Do PlusNet not charge any form of "line rental" for FTTP then? My understanding was the costs at wholesale level were no different between FTTC and FTTP and that both required a wholesale line rental payment to someone.

They have an option for just broadband and no phone with a £2.50 charge instead of the phoneline, FTTC or FTTP.

You may have read that wrong? The site seems to say:

Line Rental for Broadband only

You'll need to pay line rental to Plusnet or another BT based landline provider to get our broadband. If you opt to switch your phone service to Plusnet, we'll reduce your monthly broadband price by £2.50 for as long as you keep your phone line with us.

So, the price would reduce by £2.50 meaning your line rental would still be costing you about £15 on top of normal broadband price.

Hmm. Maybe it is only on FTTP that you can get the phoneline turned off on then...

https://community.plus.net/forum/index.php/topic,136...

Still, only two more months of having to pay the line rental!

Edited by deleted (Wed 18-Nov-15 17:10:58)

In reply to a post by libf:

Hmm. Maybe it is only on FTTP that you can get the phoneline turned off on then...

https://community.plus.net/forum/index.php/topic,136...

Still, only two more months of having to pay the line rental!

FTTP apparently you can have without line rental on plusnet, but the FTTP voice part of the service is not available through plusnet, so no voice service,(FVA is unavailable on plusnet) unless you use voip , and that's where why i said it ain't worth the expense if you only ordering 40/2 as the 2mbps is not fit for purpose on FTTC /H you would too easily saturate the upstream causing high latency, not good for voip and other latency sensitive apps and for the sake of a few £££'s more imo you would be better off going for the 80/20 option

Thinking about the BT /plusnet differences , if plusnet started to offer the full rate 330/30 and or other above 80/20 speeds and also the voice part of it, they would do as their brethren charge you the same for FTTH only as they do for FTTH with line rental , If i had the option of FTTH i would make the most of it,and 2mbps doesn't cut it

Edited by tommy45 (Wed 18-Nov-15 18:16:06)

In reply to a post by libf:

Still, only two more months of having to pay the line rental!

As the others have said, current FTTP services are usually specified to need you to pay line rental for a voice service - which can then be delivered over a copper pair, or as an extra service over fibre. The choice of delivery method isn't yours - it is whatever BT are doing in the area.

Right now, that probably means you have to find out what kind of voice service BT would want to make use of, and then check the ISP can handle it.

One reason is because all of BT's internal systems are written in a way where broadband is perceived as an add-on to a voice-circuit. Another reason is because the line rental (real monthly charge for maintenance of the line) charged by Openreach is identical for fibre used solely for broadband and for fibre for both broadband and voice.

However, an end is in sight...

BT are starting to trial a product known as WBC SOGEA, which is their code for broadband on a line that doesn't come with a voice service. It'll take a while for them to re-write all those back-office systems to remove the dependency, so trials will gradually expand as the various system updates happen. Don't expect it to hit your average ISP too soon.

In reply to a post by libf:

So, I was thinking of switching to PlusNet FTTC only now ... so that when I move I can access their FTTP trial.

Am I missing any obvious pitfalls?

In reply to a post by libf:

I'm buying a new build which only has FTTP,

For most people, the recognised path (without a house move) would be to start on ADSL on copper, and then start the FTTP trial. Voice would stay on copper. The FTTP team will understand this form of migration.

You'll need the switchover to go direct to FTTP in the new house with no intervening ADSL or copper service. This might prove to be a pitfall in the way Plusnet expect to behave. I guess they key issue will be that you either need the house-move team to understand FTTP issues, or the FTTP team to understand house-move issues.

Using a BT line no one gets a choice. If you can get fibre through a BT line then it is either FTTC or FTTP. 80 / 20 on either is at the same price from BT. So there is no waste of money. I have 80 / 20 FTTP from BT. The waste of money would be paying for 200 or 300 if I don't need it.

In reply to a post by brightd:

Using a BT line no one gets a choice. If you can get fibre through a BT line then it is either FTTC or FTTP. 80 / 20 on either is at the same price from BT. So there is no waste of money. I have 80 / 20 FTTP from BT. The waste of money would be paying for 200 or 300 if I don't need it.

FTTP (Fibre) doesn't need a copper pair ,It's the FTTC that needs the copper pair from the PCP to premises AKA D'side
Typical, there's people who would love the opportunity to have a true fibre connection ,that would make full use of the faster speeds, yet some of those who do have that opportunity don't take full advantage of it ,crazy as is BT not offering a symmetrical product on FTTP,

Edited by tommy45 (Wed 18-Nov-15 23:49:21)

I don't want VoIP either. I just want broadband that is good enough for one person who downloads the odd Sky TV show and my mobile for calls, so 38/2 is fine for me.

I'm not buying the house because of the FTTP, it just happens to come with that. And as there is no copper at all, there is no reason to continue to have a phone line which I don't use.

So my choice is £20/month broadband + £17.99/month line rental with BT, or £17.49/month broadband with Plusnet, but you need to be an existing customer. I want to go with the option that costs me £20/month less.

Edited by deleted (Thu 19-Nov-15 07:58:13)