Cheapest VoIP options to keep landline number

qsk

RastaDog said:

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.

Also interested to know.
I have a 2-line Ata setup: for line 1, I use a free number from Sipgate for incoming; for line 2, I use voipgain for international outgoing. It served me well for years. I'm not a big talker - 10 euro topup can last me a year.

Stuart_W

Thanks for all the input.

So it looks like the service from A&A is the cheapest way to keep my landline number once I am forced to go VoIP as no free options remain, not even with minimum top-up or spend requirements.

I wonder if more ISPs will include telephony once we hit nationwide stop-sell for copper lines as AFAIK they are obligated to offer a continuity of phone line via VoIP for customers who do not choose to migrate to a new package but are 'pushed' onto a fibre line at some point over the next 30 months. If BT's model is anything to go by, these default options will not be competitive. 

Some of us got through the 90s with line rental and phone calls on separate bills to save money, I suppose it's back to that approach. 

iniltous

BT Broadband and DV phone is exactly the same price as BT PSTN and broadband, 
BT’s model is to keep the price the same for DV as it is for PSTN , but for those that don’t want a phone service there is  a £5 discount , I dare say you probably would never use BT , and consider BT uncompetitive, but the BT DV option is no more uncompetitive than BT PSTN , it’s the same , and TBH , I recon 700mins of calls for £2 more than PAYG probably as good as VoIP providers.
ISP’s are more likely to leave the bundled phone /broadband business and simply  provide broadband as there is no money to be made from residential calls , and leave the small ( and getting smaller ) residential call market for ‘landline telephony’ to VoIP providers 

redux

It's possible to use more than one provider, for instance incoming number from one or two, outgoing calls via a couple of others, and some phone sets can register several accounts

Mamoth

My landline switches to digital this week.I hope the weather improves because this means with my patchy broadband I will have to go into the garden to use the mobile signal.I may also have to up my data there too.

iniltous

If your broadband is unreliable why haven’t you reported it to your ISP ,
if you have a line fault why does your ‘landline’ continue to work but your broadband doesn’t , after all broadband will work over a single ‘leg’ of the copper pair provided the disconnection is close to the property, your PSTN phone will not work at all in these circumstances, in other words your broadband is more likely to keep working under faulty line conditions than the ‘legacy’ phone service .






 

Tula100

Switching from TalkTalk to Vodafone fibre I was told I could have a free voip landline.  But they failed to give TalkTalk notice to take over the landline number and only installed broadband leaving my phone connected to Talktalk..  When I was told to give Talktalk notice myself, Talktalk said I would lose my phone number.  When I went back and complained to Vodafone they said with full fibre it was always going to mean a new phone number.  I was furious as I had ordered to keep my phone service.  Anyway after more complaints and being abroad for a week, I came back to find I could plug my phone into the voip adapter and was very happy to find it was still my own home number!  Not only that, but my extensions still worked, which Vodafone had originally told me would not.  But now I am very happy with  my new set up.  But I do have a mobile phone in case of power cuts - and make sure to keep it fully charged.

littleboo

When you say "my extensions still worked", do you mean wired extension sockets or additional cordless (DECT) handsets?

brewerdave

littleboo said:

When you say "my extensions still worked", do you mean wired extension sockets or additional cordless (DECT) handsets?

If wired extensions still work, then he must still be with TalkTalk ?

QrizB

brewerdave said:

littleboo said:

When you say "my extensions still worked", do you mean wired extension sockets or additional cordless (DECT) handsets?

If wired extensions still work, then he must still be with TalkTalk ?

Not necessarily.

I've had wired extensions where they plug into the BT master socket. If you move the plug over to an ATA (or the VOIP socket on a router) they should continue to work