Unlimited broadband downgrade from fibre

My mother-in-law has fibre broadband, but I am thinking she can save the money and go back down to non-fibre, however she does sometimes use iPlayer.

Any thoughts or concerns to share, or should this be 'straightforward'?

She is with PN and has the HubOne router, which I assume will not need to change?

Thanks

When you say non-fibre, do you mean to an ADSL based package?

Maybe clarify by noting what package she is currently on….and what package she is planning to move to.

In reply to a post by aks:

My mother-in-law has fibre broadband, but I am thinking she can save the money and go back down to non-fibre, however she does sometimes use iPlayer.

Any thoughts or concerns to share, or should this be 'straightforward'?

She is with PN and has the HubOne router, which I assume will not need to change?

Thanks

I doubt that you will save much. I pay Plusnet £21.47 pm for 40/10 FTTC. If you can find a cheaper supplier it may be worthwhile to ring Plusnet and asking them to match the price.

Current package is "Unlimited Fibre" (40/10) anytime landline and mobile calls for £31.99, new deal is £34.27. PN seem to be offering a deal at £1/m less plus £75 gift card for new fibre customers.

However, the "Unlimited Broadband" (10mbs) (which I assume is good old ADSL) is on the PN site at £29.27, so saving her £5/m or £60/y.

The saving is small to many of us, but to an 80+ year old who hardly uses her broadband, I'm thinking why not save whatever I can for her.

I rang PN today and that was an horific experience - I unfortunatelt pressed "1" renewing my contract, and whilst I asked to speak to "retentions as I'm thinking of moving to NOW broadband", the agent told me "I cover sales, renewals, retentions, you name it...you won't get a better deal".

Whilst I would switch in a heartbeat for myself, it would require me to make a trip to set her up with a new router, etc, not the end of the world, but timing might be inconvenient.

Anyway, back to the question, any thoughts on downgrading from fibre back to (I assume) ADSL?

Thanks

Thanks Michael, yes NOW broadband is £18/m and £8/m anytime calls, so £26/m for a 12m contract - and I could get £40 Quidco cashback.

@aks,
I have a similar issue with my mum, she is on ADSL which she got free when a PN deal came up, but with line rental + anytime calls this equates to nearly £30 per month. I've been trying to get her to pay an extra £2 per month for fibre but she is reluctant. The main issue to me is the Anytime calls which is now over £10 per month, I wanted to get her a sim only deal for £5 per month with unlimited calls and texts + 3GB data plus the £2 for fibre and dump landline anytime calls and she would save £3 per month!!
She doesn't use her computer that much, but when I'm doing updates etc it just takes ages, yet I could get it faster and end up being cheaper, but she is stuck in the dark ages. OLD people!!

Anyway, back to the question, any thoughts on downgrading from fibre back to (I assume) ADSL?

Have you looked at the the line stats from the BTW checker for the property?

Good to get an idea of what ADSL could deliver over the line.

Personally if FTTC was decent, then I'd look to stay on that and negotiate with PN or find a suitable social tariff that may offer a better price.

In reply to a post by BB4Tickton:

OLD people!!

Oi !!! 🤬😀

Ditched my AAISP 80/20 FTTC (actual 50+/12'ish) in December 2017 going full tethering to my phone which already had unlimited everything at £22pm. Then dropped the Pulse8broadband landline in January 2018.

Total saving £69pm.

Moved on a bit since, as cloud-based security cam purchases necessitated a mobile broadband router as well. Which also supports my Smart TV and my iPad. See my sig.

I'm 78!

@pluralist,

Only kidding really, glad to see you move with the times
My Gran who is 94 is using a smartphone and a tablet, I'm well impressed!

I realised that, hence the emojiis. As for your gran, that is impressive.
(PM to follow as TMI for public)

I called PN again today - very different experience, the chap (Nasser) was really charming and polite, and what a difference that makes!
I recontracted for her curren fibre with anytime calls package @ £32.49/m (a 50p increase since Aug'20). I know I could have gone to Now for £30/m, but renewing with PN means nothing changes at her end and that saves me a trip !

Glad you got it sorted. I usually have to do the same, ring the first time and get no deals, hang up and phone back 10 minutes later and end up with someone much more friendly and willing to give you a better deal. As always, be polite even if you don't get a good deal on the first try.

It was fairly obvious in the past that the people in retentions each have an individual monthly budget for giveaways. Probably also a target for retaining customers with as little discount as possible.

Customers calling two or three times for a new deal each time they are coming to the end of term almost always got progressively better deals.

Any company's main aim is to retain customers. Whatever that costs them it is cheaper than recruiting a new customer, and in many industries customer numbers carry a lot of clout.

Some Plusnet reps will go for toughness, saving their discount budget for later. If they are way below retention target as month end looms they get more generous.

Others will go early to reach their retention target, so have to tighten up later.

I had started a thread in the general broadband area to clarify the Ofcom rules for fairer pricing for anyone interested in their guidance (I don't want duplicate here).

In reply to a post by aks:

I called PN again today - very different experience, the chap (Nasser) was really charming and polite, and what a difference that makes!
I recontracted for her curren fibre with anytime calls package @ £32.49/m (a 50p increase since Aug'20). I know I could have gone to Now for £30/m, but renewing with PN means nothing changes at her end and that saves me a trip !

For elderly people I would also consider these - https://www.simpletelecoms.co.uk/Broadband-for-the-E...

I moved my mother-in-law onto an any time plan with a call allowance for £20/pm. You can add broadband for a little more.

Is she on any of the below benefits?

Universal Credit
Pension Credit (Guarantee Credit)
Employment and Support Allowance
Jobseeker’s Allowance
Income Support

If so, the BT offer is hard to beat. FTTP and unlimited minutes: https://www.bt.com/broadband/home-essentials

I am 57, so not old as such, but getting there,
you must realise that not everyone need super-duper fast speed, The reason i am differing about changing to FTTP when I am able to get it is because I don't think it is worth paying more money for something that will make no difference to me whatsoever.

Yes, the anytime calls are expensive and certainly better off going with a mobile phone, I get unlimited calls and text for around £7 with Smarty and around 2GB of data, sometimes it costs even less if I don't use the full data.

If you are bothered about your mum getting FTTP, then maybe you should pay the extra.

Good to know for the future.