topic Re: Land Line - Switch To Digital in Home Phone

Land Line - Switch To Digital

DerekW — Thu, 04 Sep 2025 10:42:38 GMT

HI All,

With my move to full fibre approaching my current landline will be no more.

I won't miss it to be honest as I use my mobile exclusively for making and receiving calls, in fact I don't even have a telephone plugged into my socket.

However there are a few services I use/have used that require you to have a landline, with this in mind I am thinking about maybe signing up to a digital/VoIP telephone provider for just those occasions.

So my question is who do people recommend/use for their digital telephone service?

I have seen A&A mentioned?

Any thoughts, advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,

Derek

Re: Land Line - Switch To Digital

bmc — Thu, 04 Sep 2025 11:11:22 GMT

@DerekW

A&A at £15 fo the port and £1.44 is good value.

It appears you don't need to use a landline to call these services that need the number. As such you can set A&A to send all incoming calls to Voicemail and receive an email with the message.

Brian

Re: Land Line - Switch To Digital

DerekW — Thu, 04 Sep 2025 11:27:04 GMT

@bmc A&A look promising.

I am thinking of getting a new number and not bothering with the porting process.

Re: Land Line - Switch To Digital

pjmarsh — Thu, 04 Sep 2025 11:28:02 GMT

I too would recommend A&A's VOIP service. Depending on what those services that require a landline, do you need to keep the same number? If not, then A&A can supply you a new number, which is cheaper than porting your own number in. It may also be possible to replace the services that use the landline with versions that work over the internet on their own rather than via a phone. If you post what those are, someone may be able to point you to ways around it.

Edit: You were typing a bit faster than me about the new number!

Re: Land Line - Switch To Digital

DerekW — Thu, 04 Sep 2025 11:36:06 GMT

@pjmarsh no worries 😊

I have just once company I deal with that insists I have a landline number listed in the account details, no biggy to change that to a new one.

Only had one or two others insist on a landline number in the past.

Re: Land Line - Switch To Digital

bmc — Thu, 04 Sep 2025 11:51:44 GMT

@DerekW

Out of interest have you tried your mobile number in the "landlne" box for the account details. I did that with PN when I gave up my landline.

Brian

Re: Land Line - Switch To Digital

outcast — Thu, 04 Sep 2025 11:53:43 GMT

I've been using (other) VoIP since 2013, so already had a well tested setup, and knew what to expect.

In 2023 I migrated my landline number to A&A, the process was quick and painless, the connection instantly synchronised, and the service has been perfect ever since.

Other than faultless operation, comprehensive online guides, and being inexpensive,

the best feature is being emailed answerphone messages and recordings of ALL calls.

My only niggle, is that I wish they had some sort of blacklisting to block repeated SPAM marketers, but not many VoIP providers have that facility.

I would unreservedly recommend A&A VoIP, my second choice would probably be Voipfone.

Re: Land Line - Switch To Digital

DerekW — Thu, 04 Sep 2025 12:16:52 GMT

@bmc That would be my normal default, input my mobile... This one company though 🙄

Re: Land Line - Switch To Digital

mystreet1 — Thu, 04 Sep 2025 15:11:34 GMT

What do they do for customer who now don't have a landline, or who only know about them from history books and old films.

Re: Land Line - Switch To Digital

pvmb — Tue, 09 Sep 2025 19:20:33 GMT

@DerekW wrote:

@bmc That would be my normal default, input my mobile... This one company though 🙄

Time to change the company?

Re: Land Line - Switch To Digital

DerekW — Wed, 15 Oct 2025 13:00:07 GMT

Thought I would reply to this instead of starting a new topic...

I am in the process of ordering VOIP services from Andrews and Arnold and have got to the "payment" section and this is where I have stalled.

They have listed there bank details and are asking me to pay via bank transfer and then let them know before they will process my order - I am not comfortable with this.

Normally a company would use some kind of payment processor where you input your details etc. and take payment, this then offers you a level of protection.

Just sending your money via bank transfer offers you no protection.

Has anyone else used A&A and paid this way, via bank transfer?

Re: Land Line - Switch To Digital

RobPN — Wed, 15 Oct 2025 13:47:46 GMT

@DerekW wrote:

Has anyone else used A&A and paid this way, via bank transfer?

Yes. Although I was very slightly hesitant I went ahead and there were no problems at all.

I didn't need to let them know I'd paid, ISTR they let me know very quickly via email that I'd paid.

Edited to add quote

Re: Land Line - Switch To Digital

Townman — Wed, 15 Oct 2025 16:07:27 GMT

Interesting!

So no use to those who do not (for very good reasons) do on-line banking. Does anyone know what's their reasons for not taking card payments?

Re: Land Line - Switch To Digital

mystreet1 — Wed, 15 Oct 2025 16:28:23 GMT

I expect that the credit card fee is nearly more than the money taken monthly for the line rental. Sure that it is x% of the bill or x amount per transaction, whichever is the greatest

Re: Land Line - Switch To Digital

RobPN — Wed, 15 Oct 2025 16:28:49 GMT

@Townman

AFAIR there were alternative methods of payment, but which would add time to the processing of the order. Paying by bank transfer meant the order was processed almost immediately. They then use the bank details ascertained during sign-up to set up a direct debit (which I believe is compulsory).

Re: Land Line - Switch To Digital

DerekW — Wed, 15 Oct 2025 17:17:16 GMT

@Townman This the info they give: Paying by bank transfer

I have taken the plunge and ordered a new number and telephone system.

Lets see how this goes.

Re: Land Line - Switch To Digital

pjmarsh — Wed, 15 Oct 2025 21:36:12 GMT

@Townman wrote:

Interesting!

So no use to those who do not (for very good reasons) do on-line banking. Does anyone know what's their reasons for not taking card payments?

When I set up my elderly dads account with them a good while ago, I did the bank transfer from my own account as he doesn't do online banking. I had emails about them setting up the direct debit with my details, so I contacted them, and changed them to his quickly and easily.

As someone else has said as well, I'm sure there are other ways to pay it, but the bank transfer was the quickest. In my case, as I was sat with my mum and dad that evening, with the purpose of setting up the VOIP service, I decided to take the quickest way.

Re: Land Line - Switch To Digital

DerekW — Fri, 17 Oct 2025 10:35:55 GMT

The pre-configured telephone system from A&A should arrive tomorrow.

Hopefully it will be more on the "plug and play" side of things when it comes to connecting it all up

Re: Land Line - Switch To Digital

DerekW — Sat, 18 Oct 2025 12:54:17 GMT

Telephone system turned up at lunch time, all tested and working OK - was indeed a simple plug and play set up as it came pre-configured from A&A

Re: Land Line - Switch To Digital

rhardwick — Sat, 01 Nov 2025 22:38:04 GMT

May I jump onto this thread to ask my question?

I want to transfer my landline number to A&A - before changing my Plusnet contract to Broadband only.

When I attempted to port the number on the A&A website it offered me the 'Option' of using the "One Touch Switching" process.

(I say an option, but there seem to be no alternatives.)

I did this and it said it would raise the following TWO orders:

a) An order Transfer the telephone number to A&A - this is perfectly OK. BUT it also says

b) An order to cease my broadband connection with Plusnet NO NO NO!

I also got an automated call on the landline saying Plusnet were terribly sorry I was leaving them - and did I realise there would be a charge for leaving in mid contract?.

I stopped at that point since this is not what I want.

Can anyone tell me how I can transfer the telephone number without killing off my broadband contract with Plusnet?