I renewed my 18 month FTTC Unlimited Fibre contract very recently. FTTP is not yet available on my exchange and so the exchange is not yet "stop sell" one for broadband over the copper network. The BT Openreach website suggests that whilst they are currently building the full fibre network here the only date they give for completion (presumably throughout the whole exchange area) is December 2026. They also say that the PSTN copper line switch off will be by December 2025! Go figure that one out! It seems to infer that they might be in the position of switching off the PSTN without having fibre fully deployed.
Meanwhile there are two other companies building their networks on these streets - Cityfibre (who I believe resell their product via several ISPs) and YouFibre (who appear to sell directly to the end user). The technician testing for Cityfibre at the new small local cabinet just down the street said a few days ago that their product should be available very shortly as everything was ready to go at that point. YouFibre are a bit further behind as the cables have yet to appear on our street according to their technician.
Anyway, I decided to renew with Plusnet as the current product meets my needs and I want to make sure that any full fibre product is working reliably after the switch on hereabouts. It also means that I can postpone any decision regarding my landline to see what transpires over the next few months. I read somewhere that, from April, OFCOM have stipulated that ISPs will have to allow a month for a customer to port their landline number to another provider (as long as they express the wish to do so at the time of cancelling the existing service). So that might be an option if we decide we do want to keep a landline. The Plusnet COT staffer said that if FTTP becomes available (via the Openreach network, presumably) Plusnet will tear up my new FTTC contract if I want to move to FTTP as that is regarded as an upgrade. Also, some very early flyers distributed by one or other of BTs competitor FTTP networks suggested they might buy you out of existing contracts if you moved to them.
We shall see what happens over the next few months or years!
Incidentally, as part of the recontract I negotiated a Hub2 (with no p&p charges). Plusnet now seem to have adopted the BT model of requiring its return if you leave them, if I read the T and c's of my recontract correctly, (or they may just be trying to improve their green credentials). The Hub2 will, of course, be suitable for FTTP in due course, but I noted that it connects at a slightly lower maximum data rate over FTTC that its predecessor Hub1.
