FTTP and Residential number porting

[#1]

Most , though not all, ISPs use Openreach one way or another. There has been, for a long time, companies that would offer just fibre, but most people require a phone and if you have low cost fibre or with a provider that unbundled at the exchange to use that. It has been known for some time that telephony was going digital and fibre. In other words VoIP. BT was one of the few companies that would offer a seperate phone line without broadband, and as they are going full fibre to the best of my knowledge the telephony side to the average domestic or SME will disappear. I was running VoIP from around 2004 over either fibre or local unbundled sevices depending on the time period and one of the benefits was being able to run computer networks and VoIP over the same infrastructure. I don't think that citizens and SMEs are any different and to those they still want a phone system that works and many will have little knowledge of computer and telephony systems. They just want to be able to plug their, hopefully existing phone, in and without the hassle of changed numbers. The way that BT and OR has handled the rollo ut relating to telephony used for health systems, security, etc and advising people of the implications has been bad. Most people are used to the phone working even during blackouts as the power for phones was generated by BT with UPS support. If people want the same level of service during a blackout etc then some form of integral battery backup must be integrated or the router etc connected to a local UPS. However i digress from number porting.

[#2]

We’ve had a DECT phone for years like many people, that stops working with a power cut anyway due to the base station needing power.

[#3]

So have I but not everybody has a DECT phone. There are still those with normal phones, I have a couple for emergencies, but that does not get over the issues mentioned.

[#4]

There's no issue with VoIP over copper as long as it's digital; fibre is just better. Did your neighbour keep their existing number?

[#5]

@Total_Chaos 

Assuming you are responding to my post then yes. She just couldn’t understand why her extension no longer worked. No-one is talking about this at the moment but it’s a real issue, especially if the extension is wired in to a filtered master socket. Even with a loose.extension lead, such is the design of the hub you can’t plug in a one to two output phone socket adapter.

I persuaded her to take the easy option, abandon the wired extension and ancient wired phones and buy a new dual handset cordless phone with modern features 

[#6]

I am following this thread with interest, as I am in the same boat.

Where I moving to doesn't have cable as Branson Media hasn't been installed down here, but it looks like FTTP has as a pavement cover has appeared with a BT Openreach logo on it.

I don't like the risk of losing the landline number as this place has had it for 30+ years, so to lose it would be a massive pain. I haven't read the entire thread but some of the suggestions here seem like hacks rather than actual solutions.

There will be three of us using the internet so I will see how it is on our current connection, I don't want to chance it of using a hack in case I make a mistake (and knowing me I probably will). Shame our good old country can't roll anything out correctly.

If our internet is slow I will switch to using my phone as a mobile hotspot, as I have changed my mobile tariff to unlimted data. So I don't need to worry about that now.

Still a hack, but less of a one I suppose.

When I get a bit more money I may consider cancelling FTTC off the current line, keeping the existing landline with the number and maybe getting another landline just for FTTP

Shame with BT you can't seem to sign up for anything without it being a 2 year minimum contract. Shame no-one in charge realises they are not good (are for them, but not for the customer) and it puts a lot of people off. Shame no-one there studied Business Studies. Oh well.

[#7]

Hello all

After ordering a NEW full fibre install and selecting “keep existing line” I can confirm Kelly communications (openreach subcontractors) are already here installing the cable.

I checked with him and he is leaving the copper cable in place all the way down the drive to our house.

Our install date is 28/9/22 when the internal work will be completed.

(Not sure what happens in that 3 weeks for people having upgrades, maybe they always keep both until the install)

[#8]

This is the box you get and second photo shows both lines

[#9]

---

@FlossyThePig wrote:

Well, I've got three months left on my current FTTC contract. I don't want to "play the system" to get FTTP and retain my landline number which will allow me to port it to a VOIP provider.

I could move to BT but I object to having to pay £5 / month for Digital Voice and call charges based on the current landline charges. Who knows if I can port my number From BT during a new 24 month contract and stop paying the DV surcharge.

How many accounts will PN lose because they haven't considered people who actually use a number they have had for many years. How many new accounts will they fail to get because of their proposed solution to retaining a landline number.

So, for me, I have three months to find an ISP who can offer what I want, or PN gets its act together and provides a simple solution to upgrading with the option to port my landline number (or a reasonably priced DV feature).

---

@FlossyThePig  Agreed. The current PN FTTP 'rules' just leave me with two undesirable or unacceptable routes to 'upgrade' to PN FTTP from PN FTTC:

1. Go the upgrade route, keep email / webspace / static IP / etc, but lose the landline number that I've had for 30 years 👎

2. Go with FTTP as a new customer, then port out the landline number afterwards before cancelling my FTTC. But I'd lose the email, webspace and static IP that I've had with PN for the last 19 years 👎

I could go with another ISP for FTTP but that's not really better than option 2 above. This is really disappointing from PN, they really need to provide an 'official' way to port the landline number out when upgrading to FTTP. Like you I don't fancy taking the risk like the one person who has managed to unofficially port out his number.

[#10]

---

@FlossyThePig wrote:

Well, I've got three months left on my current FTTC contract. I don't want to "play the system" to get FTTP and retain my landline number which will allow me to port it to a VOIP provider.

