For anyone on one of the nearly 4,000 smaller BT phone exchanges with no LLU providers (providers with their own equipment in the exchange like Talktalk, Tiscali, Sky, Orange and O2/Be and so offering much cheaper deals on those exchanges) I thought I should draw your attention to the incredibly good deal with Plusnet currently being offered only through www.uswitch.co.uk

This deal can be found  at www.plus.net/residential/broadband/broadband_with_homephone_us.shtml for the Plusnet special deal through Uswitch

and you can see the decent customer satisfaction ratings Plusnet consistently score at:-

www.dslzoneuk.net/isp_ratings.php for customer satisfaction ratings of various different ISPs.

Basically they are offering line rental with free evening and weekend calls plus a broadband connection with a 10Gb data allowance (plus unlimited downloads from midnight to 6am and all weeekend) for only £19.50 per month.  But then the first 3 months are charged at only £5 per month and you get a further £15 cashback if you don't take their bundled wireless router.  On top of this if you access www.uswitch.co.uk to get this deal from www.topcashback.co.uk then you potentially appear capable of earning a further £15 introduction cashback (not guaranteed but quite likely to work).

By my calculation that makes the total annual cost £234 - £42.50 first 3 months discount - £15 rebate for no wireless router - £15 www.topcashback.co.uk cashback = £161.50 or £13.46 per month in the first year.  Plusnet does allow use of 18185, 1899 etc during the weekday daytime when calls are not free.

Now as BT charge £10.27 per month for line rental if you sign up to all their inducements by my calculation that means you are getting 10Gb broadband from a decent supplier (better than TalkTalk, Virgin, Tiscali etc and about the same quality as Sky) for £3.19 per month on top of what you would have to pay to BT for phone line rental with evening and weekend calls included.  Of course Plusnet do not include caller display unlike BT so if you want that then the £3.19 a month goes up to £4.94 per month.  Also Plusnet do not include 0845 and 0870 calls in their free calls periods, even though they are owned by BT.  But the latter point is not likely to usually be a problem for users of this website.

But for a non LLU exchange area this is still a massively cheap deal for broadband.  Obviously you need to factor in that in year two the cashbacks go away so your monthly cost for broadband over BT line rental and caller display will be around £11 per month.  Still very cheap in a non LLU area and you can always switch somewhere else at that time.

They can't get rid of calling their 0845 numbers "LO-CALL" though can they? Breaking the Consumer Protection Act 1987 (part III) Misleading Price Indications!

i.e. ; - Back-up 0845 access You can access the Internet from anywhere with dial-up at lo-call rates.

And ; - Award-winning telephone support
(lo-call or geographic rate calls) Our support team are available 24/7, 365 days a year

From here, (other pages as well) ; - http://www.plus.net/residential/broadband/broadband_home_features.shtml

derrick wrote on Jan 20^th, 2009 at 1:03pm:

They can't get rid of calling their 0845 numbers "LO-CALL" though can they? Breaking the Consumer Protection Act 1987 (part III) Misleading Price Indications! i.e. ; - Back-up 0845 access You can access the Internet from anywhere with dial-up at lo-call rates.

I should report them to Trading Standards and the ASA too then if I was you Derrick.

But they are cheaper than even Virgin ADSL broadband on this deal (especially in non LLU/non cable areas) and yet seem to get higher customer satisfaction ratings by a long way at www.dslzone.co.uk

It is of course another useful arrow to fire against BT that they do not include 0845 and 0870 calls within their call packages with their wholly owned subsidiary Plusnet.

While Plusnet still have 0845 numbers on their website their 0114 numbers are listed first. For example see the bottom of their home page: http://www.plus.net/

NGMsGhost wrote on Jan 20^th, 2009 at 1:12pm:

derrick wrote on Jan 20th, 2009 at 1:03pm: They can't get rid of calling their 0845 numbers "LO-CALL" though can they? Breaking the Consumer Protection Act 1987 (part III) Misleading Price Indications! i.e. ; - Back-up 0845 access You can access the Internet from anywhere with dial-up at lo-call rates. I should report them to Trading Standards and the ASA too then if I was you Derrick.

You know very well that the ASA do not police the internet, and that TS will do nothing about it.

Whilst I note that Plusnet do include a geo number, the fact is that as a telco they continue the lie that 0845 is "Lo-call" therefore breaking a CRIMINAL Act! Or is that OK because you use them?