VOIP or Digital voice suggestions

PatHa

I am just reviewing my broadband choices.

We live in a rural area, and a couple of years ago were upgraded to FTTP for our broadband, with BT. Shortly afterwards our landline was changed to BT's Digital Voice service - so we no longer have anything coming to the property over the copper line.

I'm just out of contract with BT and currently paying about 45 per month for Fibre 2 (70 mbps download speed), which includes my digital voice service.

I saw a plusnet deal for same speed for 25 per month, plus £80 cashback, but this is broadband only.

For various reasons we would like to keep a phone service using our existing landline number.

I read on the forums about sipgate basic, but they now only seem to offer business packages.

Does anyone have any experience and suggestions of a VOIP service for residential use where we can port our existing number in? (or advice as to whether this is a good or bad idea!)

We also will want to be able to use our existing analogue phone set-up, so will need to get an ATA adapter.

Be interested to hear if anyone has any experience with VOIP

Thanks

Patch

matelodave

Try Vodaphone - we swapped from BT's FTTP with Digital Voice in January last year. BT were cranking up their price to nigh on £60 for 76mbit's plus 700 minutes a month and wouldn't haggle. 

VF had 100mbit/s plus unlimted phone calls for £30 so there was no contest.

The new router arrived a couple of days before changeover day and I pre-perpared it by changing the SSID and Password to be the same as my BT router.

On the appointed day, BT turned off their service before I even got up. I pulled all the plugs out of the BT Smart Hub (including  the phone), shoved them into the appropriate sockets on the VF router, turned it on and everything worked just as it should, including the phone.

We also kept our existing phone number although when we come up for renewal next January I'm tempted to ditch the phone in favour of using our mobiles but thats a decision for later in the year.

So far I've never had a glitch or dropout (apart from power cuts) like I did with the HH. The coverage around our bungalow and garden is better than the HH and even after the next increase with VF I'll still only be paying just over £37. I cant say I've noticed the subtle difference between 76 and 100mbit/s

I dont know what their customer service is like as I've never had to use it

iniltous

Are you on FTTP ?, if you aren’t, then how are you getting a 100Mb service from VF , if you are on OR FTTC ,  the top speed tier is 80Mb 

PatHa

Thanks @MateloDave, that looks like a great option. I had not realised Vodafone offered FTTP, and that they included a digital phoneline too... that will save me money and a bit of effort too.

matelodave

iniltous said:

Are you on FTTP ?, if you aren’t, then how are you getting a 100Mb service from VF , if you are on OR FTTC ,  the top speed tier is 80Mb 

Yes, that's what I said when I mentioned that I was on BT's FTTP with Digital Voice.

We've had FTTP Broadband for nigh on five years and Digital phone service over fibre (BT Digital Voice and now VF's VoIP) for nearly two.

bunnygo

as an important aside, remember that Digital Voice has no resilience and your phone will go out in a power cut - very relevant in a rural area. If you argue enough you might get a 1 hour backup power supply for all the good that does.

Digital Voice rollout was allegedly paused because of this, not sure of current situation. Too late for the OP, but no-one else should accept it until forced from any provider.

matelodave

Give it a couple of years and you wont really have any option as telephony will be delivered over the data network and not as it is now over wired back to the exchange switching equipment.

Even if they decide to deliver Digital Voice over broadband from the cabinet where it may not be economical to fibre everyone, there will only be a limited amount of autonomy from the cabinet back up supply, possibly up to four hours so you might as well get used to the idea.

VoIPMan

There aren't many VoIP companies that specialise in residential services, they tend to be business specific but there are a few. You can now move (port) your number to other telephone providers for free and it doesn't affect your FTTP broadband service.

You will need an adapter for your analogue phones but that can be a nuisance - you say phone(s) so I assume you have several. If they're the handsfree type with a base unit and extensions in charging cradles (DECT) that should be fine, but if you have hardwired extensions that plug into the wall it becomes a problem - you'll need to talk to them.

If you buy the adapter from the telephone service provider it should be plug and play but if you get it from anywhere else it will need configuring with your and their credentials and that can be a pain.

Basically you need an established VoIP service provider that understands residential customers and has good customer service so that you can call a real person if you need help. Have a look at Voipfone - plans there start at £6 per month (inc VAT) for your number and 100 minutes of calls. 

Neil49

I have never used them but the name Andrews and Arnold often gets mentioned on this site in regard to VOIP services.