What are you all up to

Can only go on what we were told by Plusnet customer service when we were haggling on price.   If we have to go elsewhere for a landline service in a couple of years that would just be more hassle.

We never used the landline as the calls were far too expensive, all it was used for was for scammers to call us!    Will be glad to escape that.

We did away with BT broadband, Sky and a landline completely about two years ago. Now only have a mi-fi mobile router with unlimited data which runs all our laptops, iPads and TV at home. Never had problems and the hub fits in Mrssf’s handbag when we go out for the day or away in the van. We are saving a small fortune and have no issues with speed or buffering at all, it serves all our needs.

Anything to do with a reliable mobile signal would be our issue with changing as well David.  Our service is not very good to poor!   We received a letter a while ago about BT changing to that sort of service in future, I don’t know all the in and outs but OH might.  Anyway, we laughed at that as we said we hardly have a mobile signal - on any provider.  Also OH is hard of hearing so he will only use the landline as he can’t hear clearly on a mobile phone.  

and she told me that EE and BT were going through a re-structuring and the intention was that, in the future, all domestic services would be handled by the EE side of the company whilst BT would take care of infrastructure

That sounds about right, I recently upgraded the broadband hub with BT and it is badged with an EE logo and has an EE designation. The landline also had to be changed to digital if I wanted to keep it at a cost of £2 a month. Although we don’t use it for calls, some folk still ring us on it, so I thought I would keep it for the moment. It still uses the old phone, they give you a three pin plug with a phone socket on it, you simply plug into a convenient socket and it links by WiFi to your router. The option of the phone rejecting anything not in its directory and sending them to answerphone still works and the call quality is excellent. Of course it doesn’t work in a power cut unless you buy a very expensive power pack. Therefore unlike before, if the cell tower also goes down you are unable to make an emergency call. The price of progress I guess.🤷🏻‍♀️

Like Kj we were also told by Plusnet that they will not be going down the voip route and we would have to move to BT if we wanted that. 

My friend was with EE up to last year when they got moved over to BT and the new system of no land line, just a broadband connection. Because BT totally messed them about when setting it all up they gave them free of charge 2 phones that work off the broadband and a discount for the first year. 

We have ditched broadband and the land-line altogether. 

We now have a omnidirectional antenna and a TP-Link router which works off an EE sim through RWG.

We can take it away with us we did this on our last trip to Spain, Portugal and France.

We each have a mobile with data just a small amount as that's all we need. 

The signal in our village isn't great but we can stream TV OK.

We are saving a fortune as we are no longer paying for land-line and broadband which was only used 6 mths of the year. The router goes with us when away so we also saving there as before we had to pay for that as well but only use it 6 mths. 

I'd love to get rid of our landline but MiL doesn't do mobiles so we're stuck with it for the moment. Like Steve we recently upgraded the hub and the new one was EE marked.

Had a lovely morning despite the atrocious weather. We met the Ttdas' at a local coffee shop/cafe as they were heading to North Wales and had a good blather for a couple of hours before they proceeded on their way. Lovely to see them again. Hope they have a good break in spite of the forecast.

Trying to organise workman is akin to herding cats. I'd be happy if we could corral just the one of them (workmen not cats). 

Margaret is the same with regard to hearing and struggles a bit with a mobile phone. We currently have set of  3 Panasonic DECT phones around the house which have extra volume and she can manage better but sometimes still difficult. I don't know if we can have a similar system if we have to have an internet (VOIP) phone?  In fairness we do have a mobile phone signal but no more than two bars showing as signal strength so we can receive and make calls.  I imagine by 2025 we will have no choice but to go over to a VOIP phone which doesn't particularly bother me providing we can keep our number. I suppose if we swop over the BT/EE, which seems to be an option, that could work out OK?

David

"I hope they don't start messing around with email addresses as I have had my btinternet.com email address for over 20 years"

David - there is a way around that.  I switched from BT years ago and also had a btinternet.com email address for years and was in danger of losing it. I pay for BT Premium Mail - £7.50 per month - and have been doing so for many years now and that way I keep the BT address regardless of who my internet provider is.  I think it's a bit of a con - especially as EE and BT are the same company - but was a far better option than losing that address and all the hassle that goes with notifying everyone and every organisation that it's changed.

Richard

I did consider doing the same but it has been many years since I changed from BT to Plusnet and have never been challenged (famous last words!) I just assumed that as I was with a supplier owned by BT that they allowed me to keep the address. As you suggest it would create absolute chaos if they suddenly changed their minds. So much is in flux at the moment with all the BT/EE/PN changes I suppose I will have to wait and see what happens. It looks as if I will have to change back to BT at some stage in the future if I want FTTP and VOIP. Whether that is available under BT or EE I don't know and if it is under EE will they maintain the btinternet.com emails?

David

When we got rid of the broadband we just set up a new email account and transferred all our contacts to that then sent out an email to info them. We did that prior to the broadband going. Didn't take long and wasn't a big ordeal.

DK, my OH has to wear 2 hearing aids but doesn't have an issue with phones but he did say you can get phones for the hard of hearing which might be worth looking into.