Will plusnet provide a voip landline service?

[#1]

I will try and avoid being highly critical of some of you techy bores, but the mast majority of you have completely missed the point from my original post.  Picking techy holes in throw away english words is not helpful.

So, to repeat the questions were:-

Is it yet time to consider switching broadband/landline provision to BT retail?  And if so, how easy will it be to simply instruct PLUSNET to make it so?  Or will we be forced to cancel one contract and start another?

Those questions were clearly formed on the assumption that PLUSNET will not be providing as good a service as BT when PSTN is switched off - dictated by OFCOM.

[#2]

Apart from a degree in electrical  & electronic engineering and a life time of working with corporate computer systems including networking and telephony, no.

I do have a grandstream box providing  viop at home, but the main home phone is on the POTS.

[#3]

Do you think there is a future to 'mobile phones' or will all services gradually  migrate to voip, whether it be via a static phone in the home, a hand held computer,  or a wearabe or embedded device?

The likes of BT/EE already have voip services - they would just need to expand them to absorb the plusnet customer base and provide a way to identify who the customer has bought service off when the customer calls the support centre.

[#4]

Last I heard EE don’t provide VOIP/Digital Voice either.

[#5]

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@boavon wrote:

So, to repeat the questions were:-

Is it yet time to consider switching broadband/landline provision to BT retail?  And if so, how easy will it be to simply instruct PLUSNET to make it so?  Or will we be forced to cancel one contract and start another?

Those questions were clearly formed on the assumption that PLUSNET will not be providing as good a service as BT when PSTN is switched off - dictated by OFCOM.

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At the moment there’s no reason to switch unless you have received notification that BT will be removing your PSTN phone service. The switch off has started in some areas. If you receive this notification then ring.the Customer Options Team on 0800 013 2632 and I expect that they will arrange for you to transfer to BT without incurring any cancellation charges. Otherwise review it when you current contract is due for renewal. Either way it will involve a new contract with BT.

How do you describe ‘goodness’ of service? If you mean BT provide a greater range of services, including digital phone along with other bells and whistles than Plusnet then that is true, and reflected in the price of the two services.

[#6]

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@Batfrog wrote:

At the end of the day it’s the men in suits [the bean counters] that will decide, as it ever was!

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I don't think it was always like that - although I agree it is now.

When telephones were new having the electrical power come from the exchange was necessary as many houses did not have an electricity supply (very early phones had a wind-up dynamo to produce enough electricity in order to make a call to the operator who would then connect your call) - so originally it was a technical requirement for the phone system to work.

When PSTN was introduced (and got rid of the need of operator intervention for every call) we were in the cold war era. Resilience was a top priority, so a lot of redundancy was built into the telephone system (exchanges having batteries and generators), and cost was a distant secondary consideration.

Now, we seem to have given up with resilience, and concentrate on profit and "market forces", with the result that people will be left without the ability to contact emergency services.

Perhaps the wind-up phones will make a comeback!

[#7]

I first looked at this thread to see if I could find out what Plusnet were likely to do as my contract was soon to expire.

Oops’  I’ve been labouring under the mis-apprehension that my Plusnet contract expired in July, whereas in fact it expires in July 2024 !

Well at least that gives me a breathing space and more time to consider what to do next. I expect the telecoms landscape will have changed somewhat in the next 12 months, at least as far as who is supplying what and at what cost.

Non-the-less I’ve been intrigued by all the comments and suggestions and I find myself wanting to change to VOIP for, at the moment, no good reason!

The question is which supplier? The problem as I see it is which ones will still be operating in a few years time? Look at how many small energy companies collapsed when a crisis came. If I chose to go VOIP and the supplier went bust I wonder what would happen to my number.

Of course with energy companies they were all re-sellers so there was no chance of being cut off overnight but unless I’m mistaken if a VOIP supplier went t..ts up so would my phone number – unless anyone knows different?

[#8]

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@Batfrog wrote:

Non-the-less I’ve been intrigued by all the comments and suggestions and I find myself wanting to change to VOIP for, at the moment, no good reason!

The question is which supplier? The problem as I see it is which ones will still be operating in a few years time? Look at how many small energy companies collapsed when a crisis came. If I chose to go VOIP and the supplier went bust I wonder what would happen to my number.

