Keeping PSTN landline

[#1]

Here are some options for those of us who have family, friends and neighbours wanting/needing to keep their PSTN landline connections active for as long as possible.

This is from personal experience, having done both, for myself and a family member.


1 Renew your existing Plusnet contract

This means renew your current contract exactly as it is. Any product change, including tempting upgrade offers from Plusnet will result in the loss of your landline.

This can be done even if you are in a Fibre priority area as BT should not be doing forced migrations.

Currently this should enable you to keep your landine until the later part of 2027

2 Move to a LLU provider

If you are on an LLU exchange that has Now Broadband or TalkTalk
and you are NOT in fibre priority area it's possible, at the time of posting, to move your current landline to a new provider and VDSL product upgrades are possible. For example moving from 40/10 to 80/20 provided your connection supports it.

In theory it's possible for these PSTN connections to be kept active until shortly before exchange closures (around 2030?), however commercial and operational considerations may make it sooner than that.

My understanding is that BT have to give the LLU operators considerable notice (2yrs?) before withdrawing a service. On that basis I would expect PSTN landlines from these suppliers to available until around the end of 2029.

Of course dates mentioned here are always subject to change, as with any BT Openreach project.

[#2]

I thought I'd read that all the LLU providers where pushing their new customers to VoIP based services as well?  I've nothing to back that up though, and my memory may be failing me though!

[#3]

There was no Voip option offered when moving from Plusnet VDSL 40/10 to NOW VDSL 80/20.
VOIP may well be the only voice option for new customers in fibre priority areas.
Although existing PSTN customers should be able to renew on an as is basis for a while.