Plusnet Tests Water with New Broadband and UK Free Calls Bundles
Low cost UK ISP Plusnet has gone against the industry trend by testing a new range of broadband and phone bundles for one week, which are not only cheaper than usual but also come with free evening, weekend and mobile calls as standard. Previously providers have preferred to scrap their calling plans to focus on broadband.
Normally customers of Plusnet’s standard broadband and line rental packages would not receive any free calling options (only standard call charges), but for the next week new subscribers will also be able to order bundles that enable you to call UK landline numbers starting 01, 02 and 03 or 0870/ 0845, and enjoy up to 1,000 UK mobile minutes, during evenings and on weekends.
At present the change is just a test and there’s a strong possibility that we might not see it return, especially since the general trend has been for consumers to switch their calls away to Mobile or VoIP instead of fixed line phones. The bundled calls add-on usually costs £4 extra per month and this charge will of course return at the end of your contract period, although it can be removed if not needed.
New subscribers will also receive unlimited usage, a wireless router, phone line rental, parental controls (network-level filtering), UK-based customer support and free activation.
Unlimited (10Mbps Average Download) + Calls
Price (+Calls): £19.99 per month for 12 months (£33.98 thereafter)
Price (No Calls): £15.99 per month for 12 months (£29.98 thereafter)Unlimited Fibre (36Mbps Average Download) + Calls
Price (+Calls): £24.99 per month for 18 months (£38.98 thereafter)
Price (No Calls): £20.99 per month for 18 months (£34.98 thereafter)Unlimited Fibre Extra (66Mbps Average Download) + Calls
Price (+Calls): £27.99 per month for 18 months (£43.98 thereafter)
Price (No Calls): £23.99 per month for 18 months (£39.98 thereafter)
As usual, if you need a new phone line installed at your property then there’s also a £49.99 one-off installation charge.
Keith is a computer engineer and website developer from Dorset (England) who also assists, on a part-time basis, in the general upkeep of ISPreview.co.uk's systems and services. He also writes the occasional editorial and special offer article. Find me on Contacts.
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Many years ago Orange (those were the days, when the future was bright) tried this with their broadband and landline customers, by giving 500 free mobile phone minutes, at the time it wasnt a bad deal – upto 20Mb broadband and a landline .. I remember signing up a relative to this package way back then.
Will speak to them and see if they want to sign up to this. As it’s a good deal for those who want to have a good catchup and don’t have a mobile.
Thanks for the heads up Keith ..
http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/bills/article-2110864/Orange-broadband-home-phone-deal-free-mobile-calls.html
And het when I left them they didn’t offer me any of this – and it was during that week too!
Having a “weekend” or “evening and weekend” call package exposes callers to very expensive weekday daytime rates, something like 21p per call plus 12p per minute – more than £7 per hour.
Anyone who makes more than about one hour of weekday calls per month should be on an Unlimited Anytime call plan, or equivalent, as this will work out much cheaper overall.
Unless you are using PAYG on a mobile (and even then, with Three’s 3p-2p-1p deal it could work out reasonable) most voice calls are likely to be cheaper from a mobile to mobiles and most 01/02/03 landline numbers.
Surveys routinely show that most adults would not pick up the landline to call, if they already have a mobile and a list of contacts in it. So it is largely academic about the daytime rates.
On the other hand, if a teenager is on PAYG I can imagine a few short calls to friends mobiles being made to use part of the allowance and not the costly minutes (on all but Three, unless using a bundle).
I think as a test, it is hardly going to get noticed… just a week (maybe they decided to limit duration so as not to be overwhelmed – it does cost them a bit to offer the extras for free, if heavily used by large numbers of new subscribers.
Maybe this is to test the water and see they don’t have a costly deluge of new signups jumping ship from TT, EE or Sky.
with apologies to Keith Oddy for copying ‘testing the water’
It must have been stuck in my subconscious after seeing the headline on NewsNow (.co.uk) and I cribbed it into my response.