New provider and keep landline phone numer.

Boohoo

Hello.

My dad is with Now for his internet and Anytime calls.

He was paying £24 PM but after 2 price rises in 55 months and is now out of contract the cost is £42 PM.

I called them on his behalf and they would not go any lower than £37 PM.

He has Sky tv and and i called them to see what they would offer but as Now are part of Sky they will not port the phone number over.

Where he lives he can get Virgin fibre and internet speeds of 80MB and BT are not going to upgrade the area to faster speeds until late Summer at the earliest so he is stuck for options.

As he needs his landline number he can go with Virgin but Shell, POP, Onestream, Plusnet and Vodafone do not have an option to port his number over to them or they only offer 24 month contract.

I have heard of VOIP providers using the internet but i also learnt that once you ask to go with them your existing provider will stop your service that you have with them.

If he goes with a provider that only has Fibre only how can he keep his existing landline number if he goes the VOIP route to use on the new providers Fibre service.

Sorry if this post is hard to follow.

Rawrzy

I've heard Andrews and Arnold can port numbers without cutting off your broadband but you would have to speak to them to see what they say. They offer quite good pay as you go prices if you don't use your landlines too much, cheaper than ISPs. Their broadband is expensive though so probably would only recommend voip.

If you start a port request in most scenarios it will cease the broadband too unfortunately though, yes.

At worst you could port the phone out, and temporarily use a 4g/5g Internet connection while you get a new one set up.

If you wanted to go with virgin for Internet only you could get a internet connection going with them, then once it's working you port out your number to a voip provider. The port would then cancel the now broadband too but since you have virgin Internet it doesn't matter.

I presume the reason the openreach providers won't allow porting is because of the copper landlines stop sell. You can stay on the old lines but many won't take on any new customers over it.

Boohoo

Rawrzy said:

I've heard Andrews and Arnold can port numbers without cutting off your broadband but you would have to speak to them to see what they say. They offer quite good pay as you go prices if you don't use your landlines too much, cheaper than ISPs. Their broadband is expensive though so probably would only recommend voip.

If you start a port request in most scenarios it will cease the broadband too unfortunately though, yes.

At worst you could port the phone out, and temporarily use a 4g/5g Internet connection while you get a new one set up.

If you wanted to go with virgin for Internet only you could get a internet connection going with them, then once it's working you port out your number to a voip provider. The port would then cancel the now broadband too but since you have virgin Internet it doesn't matter.

I presume the reason the openreach providers won't allow porting is because of the copper landlines stop sell. You can stay on the old lines but many won't take on any new customers over it.

Thank you for your reply.

I have looked at A&A and Vonage voip services and they about £10 pm for landline  and mobile calls which is what my Dad needs and has now.

I had a look at Onestream last night and i got to the part about porting your number over and it mentioned Digital Voice and if you port over to them you will be on a 24 month contract and not the 12 month one i was going for.

I was only looking for 12 or 18 month contract because if BT upgrade the lines next summer then hopefully there could be more suppliers offering good deals.

My Dad has Sky Q which min term ends 30/12/2023 but that is going up from £54 to £102 so he will ditch that if no deal from them and use his smart tv for catch up to keep him entertained.

Rawrzy

Unfortunately a lot of companies are moving to 24 month contracts so you might be pushed to find one shorter. The ones that do often charge you more, usually justifying it by arguing your activation/setup costs are spread over a shorter period.

You could check aquiss, cuckoo, zen or other more independent openreach isps who may offer more flexibility, or at the very least promise no in contract rises which may make it cheaper than the big companies in the long run.

You could also double check if city fibre is available if you haven't already. Their ISPs tend to be significantly cheaper than ORs. https://bidb.uk/ can also potentially show if you have access to any other altnets you might not have known about, again they might be significantly cheaper too.

Boohoo

City Fibre have started installing in the town where my Dad lives but wont get to him till late next year.

I will check out the others you mentioned, thank you.

Boohoo

Update on this thread.

After trying 4 providers that are in my Dad's area none would port the number over.

He went for Vodafone which is a 24 month deal with calls package for £30 PM(price rises will apply) and swithover will be next week.

Vodafone were the only provider that let him port the number over apart from Virgin.

On Sunday i was at my Dad's and there was an Openreach guy there working on the pole outside his house so i had a chat with him about upgrades to BT cables/lines and he said that the planned works are now December 2024 and not Summer.