being moved to Digital Voice

[#1]

None, as they didn't have them, but had they wanted them, there was help available.

Anyway - I'm out of here.

[#2]

The point that I’m trying to make is that if both Internet and Phone are with a single company that decides not to offer phone services then the customer will be advised and presumably pointed towards moving to an alternative. For example, unless the Plusnet policy changes then I would expect customers to be pointed to BT, just the way that mobile customers are being directed towards EE.. This might be a nuisance but is not hard.

If phone and broadband are with different companies then it’s quite a different level of complication and the risk of one service or the other getting lost in the process is considerably higher. 
I doubt if porting out to a third party VoIP provider enters the head of the vast majority of those affected.

[#3]

I have had lengthy discussions now with Plusnet. I cannot personally see a reason why BT's Digital Voice cannot be sold by BT to Plusnet customers  as a VOIP provider (i.e. contracted with BT as opposed to Plusnet). What seems crazy is that Plusnet has said (and I have it in writing from them) is that they recommend using Vonage VOIP instead! Are BT not missing a trick?

[#4]

To follow on from this users original post, I have been with Plusnet for 15-20 years and their service has been excellent. 
My housing estate has until 2-3 weeks back only had copper ADSL/VDSL and the max speed was 32mb. 
Due to security cameras and internal wifi, I needed additional bandwidth, so therefore had a second ADSL/VDSL line installed 2 years back.
My current set up is as follows:
Line 1 - Primary ADSL/VDSL 32mb + Phone line using my primary email which is registered on 100's of retailers. 
Line 2 - Second ADSL/VDSL 32mb + Phone (which is not used and has no packages assigned to it)
Cost on Line 1 = £40
Cost on Line 2 = £30
My original request to Plusnet was to migrate my primary Line 1 to Full Fibre and retain both phone and email, then to terminate Line 2 and unused phone on Line 2. 

Plusnet replied to say "currently they do not offer Digital Phone" and recommended I contacted BT.
Once i had spoken to BT, they offered me a line and to transfer the number to their system with no TV or broadband, this would also incur a £70 charge (one off).
Futher investigation, I discovered I would not need to pay the £70, so this charge was cancelled - I had paid nothing anyway at this point. 
I contacted Plusnet again, who advised if I transferred my home landline to BT, I would lose Line 1 and my only primary phone number, plus my email accounts as Plusnet no longer offer free email, they suggested i keep my ADSL/VDSL + Phone (Line 1) with Plusnet and hopefully by 2025, Plusnet "may" be offering Digital phone.
I cancelled BT order (No money or contract broken as I was still 2 weeks from the planned change over). 
Plusnet installed my Full Fibre for 900mb on Tuesday 5th September 2023 (external work) with a connection of 22nd September 2023, when I spoke to Plusnet Options on Wednesday 6th September, I was advised it might be better to change to 500mb which brings my cost from £43.99 to £34.99, mainly because if I want to upgrade to  900mb it would not be breaking the contract, whereas I can't downgrade from 900mb to 500mb as that would be breaking the contract.  This was agreed and signed off. 
I then get a text to say my original install was now delayed and would now be 27th September 2023. 
On Thursday 7th September, two open reach vans arrived to do the external install and found it was done on the 5th September, so had a wasted trip. It seems changing from 900mb to 500mb had triggered a new external order and thus sent out OpenReach again to install something they had already done!  They were not happy, however confirmed, there is noting in OpenReach policy that says you cant have two ONT boxes (although they agreed you probably wouldnt want that), but they had installed them on several home residences for both Cable TV (i.e. Sky) and also a Plusnet install, so it is possible and not blocked by them. They were also somewhat puzzled by Plusnet policy on no digital line, since the Full Fibre offers both Broadband and Digital Phone, plus the hub from PlusNet has the connection in the back for the Digital Phone connection. 
Once the installers on Thursday closed the ticket (500mb) one, it reverted back to the 22nd September for the external connection.
This would now bring my "package" as follows:
Line 1 : £40
Line 2: £35 (Full Fibre 500mb)
This is only an increase of £5 which is tolerable considering I am losing 34mb and getting 500mb, although I would still be on 32mb with Line 1 which has to be retained to keep my original emails until I change them on all retailers!
My problem is I need a Landline as i work from home (my mobile is not a company one) and my landline is used for other things, and from research i can see it does state that a landline number can be transferred to work on Digital, so there is no reason I can see why Plusnet don't introduce this as part of the broadband - I understand the TV side. 
I also currently pay about £56 for Virgin cable, which is discounted by £20 until 2024 (by me complaining about their continious increases!) and Sky Q can offer me the full 2tb box and 2 x rooms for about £56-60 even if i was to follow this route - although I can get Sky Streaming for £45 (Approx on 2 rooms if needed).

