Broadband + phone options - should I change to Voip?

peter021072

My BT contract comes to an end in January and will increase from £28.53 to £33.53 per month, so I'm looking for other options for 'telephone' + broadband.  Telephone access is important, but I'm a low user and use a 18185 over-ride number which usually costs a few quid a month, unless I need to use a helpline. However 18185 doesn't work with all lines.  My old dumb mobile is PAYG and is rarely used for outgoing calls.  

One advantage of BT is that they can block International numbers and I have a full block list to avoid being pestered by marketeers, although I doubt if blocking is any use since they never use the same number twice. 

Should I be thinking of using Voip and ditch BT along with the standard phone? Presumably these can replace the phone entirely, although I would need to buy some headset hardware and presumably have the computer on continually?  What systems do these Voip providers have for blocking calls?  

I use the Internet a lot but not for gaming or streaming, except short videos on youtube or Twitter.

I will probably haggle with BT if I can find a suitable cheaper alternative. 

jeglet

Hi Peter, here's another Peter pondering the same thing. I have just started a switch to Vodafone broadband, and they are providing a VoIP adapter. This will enable us to still use my current landline and DECT phones, but I am looking into how to set up my VoIP provider, sipgate, on the router. Main point is that we will have no choice come 2025, when BT shuts down the traditional telephone network, at least, that's my understanding. So I want to get well ahead of that. Sounds like you have a 'compelling event' to help push you into that early too!

PennyForThem_2

I have ditched my landline entirely and gone just with a mobile smartphone - not a swish one, just a reasonably old Lenova Motorola.  For £6.50 a month get free phonecalls and a reasonable amt of data (which I don't want because I either use my own broadband, or the shop's, or BT's in centre of city I live in.  You can get cheaper than that contract too.

The disadvantage of VOIP is that, if something goes wrong with your broadband connection or electricity cut, you don't have a phone link unless you have a mobile.  (Also some devices i.e. medical equipment, alarms, etc do not work with VOIP - bad planning on part of Gov and OpenReach).

So far, not found any disadvantages - though I am a low telephone user tbh.

bjbyorkshire

I have been with Talk Talk from the very first internet connection we ever had. Every 18 months I negotiate a new contract and this has just happened.  I was offered an 18 month contract for fibre 65 with voip.  For various reasons this has take almost 2 months to get the installation into my house.  This happened on Monday this week and went live immediately.  i do want to keep a landline even though we have smart phones.  I seem to spend half my working day doing battle with one company or another or waiting on the phone for a hospital appointment line to answer, or a banking institution to answer, I was number 84 in the queue for Leeds building society yesterday with a 45 minute wait.  If I was using a mobile phone for this I would soon use my inclusive minutes if the company didn't provide an 0800 number.  My monthly d/d will be £29 for 18 months but they, like most other phone providers have it written in that they can put up the price each April in line with inflation + so much %.  I feel that is unfair as I cannot say ok, you have put my d/d up and so I now want to leave and move to another company.  Oh no, I am locked in to Talk Talk for the full 18 months.  The DECT phone I already have works fine on the new system.  It plugs into the back of the new router and the smart tv and computers were easy to connect.  My son and I can both be online at the same time so I can waste my time looking at things at the same time as he is on downloading his work stuff.  This was impossible previously. 

Hope that this is helpful to the OP.

littleboo

PennyForThem_2 said:

I have ditched my landline entirely and gone just with a mobile smartphone - not a swish one, just a reasonably old Lenova Motorola.  For £6.50 a month get free phonecalls and a reasonable amt of data (which I don't want because I either use my own broadband, or the shop's, or BT's in centre of city I live in.  You can get cheaper than that contract too.

The disadvantage of VOIP is that, if something goes wrong with your broadband connection or electricity cut, you don't have a phone link unless you have a mobile.  (Also some devices i.e. medical equipment, alarms, etc do not work with VOIP - bad planning on part of Gov and OpenReach).

So far, not found any disadvantages - though I am a low telephone user tbh.

If there is any bad planning, its on the part of the suppliers of the equipment which use the current analogue telephone system. They have known for years that VOIP was coming and in many cases, have just failed to adapt. 

brewerdave

One thing to watch out for - if you want to keep your existing landline number on a switch to FTTP ,it can be problematic to transfer the number. 

peter021072

My friend who lives in Worthing was switched to VOIP and I think BT did everything for her, including providing her with a VOIP phone.  She's not technically minded at all, so I doubt if she was required to do anything.  There's one thing that's strange though, I can't contact her via 18185, so my calls to her are at BTs expensive rate. 

Looking at Which, it appears BT often migrate customers to VOIP when the customer changes broadband provider, not sure if that means offer a VOIP phone handset

"When will my landline be switched off?

Your landline provider will get in touch with you when it's coming to the time for you to migrate. They might call the new service Digital Voice, IP voice or a branded version such as 'Sky Voice'. 

BT has already migrated hundreds of thousands of customers to its Digital Voice service. It and other providers are currently focusing on offering digital phone services to customers when they switch broadband providers or upgrade to full fibre broadband. If you switch provider, you may also be offered the option to eschew a phone line altogether – previously something only offered by a handful of providers."