Definitely sounds like a merger to me! Where is an easy place to get a huge UK call centre from!
I doubt Plusnet's call centre(s) is/are anything like big enough for BT - they can't (acording to many users feedback on their forums) answer calls from the much smaller Plusnet userbase in a reasonable timescale.
As long as PN and BT Retail are both profitable there's no point in 'merging' as running two separate brands is likely to give significantly more market share.
Weren't BT buying a UK mobile operator? EE? Don't
they have a large UK call centre?
Sorry to add to the OT discussion
I thought (in their advertising at least) BT claimed the HH5 was to (ISP supplied) routers as Sunblest was to bread?