Plusnet options have suggested.
Line 1 - stay with copper to retain email and landline number
Line 2 - upgrade to 500mb and lose the landline number there (which is unused anyway) and hopefully by end 2025 they will offer digital phone - which seems "plausable" considering the fibre offers that and their hub also has the connection for it. Additionally Plusnet are "partners" with BT so it makes sense they should be able to offer the same. 

My only other option, which I dont want to do, is slowly start changing all my email logons with all my retailers to a non-plusnet email account so i can move away from them, something i dont want to do. 

Both my routers for Line 1 and Line 2 are both ADSL/VDSL and Cable/Fibre routers so there is no hardware changes there with the migration.

Chris

[#5]

They were also somewhat puzzled by Plusnet policy on no digital line, since the Full Fibre offers both Broadband and Digital Phone, plus the hub from PlusNet has the connection in the back for the Digital Phone connection. 

Setting up and supporting a digital phone service is not cheap. Given the small number (supposedly) of people who actually want a digital version of the landline, PN have likely assesed its not cost effective.

BTW the phone port is non-functional on the PN Hub 2

Both my routers for Line 1 and Line 2 are both ADSL/VDSL and Cable/Fibre routers so there is no hardware changes there with the migration.

It may be worth checking that your existing routers can handle the 500 or 900Mb WAN to LAN throughput of FTTP.  You also wont get much better than 350Mb wireless unless both your router and clients are Wifi 6 capable

[#6]

My existing ADSL/VDSL/Cable/Fibre router is fully compatiable with all these connection types and includes both ADSL/VDSL connection under RJ11 (grey) and RJ45 (red) for both Cable and Fibre. The only thing it doesn't have is the Digital Phone socket which the Hub has, however if the PN Hub 2 socket as per your email is not functional, its not relevant as I spoke to OpenReach on Thursday and it was confirmed that BT do a Digital Voice Adapter which allows a normal handset to be connected to the Fibre Line for Digital Voice connection.
On the matter of Wifi 6, my current ADSL/VDSL router which supports Cable/Fibre is using a Orbi Mesh 6 as an access point to boost the the signal round my home network and also benefits me using the same SSID for the TriBand, I checked my Orbi and it supports up to 3gb (my router also does) and as you stated most my devices are not Wifi 6, but even so 350mb should be passable and anything more is a bonus considering I am running on 64mb.  
On the matter of Digital Landline phone, if PN have no plans to introduce Digital Landline (which seems odd) then I will be slowly migrating my main retailers logons to use a non-plus net mail account - its just a lot of hassle and again would be sad to change considering I have been with them over 15-20years, I suspect they will lose customers (not sure how many) but it does make sense for them to compete to offer digital phone initially and then TV later. 

[#7]

As an addendum to my previous message, its Wifi 5, however I am guessing the router would push 500mb to any switches or hubs once through the main router. Also with the two HD cameras demanding a 32mb dedicated line and the amount of other wifi devices, streaming services, smart plugs even at 350mb on a 500mb feed its better to have to much than too little and as the price is going to be the same as what i am currently paying (even with the £4 increase) its not going to be wasted.  Realistally I wanted to try and get my phone line moved too, and today have managed to move the bulk of my main retailers off the email from primary Line 1 plusnet to another generic non-paid free account so when and if I cancel my my landline to move to say BT fibre, it wont matter or wont be so painful.

There are some retailers being a pain who wont let me change my email unless i go via support and provide information to verify who I am, however so far that has just been 1-2 and am wating for their confirmation its changed. The good thing is, I can monitor that plusnet mail, and as the emails drop, it allows me to see what other spam or non-important emails arrive so I can cut those out. 
I do desperately want to stay with PlusNet, they have given me years and years of excellent service, and I am planning to stay until I have to terminate my ADSL/VDSL line, if that happens and there is no alternative then I may have no option but to move that line or ISP