Most BB deals no longer include phone

forgotmyname

Is it easy to switch whilst keeping the same phone number?  I keep finding disgrutled posts on various forums where the switch did not
go smoothly. Some even lost their number,  some reported they got it back after a couple of days but some lost it completely.

Plusnet here and our contract is almost up so looking for faster fibre 300/500 ish and would like to keep the landline but we don't
use it much to pay a lot extra.  A few family members and the doctors etc always seem to phone the landline though.

400ixl

Plusnet don't offer a digital voice service so moving to one of their FTTP services will mean not having a landline.

Most of the problems switching landlines you will find relate to the the bottom dwellers of ISP's such as Vodafone, Shell, TalkTalk.

You could move the phone line to a VOIP provider like Arnold&Arnold for a small monthly fee.

ButtersUK

400ixl said:

Plusnet don't offer a digital voice service so moving to one of their FTTP services will mean not having a landline.

Most of the problems switching landlines you will find relate to the the bottom dwellers of ISP's such as Vodafone, Shell, TalkTalk.

"You could move the phone line to a VOIP provider like Arnold&Arnold for a small monthly fee."

You certainly could.  That's what I did a month or so ago.  Once it's up and running it's absolutely fine.

You have to "port" your existing landline number away from whoever it's with... over to Andrews and Arnold (AAISP as they're otherwise known) ... that'll cost you £12. And when it's working it'll cost you £1.44 a month. Calls are extra at about 1.5p per minute.

I won't pretend it's a simple "plug and play" .... you have to configure the settings and passwords with AAISP but the wonderful thing about them is their one to one customer service. It's literally the best in the business. You ringthem and someone answers straight away and will talk you through the set up.

I recommend them wholeheartedly.  You could also do a lot worse than to get your broadband from them too, but that's a different topic.

brewerdave

ButtersUK said:

400ixl said:

Plusnet don't offer a digital voice service so moving to one of their FTTP services will mean not having a landline.

Most of the problems switching landlines you will find relate to the the bottom dwellers of ISP's such as Vodafone, Shell, TalkTalk.

"You could move the phone line to a VOIP provider like Arnold&Arnold for a small monthly fee."

You certainly could.  That's what I did a month or so ago.  Once it's up and running it's absolutely fine.

You have to "port" your existing landline number away from whoever it's with... over to Andrews and Arnold (AAISP as they're otherwise known) ... that'll cost you £12. And when it's working it'll cost you £1.44 a month. Calls are extra at about 1.5p per minute.

I won't pretend it's a simple "plug and play" .... you have to configure the settings and passwords with AAISP but the wonderful thing about them is their one to one customer service. It's literally the best in the business. You ringthem and someone answers straight away and will talk you through the set up.

I recommend them wholeheartedly.  You could also do a lot worse than to get your broadband from them too, but that's a different topic.

You also need an ATA adapter to sit between the router and analog phone set. I'm just looking and that appears to add anything from £35 to £!20 depending how complex you want your phone system to be.

ButtersUK

brewerdave said:

ButtersUK said:

400ixl said:

Plusnet don't offer a digital voice service so moving to one of their FTTP services will mean not having a landline.

Most of the problems switching landlines you will find relate to the the bottom dwellers of ISP's such as Vodafone, Shell, TalkTalk.

"You could move the phone line to a VOIP provider like Arnold&Arnold for a small monthly fee."

You certainly could.  That's what I did a month or so ago.  Once it's up and running it's absolutely fine.

You have to "port" your existing landline number away from whoever it's with... over to Andrews and Arnold (AAISP as they're otherwise known) ... that'll cost you £12. And when it's working it'll cost you £1.44 a month. Calls are extra at about 1.5p per minute.

I won't pretend it's a simple "plug and play" .... you have to configure the settings and passwords with AAISP but the wonderful thing about them is their one to one customer service. It's literally the best in the business. You ringthem and someone answers straight away and will talk you through the set up.

I recommend them wholeheartedly.  You could also do a lot worse than to get your broadband from them too, but that's a different topic.

You also need an ATA adapter to sit between the router and analog phone set. I'm just looking and that appears to add anything from £35 to £!20 depending how complex you want your phone system to be.

Not necessarily. I don't have a separate ATA. I have a TPLink VX230 router which has a green phone port at the back into which I have plugged my DECT phone base (actually I use a two way splitter so that I can use a second old style analogue desk phone as well as the DECT cordless system). The router has its own, built in, equivalent of a separate ATA).

There are other routers that have the green FXS ports, although less than I would have expected given the move to VOIP now upon us .... the  Fritzbox routers do, as doTechnicolour routers, some of which have two in fact so a splitter wouldn't be needed to fit two analogue phones into the router.

