Phone line cancellation, but move to VoIP?

[#1]

Hi All, posting this here as the FTTP trial forum was so helpful to me in the past, and there's likely to be people who've also moved away from copper line here!

We moved onto FTTP last year but kept the copper line valid, along with our POTS type phone. Problems during setup....not PlusNet's fault....left us feeling like losing the copper line was a bit too risky.

Here we are in 2019 and the FTTP line is working fine and fully stable. We still use our landline phone a little, but is it really enough to warrant the £27 per month bill? Probably not. We live in a complete mobile phone not-spot so can't rely on mobiles for communication.

Can anyone advise how VoIP would work for us if we binned the copper line? Can we keep the old phone number? Does a VoIP phone still interact with the old POTS service of our friends and family in the same way? What's the billing like from PlusNet to provie a VoIP service?

Thanks in advance  

[#2]

@FxAxF 

Never used VoIP so can't comment on service.

PlusNet don't provide VoIP so you have to choose a supplier. Ask them to port your number and let them contact PlusNet. Make sure you post on here so the change can be monitored by a FTTP trained staff member.

 Actual VoIP service depends on how you set up. Vonage and SipGate are two providers I know of - there are others. I mention these two as there are Help guides available here  www.b4rn.org.uk/resources/

B4RN are a FTTP supplier so ignore any references to their equipment.

Brian

[#3]

Good resource, thanks Bri.

I'm at the point of debating a move from Samsung to....*shudder*...iPhone just so I could make use of voice over WiFi. The mobile signal where we live is atrocious so we can't rely on mobile phone signal following the removal of the copper line. VoIP could be a strong contender to replace if the quality/transfer is as good and easy as I hope.

[#4]

. VoIP could be a strong contender to replace if the quality/transfer is as good and easy as I hope.

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@FxAxF  as long as you have a good internet connection with reasonable speed and low latency then voip quality is at least as good as pstn. For example I converted our office pbx to voip a couple of years ago with no problems using a fttc connection giving about 60Mb download. Your fttp connection should be better than most fttc connections and so I wouldn't foresee any problems.

If you want a monthly call plan then as @bmc says Vonage are a good option. If you want payg then sipgate basic is worth a look and is free to setup ( apart from porting your number )

Andrew's and Arnold https://www.aa.net.uk/voice-and-mobile/voip-information/ are also worth a look but charge £1.20/month. I actually use them for incoming calls to the office pbx , mainly because they can provide multiple incoming numbers. I use localphone https://www.localphone.com/prices for outgoing calls since they are about 1/2 the price of a&a and vonage

You'll need some equipment to provide voip, either an ata into which a conventional phone is plugged OR a separate voip phone ( I would recommend the gigaset dect phones )

Shout up if you have any questions...

[#5]

@FxAxF 

A minor point but I didn't recommend any service as I have no experience of VoIP. The guides I reference have (at least the Vonage one does) diagrams to show how the system works.

Any FTTP connection should be good enough for VoIP. I read last week that OpenReach are prepping a 0.5 download service for FTTP. YES, you read that correctly - 0.5

The reason - so they can provide a phone service only using VoIP on FTTP where no copper lines are available.

The one thing you have to watch out for is the transfer of your phone number and closure of your copper service on PlusNet doesn't result in you losing your PlusNet FTTP service. Because it's a Trial product it's not integrated with their back office systems. Hence the need to attraction the attention of a FTTP trained member of staff to monitor things if you go ahead (not looking at anyone @Gandalf)

Brian

[#6]

@FxAxF 

A couple of other things have come to mind about cancelling your phone line.

PlusNet have a £2.50 surcharge for Internet only.

At least they do at the moment. On 3rd December (I think that's the date) they are going to stop offering Internet only products. Hopefully this won't affect you as your on the FTTP Trial but @Gandalf would be able to confirm.

Brian

[#7]

Hi @FxAxF I'm firstly happy to see your FTTP service is working well. If I recall correctly it took many emotional months for us to provision this for you - most of the time I took this on personally. 

I can't help with your query about how VoIP works, but if you were to go down the path of just getting FTTP only with us, we'd charge a broadband only surcharge of £2.50 more on top of the cost for the fibre service.

Drop me a PM if/when you place an order with your chosen VoIP provider and I'll be happy to keep an eye on it to make sure your account doesn't cancel down during the process and the billing runs smoothly. 

[#8]

Thanks @Gandalf , you have always been more helpful than was often necessary!

We're discussing this at home and for now we will probably stay on copper as well. But it's good to get all the details to help us make an informed decision

Thanks to @bmc and @MisterW as well, of course.

[#9]

@FxAxF wrote:

Thanks @Gandalf , you have always been more helpful than was often necessary!

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No problem, my work here is done. 

We're discussing this at home and for now we will probably stay on copper as well. But it's good to get all the details to help us make an informed decision

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Cool, sounds good. If you do go ahead don’t forget to drop me a message, so I/we can make sure nothing bad happens, I don’t want my hard work and effort being undone after all. 

Seriously though, always happy to help.

[#10]

For information and a good alternative from my point of view.

I cancelled my landline about 4 years ago and decided my best option was to use Wi-Fi Calling which EE were offering for contract mobiles.

I started with a Lumia 640, then after 2 years a Huawei P10 Lite and now a Samsung S10e. In 2 years I think I am going to keep the Samsung but change provider.

It works very well and only a couple of times I have lost connections on calls when the mobile signal is lost and the phone connects to Wi-Fi Calling, but that has only happened because I was moving between rooms.

It even connects when I am visiting other people’s houses when I am connected to their Wi-Fi.

Regards

Howard

[#11]

I was in a similar situation when I first signed up for the Plusnet FTTP trial in Milton Keynes a few years ago.

I chose the fibre broadband-only option and ditched the copper landline.

I use Vonage as the VOIP provider.

It was originally only about £8.50/month. Since then the price has crept up. The latest increase means it's now £10.25.

You get a small adapter box that plugs into your router so you can continue to use your existing DECT phone.

You can keep your old phone number if you want.

You get free caller id, a voicemail service, free unlimited calls to Uk landlines. 1471 works the same way as with a BT landline. Calls to mobiles are cheaper than a normal landline.

The only issues I've had are:-

* Voice calls are often noisy. I've never worked out why this is. The BT DECT phone I use was fine when it was used over a normal copper landline. It seems to pick up interference when used with the VOIP adapter.

* I have had a problem where I could make outgoing calls but was not receiving any incoming calls. I was unaware of the issue for several days. The adapter needed to be power cycled to recover. This has only happened once so far.

* When you use 1471, the  recorded message reads back the number so quickly that it's really difficult to note down the number. I've complained about this but it's still unchanged.

* Incoming calls have the '44' prefix. That means you may have to change all the stored numbers in your DECT phone if you want use features that depend on the caller id such as customised ring tones.