Any way to make and receive 'home' number calls via the interweb?

The_Fat_Controller

@Bendy_House if you look at the TT community forums you'll find several topics regarding Vodaphone and porting numbers to them !

https://community.talktalk.co.uk/t5/Help-with-your-service/ct-p/help

flaneurs_lobster

Best you find out now about Vodafone's "customer service" before you shell out the readies. Their "second-level technical team" are also a bunch of fun. 

Good luck.

Bendy_House

Thanks both - I did put a post on the TT forum myself, but hadn't found much there beforehand. I'll check it out now...!

iniltous

The murky world of number portability, Ofcom requires that CP’s that want to import numbers ( good for gaining customers from other companies ) must also offer to export numbers , which they do not like doing , it’s a reciprocal arrangement, but there is nothing to stop a company saying the don’t import numbers and therefore are not expected to export their own numbers either…strangely TT and VF do both use number portability, but both are reluctant to offer it on every occasion, to every provider.
If you were looking to move to VF from TT , then VF absolutely should not be asking you to speak to TT about this , it’s not your job , if VF say TT are restricting the port of the number , thats bull*hit , they have even attempted it yet , however if VF simply say ‘we can’t import that number’ it’s not anticompetitive, as it were you that chose to use VF , and if keeping the phone number we’re a deal breaker , you wouldn’t use them, the only way it would be anti competitive would be if TT refused a valid port request from VF, and you have not got VF to say they will import the number .TT can’t refuse something they haven’t been asked to do.

 In this case , I think it’s clear that it is VF that are in the wrong ,  firstly by asking you to arrange it , and secondly by not simply saying ‘No we won’t be trying to porting the number ‘ if they don’t want to attempt porting from TT , ultimately it’s up to you if you move to VF , but if you do ,on this evidence you won’t be taking your number with you, and that is entirely down to VF

Bendy_House

Thanks iniltous.

It is murky indeed.

I had a cyber-chat with Voda this afternoon, and explained the situation.

Their first response was "If the request is unable to process, we can try to port in the number after the broadband activation and if it is unsuccessful then I am afraid you will have to get a new number", to which I replied, "This isn't rocket science! This situation has happened to others NUMEROUS times, so someone at Vodaphone must surely know how to get this number from TalkTalk! Even if it means phoning TT up - as TT suggested Vodaphone does! :-)"

I followed this up with: "This is not NEW! This issue is KNOWN about by Vodaphone and TT.", "I cannot continue with the transfer with the risk that I'd lose my old number - I'd need a guarantee that this wouldn't happen.", "BOTH Voda and TT use BT Openreach. This SHOULD be easily doable." and "What is the cause, please? Who is to 'blame' - Voda or TT?! Thanks."

To which they responded, "Thanks for sharing, in this case, please rest assured we will port in the old number once the broadband got activated"

To my further requests for assurance, he replied;

"Yes it will surely work. Once the broadband gets activated, we will manually port in the number from our end"

"You're welcome, thanks. Please rest assured once the broadband gets activated we will contact the Openreach and manually port in the old number"

So, I've gone ahead - having to chose the 'new number' option just to get through that block. What are the chances, eh?!

Transfer on the 30th - I'll keep this updated :-)

redux

Browntoa said:

I have a "home" phone number from sipgate which I access from software from my mobile and my pc .

At some point soon I'll set it up with a VoIP ATA adapter that plugs into an Ethernet port on my hub so I can use my "traditional" home phones  ( traditional copper pair home phones swap to VoIP anyway by 2025 ) . The grandstream ht801 and ht802 are highly recommended. 

Or a Siemens Gigaset cordless phone system that also does VoIP calls. The base set will have a model number ending in IP. 

I bought mine secondhand on eBay, with one cordless handset, then subsequently a couple more.

And still a traditional handset in another socket for in case there's a power cut

onomatopoeia99

Bendy_House said:

Thanks iniltous.

It is murky indeed.

I had a cyber-chat with Voda this afternoon, and explained the situation.

Their first response was "If the request is unable to process, we can try to port in the number after the broadband activation and if it is unsuccessful then I am afraid you will have to get a new number", to which I replied, "This isn't rocket science! This situation has happened to others NUMEROUS times, so someone at Vodaphone must surely know how to get this number from TalkTalk! Even if it means phoning TT up - as TT suggested Vodaphone does! :-)"

I followed this up with: "This is not NEW! This issue is KNOWN about by Vodaphone and TT.", "I cannot continue with the transfer with the risk that I'd lose my old number - I'd need a guarantee that this wouldn't happen.", "BOTH Voda and TT use BT Openreach. This SHOULD be easily doable." and "What is the cause, please? Who is to 'blame' - Voda or TT?! Thanks."

To which they responded, "Thanks for sharing, in this case, please rest assured we will port in the old number once the broadband got activated"

To my further requests for assurance, he replied;

"Yes it will surely work. Once the broadband gets activated, we will manually port in the number from our end"

"You're welcome, thanks. Please rest assured once the broadband gets activated we will contact the Openreach and manually port in the old number"

So, I've gone ahead - having to chose the 'new number' option just to get through that block. What are the chances, eh?!

Transfer on the 30th - I'll keep this updated :-)

Did they mention the compensation level in the event that they did not fulfill this commitment given to you?

Bendy_House

Nope...

Madmel

You don't need to upgrade your handsets to use a VOIP service. I did some googling and spoke to a very helpful salesperson who advised buying a Cisco box which plugs into our FTTP router and cordless phone base station. Our cordless handsets around the house also now work. I think it cost around £60 which was a lot cheaper than replacing 4 handsets.

Chino

Bendy_House said:

A thought occurred; is there any way - a gizmo, a podule, an interface, a transducer, a yougettheidea, - of connecting an internet-linked phone which operates like a landline type, and uses the home number?

Maybe too late now if you're no longer switching to Plusnet but, if you'd switched to Plusnet, you could have signed up with an indirect access provider such as 18185 for making occasional landline calls.
https://www.plus.net/help/phone/about-your-phone-service/?_ga=2.80571415.1202375628.1661724797-1829865394.1659202057#can-i-make-calls-using-an-indirect-access-provider-or-number