue.  There are costs associated with providing any service - if only the cost of keeping the lights on, which we all know has jumped through the roof.

Email only accounts

When your account is cancelled, any additional services you have such as email, web-space, cgi-service, etc. will stop working. If you want to retain your email service after your account is closed, you must advise Plusnet before the account is closed. There used to be a charge for email only accounts, but they are now free of charge.

Resurrecting an account as email only requires manual intervention from both yourself and Plusnet. The initial stage in account resurrection gets the default email address restored. You then need to setup any secondary Plusnet email address(es) yourself, at which point you'll be able to once again send and receive emails from those addresses.

If you have secondary email address(es), after you have recreated those email addresses, you will need to ask that their contents are restored by updating the existing thread or try posting on the generic email restore topic. Please note that these backups are kept for 30 days only.

The process should go something like this...

1. Prior to your account being closed, you must tell Plusnet that after your account is closed you wish to retain the account as email only - contact the Customer Options Team - agents receive few requests for this, so if there are any doubts refer the agent to KBMS article #3349 (KBMS is demised but there is guidance in the replacement "Albert")
2. You need to make a note of all of your Plusnet email address(es) by going to manage my mail at https://plus.net/email
3. Your account is terminated
4. Plusnet resurrect the account as email only
5. Plusnet will restore the default mailbox - you might need to change the name before the @ symbol to what you had before
6. You recreate any secondary email address(es) and then request that their contents are restored
7. Plusnet restore the secondary mailbox(es) content

Everything should then work as it did previously, however please note that emails sent to the email address(es) between the account being closed and the email addresses being recreated might...

1. Be returned to the sender as un-routable (no such domain)
2. Be returned to the sender as undelivered (no such addressee)
3. All be delivered to the default mailbox if catch-all is enabled

[#5]

Unfortunately for many people it is entirely a matter of Plusnet not supporting FTTP - I've had it available at a number of locations where I use PlusNet for well over a year now, and it is an increasing source of frustration that PlusNet cannot give any firm indication as to when they will be offering FTTP. Like many others on these forums, I am reluctantly considering moving to another provider after many years - I've held out for long enough to hear from PlusNet. With the uncertainty around PSTN switch-off in 2025 (making FTTP services more appealing) and other suppliers pushing their offerings, PlusNet really need to get on the ball or face the possibility of losing customers in droves. FTTP is the future for most people - the question is, will PlusNet be part of that future!

[#6]

Well said, I've been with plusnet a long time, but can't get anything above 27mbps due to the distance from the cabinet.
It's about time plusnet publish a launch date ....and keep to it this time !!!!
I'll give it another few months, but if nothing is forthcoming, then I'm off elsewhere for a FTTP connection.
The only thing keeping me here is my use of plusnet email addresses, but I'm steadily transferring these to a Gmail account.

[#7]

@northender 

Are you a very lucky person living in one of those very few areas where BT Openreach has provided access to BOTH FTTC and FTTP ... giving you, the end user, an individual choice?  For most of the country it is FTTC or FTTP not the choice of the end user.  Note that the technologies are somewhat different ... this is not a matter of an ISP deciding (or not) to "extend" the  fibre from the cabinet to your house.

As per the point I sought to make above, if BT Openreach has not provisioned FTTP in a given geography NO ISP can provide FTTP.

There being FTTP available in a geography and Plusnet not having a retail offer is close to being inexcusable.  But we do have a statement that it will become available this year.

[#8]

FTTP was provided locally in Nov last year, so yes I am lucky to have a choice.
I understand the technologies are different, but the Plusnet FTTP trial started years ago, and there have been 2 or 3 missed launch dates.
How many other leading ISPs do not offer FTTP now?

[#9]

@Townman I too am in an area with choices - I'm in NI and many of the areas marked in purple on the Openreach rollout map https://www.openreach.com/fibre-broadband/where-when-building-ultrafast-full-fibre-broadband are already complete, meaning that consumers can chose between FTTC and FTTP. In some of those areas now however, FTTP is the only choice, as there is no copper being installed in new developments - that means that PlusNet is no longer an option (although Virgin and Fibrus with their own infrastructure, i.e. not Openreach, do offer choices!)

Plusnet, by dragging their heels, have taken themselves out of the running for the FTTP only customers, and will very quickly lose current FTTC customers who at renewal time will simply move to one of the ISPs who already offer FTTP.

I think we all understand that if OR don't offer FTTP, then neither can an ISP, but where OR do have the infrastructure in place (and that now represents a very significant number of customers!), it is extremely frustrating that PlusNet have not yet got an offering in place.

Yes we do "have a statement that it will become available this year" - but then we had a very similar statement last year - and we're not even three months into this year. I have a number of lines which need the bandwidth that only FTTP can deliver because they are too far from the cabinet to get decent FTTC speeds, and in all cases FTTP is available now. I'm not going to wait (potentially) another 9 months for PlusNet to decide they are going to compete in this market space! I've been with them since the days of "Force9", and don't want to leave, but if they keep dithering on announcing definite plans, I'll have no choice.