ISP PlusNet Scraps Free UK Calls from Broadband and Phone Bundles

Budget ISP PlusNet, which have this year made a habit of removing useful features from their service (e.g. 24/7 support calls, 20Mbps fibre upload speeds etc.), has now followed the big providers by removing free UK weekend and or evening calls from their broadband and phone bundles.

Admittedly most consumers make so little use of their land lines these days, preferring to use mobiles instead, that the loss of the free evening or weekend call allowance won’t be felt to a dramatic degree. Never the less this latest decision, coming as it does so soon after all of the recent PR gaffes, is unlikely to be given a warm welcome.

At present the removal only appears to impact new subscribers, although these adjustments have a habit of working their way down to existing customers too (usually through a future contract change / upgrade).

The move means that new subscribers will still pay the same price for Phone Line Rental as they did before, except now you won’t receive any free calls. Subscribers’ who want to add Free Weekend + Evening calls will instead have to pay an extra +£3 per month, while Anytime calls pushes this to +£6 per month.

Adding insult to injury is the fact that PlusNet has only just increased their line rental charge from £15.99 per month to £16.99 and their annual pre-paid Line Rental Saver option has gone from £155.88 for 12 months to £185.88. At the same time the ISP also increased its Evening and Weekends call add-on from £2.00 per month to £3.00. So from ISPs the message seems to be.. pay more, get less.

As usual the ISP has covered this change up a bit by offering 12 months of free standard unlimited broadband (up to 17Mbps), returning to £9.99 per month thereafter, when taken alongside phone line rental. On top of that they’re also offering 6 months of free “Unlimited Fibre” (up to 38Mbps FTTC), returning to £14.99 thereafter and their 76Mbps package is also on offer at £10 per month for 6 months and then £19.99 thereafter.