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[MaximusPrime]

Hi Guys,

BT are going to make me go "Full Fibre" soon, I will lose my old land line

Have any of you switched to 3rd party VOIP & kept your old numner?

Can you tell me your experience if so?

cheers

[heavyrain]

If you want to switch to a voip provider for land line it will cancel your broadband... yes they really are that bad. Ofcom should have this sorted by now but they don't.

The only way to keep your number is:

1: Go to BT Digital Voice which is £2 rental and pay as you go (crazy call prices though) and stuck with BT router. They have 700 minutes for I think £8 a month.
2: Switch to a full fibre only ISP where they make sure that the current line you have still operates while full fibre is in place (it's different circuits so shouldn't cancel your BT broadband). Once happy you start a porting request with a voip provider and that will put a cease on the BT line. Then you get some form of a grandstream voip product and plug that into your router to make calls.

If you have alot of time left on your BT contract don't be afraid to go on live chat and make sure you get a proper early termination charge quote. BT is in a difficult position right now. Keeping people on non FTTP is expensive and hardly worth the trouble they go through. You leaving to go somewhere else sorts that for them. I've been quoted £22 to leave a FTTC BT contract with 18 months left on it. If the number they quote is high make sure you get it checked again. I've had one rep state £22 so when I went back in another rep said £137. I told them about the other price and they came back with "oh yes I see that price now after checking with retentions team". Worth a shot.

Sorry more info than you probably wanted.

[MaximusPrime]

Thanks Heavytain,

That is a lot of bother I don't think I woul waste time doing that tbh

I rang them to see if I could port our home number to a mobile phone but they do not allow it

I think we will just have to do without a home phone

I want to upgrade my home network & plugging a phone into the router doesn't suit

The phone won't work if the power is off too - probably the time it is most needed

[aesmith]

Andrews and Arnold have said they can port a number without killing the phone line.

[j0hn]

It requires both broadband and landline to be with A&A.

It's called renumber and number export and it's an Openreach service that isn't unique to A&A.
It just isn't supported by any of the big providers.

In the OPs scenario it isn't much help. He may as well order a data only FTTP service from his provider of choice and then port the landline number to a VOIP provider of his choice which will also terminate the FTTC. This can easily be timed to have no downtime or even a small overlap in services in case an issue arises.
It will have the same outcome but cheaper and with the freedom to choose any broadband and/or VOIP provider they wish.

[AnthonyG]

What would happen if you ported the number to Voip, let the line go dead with no internet. Played dumb/ignorant that you caused it and just asked your broadband ISP to put in a complaint to Openreach that your line does not work for them to come fix it

Would they issue you a new number for your broadband connection for free?

You would think logically they would as given BT have switched off PSTN and are forcing everyone now over to VOIP this thing would potentially happen to many people and us as customers are not expected to know the full consequences of porting our numbers to VOIP.

[Alex Atkin UK]

What would happen if you ported the number to Voip, let the line go dead with no internet. Played dumb/ignorant that you caused it and just asked your broadband ISP to put in a complaint to Openreach that your line does not work for them to come fix it

You will get a notification from the ISP that you have requested a port and the contract will be terminated, so kinda hard to play dumb.  If you're in contract this will likely also contain an early termination fee.

You would then have to pay a connection fee to have it re-activated with a new contract.

[j0hn]

What would happen if you ported the number to Voip, let the line go dead with no internet. Played dumb/ignorant that you caused it and just asked your broadband ISP to put in a complaint to Openreach that your line does not work for them to come fix it

Would they issue you a new number for your broadband connection for free?

You would think logically they would as given BT have switched off PSTN and are forcing everyone now over to VOIP this thing would potentially happen to many people and us as customers are not expected to know the full consequences of porting our numbers to VOIP.

The current provider might try reverse the number migration to the VOIP provider.
The VOIP provider would be queried on it. They need to keep proof of your signing up or they can be fined for slamming (migrating customers without their consent).

Your current provider notifies you that you are migrating away and all services will be terminated.

There's a minimum 10 working days (2 weeks) on all migrations to prevent things like slamming.
I wouldn't recommend trying that.

[tiffy]

In the OPs scenario it isn't much help. He may as well order a data only FTTP service from his provider of choice and then port the landline number to a VOIP provider of his choice which will also terminate the FTTC. This can easily be timed to have no downtime or even a small overlap in services in case an issue arises.
It will have the same outcome but cheaper and with the freedom to choose any broadband and/or VOIP provider they wish.

On my FTTC to FTTP migration, Zen to BT, wishing to retain my LL number I chose the easiest option at the time, BT's BB & digital phone package, worked very well, seamless migration.
However, now realise that I should have migrated my LL to VOIP provider first, retaining original number in order to achieve more future flexibility with BB provider choice.

Regarding "j0hn's" suggested solution of moving LL to VOIP (retaining number) and moving to another BB provider, not sure of the logistics that would be involved to ensure minimal/no interruption to BB/LL services.
If I order BB only service from my chosen alternative provider can this be implemented simultaneously with my existing BT BB & LL service?
If so would this use the existing fibre run CBT to house, in my case UG feed?
Could two different ISP services co-exist on the same fibre run assuming that was permissable?
Would a second ONT be fitted?

[Alex Atkin UK]

Regarding "j0hn's" suggested solution of moving LL to VOIP (retaining number) and moving to another BB provider, not sure of the logistics that would be involved to ensure minimal/no interruption to BB/LL services.
If I order BB only service from my chosen alternative provider can this be implemented simultaneously with my existing BT BB & LL service?
If so would this use the existing fibre run CBT to house, in my case UG feed?
Could two different ISP services co-exist on the same fibre run assuming that was permissable?
Would a second ONT be fitted?

Yes you can have multiple services down the same fibre, so long as there is capacity on the fibre - although if there isn't you wont be able to order at all.

Generally all that should happen is an engineer swaps out the single-port ONT for a multiple port one.  Although I think I've seen at least one person report having a whole new fibre ran which make zero sense, given all your area connects to the same fibre anyway, its functionally no different to using the same fibre.

[MaximusPrime]

Thanks for the replies

Seems like too much hassle, BT should allow Open VOIP protocols imo

I'll get rid of the LL, keep the BT Fibre, go mobile for phone calls

[mpmc]

Thanks for the replies

Seems like too much hassle, BT should allow Open VOIP protocols imo

I'll get rid of the LL, keep the BT Fibre, go mobile for phone calls

This is exactly what BT were hoping you would do. The bundling of services is how they intentionally make it more painful for you to go elsewhere. 

[Alex Atkin UK]

This is exactly what BT were hoping you would do. The bundling of services is how they intentionally make it more painful for you to go elsewhere. 

I think they are more hoping people will not want to lose their number so move to their locked-down Digital Voice service.

Don't know about BTs prices but I think a lot of the bigger ISPs don't want people getting broadband only and VoIP from a cheaper provider, as they are price gouging the monthly fee for their fake landline service.

Personally I hate making calls on mobile, the quality is so poor compared to VoIP.

[MaximusPrime]

At £150 inc free calls BT's calls r not worth it imo

Can't make calls if the electric is off

Complicates home network setup

[Alex Atkin UK]

Can't make calls if the electric is off

Complicates home network setup

Neither of those things are relevant as POTS is going no matter what.  I agree its annoying, I've probably had more down from VoIP in the last year than the entire time I've had a POTS line.  But it is what it is.

At least in my case as I moved to fibre it does mean one less entry point for lightening.