UK ISP Plusnet will today finally make their new range of cheaper Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) powered home broadband packages – via Openreach’s national network – available to new customers. The packages were first quietly introduced in May 2022 (here), but only to existing customers who were willing to phone up and ask.
Customers of the long-awaited service can expect to receive all the usual features, including unlimited data usage, a new Hub Two wireless router (based off BT’s Smart Hub 2), free activation and a 24-month minimum contract term.
However, at present Plusnet’s FTTP packages all appear to be data-only products, which means that they don’t bundle in a phone service. But the provider does offer a phone product as an optional add-on, although they treat it as a separate product and, confusingly, don’t tell you how much doing this will cost until after you’ve parted with all your personal details. So just be aware, Plusnet still can’t do a bundled IP-based phone service.
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At the time of writing we don’t yet have all of the details, but interestingly, the limited information we’ve been sent makes no mention of their top 900Mbps tier (this was made available to existing customers in May 2022). Instead, the provider will offer three FTTP based packages, which come in the form of a 74Mbps (20Mbps upload), 145Mbps (30Mbps) and 500Mbps (75Mbps) plan (average speeds).
New PlusNet Full Fibre Broadband Packages
Full Fibre 74
PRICE: £25.99 per month for the first 24 months (£30 thereafter)Full Fibre 145
PRICE: £30.99 per month for the first 24 months (£35 thereafter)Full Fibre 500
PRICE: £40.99 per month for the first 24 months (£47 thereafter)
Take note that we haven’t yet confirmed what Plusnet’s final post-contract pricing will be for these new tiers, but in May it was £30 for 74Mbps, £35 for 145Mbps and £47 for 500Mbps. Just for a quick comparison, BT’s rival 145Mbps tier is currently £35.99 per month for 24 months (£39.99 thereafter), while both Sky Broadband and TalkTalk charge £32 (rising to c.£40 after the first contract term).
In short, Plusnet are clearly continuing the tradition of being BT’s low-cost brand. Take note that if the above product links don’t work, then that’s because the ISP has yet to upload the relevant product pages (they haven’t said precisely what time it will go live, only that it’s happening today).
UPDATE 6:42am
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The product pages are now online, which confirms that the original post-contract pricing from the soft launch still applies. The small print also makes mention of the 36Mbps, 300Mbps and 900Mbps full fibre tiers, although these aren’t shown as options when you try to order.
Interestingly, the order page also gives you the option to keep your current phone line, but if you select that then Plusnet states “this means your phone line service will remain separate from your Plusnet Full Fibre package.” More annoyingly, it doesn’t tell you how much doing this will cost until you enter all of your personal details (we didn’t do this), but they seem to treat it as a separate product and that’s likely to be pricey.
yep these are the prices
Full Fibre 500
500Mb
estimated download speed £47.00 a month*
24 month contract
The finer details
275Mb minimum guaranteed speed
75Mb estimated upload speed
£20 activation fee
Broadband only, no phone line required
Hub Two router included
Under the Extras option on their FTTP products, there is a option for:
I want to keep my home phone line with my current landline provider
24 month contracts.
That is a problem as well, I hate 24 months contracts, I am not that happy with 18 months. The last time I went on a 24-month was in 2017 for some reason. I would need a good reason to go for a 24-month contract.
Zzoomm is 24 month, it was 18, but changed to 24.
Plusnet are not offering any Phone service. From their T&Cs for phone it states….
Our full fibre products do not come with a home phone option and these terms do not apply to full fibre customers.
Try and get your number off them… you can’t currently.. it’s either upgrade and lose your number or move to BT without early contract exit penalties due them being in the same group (pay more for broadband and plus the extra £5/mon for a digital phone line).
I’ve been wanting to port it away to sipgate.. no provision for that… the only option i have is wait until the end of my contract and port it out, then i’ll be without broadband until i sign up as a new customer. The other option which is don’t want to do is go back to virgin, as it’s on a different network, i could get virgin only broadband installed, they’ll have no awareness of my number i’ll be able port it sipgate to shutdown my plusnet account.
I have just upgraded to FTTP with plus net and managed to port number to sipgate on go live day without issue.