Separate ATA adaptors like Grandstream and Cisco are, of course, a solution if there's no green FXS port but,  aren't obligatory - and some people find they're not perfect and sometimes introduce complications like an "echo". All this is well documented.

Silvertabby

We are with BT.  When we switched to full fibre recently our landline became VOIP - but same number, no fuss no muss.

ButtersUK

That's great for those who are happy to be with BT. Some are, some aren't. I agree that if it all goes smoothly the BT digital voice system can be fine. Although when I looked at the BT website, a moment ago, the monthly rental, without any calls included, is £30.20p a month plus a connection fee in certain circumstances. Perhaps existing customers get it at a different price..... I certainly hope so.  And their "calls included" plan is even more horrendous.

The fibre broadband price isn't exactly cheap either (and can go up a lot with the add-ons available) but the annoyance is their regular annual price increase every 31st March. A lot of the major players do the same thing though. It's the smaller ones that tend not to. It pays to do some homework.

My mate was with BT for broadband and home phone until recently and he was paying eye watering prices without really realising just how much it was costing him. He and I spoke and he has switched now and is saving bucket loads.

When I was with them and tried to contact someone suitably well informed in customer services I was led a merry dance and taken all round the globe only to return to where I started an hour later.

No, I'm afraid they're not for me.

Silvertabby

ButtersUK said:

That's great for those who are happy to be with BT. Some are, some aren't. I agree that if it all goes smoothly the BT digital voice system can be fine. Although when I looked at the BT website, a moment ago, the monthly rental, without any calls included, is £30.20p a month plus a connection fee in certain circumstances. Perhaps existing customers get it at a different price..... I certainly hope so.  And their "calls included" plan is even more horrendous.

The fibre broadband price isn't exactly cheap either (and can go up a lot with the add-ons available) but the annoyance is their regular annual price increase every 31st March. A lot of the major players do the same thing though. It's the smaller ones that tend not to. It pays to do some homework.

My mate was with BT for broadband and home phone until recently and he was paying eye watering prices without really realising just how much it was costing him. He and I spoke and he has switched now and is saving bucket loads.

When I was with them and tried to contact someone suitably well informed in customer services I was led a merry dance and taken all round the globe only to return to where I started an hour later.

No, I'm afraid they're not for me.

I expect we could get cheaper - but BT works for us, whereas neighbours with other providers seem to have no end of trouble.  

ButtersUK

Point taken. 

We all know that years ago none of us had a choice who to get our phone line with. I used to work for them many years ago and things were so, so different.

Round my way the neighbours that I've spoken to and who use BT are happy enough, and conversely the ones who use other companies don't complain once everything is installed and settled.

From my own experience the only two companies that I would be happy to provide broadband (we do have FTTP in the street now) are Idnet and Andrews & Arnold. Neither are the cheapest but I do like to know that both will answer the phone from a UK base and both will help me out if I get stuck.  They're both smallish companies but both offer excellent service. Andrews and Arnold technical staff are absolute geniuses but will be gentle with those, like me, when aren't as clever as them.
Anyway, that's enough.

brewerdave

ButtersUK said:

brewerdave said:

ButtersUK said:

400ixl said:

Plusnet don't offer a digital voice service so moving to one of their FTTP services will mean not having a landline.

Most of the problems switching landlines you will find relate to the the bottom dwellers of ISP's such as Vodafone, Shell, TalkTalk.

"You could move the phone line to a VOIP provider like Arnold&Arnold for a small monthly fee."

Not necessarily. I don't have a separate ATA. I have a TPLink VX230 router which has a green phone port at the back into which I have plugged my DECT phone base (actually I use a two way splitter so that I can use a second old style analogue desk phone as well as the DECT cordless system). The router has its own, built in, equivalent of a separate ATA).

There are other routers that have the green FXS ports, although less than I would have expected given the move to VOIP now upon us .... the  Fritzbox routers do, as doTechnicolour routers, some of which have two in fact so a splitter wouldn't be needed to fit two analogue phones into the router.

Separate ATA adaptors like Grandstream and Cisco are, of course, a solution if there's no green FXS port but,  aren't obligatory - and some people find they're not perfect and sometimes introduce complications like an "echo". All this is well documented.

Thanks for that; however the OP was with Plusnet so I assumed he would be using the "free" PN Hub 2 router..
I have just switched to FTTP from FTTC with Plusnet (good price offered) - am still considering whether I need to keep my landline number of 40 years - looking at routers with built in ATA as you have suggested ,seems a more expensive option than a stand alone ATA with my installed Hub 2.