In A Complete Quandry

redrosegirlie · 12 November 2009 at 1:18PM

Hi,

I'm hopefully moving house soon which is in a different BT exchange

Currently with BT for phone line (2 months into a 12 month contract)

With AOL for broadband (contract due to expire in December 09)

New house doesn't have a BT phone line and have been quoted £122.50 to put one in

The new house has virgin broadband at present and apparently can get speeds up to 50 mb

The distance from the exchange means ADSL broadband will be painfully slow (I quite fancied O2 but a speed check indicates I will get less than 1mb speed)

Is my only real option to cancel BT contract and pay up the existing amount owed then go to Virgin for broadband and phone which if I have read correctly on here is an apalling and expensive service?

If I do that can I port my old phone number, something which isn't an option with BT

Also instead of completely cancelling BT can I ask that they keep my charge as a credit in case I go back to them?

Cheers

Fire_Fox · 12 November 2009 at 10:09PM

BT are doing free installation of new lines at present, read the article on the main board (Utilities/ phones tab at top of page).

redrosegirlie · 12 November 2009 at 11:39PM

Thanks Fire Fox,

I will look into that.

It still looks like I will have to take up virgin cable broadband though because of the poor ADSL speed in the area. It's not much of a choice.

dave_dph · 14 November 2009 at 8:25AM

Well if you were to take VM broadband at the new address you wouldn't actually need a phone line, even from VM. You could register with a voip provider which will run perfectly over their 10Mb connection. I use voip.co.uk but they no longer take on residential customers.

Check out www.voipfone.co.uk for starters.

If voip is a possibilty to you then you can keep your existing number. Basically you would have to port your current number to voip before moving house, this will also cancel your BT line and you will have to pay BT's contract termination fee (I think this is set at £75 max but I may be wrong). Once your BT number is on voip you will take it with you wherever you go, even abroad!

If you go for VM then don't forget to go through Quidco, think it currently offers £65 cashback even if you only take 1 service. This would soften the blow on BT's termination fee.

You cannot port your existing number to VM at the new address as it wouldn't be possible to port it back to BT - different exchange area. Once you port to voip you can use the service wherever there is a broadband connection, in theory anywhere in the world. You could only port the number back to BT if you were living in the original BT exchange area.

redrosegirlie · 15 November 2009 at 9:48PM

Thanks Dave,

We use our phone a lot and take good advantage of the free anytime calls so I'm not sure that voip would be any good to us as they don't do a similar plan.

I think I have resigned myself to having to get virgin cable broadband and trying to get the free BT line installation.

LeeSouthEast · 15 November 2009 at 10:07PM

Don't discount VoIP. sipgate.co.uk offer 1,000 minutes a month for a fixed fee of £5.90.

This will work over your VM connection, with no line rental/standing charges. You will still need to pay to port your number though and cancel the BT contract. Both of those are one-offs tho.

http://www.sipgate.co.uk/user/tarife.php?show=2

dave_dph · 16 November 2009 at 7:18AM

Also, by choosing the right voip provider there is no monthly line rental to pay.

In A Complete Quandry

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