FTTP Sugestions

[steelman99]

Hi All
As a quick sumary of below , im looking for a decent Internet provider that offers FTTP

Have had FTTP with plusnet on their trial for about 2 years now , but about 18 months ago their billing system broke , and they stopped charging me for anything .
Been of the honest type ( and not wanting a big bill somewhere down the line) I contacted them after about 4 months and asked what was happening. They said the billing system was broke and they would have to set up a new account for me to fix it. Quite happy with this as they were even prepared to treat me as a new customer with a £75 giftcard , but i would loose the 2 months line rental saver that was outstanding , but then the bombshell , that the FTTP trial was not taking new customers and I would have to go back to normal broadband ( FTTC is not avalible to us in our location , so we would be dropping from 67MBPS to around 4 MBPS)
Told them this was not acceptable ao they told me to wait till they fixed the billing system and they would not backdate the bills more than 3 months
Yesterday recived a letter from Plusnet ,saying basicly the billing system cant be fixed , and they are going to close the old account on 18 November and write any charges on that account off, but I had to phone them up before 18th November to set up a new acount
My main concern is that as they are not taking anyone on the FTTP trial, they may try and put me back on standard broadband, as 18th Nov is not that far away , Im doing some research into whats avalible to keep FTTP, im looking for some recomendations as to which company to go with should I have to move - We cant get anything like virgin or anything , so its got to be a company that uses openreach cables, tried a few websites but they dont seem to reconise that our address can have FTTP - they say its not avalible in our area.
We dont use the landline to make any calls so for outgoing calls it can go , but both have elderly parents who only ring on the landline, and despite our best attempts to get them to phone our mobiles, its just not working ,even after programing the mobile numbers into their phones and deleteing the landline they still call the landline, so the landline number needs to live on in some way , even if it just transfers the calls to our mobile , or is VOIP

Any suggstions or recomendations welcome ?

[UncleEbenezer]

Addressing a part of your question, and ask a followup question of my own here ... suggestions for my own VOIP phone. Preferably without driving me to a proprietary platform such as skype!

Regarding the landline number, it's entirely straightforward to transfer that to VOIP. You can get a VOIP phone, or use a softphone on your mobile, or indeed on a 'puter. I paid a one-off charge of €10 to sipgate for that; other providers are of course available (and these days sipgate charge UK customers in £).

The catch then is finding a solution that works well. When I made the transition in 2013, the VOIP phones I bought for around-the-house proved crap and fell out of use. That was OK-ish because CSipSimple on my Android phone "just worked" giving me reliable service and excellent call quality - and better still, worked anywhere my phone had a signal. I found myself migrating to using exclusively the mobile - which was a minor annoyance as with just one handset one has to rush upstairs/downstairs when it rings.

However, CSipSimple is no longer available and much to my distress I've failed to find a worthy successor that Just Works. My first candidate Zoiper proved spectacularly unreliable, and more often than not fails to ring for an incoming call - and then the call quality can be patchy. Currently trying MizuDroid, but I'm getting atrocious voice quality unless I can find something that has hitherto eluded me to adjust. I may try a physical handset again, in the hope they've improved since the 2013 nonsense.

[Infrasonic]

https://www.ispreview.co.uk/isp_list/IS ... php?page=1

A lot of ISP's use Openreach fibre, including national providers like Zen, EE, Vodafone et al.
If you aren't finding the availability for your area it might be because as it's a trial program they are keeping it off the fibre databases that the ISP search sites access.
I'd contact some of the national ISP's and speak to someone (beyond sales) to see what they can do...

[ReformedCharacter]

The catch then is finding a solution that works well. When I made the transition in 2013, the VOIP phones I bought for around-the-house proved crap and fell out of use. That was OK-ish because CSipSimple on my Android phone "just worked" giving me reliable service and excellent call quality - and better still, worked anywhere my phone had a signal. I found myself migrating to using exclusively the mobile - which was a minor annoyance as with just one handset one has to rush upstairs/downstairs when it rings.

