Moving from standard landline to internet "landline"

armith

Not sure how to phrase the title, any help gratefully received.

Someone I know is asking for advice on their landline. Due to very slow FTTC speeds they are considering FTTP. Currently they are with NowTV broadband, paying £4 a month for all UK calls from their landline - but FTTP (looking at TalkTalk or Sky) doesn't come with a landline - it can, at a cost of a separate line - but whatever happens it will be more than £4 a month - much much more. Also, he'd like to keep his 01204 phone number that he's had for 50 years.

So, I've tried researching VOIP/Internet calling. What he wants is to keep his landline number and be able to keep calling and receiving calls. Everyone in this scenario is quite elderly and prefer to use traditional telephones and telephone numbers. The question is: Is there an option by any providers to allow him to have a VOIP line, with his current landline number, with a calls package similar to what he has now for £4 a month from NowTV?

JJ_Egan

Do they actually have FTTP  in the road ??

armith

What has prompted them is that BT and TalkTalk have posted leaflets through their door saying they can get "up to 900mbs" - so I am pretty sure they must have.

JJ_Egan

Neds to contact the CS at BT and ask . as i understand it their is a risk of losing current phone number .

That number would need to be ported from current ISP as well .

Information is somewhat confusing at present .

I am on 80/20 BT FTTP but with existing copper wire from pole telephone line .

I am saying BT as they have supplied more over FTP , but can also ask TT and Sky .

Bigphil1474

We're with Virgin cable and they moved our physical landline over to the cable system with the same number i.e. our physical landline isn't used, but we still have the same landline number. Not much difference other than the phone plugs into the internet router instead of the master socket for the phone. 
My daughter has a sipgate type Voip phone which she takes around the world with a local phone number. As far as I know, you can only be allocated a number, not choose your own.

Chino

Bigphil1474 said:

My daughter has a sipgate type Voip phone which she takes around the world with a local phone number. As far as I know, you can only be allocated a number, not choose your own.

When I registered for Sipgate's Basic service I was able to pick a geographic area and select a telephone number from one of half a dozen or so numbers.

Sipgate apparently supports the porting in of a landline number:
Porting (Transfer) my existing telephone number to sipgate team / Trunking

littleboo

If you port a number, be aware that it will cause a cease of the line and therefore also a cease of the broadband, which may be exactly what you want. Alternatively, "renumber and export" ports the numbers and provides a new number to keep the service live. But there are probably not many providers who offer that. The advantage is that you can de-couple the number port activity from the broadband cease activity, and make sure the number is safely ported before ceasing.

armith

Chino said:

Bigphil1474 said:

My daughter has a sipgate type Voip phone which she takes around the world with a local phone number. As far as I know, you can only be allocated a number, not choose your own.

When I registered for Sipgate's Basic service I was able to pick a geographic area and select a telephone number from one of half a dozen or so numbers.

Sipgate apparently supports the porting in of a landline number:
Porting (Transfer) my existing telephone number to sipgate team / Trunking

Thank-you for the link to Sipgate - looks very promising, this is really the answer to the original question. From what it looks like he can replicate what he has with his current NowTV landline by buying the UK Call Package. It'll cost £20 to port his number and the monthly charge will increase from £4 to £9.95, which is a bit of a shock - but I seem to remember when I set it up that the £4 was a half-price discount.

It also looks like he can receive phone calls on his Sipgate number on his Smartphone using an App, which will be very useful for when he's out and about.

jon81uk

We've got a Digital Voice phone as we are on FTTP with BT.
Although I don't use it because our mobile contracts with Three give unlimited inclusive minutes.
We can add 500 or 700 minutes to the BT contract but I'm not sure of the cost.

dave_dph

armith said:

Thank-you for the link to Sipgate - looks very promising, this is really the answer to the original question. From what it looks like he can replicate what he has with his current NowTV landline by buying the UK Call Package. It'll cost £20 to port his number and the monthly charge will increase from £4 to £9.95, which is a bit of a shock - but I seem to remember when I set it up that the £4 was a half-price discount.

It also looks like he can receive phone calls on his Sipgate number on his Smartphone using an App, which will be very useful for when he's out and about.

He could use sipgate without a call package, and then use Asda Mobile's £4 per month talk and text bundle in a cheap basic mobile, giving him unlimited calls to landlines, mobiles, numbers starting with 03 and freephone numbers. No contract.

Don't forget, if he uses Sipgate on his smart phone whilst not connected to Wifi, ideally he'll need a data allowance on his tariff.

armith

Thanks - he's got a Lebara sim in a big old (Samsung J4+) smartphone which gives him "some" mobile data for £5 a month so should be OK for the odd phone call whilst out and about. If fixed line landlines hadn't been invented he could of course just use this as his sole means of making phone calls at home - but everyone he knows knows his landline number and it would be a massive psychological shift to be without it.