ISP John Lewis Broadband to Finally Close its UK Service
A couple of years have now passed since Plusnet announced that it would no longer be providing managed broadband and phone services to new customers under the John Lewis brand (here). But until now the ISP has continued to provide a service to remaining customers who haven’t yet moved to Plusnet or another provider, yet that is now about to end.
According to a new report in The Sun (via Birmingham Mail), JLB will finally switch off its remaining broadband and email services for good on 28th May 2024. A spokesperson for the provider said: “John Lewis Broadband, provided by Plusnet, is closing its service. We’re no longer offering packages to new customers. We’ve worked with Plusnet for over 10 years and you can get the same great service by signing up for an award-winning broadband deal from Plusnet.”
The above statement is, however, not entirely correct since customers won’t be able to get exactly the “same great service” via Plusnet because they will lose access to the JLB associated email addresses (e.g. @john-lewis.com, @greenbee.net or @waitrose.com).
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Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook and Linkedin.
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Always best to avoid being tied to an ISP because of an email address!
I took the JL Broadband service (FTTC) a while back as I just wanted a 12 month contract (I think Plusnet were only offering 18 month contracts then). The service was fine, essentially Plusnet rebranded though you received a quality Zxyel router (rather than a Plusnet Hub), something that might come in handy later.
Contacted Customer Services once, which was a notably easy and smooth experience as I recall.
“Always best to avoid being tied to an ISP because of an email address!”
Absolutely 100%
Surprised they didn’t expect the email addresses to be abused
I always found it weird they gave email addresses that “looked” corporate to customers, or is that just me?
That went through my mind too.
Yup – I am glad it’s finally been announced. Been telling people this (and hearing them whinge in some cases how their free 30 year e-mail address will die) for about 15 months now.
The only saving grace for John Lewis Broadband customers is at least they didn’t get an e-mail saying:
“John Lewis is sorry to say we can no longer supply your broadband. However, we have exciting news. From 29th May 2024, your broadband will be provided by Home Telecom. We are sure you will enjoy being part of their highly rated partnership.”
Sad to see John Lewis seeming to go on a down trajectory in general though.
It’s a classic case of “go woke, go broke”.
I don’t think it’s a case of ‘go woke, go broke’. I think the problem is that it was a strange service to offer considering the reputation they have i.e. John Lewis is supposed to be this more upmarket department store yet they had a private label agreement with Plusnet to offer a cheap broadband services.
How does that fit exactly? At least when Tesco offered cheap home broadband it was more understandable as Tesco tries to be mass market. This works for their mobile division – Asda too see’s success with this.
But here you had a more expensive brand trying to be a cheap broadband supplier…
My guess is that the end of JL Broadband was likely instigated by Plusnet / BT Group, as part of the wider simplification of Plusnet’s retail offer – i.e. focussing Plusnet on being a ‘no frills’ consumer provider, so no ‘digital voice’ offering, ditching the Plusnet TV add-on (and later the BT Sport app add-on), and also exiting from offering Business services.
BT Group continuing to offer a JL Broadband service could have somewhat diluted the message that EE is to be their ‘full featured’ (premium) broadband brand.
With the notable exception of Tesco Mobile which has become quite popular … supermarkets and shops should stay away from internet and phone service and concentrate on their core market. My brother in law was once thinking about going on to Asda Mobile as they only get Vodafone signal in the village and I was embarrassed for him. He’s now with Lebara which was cheaper than Asda anyway
Nothing wrong with Asda mobile. It’s basically a better Vodafone prepay for less. Of course there is the risk they’ll chnage networks again next week.
Not surprised, this company needs to chop some fat off to survive, the last woke CEO should have their head examined, building flats and selling them under the JL Brand was one of the crazy stupid reckless ideas they had. Thankfully the new CEO has stated they will just concentrate on what they do best, retail.
The ‘woke’ comments are just so inane.
Criticise specifics about the company’s strategy by all means – e.g. building and selling flats – but the ‘woke’ critique is just so utterly vacuous.
I’m getting the impression that “woke” has become the choice word of biggots to avoid being obviously racist.
I have been with plusnet for
15 years and I work for john lewis I couldn’t get any partners discount who was charging a lot more for the same product as far as was concerned they were just ripping customers off.
JL its self is in a mess,
two weeks ago they called 250 senior personnel from branches all over the country to a 10am meeting in Bracknell (meaning some had to leave home 2-3am) only to tell them all in the meeting they were all getting made redundant in 3 months, and that’s just after they confirmed they were halving redundancy payments.
The 250 include staff with decades of service, and some that had just been promoted into new modernisation roles, with their staff moved into their previous roles still retained.
I hate hearing rubbish like this. It’s such a horrible way to deal with staff and telling them face to face rather than remotely probably made no difference to morale after the message was given.
I hope those affected move on quickly. How long till John Lewis is taken over by Frasers group?