FTTP and Residential number porting

[#1]

And trying to time an upgrade and port together is risky.
Upgrade first cancels number and line
Port first cancels line and upgrade

Hence why I’m doing a new full fibre install before a port, as an ip change is easier!
I will lose £3-4 of referrals too unfortunately.

But it gets me from 13 down 0.5 up to around 80 down, 20 up for just a few ££

[#2]

If that is the case then this is an even bigger mess than I thought. Although as I say it makes no difference to my situ.

Seems like I need to take some time and look again at all options before deciding how to proceed. Still hoping that if I hang off a bit some sort of solution can be provided......

[#3]

I've come new to this.
Local to me there's been a lot of digging up of roads and pavements, with the result that this morning we had a communication from Sky telling us we can now get Full Fibre.

I then checked PlusNet, with whom we've been customers since 2003, including a house move 11 years ago and found we could upgrade to Full Fibre (as I've learnt is the 'new' name for FTTP!) for a slightly lower cost than with Sky.

Goody, goody!

When I was reading about FTTP a couple of years back (when it wasn't widely available) and about copper lines being removed for the phone service, I saw that ISPs were sorting out a way to offer a phone service to existing customers, but reading the Full Fibre FAQ it appears that PlusNet aren't doing this.

Coming to this Forum I see that it gets more and more complicated, so I think I too will wait to see if anything happens.

When we first went onto FTTC, we were getting the full 70Mbps speed available, but with more and more people upgrading to it we're now 'only' getting 60Mbps according to our new Plusnet router. I'm hoping that enough people upgrade then we'll be back to our original speed! Current 2 years discounted contract runs till June 2024, so no real rush but it would benice to have a faster connection.

However, we've had the phone number for 11 years so a lot of people, services, and companies have it and it would be very time consuming letting everyone know that it would no longer be available and to decide whose mobile number to use instead. I hope PlusNet can find a solution that works for those whose landline is their preferred contact number!

[#4]

@Mad_Moggies I also joined PN in 2003 and have been a customer ever since, currently also on FTTC.

At first I thought I'd be fine with losing my landline, but that was at current £23 pm line rental cost. Since finding out that there are far far cheaper VOIP options available to keep the landline, I'm now much less willing to go through the hassle of losing it, especially since I have had my landline number for 30 years. I don't need or even want PN to provide a VOIP service themselves, just the means to keep the number by porting it elsewhere when upgrading to FTTP.

My understanding is that there is a work-around which is to sign up to PN FTTP as a new customer and then port your landline number to a VOIP supplier (terminating your FTTC account). Unfortunately if you have email, webspace or referrals with PN you will lose all of those by going down this route. You will also lost your static IP address, although another (likely different) static IP can be purchased for a one-off fee of £5.

As I say since I have all of the above there is, remarkably, no satisfactory solution to this for me other than to stay on FTTC. I am out of contract so ready to upgrade to FTTP anytime if this can be resolved.

[#5]

@madgav thanks. Yes, I was reading about that work-around, but it wouldn't suit us, as we have several different plusnet email addresses (including a domain name that we were given f.o.c. when there was some sort of security breach way back in the mists of time), some joint and some personal, so it would be even more hassle to change all those than changing our preferred contact phone number! I do have a static IP address too.

[#6]

Article in todays Guardian includes the sentence:

Most political plans go wrong either because unforeseen events get in the way or because wholly foreseeable events were ignored in the planning.

I think this could be paraphrased as PNs handling of landline numbers when upgrading to FTTP. How many existing customers and potential new customers are p....d off because there is no sensible solution?

[#7]

@FlossyThePig  I tend to agree. I thought when Plusnet introduced FTTP it was completely half baked without any consideration of the problems it would cause for existing customers and now it is available for new customers there are still issues that should have been foreseen. The porting of landline numbers being one of the main concerns.

