Renewal and voice service

[#1]

I was under the impression that Plusnet were not supporting voice going forward, so I was surprised to see that , via their customer portal, they offered a 18- or 24- month renewal on my existing Fibre Unlimited service with voice, including the International 300 addon. I even have the legal contract summary document confirming an 18 month renewal for £38 quid a month.

I got on a chat to ask how they would plan to support voice during this period, only to be told that they would not and I would have to get VoIP service from elsewhere. I asked why then had they offered an 18 month renewal, if they couldn't honour it, I was told I would have to call the Provisioning team as it wasn't a sales issue...

Sorry but if their customer portal is allowing renewals that they can't honour then it IS a sales issue...! Very disappointed in the lack of concern or even recognition of the problem as previously I have been very impressed with Plusnet service. 

[#2]

Given that PSTN switch off isn't until 31/12/2025 then surely they could sell you the voice product and support it on a 24 month contract.

I also thought until recently that they wouldn't let people maintain their current product at renewal, but clearly they are!

[#3]

Renewing a contract on  the same product which incudes a phone service  IS possible. 

I got on a chat to ask how they would plan to support voice during this period, only to be told that they would not and I would have to get VoIP service from elsewhere

I think sales were confused , thinking you were changing products, that is NOT possible to include a phone service. Plusnet will still be providing a voice service on existing and renewed contracts until the actual PSTN switchoff in 2025

The exact situation Iis that Openreach will not accept any new orders that include a landline phone service as of Sept 5. Product changes , even just a change from  Unlimited Fibre to Unlimited Fibre Extra, involve an order on  Openreach and thus will not be accepted. A contract renewal on the same product does not require an Openreach order and is therefore perfectly possible.

[#4]

@mick1970  I would agree it certainly is a sales issue and whoever you chatted with has in my opinion got it wrong. I have looked at the Openreach Stop Sell Info and the general description is ...

The term “Stop Sell” is used by Openreach to signify stopping the sale of certain Openreach products. This is different from product withdrawal, as under Stop Sell, any end customer who already has the product will be able to continue using it (until it is withdrawn).

That agrees with my understanding that you can renew an existing contract if no changes are made which is what you have attempted to do.

I see other posters have basically said the same thing.

[#5]

Thanks for the replies

Yes it is in theory possible that Plusnet could offer an 18 or even 24 month contract that would end before the PSTN switch off in Dec 2025, so a renewal could be doable. But my understanding is that it will be a rolling switch off, i.e. everything will be _done_ by 31/12/2025, but it will be a gradual switch off exchange-by-exchange and not a big bang. But I don't think there is a published schedule for the exchange migrations as far as I know.

So what I was really seeking from the chat with Plusnet was some kind of understanding of how they were planning to handle this, e.g. if I had gone for a renewal that took me to October 2025 , can they guarantee that my exchange won't have been subject to switch off before then - or if it is , what's their plan ? e.g to voice me to switch to VoIP mid contract?

But the salesperson on the chat didn't seem to grasp what I was getting at. 

I suppose I could just renew now and deal with the situation when it arises. But I would have thought they would have some kind of stated position for renewed contracts that will go right up to the end of the switch off period.

[#6]

My Unlimited Fibre (PSTN) expires at the end of October. I'm currently paying £36.36 per month  which includes £11.76 for unlimited UK and mobile calls.

As in the posts above, I'm now able to renew my contract for 18 months at £26.99 per month. My question is whether this still includes unlimited UK and mobile calls - if they're included I'll stay, otherwise I can do better changing to full fibre and landline with a different ISP.

[#7]

OK, so I spoke to Plusnet today to try to iron this out. MUCH more informed and helpful than the chat.

Basically they said yes you can renew and keep all your previous voice services (e.g. I have the Anytime International 300 addon). If you are on a contract, if I understood correctly, then they will aim to observe that , but you will not be able to renew voice beyond that contract - so if you want to keep what you have as long as possible then go for a 24 month contract.

That said

- they did not rule out that they *might* approach you to end your voice service within that period, but that they work with BT (clearly since BT own them) to provide replacement VOIP services. They would typically give 28 days notice

- if you want to migrate by yourself to a different voice service during the contract, you should set that up first and with the new provider initiate a number transfer. You can then contact Plusnet and they will downgrade your line to a broadband-only (SOGEA) line. 

Note that with One Touch Switching coming along next March you should be able to do the voice transfer without contacting Plusnet ... however I think I may try to do it before then as I'm not sure how well that process is going to work.. 🙂

[#8]

if you want to migrate by yourself to a different voice service during the contract, you should set that up first and with the new provider initiate a number transfer. You can then contact Plusnet and they will downgrade your line to a broadband-only (SOGEA) line. 

@mick1970  I'm unsure what exactly is being suggested here ? If you initiate a number transfer , then when that completes, it will cease your  landline and associated broadband!. Are Plusnet saying you should initiate the number transfer, and then request they downgrade to SoGEA BEFORE the number transfer completes ?

[#9]

It's a good question. I'd definitely want to talk to Plusnet again before starting this to get chapter and verse. But it is possible to separate the services, I believe that is a scenario that the new One Touch Switching process has to support (ie I have services X, Y, and Z but I only want to switch X). Even if this is in theory possibly without talking to Plusnet in the post-OTS world, I'd still do it just to be sure...