Plus net were very confused about sip and number port but filled in sipgate paper work anyway and all done with no issues!
Why would anyone need a landline these days? We stopped using a landline years ago, with nothing plugged into our phone socket. We use mobiles for calls to the Dentist, Doctors, Council, etc, and WhatsApp for video calling friends and family, via the home WiFi. Since smart phones can make calls via WiFi, why would a phone socket be rquired anyway, a phone app on a smartphone could eliminate the need for any landline. There are probably other options being looked into, to ensure isolated communities in mobile blackspots continue to receive a telephone service.
The answer to that can vary, but lots of people still live in areas where mobile reception is patchy, at best, or non-existent.
Over time your home phone number (rather than the physical landline itself) can also become attached to a lot of contacts and services, thus it still has value. But separating it from broadband remains a tedious process (Ofcom have yet to solve this), which can result in downtime.
Oh good for you, well done you.
I have VoIP as I installed it when I went to a wireless internet provider a few years ago since I had my phone line cut off. I got it, so my Dad could phone me and I did not want to give my work my mobile phone number. I prefer to use the home phone than the mobile. I now have FTTC, but I still use the VoIP and not the normal landline because people know the number.
Some people don’t want to use WhatsApp and other services like it to chat to people, I have never used WhatsApp and I never will, I use SMS for quick messages and for group chats I use discord on the computer.
Need to get battery backup back for digital voice if BT is going to force people onto it, but they won’t because all BT cares about is profit and loads of it.
Umm because we don’t get a mobile signal downstairs.
The solution would be a local cell booster and ariel outside up with the 4g dish but never got around to spending the time and money installing it, along with a ups to give us backup power, of course all that still means I have to leave my phone in the house all the time else we lose the answerphone.
Or I’m just stupid for still having a land-line these days.
“Some people don’t want to use WhatsApp and other services like it to chat to people, I have never used WhatsApp and I never will,”
I’m not sure why, it’s free to use and good quality.
As far as work, and not wanting to give out your landline number, the landlines are going at the end of 2025 anyway, so you’d have a choice of transferring your landline number to your VOIP service, or giving work your VOIP number.
A phone service, via a plug in port on a router, is clearly a stopgap service which’ll likely disappear over time. Obviously for the few in really isolated locations some bespoke solutions may be required, but why would anyone pay for a landline VOIP service with battery backup, when they could use a mobile over WiFi at home, or via a Cell when out and about or during power outages? It wouldn’t surprise me if the mobile providers start offering apps, for accessing their service via VOIP over WiFi, once PSTN disappears. There are already plug in microcell’s for home use, using the home owners broadband service, but you wouldn’t have the battery backup; For people that require battery backup, there are already small commercially available uninterruptable power supplies capable of powering a router and microcell, at a reasonable price.
I find it crazy how culture has shifted to make everyone use Facebook’s whatsapp, which has sneakily scrapped privacy away. People need to start using Signal which is actually private and not run by shady big tech who profits from selling your data
Isolated communities. Some areas of several thousand population don’t want mobile coverage, so an alternative system still have to exsist.
I didn’t realise we had area’s of the UK populated by Luddite’s, do these communities still have Witch trials too?
Next time I’m travelling the UK, I’ll keep an eye out for smoke signals, mirrors on hilltop’s and mail men on horseback.
Even with WiFi calling set up it’s actually impossible to talk to other people using mobile where we are, the voices one way or the other cut out in real time. 4g is 1 bar and we are on edge of one of the largest cities in the uk. We have BT150 Mb FTTP, so it’s not bandwidth causing the issue. Therefore a landline is currently essential for us.
@Ex Telecom Engineer. So people don’t do things the way you want them to, and you call them Luddites, Wow.
It is up to people how they live their lives, what they use and how they use it, I am fed up with people, companies, government telling me what I should or should not do. even the company I work for wants me to use Teams, well I am not. supermarkets want us to have spy cards and companies want us to do this and that using Apps.
Cheaper Fibre-to-the-Premises, what are you comparing that to? That is not cheaper at all, is there nothing below the Full Fibre 74?
Zzoomm 150Mb/s is £33 a month, the first six months free at the moment.
