Is Virgin Media the only UK cable company now??

Purchaseruk

Hi,
Have moved into a new flat & have been told that my housemate needs to keep his telephone number for business reasons. He is totally unwilling to change this.
He is under the impression that because it has always been used on/transfered to cable companies, that we won't be able to transfer the phone number to any adsl companies - like a new BT line / bulldog etc.

Which is pretty frustrating, as for all I can see, Virgin media have bought out majority (if not all?) the competition, & I really hate their packages on offer.

We're presently with them, paying £10.50 p/m on a phone line, then an additional £18 p/m for just 2 meg broadband - which is dire in comparison to offers such as Orange etc. 2 meg is just not enough - when both of us download stuff at the same time, our connection completely crashes, rendering the internet unuseable :mad:

We're being ripped off, so I was wondering if there are any other cable companies I could check out & also if people knew about this whole transfering of a 'cable' phone number to an adsl company?
(I've tried looking up tiscali but they don't seem to be cable - for some reason I thought they used to be?)

Any advice welcome - am likely going to give BT a call tomorrow to see what they have to say about it all.....virgin as well, although housemate reckons he tried months ago & they wouldn't offer him a better deal.

Cheers!

JAYMARSH2005

Purchaseruk wrote: »

Hi,
Have moved into a new flat & have been told that my housemate needs to keep his telephone number for business reasons. He is totally unwilling to change this.
He is under the impression that because it has always been used on/transfered to cable companies, that we won't be able to transfer the phone number to any adsl companies - like a new BT line / bulldog etc.

Which is pretty frustrating, as for all I can see, Virgin media have bought out majority (if not all?) the competition, & I really hate their packages on offer.

We're presently with them, paying £10.50 p/m on a phone line, then an additional £18 p/m for just 2 meg broadband - which is dire in comparison to offers such as Orange etc. 2 meg is just not enough - when both of us download stuff at the same time, our connection completely crashes, rendering the internet unuseable :mad:

We're being ripped off, so I was wondering if there are any other cable companies I could check out & also if people knew about this whole transfering of a 'cable' phone number to an adsl company?
(I've tried looking up tiscali but they don't seem to be cable - for some reason I thought they used to be?)

Any advice welcome - am likely going to give BT a call tomorrow to see what they have to say about it all.....virgin as well, although housemate reckons he tried months ago & they wouldn't offer him a better deal.

Cheers!

I'm not sure about keeping the same number but you will be able to get a better deal from virgin, ring up and ask to be put through to retentions, when they ask why say you have seen the sky package advertised for £35 per month which is upto 8 meg broadband phone and sky t.v with sports included, they will say you need a bt phone but just say you have already got a bt line in the house from previous owners, they will offer you better than you have now, dont be rude to them just say the above and they will make you an offer to stay, my guess will be you will pay the same for the phoneline but you will get a much higher broadband for the same price you are paying now.

darwin-rover

We're presently with them, paying £10.50 p/m on a phone line, then an additional £18 p/m for just 2 meg broadband

Phone up and see if you can get moved onto the 2 for £20 deal (phone and 2mb BB) and maybe you could upgrade your BB to the 4mb service for another £7 .

jellygoodfellow

Vivaciti wrote: »

In answer to the phone number question, yes all number are portable, so if you wanted to go back to BT, you can arange to have your number ported to them.

Not all numbers are portable.Check with BT first.;)

Purchaseruk

Hey, thanks for the replies - thats really helpful info
I've just called BT & they've confirmed they can port the number from virgin media to a BT (or talk talk) line, no problem. Reckoned it should take approx 2 (maybe 3) weeks to have it completed - so that's very good to know.

I'll be giving Virgin a call later on to see what I can achieve with them, here's hoping to a better deal! Will post back with result......

Farway

If you are on cable, as seems to be the case, watch out for BT £125 reconnection fee

This may apply for whatever landline company you may choose, a quick search should find details on these boards

Purchaseruk

Ouch - BT did not mention any such fee's when trying to talk me into having the number ported to them - said it could all be done at the exchange.....might give them another call tomorrow to query pricing of it all.
In the mean time Virgin have offered us 4meg & phone line for £27 p/m.
Still not ideal, but for the sake of not going through the hassle of installing / getting BT, think it's the better option thus far.......

jay78

Reconnection fee? I though you didn't have to pay a fee if the line had been used before?

billsavings

I assume a BT line exists at new abode.As long as the wiring and socket of the BT line is still in place and working, and the BT service has only been stopped not ceased completely , you would not normally have to pay a connection fee.Otherwise a £124.99p fee is payable.