The NOW offering is 50M (not my current 30), but still with phone.

Plusnet were still offering renewal of my existing package, inclusive of phone, but the salesperson was obviously keener on getting me to switch, and only offered a straight renewal when I insisted (several times) I can't lose the landline.

I switched to it as it was much cheaper and didn't use the landline, they even let me switch mid contract at no cost.
I only noticed it was available as an upgrade as I went on my account to reset my password for a new router.

Thanks
Dan

Thank you, it's reassuring. I haven't switched for years, and am a bit nervous - especially about discovering I've got the wrong end of the stick and inadvertently relinquished my needed landline!

You haven't misunderstood tbh, Plusnet would indeed remove your landline if you recontracted with them. The only way to keep your landline and stay with PN is to stay rolling contract, but of course their out of contract pricing is far from competitive. My Mum is in the same situation and will be migrating, probably to Now, when her contract is up.

I'm only with Now for the short-term, as I wait for Openreach FTTP or a local alt-net to finish their build. Virgin contract recently ended and I didn't want to commit to another 18 months with them.

They are pushing it really hard, so I'm not surprised they didn't put barriers in the way of you switching.

If you don't use your landline anyway, I can see the attraction, but it wasn't any good for me. The guy even tried to persuade me it's better to bite the bullet now, so I will be "ready" for 2025, but terminating my current landline service when I don't already have an adequate replacement (and they weren't offering one!) is clearly madness.

In reply to a post by hardlyvibrant:

You haven't misunderstood tbh, Plusnet would indeed remove your landline if you recontracted with them. The only way to keep your landline and stay with PN is to stay rolling contract, but of course their out of contract pricing is far from competitive. My Mum is in the same situation and will be migrating, probably to Now, when her contract is up.

I'm only with Now for the short-term, as I wait for Openreach FTTP or a local alt-net to finish their build. Virgin contract recently ended and I didn't want to commit to another 18 months with them.

No, sorry for the confusion, it's not actually the case that you can no longer re-contract with Plusnet and keep the phone line, but you could be forgiven for thinking so, as they only begrudgingly offer it AFTER you've resisted all attempts to get you on the new, phoneless product.

It's NOW I was worried about, as I know where one provider goes, the rest are not far behind, so I didn't want to order it and then find theirs is exactly the same - no phone, or VOIP only.

In reply to a post by hardlyvibrant:

No, sorry for the confusion, it's not actually the case that you can no longer re-contract with Plusnet and keep the phone line, but you could be forgiven for thinking so, as they only begrudgingly offer it AFTER you've resisted all attempts to get you on the new, phoneless product.

It's NOW I was worried about, as I know where one provider goes, the rest are not far behind, so I didn't want to order it and then find theirs is exactly the same - no phone, or VOIP only.

Ah OK. I admit to skim-reading the thread so probably a misunderstanding on my part. That's good to know, as it's an option when she recontracts. The CPI increases are a good reason for her to move from Plusnet though.

Unless things have changed in the past month, Now should give you a non-VOIP service, just as I have.

In reply to a post by TLM:

It's the powercut scenario I'm a bit worried about, as I'm disabled (invisibly so, but still disabled).

Reading between the lines, I've come to the conclusion FTTP must be available, and it was this PN were trying to push on me.

But yes, I could still renew my current package (inclusive of phone) as of today. They didn't really want me to, though.

I'm sure you can get a portable power station for home https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=portable+power+station+...
With this you can connect your router and electricity will be maintained. I know friends from India and Bangladesh who have regular power failures and they use a power station that immediately feeds in electricity to prevent power cuts.

I've got BT Digital Voice service. When I migrated from TalkTalk FTTC to BT FTTC the phone number was retained. You won't lose your phone number when migrating to Digital Voice. The difference is that your phone number and calling will be through digital voice rather than analogue.

I think, since you have a disability, you may qualify for BT Home Essentials 1/2 which is contract free and costs £15-£20 a month. You can leave at any time. You'll also receive a BT Advanced Digital Home Phone with Alexa Built-In that's wireless and is rechargeable so you aren't dependent on plugging in the traditional phone into your router.

If power failure is a concern and you don't like the idea of connecting a power bank to your router. There's another suggestion. I use rental mobile phone service from RWG sim card for only £2 a month it comes with 750MB data and 100 minutes and 100 texts + free voice mails. Have had this service for 11 months now.

This is way more reliable, in case you need emergency, no more worries about electricity going down or internet connection drop causing phone loss.

If you renew your current contract, it's unlikely that it will be specially cheaper deal compared to a new contract with a different ISP.

The analogue line will ultimately be turned off and even if you don't get FTTP by December 2025 you'll still be forced to migrate to Digital Voice for FTTC. You have no choice.

TLM, if you want fttp but want to keep PN, do a new install fttp install and port out the number so it will kill the vdsl connection and you have a shiny voip [same] number and fttp .. Or you can go with Now.

I'm sure you can get a portable power station for home ...
With this you can connect your router and electricity will be maintained.

Be careful - these type of portable power stations are not intended for use as a UPS where you keep them charging continuously waiting for a power cut. Continuous charging can shorten he battery life significantly - and they aren't cheap.
However, there are cheaper UPS that are designed for use with routers to keep VoIP connections live in a power cut - e.g. https://www.broadbandbuyer.com/products/44819-eaton-...