It seems like we are not having Openreach up here yet, ZZoomm is using the poles around here to get fibre to houses, so I presume that is why Openreach was around for. They have now dug outside my house and filled the trench back in, done a pretty decent job to be honest apart from a line of new tar going right down the middle of the pavement.
One good thing about Openreach not doing here yet is that Plusnet is not going to push me to go onto fibre.
I would not want to pay those prices just for broadband to be honest, no matter how fast it is, I said it before and I will say it again, I think I will stay as I am.
The only services that matter are those that a consumer can actually order, which varies. Zzoomm’s network currently covers 50,000 premises.
That feel when you scroll up from the bottom of the comments and know who wrote one from the last couple of paragraphs.
This is a UK website, it doesn’t just cover you. The other 8 million premises that can get Openreach FTTP but not the provider you mention with their ~50k premises coverage might well be interested.
There are nearly always exceptions to everything.
@Mark Jackson, ok I see your point, but even if I could get openreach FTTP, Plusnet FTTP is still more than some others.
the Full Fibre 74 at £25.99 per month is ok for the first 24 months, only a quid more than what I am paying for the lowest FTTC speed, but £30 when out of contract is a bit much and a 24 month contract is far too long.
If we get Openreach fibre here and plusnet wants me to go over to fibre, then they would have to make a lower end package available.
I fail to see why anyone would use Plusnet which is still more expensive than Vodafone albeit it only by 99p but for that you get their Superfast 100 service which is FTTP and gives me a regular 108 Mbps PLUS an included landline. Plusnet is too much bother for those wanting a landline, involving a third-party provider for the service. It just locks in people who want to continue their email service.
Because vodafone customer services is as bad as Talk Talk, sky and BT.
Its about time something was done to drop the prices of broadband. I am with plunder at the moment and their service has always been top class with no problems switch speed or availability. That also means they are not pouring maintenance money down a black hole. The cost now is ridiculous for a service that needs hardly any maintenance, or am I paying for other Plusnet customers problems?
The reason you get full speed and the time and don’t see issues is thanks to maintenance and upgrade.
Running the service itself also costs money – from the electricity to power the equipment through to paying to reach various areas of the Internet. There’s no voodoo, it all costs and customers must pay.
Usage per customer is consistently rising which requires consistent investment in new infrastructure.
Not available to business customers and they don’t know when it will be.
I am in contact with talktalk now because my customer (who I put with Plusnet) has some of his shops still stuck on ADSL, and they have fttp available to them via openreach, just not via Plusnet.
I left PlusNet in April when they still could not confirm when they would be able to support FTTP. The PN adviser actually sold me a discounted deal for BT Full Fibre 100 (150/30 Mbps) with DV to keep my landline number, Smart Hub 2 and a DECT handset for £29.99 pm. 24 month contract.
If I had hung on for a couple of months I would have got a more expensive deal with no support for the landline number without it remaining on copper at additional cost.
So far the BT package has been perfect for me although I expect the inevitable RPI+ 3.9% increase mid contract next year which PN will also implement on their contracts.
Who care about FTTP because FTTP won’t be coming to Cuckoo Oak until 2030!
Maybe every other place in the UK that can get it? This website isn’t just for people from cuckoo oak lol
My house can get it – but my house can’t physically have it because I don’t have enough brick work to satisfy any and all BTO engineers who have had the decency to come along and say no.
you got Virgin have you?
I note that Plusnet fttp prices are a little cheaper than BT but with no landline phone. If as they suggest keeping the BT phone, it will cost far more together than the BT combined phone and broadband price
As I have said before – try actually getting it – your house needs to be 100% brick or BT won’t touch it – annoys me that I can’t get it with anyone as OR knew this street was full of these sorts of houses!
So why bother.
What on earth are you talking about? We install on houses that aren’t brick all the time?
Not all customers – need to correct the headline – still offering us appalling 1-3mbps here – Sticking with air band at 50mbps instead
@Ex Telecom Engineer
Some people don’t trust Facebook or Meta as they are called now, which is why they may not use Whatsapp. My reason is because I don’t want to give my phone number to them and since Whatapp and other like Telegram requires a phone number that is me out.