Of course with energy companies they were all re-sellers so there was no chance of being cut off overnight but unless I’m mistaken if a VOIP supplier went t..ts up so would my phone number – unless anyone knows different?

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@Batfrog 

I'm not sure of the present state of play, but I remember some years ago reading that to be certain of not losing your number in the circumstances you envisage, it was advisable to port your number to a provider who was an ITSPA member.  Following the link I saved at that time, I see that's now changed and redirects to the Comms Council UK

[#9]

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@Batfrog wrote:

Non-the-less I’ve been intrigued by all the comments and suggestions and I find myself wanting to change to VOIP for, at the moment, no good reason!

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So you have no good reason to jump in and change. Whilst VoIP is the latest trendy way to connect your phone, the downside is that you will lose the great advantage of the PSTN, that is, it will work during a powercut. In my locality if the power goes off so do the local mobile masts, so there's no salvation there. Maybe things will improve in the next couple of years.

I have got an ATA and learnt how to set it up, so I'm prepared. However, I am hanging on for now/until I have notice that the plug will be pulled on the PSTN before porting my landline across.

[#10]

I have got an ATA and learnt how to set it up, so I'm prepared. However, I am hanging on for now/until I have notice that the plug will be pulled on the PSTN before porting my landline across.

I’ve just bought a cheap ATA on eBay and I already have a spare DECT phone with the intention, like yourself, of learning how to set it up using a free number to run in parallel with my existing PSTN phone. At the very least I’ve got a year to do that unless Openreach knock on the door saying they’ve come to rip out my copper landline – unlikely ?

Probably try A&A or VoIPfone, something without a contract anyway.

[#11]

@Batfrog 

"unless Openreach knock on the door saying they’ve come to rip out my copper landline"

You seem to be confusing the end of PSTN, due in a couple of years time, with the eventual roll out of full Fibre to the Premises - which will take much longer?

[#12]

BT, Sky etc started offering FTTP on my street way before PlusNet did: that is FTTP with retention of existing landline number if the customer wanted it. But when PlusNet eventually offered FTTP, PlusNet said I would have to lose my existing landline number, which I want to retain for business and personal reasons. I was happy to switch to VOIP, but I needed to keep the number. PlusNet said this wasn't possible with them. PlusNet said I could retain my landline number with FTTP if I switched to BT, but PlusNet host my domain and email and it would be a pain to change.

Today I renewed my Full Fibre FTTC and landline contract with PlusNet: £27.49 a month plus call plan and PlusNet have told me they have softened their stance on my landline number. PlusNet said they still don't provide landline with FTTP, not even VOIP, but PlusNet will now let me transfer my existing landline to a VOIP provider so that I can keep my landline number, albeit over VOIP. That's a vast improvement on PlusNet's initial stance.

As time goes on, PlusNet has gradually started moving towards what its customers want. I've got elderly relatives with PlusNet for whom retention of their landline is critical. Regardless of the what PlusNet has said in the past, when crunch time comes and the copper network is switched off, I reckon PlusNet will by then have some sort of VOIP service, or perhaps an arrangement with a VOIP provider for a smooth/cheap transition.

[#13]

You seem to be confusing the end of PSTN, due in a couple of years time, with the eventual roll out of full Fibre to the Premises - which will take much longer?

Theres no confusion in my mind!  My comment you quote is out of context, you missed the end of the sentence, and anyway it was a tongue in cheek comment.

I referred earlier in this thread about the un-sightly presence of leaving copper lines in place when they are redundant. I accept that in some cases there may be valid reasons for leaving them in place. Perhaps things will change come September with copper stop-sell? 

Personally I intend to stay on FTCC until I can be reasonably sure the old copper will be removed when FTTP is installed.

[#14]

"PlusNet have told me they have softened their stance on my landline number"

As much to the point, Ofcom has brought about cross-industry changes which better facilitate landline number portability.  This was not so much Plusnet being hard as the then available porting processes being clunky and unreliable.  The last thing any business needs is additional burdens dealing with services migrating away from them.

[#15]

As of September 2023, when POTS and other copper services are no longer available to new customers, Plusnet are unable , currently, to offer any voice services.

How does this comply with 

The Telephony Universal Service Obligation in the 2003 Communications Act ?

Which  mandates that all consumers in the UK will still have access to a landline service should they choose to do so.