Cheapest VoIP options to keep landline number

Stuart_W

It seems that most of the broadband companies are either ditching landline provision or hiding the details in their post-PSTN packages, most like "BT Voice" as it's called seem to charge over the odds. VoIP doesn't need to be tied to the broadband provider and existing numbers can be ported. However, it doesn't seem as easy to compare VoIP prices as it does with broadband prices. I suppose that's because the price comparison answer is to use a mobile so most people aren't looking and people still looking for "landlines" will become quite a niche market.  However, I do want to keep my landline number and have a home-based landline. The cheapest way to do this once I finally get kicked off my copper line is not an easy find. I imagine because very few people are looking.

I reckon that Andrews and Arnold seem like the cheapest option at £1.44 per month (A&A) VoIP: Learn more (aa.net.uk) unless anyone knows any better. Many of the free VoIP services of old have all gone or started big monthly fees - I suppose inevitable as VoIP becomes the replacement service for all landlines. Presumably even A&A will hike their charges too if they are overwhelmed with demand. But perhaps they won't be as it's only me and old Mrs Higgins at the end of the street that want to keep a landline!

BossHogg

Yep, I found same. All the free Payg voip seem to have gone.

Fortunately I had old one with Sipgate.Co.uk that was still set up so just needed a top up and a voip adaptor and working great.

Pity that the broadband provider does not provide a reasonable priced option using existing router (it has a phone port)... Seemed some confusion over whether it is available as option at all though £19/mth extra was mentioned at one point, crazy. 

waveyjane

Just been reading this: https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2022/12/summary-of-dedicated-home-voip-providers-for-uk-consumers.html 

Like @BossHogg I'm with the Sipgate basic package and it looks like they may be winding that up this year.  Hm. Might just bin the whole thing and go with mobile if that happens. 

EDIT: Wonder what these people are like? https://www.voipstunt.com/

Marvqn1

Is your landline with BT?

I read on the BT forum that if someone has a BT landline, but doesn't have broadband when they are switched to Digital Voice they will be given a basic broadband service and it won't cost anymore than what they are already paying for their phone service.

waqasahmed

I created a guide here a few years ago with regards to how to create a free account at pbxes.org to make your PBX with various SIP trunks and rules that determine which SIP provider numbers go through so to speak for both inbound and outbound calls 

We effectively use it as a PAYG thing and it costs £0/month. The base station is also PoE and we've got a Yealink DECT IP phone 

littleboo

Marvqn1 said:

Is your landline with BT?

I read on the BT forum that if someone has a BT landline, but doesn't have broadband when they are switched to Digital Voice they will be given a basic broadband service and it won't cost anymore than what they are already paying for their phone service.

They will get a data line. Whether that has internet access is a different matter, it only needs access to the BT VoIP servers. Either way, it will have limited bandwidth, Openreach launched a low bandwidth service for this very reason

Marvqn1

littleboo said:

Marvqn1 said:

Is your landline with BT?

I read on the BT forum that if someone has a BT landline, but doesn't have broadband when they are switched to Digital Voice they will be given a basic broadband service and it won't cost anymore than what they are already paying for their phone service.

They will get a data line. Whether that has internet access is a different matter, it only needs access to the BT VoIP servers. Either way, it will have limited bandwidth, Openreach launched a low bandwidth service for this very reason

Based on what the OP said in his post, it seems that he's implying that after the copper lines have been switched off then the only way to have a traditional landline is by paying for a VoIP service. Is that only if a person has a landline and broadband already?

GraceCourt

Marvqn1 said:

Based on what the OP said in his post, it seems that he's implying that after the copper lines have been switched off then the only way to have a traditional landline is by paying for a VoIP service. Is that only if a person has a landline and broadband already?

The whole thing is a complete mess, anyway.  There are entire rural communities with no mobile phone or internet access whatsoever who are faced with being completely cut off when the national "copper pair switch-off" happens.  Until recently, we had a second home on the Isle of Skye where the only broadband option was a technology that was obsolete decades ago (for £25/month!) - i.e. ADSL Max, providing 8Mbps if you were next door to the telephone exchange.  We were three miles away and got 4Mbps... a nearby business also on ADSL Max got 256kbps at best, dwindling to next-to-nothing when local children got home from school and started browsing.

Like I said... it's a complete mess.

littleboo

A broadband connection is a data connection, a data connection can be used to give access to the internet,  but can also be used to give access to a private network or evan a very restricted access to the internet. For someone who just wants a phone service, they will be provided with a data connection but that doesn't mean it will necessarily give internet access. I have no idea if BT Digital Voice is accessed over the public internet or not, but as DV is only available through a BT managed router, it's quite possible that it isn't.

iniltous

I’m not sure what the issue is ,
a massive complaint previously was ‘I’m being made to have a landline service when all I want is broadband’ and in large part these people  misunderstood that landline rental and telephony were not the same thing , and presumably were naive to think that if they could get rid of the ‘landline’ it will reduce a £30 bill to £10 ( if the misleading way the bill was presented was £20 LR/£10 broadband, ) the real saving , removing all Telephony is around £5 ( with BT )
 
Obviously those that want to keep a landline type phone service are covered still by those ISP that will remain in the Telephony business, and TBH , again with BT adding £2 to the £5 that provides ‘Telephony with PAYG calls’ , adds 700 mins of included calls , so effectively £2 for 700 mins.
If the bundled Telephone offering isn’t deemed to represent good  ’value’ , then third party VoIP providers can be used , obviously anyone going down this route wants to either take the no telephony option with their ISP , or pick an ISP that doesn’t have a Telephone option, but there is no way an ISP that provides a router with a telephone port will allow this to be used with anything other that their own Telephone option, so to use a traditional VoIP provider, you would need to buy the appropriate kit .

If the ‘free’ VoIP options that were once available are no longer available, it simply shows that ‘free’ isn’t a sustainable business model , if the OP bemoans the lack of any comparison site to judge these traditional VoIP providers, presumably if there were a demand for such a site then one or more will appear, but as they accept, chances are , there is no demand for such a comparison website 

RastaDog

waveyjane said:

I'm with the Sipgate basic package and it looks like they may be winding that up this year.  

Interesting. Where/when did you get wind of that? I have a Sipgate basic package too, and it's served me very well for near on 15 years, but have not read of it coming to an end.

I do all my VOIP (I have localphone and OVH too) seperate from my ISP. Internet in my case is provided via 4G SIM and LTE modem/router.