Forgive me for just skimming through thirteen pages of posts and maybe repeating stuff which has already been said.
I just renewed my Plusnet contract. I have little choice of providers where I live - they all say that they can provide broadband and promise me double my present speed (16-18Mbps) after putting in my postcode on price comparison sites but when I then go to sign up, they say that they don't provide any service in my area.
So, when I renewed my contract, I asked about the future of the landline service but the information I was given seemed to directly contradict the advice on the government website on this subject, i.e. that it should be straightforward and probably as simple as plugging one's phone (if it is compatible - which mine is) into a socket on the router. Given that Plusnet is owned by BT, one could be forgiven for believing that Plusnet customers would benefit from this straightforward transition but I was told that unless I switched to another provider, I would lose my landline.
This brings me to the next difficulty which we will face because there is not a mobile provider whose signal is reliable here and very often, I have to give callers my landline number and ask them to call me back on it. Wi-Fi calling ought to be a workable option but for some reason calls drop even when I am a few feet from the router and my girlfriend has a Plusnet mobile contract so her phone cannot even use Wi-Fi calling!
I've been at my current address for 14 years - the broadband has always been problematic and whenever there has been an issue, the first thing I have done has been to pick up the phone and check for a dial tone and it has always been there. The landline has always been there - when there has been no internet and unusable mobile signal. Consequently, whenever I have a problem with the broadband, I phone Plusnet on my landline - if the connection goes down in future, what am I supposed to do, walk half a mile down the road to get a usable mobile signal, wait on hold until somebody answers who then asks me to tell them what the light on the router is doing?! Hang on, I'll just walk back and check...!
We have had to go four days without internet and propped a tethered phone on a wall outside on a clear day to edit a Tesco order but took it on the chin but never felt completely cut off from the world knowing that the home phone was there. It's one thing to leave the rural community a decade behind as far as internet speeds are concerned - it's the price of peace and quiet, perhaps - but to cut off a service which could be the last line of communication is a different matter and without wishing to sound too hyperbolic, could be a matter of life and death in an emergency.