[#8]

The utterly odd thing is that in the past, Plusnet ran a VOIP service as a trial, if they had kept it going could have been used for new signups, and current customers

[#9]

@pint Yes I was on the Plusnet VOIP trial, it was useful for daytime calls. I think it was stopped because it was costing Plusnet too much money as it wasn't actually supplied by Plusnet but by a third party VOIP provider called Gradwell who still exist but seem to be providing VOIP solutions for business now.

[#10]

@RealAleMadrid 

I'm fairly certain it was run by PN themselves to start with and only later contracted out to Gradwell.

I too found it very useful as the included minutes (240 per month in my case) could go a long way as the 'billing' was per second, so no rounding up to the next full minute for very short calls.

[#11]

@Mad_Moggies Ah so you're in the same situation as me then - albeit I also use PN webspace and have some referral discount

It seems there are quite a few of us that have been with PN for a long long time. I think it says something about both the product and the value for money - during the many months of both Mrs Gav and myself working from home (and kids likely streaming stuff at the same time) my internet didn't let me down once, which was definitely not the case for colleagues on other ISPs. Loss of email/webspace/IP/referrals aside, it's also because I've been a PN customer for so long I am that I'm not keen on going down the 'new customer' work-around route.

[#12]

It certainly was run by Gradwell and from memory even the PN one was. We had the ability to sign up for a Gradwell account even if for personal use though Gradwell no longer appear to offer that facility concentrating on Business accounts.

[#13]

What we folks fail to realise is that important decisions are now all made by the hip and the young who see no need for a “land line” voice service. This is very much seen as a demographic issue - everyone has a mobile phone - Yes? Everyone lives where’s there’s a steaming hot 5G network - Yes?

Look at the problem the “right” way and you can get any answer you want. It’s somewhat evident that young decision makers in the business have little care for the needs of mature users, or those living in the mobile not spot sticks.

Personally I’m not exactly in the sticks but the EE network around here is fairly naff! A landline remains highly desirable.

[#14]

Hi Townman,

Though I am in the senior age group myself I do use a mobile phone more than a landline. However where I live these days you only have to move a few hundred metres and you lose the signal and often it's only text that gets through. Sometimes you have to move around a few metres to be in and out of a signal. Vodafone is the best, O2 that I am on next, with the others down the list including EE. Then of course those in many UK locations that have no mobile signal so depend on the landline.

Most people forget that their landline is on the records of so many organisations like your doctors, the NHS, employers, clubs, etc. If I went through all the organisations that have mine it would probably reach 20 and there are still some that want to use a landline number and not a mobile. You would need to change your details on all of those. Then theres those that need to use them for devices associated with their medical conditions. Personally I can live without a landline though I do like my number, and I could set up an SIP connection if required but I do think that people should have had the opportunity of keeping the line or at least the number even if it was transferred to VOIP. And the fact that with FTTP that you lose the phone with power outages has also not been handled well though many using cordless phones will already be in this situation when the base station goes down.

[#15]

Im not in the senior group - but retention of my landline number is critical.

 My landline is the number that distant relatives, both elderly not so elderly and younger have and use to contact me should there be good news , bad news or an emergency

I left Plusnet after quite a few years (18)  for Now broadband for significant cost savings - which plusnet renewals refused to go anywhere near, with the plusnet renewals call centre  stating that plusnet are a premium top tier ISP hence the higher prices like it or lump it.

 My intention was to move back to Plusnet as their new customer prices seem reasonable ( if they still are reasonable), but now I'm in a so called copper stop sell area so any ISP / phone change will require a sign up to an FTTP service .

 I could port the number to a SIP service and then sign up to FTTP, but that seems a huge faff with more to go wrong  when i could sign up to an all inclusive package instead .

 At the moment the proposed / planned VOIP+FTTP service from talk talk looks promising, as opposed top the faff that porting to Voip/Sip then a sign up to  plusnet would be  should Now not offer a good retention deal when the time comes in about 6 months .

I also know someone who is 80 and they are on an out of contract price plusnet ADSL connection, for them the email address is absolutely vital, as is their landline - again in a copper stop sell and effectively trapped paying plusnet god knows how much more than they should be as they can not loose their landline and can not loose their email address