Changing to Broadband only and no phone

[#1]

@Mustrum 

Thanks for raising the point, attached is the complete checker, which does indeed show SoGEA is available to order.

I've just spoken with the Plusnet support team, and successfully changed over to SoGEA.

I had to agree to a higher figure than @JSHarris was offered, but still cheaper the my current FTTC with landline.

So thanks everyone for your advice, and fingers crossed it all goes through without a hitch.

[#2]

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@bgiles wrote:

I had to agree to a higher figure than @JSHarris was offered, but still cheaper the my current FTTC with landline.

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I wonder why you had to pay a higher price?

I have just re-checked and Plusnet are offering this price for SOGEA:

[#3]

@JSHarris The screenshot you show is for 24 - 35 Mb, whereas I'm on 62 - 72Mb, that would explain the difference.

And the out-of-contract for SoGEA is £30, compared with £54.39 for Unlimited Fibre Extra with Home Phone, which is why I wanted to change.

[#4]

@JSHarris   you are obviously further away from the cabinet than @bgiles  who is paying a little more for twice the speed you can get.

[#5]

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@bgiles wrote:

@JSHarris The screenshot you show is for 24 - 35 Mb, whereas I'm on 62 - 72Mb, that would explain the difference.

And the out-of-contract for me is £30.

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Still seems odd, as that speed is simply a function of the length and condition of the copper pair.  It's only ever an estimate, too.  In our case we don't get that speed, it tends to sit around 18Mb/s.  I thought that pricing was solely based on the type of connection, not the length of the copper pair from the cabinet.  AFAIK, Openreach don't adjust their wholesale pricing in relation to the copper pair length. 

Didn't happen at our old house, either.  There we suddenly got a big jump in speed simply because Openreach replaced a cable in the street.  Didn't change the price we paid.

[#6]

@JSHarris Can you not pay less for a slower speed?

[#7]

Can you not pay less for a slower speed?

On Fibre broadband only, no. On FTTC ( broadband + phone ) there were two products , Unlimited Fibre which is limited to 40Mb, and Unlimited Fibre Extra which is up to 80Mb. On the new Fibre ( SoGEA ) product there is only one option which is up to 80Mb. So if your line is only capable of < 40Mb , on FTTC you could uitilise the lower tier product at a slightly lower price, on SoGEA there is no option...

[#8]

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@machare wrote:

@JSHarris Can you not pay less for a slower speed?

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I don't believe so, the speed is whatever you happen to get, with no guarantees I believe.  I did question this some time ago when our actual speed was lower than the estimated speed and was told that there's no minimum guaranteed speed for any service as it's not within Plusnet's control.  Openreach checked the line and said that their only obligation is to ensure it's good enough for phone calls, they don't guarantee anything more.

At our old house the speed was very much lower than the estimate for a few years.  Turned out that there was a lot of crosstalk in the tangled mess of old wires in the cabinet, although no one told me about this when I complained (and we didn't get a price reduction for having a lower speed either).  Openreach replaced the cabling and fitted a new cabinet (after a car drove into the old one!) and our speed more than doubled.  It was the Openreach chap working on the new cabinet that told me that the low speed we had been getting was down to the state of the cabinet wiring.

The contractual issue is a bit like mobile coverage, all four operators say that we can get a good signal here.  One goes so far as to say it's excellent and fast enough to stream video etc.  In reality there's no mobile signal at all here at ground level, not even enough to allow a voice call or allow a smart meter to work.  None of the mobile operators offer cheaper prices because of this, though.

[#9]

I do not believe the price being offered for Fibre is based on speed of the connection

Both 24 month contracts 

[#10]

The Plusnet CS said price was based on geographical location. Not sure if that is true, but haggled a further £1 discount.

[#11]

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@bgiles wrote:

The Plusnet CS said price was based on geographical location. Not sure if that is true, but haggled a further £1 discount.

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It might be true, but I've just checked using the post codes of  a few homes that we've lived in over the years, from SW England to Scotland, and each time the price given was £24.99/month.

Not related to speed, either.  Speed ranged from an estimated 24 - 35Mb/s to 68 -72Mb/s for the addresses I checked.  Not 100% conclusive, but enough to strongly indicate that the SOGEA price is £24.99/month for a wide range of  UK geographic locations.

Be interesting to find out exactly why you've been quoted a different price.  If I had to guess I would suggest it's due to the nature of the "haggle your own price" policy that Plusnet seems to use for existing customers.  I've never been clear about how this works.

[#12]

I've now checked half a dozen different addresses, all in areas that don't have FTTP as an option, so every price I had was for the fastest broadband-only FTTC service (i.e. SOGEA).  The locations I tried ranged from SW Cornwall, through South Devon, Wiltshire, West Sussex to SW Scotland. 

Every time the price for SOGEA came back as being £24.99/month.

The estimated speeds varied widely, from 18 - 24Mb/s for our old place in West Sussex, up to 68 - 72Mb/s for our old house in SW Scotland.

I'm personally convinced that the price for SOGEA is fixed at £24.99 for all new Plusnet customers.  What existing customers may be quoted on renewal will most probably be variable, but from all I've heard existing customers are usually able to haggle down to at least the new customer price if they push hard when renewing.

[#13]

I can live with paying a couple of pounds more each month, I was just nervous to leave it until being forced to move to SOGEA, as customers wouldn't necessarily have the upper hand at that point, and may be rushed into a decision.

[#14]

So today is the day my contract switches to broadband only.

So what happens and when?

Does an engineer have to visit the exchange/cabinet or is it done remotely?

Is there likely to be any downtime of my internet?

What time of day is it likely that the dial tone will disappear from my phone??? 

[#15]

@QuantumGuy 

My switch day to SOGEA is ALSO today, and I was researching what I was expecting to happen.

All I could find is the attached diagram, indicating that on the PSTN side, the OSLAM, Filer and NB Test Head, are disconnected from the copper pair, leaving only the FTTC connection.

As previously mentioned by others in this topic, I'm expecting minimal disruption, and am just waiting for my DECT phones on my PSTN to show 'Check Line' to indicate it's been completed.

Will post back later with the outcome.

Fingers crossed