Which providers will let me keep my home phone?

newpuppy

Coming to the end of a Plusnet broadband contract, I'm on a bit of a learning curve about VoIP, full fibre and who does what.  I understand that if Plusnet installs full fibre, they disconnect my home phone, but I'm nervous of losing it.  I never phone out, but a couple of people ring me on it because it would be expensive to call my mobile.  There isn't a price advantage in abandoning the home phone, so I would like to keep the number and take incoming calls through VoIP.  I think (from checking the MSE comparison page) that Virgin and Vodafone offer such deals.  Are there any other providers out there doing similar?

M25

Vodafone still do a landline.

I've stopped using my Vodafone landline for outgoing calls and divert the incoming to my mobile (no charge if under 60mins as long as you have a call package). I'm doing this because it's my intention to dump the landline calls totally at some stage.

As VOIP is a fake landline (no local electricy = no service) I don't trust it any more.

Most people I know have mobiles or Whatsapp so it's not like they'll miss my landline.

I bought a £2PM SIM https://www.rwgmobile.wales/rates-plans-eng-per/ for a desk GSM telephone and I give that to doctors or anyone he must get through.

400ixl

Please stick to one thread https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6524302/which-providers-will-let-me-keep-my-home-phone#latest

You couldn't pay me to go to Vodafone for broadband. The number of people who lose their number as part of the migration and then the service is poor, as backed up by their results in customer service polls. 

newpuppy

Thanks M25.
>I bought a £2PM SIM https://www.rwgmobile.wales/rates-plans-eng-per/ for a desk GSM telephone and I give that to doctors or anyone he must get through.<

My learning curve's just gone up a notch ;-)  The GSM phone works on the mobile network, whereas the VoIP house phone works using the internet, which as we know, can fail sometimes.  

newpuppy

400ixl said:

Please stick to one thread https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6524302/which-providers-will-let-me-keep-my-home-phone#latest

You couldn't pay me to go to Vodafone for broadband. The number of people who lose their number as part of the migration and then the service is poor, as backed up by their results in customer service polls. 

Sorry about having duplicate threads on the go.  I don't know how that happened, and I don't know how to fix it 

M25

GSM desktop phones are great. Most of them come with a battery if you want to use that but I use the mains.

It's always 'on' too so it's like a landline and no messing with VOIP or other cables and faff.

I have this one https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CDN26MDB/ That's a bit fancy compared to my older one as it has a 4G hotspot  facility etc. The old 2G/3G still work fine on the 2G network (3G is getting shut off).

I picked that up for a bit less than £50 on eBay. You can still get brand new 2G ones which are even simpler https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/276434544224

Older type 2G:

400ixl

VOIP and digital voice appear to be getting mixed up here. Digital voice is the service that comes via the ISP to a handset attached to you router which would get disrupted by an in home power cut.

VOIP services can be installed onto mobile app or via a physical device. If installed as a mobile app then it would come via the wifi if you were connected to that, or via your phones mobile service in the case of a power cut. VOIP services typically have a local format number.

There is no need for an additional GSM phone restricting it to a physical location and requiring an additional sim card unless you really need another physical device. People calling you are also calling mobile rates which are not inclusive for some people.

Better flexibility with the VOIP app as you get calls whilst out of home as well as in.

Just don't mix digital voice and VOIP as the same thing as they are not. The latter is the ISP service.

DullGreyGuy

newpuppy said:

Coming to the end of a Plusnet broadband contract, I'm on a bit of a learning curve about VoIP, full fibre and who does what.  I understand that if Plusnet installs full fibre, they disconnect my home phone, but I'm nervous of losing it.  I never phone out, but a couple of people ring me on it because it would be expensive to call my mobile.  There isn't a price advantage in abandoning the home phone, so I would like to keep the number and take incoming calls through VoIP.  I think (from checking the MSE comparison page) that Virgin and Vodafone offer such deals.  Are there any other providers out there doing similar?

You can decouple the phone and the internet. Whilst more aimed at businesses we've used Voipfone at home for well over a decade as international calls are so much cheaper. You can port a number to them for £3 a month and you can also add a number for CLI but not port it. So when abroad can make calls using VOIP at UK prices and the call recipient sees my mobile number rather than my home number if they want to call back etc.

Also means you are free to change broadband provider whenever you want without having to port a number again or be limited to ones which only offer certain features.  

M25

I think my point was -for me- a GSM desktop telephone is the closest thing to the former 150 year old ideal landline.

Digital Voice is just a fancy way of saying you're getting less of a service. Or no service at all if you have no electricty.

iniltous

M25 said:

I think my point was -for me- a GSM desktop telephone is the closest thing to the former 150 year old ideal landline.

Digital Voice is just a fancy way of saying you're getting less of a service. Or no service at all if you have no electricty.

In what way is it ‘less of a service’ , as you separated out the local power issue , most if not all of the paid for services on PSTN are included with DV ( so DV is better value ) and  apart from ‘Call Sign’ a facility that most won’t even of heard of , what can’t DV do that PSTN does ? , the power issue is obviously a concern for some , but less of a service ?

M25

If I don't have power I don't have a landline telephone. It's simple. In the last 5 years I've lost my FTTP for 7 days and then maybe 4 hours twice. Don't recall that ever happening with the old-fashioned system in the 40 years I had it.

The new system is fine I'm just saying I don't trust it like the old copper wire system I had (which was removed when I got FTTP) and it has much less value therefore but there's more expense (most suppliers charge more for the telephone provision).

A GSM mobile desktop feels pretty close to the old system as far a 100% operation 100% of the time. I've never known me to lose a mobile phone signal in the house.

I've been mulling dropping the entire landline/FTTP as we now have 5G here with 230MBPs. Been testing it for about a month with some cheap Zyxel 5G routers and it's rock solid. I have 900MBPs with Vodafone FTTP and it struggles with 2160p60 content on YouTube as they seem to throttle YouTube (virtually no buffer can build up). No problem with 5G Vodafone SIMs.

Copper landline is dead and the people who thought it was a great idea to replace it obviously only seen a landline when they visited their grannies in the 1980s.