However, CSipSimple is no longer available and much to my distress I've failed to find a worthy successor that Just Works. My first candidate Zoiper proved spectacularly unreliable, and more often than not fails to ring for an incoming call - and then the call quality can be patchy. Currently trying MizuDroid, but I'm getting atrocious voice quality unless I can find something that has hitherto eluded me to adjust. I may try a physical handset again, in the hope they've improved since the 2013 nonsense.

Have you considered the Linksys PAP2T adaptor? Setup details provided by Sipgate. I think they are no longer made but there are plenty still on the market for £20-25. I bought one a few months ago when I went VOIP and have had no problems at all. Then you can use whatever handset you like. I tried Zoiper but had sound problems.

RC

[steelman99]

https://www.ispreview.co.uk/isp_list/ISP_List_Premium_Ultrafast_Broadband.php?page=1

A lot of ISP's use Openreach fibre, including national providers like Zen, EE, Vodafone et al.
If you aren't finding the availability for your area it might be because as it's a trial program they are keeping it off the fibre databases that the ISP search sites access.
I'd contact some of the national ISP's and speak to someone (beyond sales) to see what they can do...

The trial is by plusnet - we are on the database , so moving to someone else is not a problem - its just I dont really want to be paying line rental - as i said , we havent made an outgoing call for months - its just in case the parents need to get hold of us , and cant justify £20 a month for that , rather go to someone who can give us FTTP at a decent price without line rental , as long as can get any calls made to the landline no to ring a phone somewhere - that can be mobile of fixed

[ReformedCharacter]

The trial is by plusnet - we are on the database , so moving to someone else is not a problem - its just I dont really want to be paying line rental - as i said , we havent made an outgoing call for months - its just in case the parents need to get hold of us , and cant justify £20 a month for that , rather go to someone who can give us FTTP at a decent price without line rental , as long as can get any calls made to the landline no to ring a phone somewhere - that can be mobile of fixed

I think you will find it difficult to get FTTP without a line rental:

https://www.uswitch.com/broadband/guide ... -landline/

RC

[Infrasonic]

See if you can get a discounted ISP bundle deal with your mobile provider?
EE, Vodafone et al do them. They can work out cheaper.

It used to be that getting FTTP without a LL charge was possible, but they charged you more.
That might have changed, but I'm sure BT will hold on as long as possible to that business model...

Companies like Hyperoptic do up to Gigabit FTTP with no LL fees, but they are only present in dense population areas like city centres with lots of flats.
https://hyperoptic.com/price-plans/

[scrumpyjack]

Zen will give you FTTP without line rental and I think their Fritz router includes a Dect base station.

[steelman99]

Zen & Aquis are on my shortlist at the moment, and have set an account up with sipgate basic -that way if need be I can move the phone number to them so it rings on my mobile , whilst moving the internet to someone without line rental.

Just checking up on things and it looks like i have to do this all in the right order , else i would loose the landline Number and/ or end up without internet for a few days , so unless anyone knows otherwise , firstly move the internet to Zen , then once its up and running , move the phone No to Sipgate looks like the right order at the moment

At the moment its all planning work , as I dont know what Plus net wil do when I get in touch tomorow , but wont hold my breath

[chas49]

Zen & Aquis are on my shortlist at the moment, and have set an account up with sipgate basic -that way if need be I can move the phone number to them so it rings on my mobile , whilst moving the internet to someone without line rental.

Just checking up on things and it looks like i have to do this all in the right order , else i would loose the landline Number and/ or end up without internet for a few days , so unless anyone knows otherwise , firstly move the internet to Zen , then once its up and running , move the phone No to Sipgate looks like the right order at the moment

At the moment its all planning work , as I dont know what Plus net wil do when I get in touch tomorow , but wont hold my breath

It sounds to me that a better solution might be to escalate the issue within Plusnet. You're not asking them to take you on to the trial - ypu're already on it and they just need to find a way of setting that up on your new account - or are they actually saying that no-one on the trial is paying bills, and they're all getting migrated off the trial? If not the latter, then you need someone with actual authority to take ownership of the problem.

