Moving to one supplier when you have different broadband & landline providers

phguk

One of my relatives currently has BT for voice & Plusnet for broadband. I'm recommending she just moves to a single provider and an offering for phone & broadband (much cheaper than two separate contracts). We want to keep the landline number.

What's the best approach for moving to a single provider under these circumstances ? Might it need a two-step approach: move the landline first (to ensure we keep the number) and temporarily have two broadband services and then cancel the existing stand-alone broadband ?

iniltous

Plusnet don’t ‘sell’ telephony anymore , so the obvious choice is to join BT for both , eventually that will become EE anyway , so you may find you are steered toward EE anyway .

TBH , this shared metallic path ( SMPF ) arrangement is pretty rare these days and unfortunately it’s possible that changing to one provider may not be as seamless as you would like.

Personally I would cease the PN broadband separately , even if this results in a short period with no broadband , then order BT  broadband on what then will be a regular phone line , you could try migration but I suspect because BT already are the telephony provider the system won’t handle it as the number will obviously return BT as the existing provider and its designed to move between separate suppliers.

Obviously call BT , rather than trying to do this on line , at least you can then discuss your requirements.

If you would prefer not to use BT , then you will struggle to provide a phone only provider , and just asking a new provider ( so not BT or Plusnet ) may result in the number being lost .