People who know my phone number can send me an SMS or phone. Those that don’t and no me on Facebook, then they can send a message via that.
My work does know my VoIP number, there is no phone plugged into my landline socket, if fact I don’t even know it’s phone number now. I have used my VoIP for so long that I now class it as my home phone.
Voip over Wi-fi is no good if you have a power cut, so still need some sort of battery backup, as other people have said, there are some places with rubbish mobile signal.
Thankfully I have not had a powercut since last year and that was only for a few minutes and I can’t remember when I had one before that, well not for any length of time.
@libertarian, I used to be asked a few times and had invitations to use WhatsApp, I have refused all the time, I have enough ways for people to contact me.
signal may be more private, but it still requires a phone number.
I presume that hub don’t have the same rubbish firmware that the BT router has? Pother plusnet routers that look like the Bt ones have had a different firmware without all the smart rubbish.
Good luck getting FTTP through open reach if you live in Belfast even if your address is on the website of every isp as being able get it. Their engineer’s won’t do any extra work to get the fibre cable into your home. This isn’t just a one off either. I know of at least 10 people who have had the same experience I had. Which was if they had to any digging or drilling they won’t do it as it’s not worth the hassle for them.
From the top of the full fiber page:
“Game-changing connection
…
No need for copper cables or sharing with your street. The connection’s all yours.”
No sharing with my street?! Sign me up! Must be expensive to run a full fiber cable all the way from the Internet to my house just for me to use…
And 24-month contracts guarantee you get hit with at least 2 CPI+3.9% increases during your contract. I’ll pass. Hopefully the offerings will be more enticing in 2026 when FTTP should be available in my area.
Also, from the ‘small print’:
“Compatible line required. Otherwise an installation is required
…
Openreach Survey: In some cases Openreach have to carry out a survey before they can connect a home to Full Fibre. To do this they may need access to your property. If they do we’ll contact you to arrange a suitable time. If additional work is required, this may take longer than the initial set-up time provided and there could be additional costs.”
Considering very few premises will have a compatible line, that seem pretty vague IMO.
Can’t wait to read all the stories of people being quoted for civils to have their full fiber connected.
You know full fibre has been a thing for a little while and there are over 2 million premises being served it by Openreach right, Steven?
I don’t recall seeing masses of stories about homes having to pay for civils work: the ones served by poles ride on poles, most of the ones served underground use the existing duct, the ones that have neither duct or pole aren’t marked as available to order until duct or poles are put in place.
I’m sure there’s plenty you can criticise for but this isn’t factual. 2 million installs down and they very seldom require reactive civils engineering work. The Plusnet terms and conditions are pretty generic in this regard.
This news is only useful if you can get FTTP at your home, which many parts of the UK cannot. This country is a joke when compared to others like the Netherlands who have full fibre rolled out across the country. If we had good political leadership we’d be in a much better position but we’ve been failed for decades.
The Netherlands most certainly does not have 100% full fibre coverage unless they’ve managed to build to 60% of the country, nearly 6 million households in a nation with less than 10 million, this year.
@Ex Telecom Engineer. Some areas and communities don’t want mobile masts, they cite appearance but its really the radiation they moan about, you’ll find some councils and residents are very anti mast, not helped by being in a Conservation area and AONB doesn’t help but is always the excuse, as some reviews at local hotels quote ” No mobile coverage like going back to 1970s.” But then again some people find being cut off appealing.
Aw sorry, Full Fibre hasn’t reached your area just yet.
The good news is that you can get one of our other great value packages.
“Plusnet Make Full Fibre Broadband Available to All UK Customers”
I would like to see how they accomplish that when exchanges are not FTTP enabled.
Or do they consider FTTC Full Fibre.
Even then not all UK exchanges have any form of fibre.
Strange headline.
Like to see them try it in my street. In Dawlish.
Albert Street is an old cobbled one. And just like the gas company and water they have to replace every cobble back.
Good luck with me ever getting fibre ever.
Signed up to Plusnet’s 145Mbps package, just as my property has been FTTP. The problem was I pay for the broadband, and my parents pay for the phone line with BT. PlusNet cancelled the phone line service. Thankfully a chat to Plusnet on Twitter sorted it out.