Is a landline still a necessity?

Trumpeter

Would setting up the phone to work with a Sipgate account be as difficult as they appear to make it on their website?? It looks a bit techy to me!

I am currently using a DECT phone which is plugged into a Vonage box (presumably some sort of VOIP adapter) which is in turn plugged into my Quickline (ISP) router.

Does this make life very complicated?? Or is it as simple as just doing away with the Vonage box & plugging straight into the router (I can't believe I would be that lucky!)

iniltous

Roger1 wrote: »

Our area was 'virginised' (cabled) a few months ago and we are waiting to see if Virgin will be making interesting offers. I see from press ads that they are offering fibre bb with and without calls.

We are currently with BT for phone and BB with an 020 8xxx xxxx number, contract expiring July. We are low users, making little use of the landline and are happy with Three 3-2-1 for our mobiles. The only disadvantage could be the lack of 18185 with Virgin, though we could use the 0808 link.

Sipgate could offer a solution for most calls, though 25p/min (rounded) to call family in Switzerland appears expensive. (3p with Three, so no problem for us). I see Sipgate could port our BT landline number. Questions for MSE experts:

1. does it take long to port a BT number to Sipgate?
2. is 18185 an option with Sipgate?
3. would it be worthwhile opening a Sipgate account now, presumably getting an 020 3xxx xxxx number(?), then changing to our ported number if/when we say goodbye to BT?

Many thanks for your advice.

TBH , if you take Virgin broadband only , you will pay about the same as taking VM broadband and a VM phoneline together, so if you take VM broadband only and port your number to a voip provider so you can still use the number via your broadband, that will almost certainly cost more if you have to 'pay' the voip provider too

Owain_Moneysaver

Roger1 wrote: »

1. does it take long to port a BT number to Sipgate?
2. is 18185 an option with Sipgate?
3. would it be worthwhile opening a Sipgate account now, presumably getting an 020 3xxx xxxx number(?), then changing to our ported number if/when we say goodbye to BT?

Many thanks for your advice.

1. The actual porting process can take maybe a day from the number going off the first provider and on to the second.. The admin beforehand might take days or even weeks. You'd set up your Sipgate account beforehand, credit the account with enough money for the porting fee, and fax/email all the documentation to them first. They then assign the ported number to the account, and in your online account manager you can set your presented CLI to withheld, the Sipgate account number, or the ported number.

If you don't want to keep your BT number then you could just use the Sipgate number and save the porting fee.


2. No. However note that Sipgate--Sipgate calls are free so if you only have one 'family' destination in Switzerland and they got a Sipgate account too ...

3. You wouldn't lose the 020 3xxx number, you can just choose which one you present as CLI. Incoming calls to either nunber would ring in the same way.

Trumpeter wrote: »

Would setting up the phone to work with a Sipgate account be as difficult as they appear to make it on their website?? It looks a bit techy to me!

I am currently using a DECT phone which is plugged into a Vonage box (presumably some sort of VOIP adapter) which is in turn plugged into my Quickline (ISP) router.

If the Vonage box isn't locked to Vonage, you just change the settings in it.

If it is locked to Vonage you'd need one of:
- a new Analogue Terminal Adapter to plug your landline phone in to
- a new VoIP phone
- a softphone app running on a smartphone or tablet. You can download a preconfigured version of Zoiper from the Sipgate online account manager.

The difficulty is not setting the phone to work up with Sipgate, but if your router needs altering its port forwarding and firewall settings. (My experience: BT Voyager, Plusnet, and EE Brightbox are OK, TalkTalk and Sky boxes didn't work with the VoIP phone but did work with Zoiper.)

Roger1

Owain_Moneysaver wrote: »

1 ... If you don't want to keep your BT number then you could just use the Sipgate number and save the porting fee.

2. No. However note that Sipgate--Sipgate calls are free so if you only have one 'family' destination in Switzerland and they got a Sipgate account too ...

Many thanks.

Keeping/losing the BT number is partly practical/partly psychological. We've always had the same number - 40+ years - and the number appears in numerous databases and address books. However, as we rarely receive calls on the landline, this would become less of a problem.

Switzerland: extended family and friends, I'm afraid, so promoting Sipgate could take a while. Probably simpler to bite the bullet and use WhatsApp (no charge) and Three @ 3p per minute.

Trumpeter

Roger1 wrote: »

Many thanks.

Keeping/losing the BT number is partly practical/partly psychological. We've always had the same number - 40+ years - and the number appears in numerous databases and address books. However, as we rarely receive calls on the landline, this would become less of a problem.

Switzerland: extended family and friends, I'm afraid, so promoting Sipgate could take a while. Probably simpler to bite the bullet and use WhatsApp (no charge) and Three @ 3p per minute.

Is using Viber or Skype a possibility for the international stuff?

J_B

Trumpeter wrote: »

Is using Viber or Skype a possibility for the international stuff?

Personally, I stopped using skype and viber as WhatsApp was better quality IMHO

Red-Squirrel_2

brewerdave wrote: »

the last tradesman doing a job for us ,ended up making a call in the middle of the road.:rotfl:

Did you not let him use the landline?

d123

boliston wrote: »

the catch with sipgate seems to be you need to buy a "call package" even if you make only one short call per month

Nope, not correct.

I’m on sipgate and simply pay per call, it’s just over 1p per minute to landlines.

Current rates:

d123

Trumpeter wrote: »

Would setting up the phone to work with a Sipgate account be as difficult as they appear to make it on their website?? It looks a bit techy to me!

I am currently using a DECT phone which is plugged into a Vonage box (presumably some sort of VOIP adapter) which is in turn plugged into my Quickline (ISP) router.

Does this make life very complicated?? Or is it as simple as just doing away with the Vonage box & plugging straight into the router (I can't believe I would be that lucky!)

It’s equally simply, I have a BT8500 DECT phone connected to a Linksys PAP2T SIP VOIP Phone Adapter which connects to the router.

Any VOIP SIP adapter should work just as well, the Linksys has been working 100% reliably for at least 2 years now.

Ian011

Given the changes made by Ofcom on 1 July 2015 to the call charges for calls to 084, 087 and 09 numbers, the charges quoted above for calls to 0843, 0844, 0845 and 0870 numbers cannot be correct. A single Access Charge should be shown for all 084, 087, 09 and 118 numbers.

Additionally, given that the termination rate for calls to UK mobile numbers starting 071-075 and 077-079 is now below 0.49p (£0.0049) per minute, the rate charged for calls to UK mobile numbers is excessive. It should be barely more than the rate charged for calls to UK landlines.