looking for a hub recommendation

[#1]

Hi All,

New PN customer and am a bit confused by what I've seen on their website and what I've read on here. I am a fibre customer who upgraded to the top speed recently and I was looking at their available services and came across the dreaded analogue phone line offering.

On their website it says you get this, that and the other phone service with full fibre, but I cannot find anywhere where it says what my phone number is. From what I've read on the forum this isn't the case for new users like me. I went out and bought an analogue cordless phone to plug in, which cost me £35 and surprisingly 🤔 there's no socket to plug it into. Am I wrong? The net says Hub 2 doesn't support it. I removed the sticker and found the phone socket and if course it doesn't work. Surely PN can do some sort of software update to enable it.

So now I'm left with 2 questions.

Do I get a new hub with the built in voip converter for analogue phones or do I buy an voip to analogue adapter. I play a lot of games online and stream loads too. Which is why I opted for the top package.

TIA
Mark

[#2]

@dragonball123  Plusnet do not provide any VOIP service, the socket on the Hub2 is non-functional. If you want a phone service you need to use a 3rd party VOIP supplier.

[#3]

@dragonball123 

On their website it says you get this, that and the other phone service with full fibre, but I cannot find anywhere where it says what my phone number is

Can I ask where you've seen that please ? I am concerned that there is confusing information if that's the case which needs to be removed. As @RealAleMadrid says there is no phone service, either voip or conventional, provided with Full Fibre.

[#4]

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@MisterW wrote: snipped

Can I ask where you've seen that please ? I am concerned that there is confusing information if that's the case which needs to be removed.

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I did think the same thing, so went looking and .....

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https://www.plus.net/broadband/full-fibre/

What happens with my phone line if I choose a Full Fibre package?

Plusnet Full Fibre is a broadband only package, so you don't need a phone line. This means you can save on line rental.

What this means if you're a Plusnet customer

When you upgrade your package to Full Fibre you'll need to confirm that you're happy to lose your landline. We'll then take care of everything and disconnect your home phone as part of your Full Fibre installation.

It's important to know that losing your landline will mean any medical services or alarms connected to your phone will also stop working. This includes medical pendants and fall alarms.
We'd advise speaking to your supplier or manufacturer about these before choosing a Full Fibre package.

Want to keep your landline? No problem, you can choose a great renewal or upgrade deal on our broadband and faster fibre packages which use a phone line.

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I've underlined the bits which could potentially cause confusion (IMO that this)

PN mention Full and that you don't need a phone line - should it not state you WILL lose the phone line on that sentence?

So you need to confirm you'll be losing the landline for Full Fibre

And PN then state that you can keep your landline and choose to a great renewal or upgrade deal (the OP was upgrading) and here's where I think the confusion is - the wording Faster and Full in the same drop down paragraph.

So as an example - you've been on adsl and have no clue what FTTC and FTTP are (and this happens to most older folk I speak to whom don't have a clue how all 'this stuff' works) and you want faster speeds. So you start reading up and still don't get 'it'. So you do more reading (thus filling your head with jargon you don't understand) and read the above towards the end of your decision making and sign up and (as I've personally witnessed by our (much) older generation) they click next, next and next without fully understanding what they're agreeing to and become further confused as they only want a faster speed (fibre to them is fibre which means faster) and not full fibre (again speed was what they're thinking about)

What I'm trying to say is - the wording faster and full compared to what they had is faster and this could be where the confusion lies?

Maybe the blurb should say "Faster keeping your landline" and "Full removing your landline" more clearly?

And maybe PN and others should also say/state "Fibre optic with copper" and "Fibre optic into the home" as a simpler way to get those to understand what 'all this stuff' means?

[#5]

@DS I agree that there's confusion with the terms Fibre (which is really FTTC without a phone service ) and Full Fibre, but all the ISP's started calling FTTC Fibre many years ago and I'm afraid dug a big hole for themselves. I'm not sure there's much we can do about that now!.

However I'm not sure how

you'll need to confirm that you're happy to lose your landline.

and disconnect your home phone as part of your Full Fibre installation.

can cause confusion ?

Now this

Want to keep your landline? No problem, you can choose a great renewal or upgrade deal on our broadband and faster fibre packages which use a phone line.

can cause confusion, since whilst its still possible to renew (on the same product)  and keep the landline, its not possible to upgrade and keep it (since the OR WLR stop sell in Sep 2023).

[#6]

I was trying to say with the first line in mind - full fibre and need

But yes I see your point as lose is further down. I'm doubting what I was thinking is translating to others, my bad.

I've also just spotted something else from that link (same section)

• so you don't need a phone line. It could also make it clearer you'd also be losing your phone line telephone number (or as we tend to say landline number) in that sentence.
• confirm that you're happy to lose your landline again include "number" at the end.
• It's important to know that losing your landline "and associated number"
• Want to keep your landline "and number?"

Whilst replying I've just spoken to a non tech savvy friend and asked them what they thought losing their phone line/landline meant in regards to their telephone number and they thought it still means they'd retain a physical phone number and thought they'd simply need to plug their phone into the phone point on their router and hey presto.

Granted that's only one today who's thought this, but what does this mean for others, could this open a right can of worms?

But at least PN wrote about the loss of your landline number here (last part of that section, under the new customers heading)

What this means for new customers

When you sign up you'll just need to let us know what you want to do with your phone line:

If you don't want to keep it we'll take care of everything and disconnect your phone when you switch to us. This will means you'll lose your landline number and any medical services or personal alarms connected to your phone will also stop working. We'd advise speaking to your supplier or manufacturer about these before choosing a Full Fibre package.

If you want to keep your home phone line you'll need to arrange this with your current landline provider. Your phone service will be completely separate from your Plusnet Full Fibre package.

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But would you read that bit if you were an existing customer?

[#7]

could this open a right can of worms?

@DS i think the can's already open, just the worms haven't spread ALL over the table, yet!

Whilst replying I've just spoken to a non tech savvy friend and asked them what they thought losing their phone line/landline meant in regards to their telephone number and they thought it still means they'd retain a physical phone number and thought they'd simply need to plug their phone into the phone point on their router and hey presto.

They've obviously seen the BT retail adverts about moving everyone to digital voice. The problem is that they (BT and the media) are portraying this as a total industry move, which its not!. Doesn't help when the adverts show an Openreach logo!

I'm talking to some PN people tomorrow about some of the information being given out relating to number porting etc , so I'll take your comments on board regarding the losing landline/number.

[#8]

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@MisterW wrote:

i think the can's already open, just the worms haven't spread ALL over the table, yet!

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Give it time, about 2025 and you won't see the floor

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They've obviously seen the BT retail adverts about moving everyone to digital voice. The problem is that they (BT and the media) are portraying this as a total industry move, which its not!. Doesn't help when the adverts show an Openreach logo!

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And herein lies the problem BT/OR and what's being put out by others <resists the need to keep typing>

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I'm talking to some PN people tomorrow about some of the information being given out relating to number porting etc , so I'll take your comments on board regarding the losing landline/number.

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Thanks. Hopefully you'll be listened to.

O/T - I may or may not (coughs NDA) have been invited to a tall building in our wonderful capital owned by a certain provider of telephone and internet services back in 2009 (or thereabouts) and had several discussions with 'them'. Some of the concerns raised by myself and others possibly influenced them to bringing out a WiFi extending product and a means for their customers to get online if the line serving them was snapped or damaged (but I didn't get any royalties🤐)