In reply to a post by TLM:

You are quite right, it is working for me as of now (20th Nov.)

My contract ends in February. They're offering a Black Friday deal of faster fibre for less than I'm already paying, but I assume that will trigger a new 18-month lock-in. There doesn't seem to be a way to peruse the terms without hitting "Upgrade now".

After the end of the contract, the price will go sky-high, you are right, they will lock you into another 18-month contract. I have another 7ish months to go, i don't want to be lock into a long contract either, so I may move to now broadband as they do a good 12-month price. The problem I have is now is Sky, but i know people with them and they seem ok. If plusnet can offer me a 12 month contract at a good price, I will stay with them. Still a while to go, anything can happen by then.

I am also looking at Now as the replacement.

I had an abortive attempt to switch to them before, but at the time, they could not offer fibre, so it all fell through.

I still have my eye on them for next time, especially as I quite enjoy their Video on Demand. Although that is a standalone service - I'm not sure there are any discounts for taking both broadband and VoD with them.

Just checking, are you aware that NOW is sort of PAYG Sky? (Presumably not everything though). For instance the call rates look immense unless you take a package

I subscribe to its Sports coverage (using my own broadband) during the Formula 1 season as it becomes more and more cost-effective as the F1 season expands. A quick look at the above doesn't look it would be significantly advantageous to me, as my mobile broadband router seems to be more stable than my Openreach landline was.

In reply to a post by TLM:

I am also looking at Now as the replacement.

I had an abortive attempt to switch to them before, but at the time, they could not offer fibre, so it all fell through.

I still have my eye on them for next time, especially as I quite enjoy their Video on Demand. Although that is a standalone service - I'm not sure there are any discounts for taking both broadband and VoD with them.

No discounts for taking VOD I saw on their site, Get unlimited Fab Fibre and enjoy critically acclaimed shows with an Entertainment Membership, £20 for the Fab fibre and £9.99 for the entertainment thing. The strange thing is their super fibre which is 63Mb/s, is the same price, I would not get that speed here.

A 12 month contract with plusnet is £25.99, that is FTTC 36Mb/s ish, so six squid more than the same with now. But I know plusnet and they have been pretty good to me, so maybe towards the end of my contract I can try and get a little less than that for a 12-month contract. No harm in trying, other wise it will be Now.

When you say they could not offer fibre, I presume you mean FTTP, they still don't seem to offer that.
Still have 8 months left on my contract according to plus net, but it is closer to 7, still a fair amount of time, things can change.


I used to like Now TV, I had the films and entertainment at one point, got films very cheap when I got the device, but i have more than enough to watch to be honest these days.

Didn't know it's part of Sky, no.

Although if the main downside is call charges, it might not make any difference for the number of outbound calls I make.

Although I did manage to spend £7 in a queue to speak to the local council recently.

Edited to add: I do what you do, but with the Entertainment Package, as opposed to Sport. I won't say I can always find something to watch, but there have been quite a few decent dramas, which is my main interest. Some of which have been exclusives.

Edited by TLM (Mon 21-Nov-22 18:47:22)

No, I meant FTTC. At the time I had just ADSL, and at the end of a very long line, at that, so I was borderline even for SD video. Unknown to me, the cabinet was at full capacity, so NOBODY at that time could have upgraded me, but NOW accepted the order, then couldn't do it, so I ended up staying with Plusnet.

I've since finally managed to get fibre - but still with Plusnet. But I could switch to NOW and still keep it.

I'm not that bothered about FTTP. I don't think I do enough to justify it.

In reply to a post by TLM:

No, I meant FTTC. At the time I had just ADSL, and at the end of a very long line, at that, so I was borderline even for SD video. Unknown to me, the cabinet was at full capacity, so NOBODY at that time could have upgraded me, but NOW accepted the order, then couldn't do it, so I ended up staying with Plusnet.

I've since finally managed to get fibre - but still with Plusnet. But I could switch to NOW and still keep it.

I'm not that bothered about FTTP. I don't think I do enough to justify it.

Ah, I see, I thought now did ADSL, but maybe they stopped doing it.
I could get about 3Mb/s on ADSL when I was on it, like you I was on the end of a long line, but only because my line doubles back to the old exchange, if it went directly to the newer exchange it would have been a bit better, maybe around 5Mb/s.

I am surprised you did not realise that Now was part of Sky, it was their way to compete with Netflix at the time, but it was not that good, the hardware was ok, it was based on Roku, but the quality was 720P, and I think still is unless you pay extra.
I must admit I am not a fan of Sky, but if needs must.

I kind of agree with you about not needing FTTP, that is the same here at the moment. Now don't seem to do FTTP anyway, they will have to at some point,

NOW did - and I believe still do - ADSL - but I didn't want to move to them just for the sake of it. I wanted to upgrade to fibre, and at the time they were cheaper, so I put in to both switch AND upgrade - which was showing as available. In the event, however, that was wrong, as the cabinet was full. It's since been extended, so I got it after a long wait!

In reply to a post by TLM:

NOW did - and I believe still do - ADSL - but I didn't want to move to them just for the sake of it. I wanted to upgrade to fibre, and at the time they were cheaper, so I put in to both switch AND upgrade - which was showing as available. In the event, however, that was wrong, as the cabinet was full. It's since been extended, so I got it after a long wait!

You are right they do ADSL, i missed that somehow, £18 a month, not worth going to just to save a couple of quid, well not worth going to anyway as I would only get 3Mb/s if that. With more people going to FTTP, there should be more space in cabinets for those of us staying with FTTC, that is if FTTP is available. Maybe my connection will improve if enough people leave FTTC, there are at least 3 houses in this street that I can see that have already gone to zzoomm and no doubt some in the next road. Once people know that they can change to FTTP using their own supplier now, they may do that. That means less crosstalk I think in the cabinet.

I am not sure what BT is doing with plusnet, looks like they want to shut it down and move us to EE, I don't want to go to EE.

I am keeping Now broadband on my short list and it is a short list, with 3 providers on it.

Yeah, it makes no sense for BT to continue to operate three brand names! I'm guessing Plusnet will ultimately go, but no idea what the timescale will be for that.

Plusnet tried to scare me with dire predictions about customer service if I went to NOW, but their own is not much to brag about, although it used to be.

When I got dragged into a dispute between NOW & PN about which of them had messed up, I found NOW extremely patient and helpful on the phone, and their side of the story did turn out to be the true one, and not what PN were saying! So really, comparing the two of them, there is no reason to suppose that CS at NOW is significantly worse than at Plusnet, if at all.