I could move to BT but I object to having to pay £5 / month for Digital Voice and call charges based on the current landline charges. Who knows if I can port my number From BT during a new 24 month contract and stop paying the DV surcharge.

How many accounts will PN lose because they haven't considered people who actually use a number they have had for many years. How many new accounts will they fail to get because of their proposed solution to retaining a landline number.

So, for me, I have three months to find an ISP who can offer what I want, or PN gets its act together and provides a simple solution to upgrading with the option to port my landline number (or a reasonably priced DV feature).

---

@FlossyThePig  Agreed. The current PN FTTP 'rules' just leave me with two undesirable or unacceptable routes to 'upgrade' to PN FTTP from PN FTTC:

1. Go the upgrade route, keep email / webspace / static IP / etc, but lose the landline number that I've had for 30 years 👎

2. Go with FTTP as a new customer, then port out the landline number afterwards before cancelling my FTTC. But I'd lose the email, webspace and static IP that I've had with PN for the last 19 years 👎

I could go with another ISP for FTTP but that's not really better than option 2 above. This is really disappointing from PN, they really need to provide an 'official' way to port the landline number out when upgrading to FTTP. Like you I don't fancy taking the risk like the one person who has managed to unofficially port out his number.

[#11]

---

@ukguy1 wrote:
I think the thing to remember is plusnet fttc is £20 ish line +£20 ish fibre.
When on contract the deal is more like £5 fibre so £25 total

Full fibre is a similar price without the line, around £25

Bt and zen have digital voice
Sky include the landline
They are £35-40

If plusnet included digital voice as an option then they’d be on the same price level.
So I think bt are pitching plusnet as a budget supplier like they do with mobile.

Also we get a free static ip (one off £5) so it’s great value. With digital voice I’m sure they’d steal bt customers…. Hence why no digital voice

---

@ukguy1 Speaking personally here, but I don't need or particularly want a VOIP service from PN, and I have no issue with PN being positioned as a lower cost alternative to BT (nor would I disagree that they are good value for FTTP).

All I need is an official way to port my landline number out to another VOIP provider when upgrading from FTTC to FTTP. Thus allowing me to keep my landline number as well as the email / webspace / static IP that I've had with PN for nearly 20 years. Not too much to ask surely? 🤔

I'm glad PN have been able to provide a solution that works for you, but (see my last post above) they don't appear to have one that works for me unfortunately ☹️

[#12]

@madgav 

yeah I also lose the ip etc I’ve had for 20 years. I will have to update loads of stuff.

However, keeping the number is more important.

With email, it’s always a good idea to keep that separate from an isp but I know plusnets other services go back over 15 years or more.

(I have a web hosting company too so luckily always hosted my own email)

I agree, there should be a way of keeping the number with migrations. The solution would be a temporary renumber on port or whatever ee they call it. Plusnet don’t use the system though.

Hopefully you find a way though but I think you’ll have to lose something either way unfortunately.

[#13]

@ukguy1  Incredible in this day & age but that's certainly how it looks at the moment, which is why I've hit the pause button on this.

To be fair I can live with a change of static ip although there is a small amount of hassle with that.

I have email forwarding with my domains at 123-reg, so could always add more gmail (or whatever) email addresses to forward to at no extra cost. Again a small amount of hassle with that.

Webspace would require a paid-for solution and I'm not keen on having to pay extra for hosting my small personal web site. Also this would potentially involve a fair bit of effort and possibly grief transferring everything over including cgi stuff.

The landline number I was initially not fussed about, but on reflection I really want to keep it. But I'd like to keep it by migrating to VOIP provider as I don't want to continue paying £23 pm line rental for it!

So it doesn't seem much of an upgrade to me when I have to choose what I want to lose. Which is why I'm going to sit on this for a bit on the hope that PN can come up with a workable solution.

One thing this has shown me is that bundling everything with one provider is perhaps not such a good idea. If I hadn't moved my landline over to PN some years ago I wouldn't have this issue.

[#14]

---

@madgav wrote:

... ... If I hadn't moved my landline over to PN some years ago I wouldn't have this issue.

---

Nope, that wouldn't have made a difference either !

I have FTTC with Plusnet and my phone landline with Pulse8,  and therefore asked the question, what would happen in my scenario ?, and got the following response -

---

@Gandalf wrote:

@Nibiru wrote:

@Gandalf  While you are checking,  what would be the scenario for me ?

I have Plusnet FTTC (broadband only), but copper landline and calls from another supplier.

Would upgrading my Plusnet FTTC account to FTTP cause a cease on my non-Plusnet copper phone connection ?

Hey all, I'm really sorry, I've just had clarification that this actually would lead to the phone line supplied by the other provider to be ceased. Due to the way we process our FTTP orders, a "change of retailer" cease is triggered against the voice line, as it's currently the way we'd make sure the upgrade completes without cancelling the account.

---

.

[#15]

@Anonymous  Thanks, but I was assuming I would port the number out to a VOIP provider prior to ordering the upgrade to FTTP?

Not that this helps me much anyway.....🙄

[#16]

Porting the number out BEFORE ordering will terminate the Service kysnet account, losing email, web / domain hosting and referrals if you have them.