Try contacting the CEO - Philp Jansen - details from here: https://ceoemail.com/s.php?id=ceo-9623& ... 0Executive

[Midsmartin]

If you go down the VoIP route, I've used voipfone.co.uk for 10 or 15 years with no problems, and have had very speedy responses on the odd occasion I asked for help. I pay for 2 extensions; one on a hardware phone and one that diverts to my mobile, and I answer whichever is handy at the time.

[UncleEbenezer]

I pay for ...

Is that an inclusive worldwide calls package or a ripoff? Or do you mean you're on business-grade switchboard services?

If it's just your calls coming through to multiple places, many providers won't charge you a penny for that.

[Midsmartin]

I pay for ...

Is that an inclusive worldwide calls package or a ripoff? Or do you mean you're on business-grade switchboard services?

If it's just your calls coming through to multiple places, many providers won't charge you a penny for that.

From memory I pay £2-3 a month for a local phone number, and a pound or two for an extra extension so both offices ring at once. UK calls cost me 1p a minute.
You can look up the rest if interested
https://www.voipfone.co.uk/prices

[steelman99]

It sounds to me that a better solution might be to escalate the issue within Plusnet. You're not asking them to take you on to the trial - ypu're already on it and they just need to find a way of setting that up on your new account - or are they actually saying that no-one on the trial is paying bills, and they're all getting migrated off the trial? If not the latter, then you need someone with actual authority to take ownership of the problem.

Try contacting the CEO - Philp Jansen - details from here: https://ceoemail.com/s.php?id=ceo-9623& ... 0Executive

Just edging my bets at the moment - Plusnet told me several months ago that once they set up a new account , they couldnt sign me up to the FTTP program , as they were no longer accepting new customers onto it, and with a new acccount , I would be seen as a new customer - the problem is something to do with if you make a change to your account and something changes over the billing date (I removed inclusive calls on the evening before the billing date) , the computer wont issue a bill and update the next billing date, and once the billing date is in the past it never happens , so no bills are ever issued - for most customers setting up a new account fixes the problem. just have to see what they say on the phone tommorow , but want to have a plan B in place - im sure if it had just been as easy as giving me a new user name , they could of told me that in the letter

[steelman99]

Just to update all - spoke to Plusnet and they told me to ignore the letter , I would be switched to new account , but they couldnt tell me any details of the new account.

Rather helpfuly they confirmed to ignore the letter in an e-mail and I recorded the call anyway , so now sitting on my hands till 18th Novemember to see what happens

[UncleEbenezer]

Just to update all - spoke to Plusnet and they told me to ignore the letter , I would be switched to new account , but they couldnt tell me any details of the new account.

Rather helpfuly they confirmed to ignore the letter in an e-mail and I recorded the call anyway , so now sitting on my hands till 18th Novemember to see what happens

Novemember? Is that when they give you a prosthetic after a botched circumcision? Hmm, that would be Novamember. I'm struggling to think of a reference to Nine Members.

My experience of Plusnet is that they would do the right thing, though sometimes they'd need a nudge, and on one occasion they cocked up very badly on the way. But that was before they got borged by BT.

p.s. thanks for keeping us up to date. Once an issue has been aired, it's good to hear what happened next.

[stewamax]

If the service is still technically a trial in your area, see if you can get the whole area FTTP'd via the Rural Gigabit Broadband Connectivity programme that offers vouchers of £3500 for small businesses and up to £1500 for residents. The older Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme was essentially for businesses but this one is aimed more at villages. Finishes next March or sooner if the cash runs out.
https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2019/05/200m-uk-rural-gigabit-broadband-connectivity-programme-starts.html