FTTP & VOIP

[#1]

I've recently migrated from FTTC + landline to FTTP. I just wanted to share my experience with porting my phone number to a VOIP provider (Andrews & Arnold), since it wasn't straightforward and this may be of help to other Plusnet users in the same situation.

Before FTTP installation, I registered an account with A&A.

On the day of installation after it was confirmed operational, I requested a number port with A&A by giving them the phone number, Plusnet account number and confirmed the address.

The first 2 port requests were rejected since the number had already been ceased and placed in quarantine. I had to wait 14 days for Plusnet to make the number available for porting (confirmed in a support call with Plusnet). After this time, a third port request was successful, and I am now waiting a further 7 days for the porting to complete.

This was all slightly confusing, since I understood that the purpose of quarantine was to allow a port request *during* the quarantine period, but this is not how it actually was in my case, and there was no guarantee that the number would actually be available to port *after* the quarantine period - but very likely to succeed as long as one was quick about it.

So all in all it has taken nearly a month to port a landline to VOIP without losing the old number - which may be inconvenient for some.

As an aside, A&A's support has so far been excellent and communicative.

[#2]

I had to wait 14 days for Plusnet to make the number available for porting (confirmed in a support call with Plusnet).

@rflitcroft Thanks for sharing you experience. I'm sorry but you were given incorrect information. That was the old quarantine mechanism, since the 'right to port' regulations, the number is immediately quarantined and available for port for 30 days. The issue is that automated porting systems often fail in these situations and manual porting is required by the gaining provider.

For information, Plusnet are not involved in the number porting process as its handled by the BT group porting team. Its been fed back to the PN management that sometimes information regarding the porting process, supplied by support agents, is not correct and this is being addressed.

[#3]

Thanks @MisterW . This was why I was confused, since my understanding of the quarantine was as you describe. Yet port requests 1 & 2 (a few days after cessation) failed and the third (after 14 days) succeeded - perhaps coincidence.

This was from Plusnet following a phone call and, as you say, is not gospel:

Dear Dr XXXXXXX,

Thank you for your call.

Your number is currently in quarantine for 2 weeks. It should become available to port over on 29/12/23.

Have a nice Christmas!

Kind regards,

[#4]

Yet port requests 1 & 2 (a few days after cessation) failed and the third (after 14 days) succeeded - perhaps coincidence.

@rflitcroft my guess (and its just a guess!) is that on the third attempt, A & A contacted the porting helpdesk and manually requested the port.

This was from Plusnet following a phone call and, as you say, is not gospel:

AIUI it's just plain wrong! Under the old system, the number would be retained 'on-hold' by the losing CP for 14 days, and then returned to the rangeholder(RH) to be quarantined. Under the new system it is immediately returned to the RH for quarantine and the RH is obliged to accept port requests for up to 30 days by another CP on behalf of the original 'owner' of the number.

Problem is that suppliers have not modified their automated systems to cope with this new system (not unreasonable since they are all in the middle of moving to the One-touch-switch process which Ofcom has dictated!) , so the automated process gets a 'not active' status for the number and fail the port. Once manual interaction between the porting helpdesks is undertaken then the port is confirmed.

[#5]

@MisterW That makes perfect sense. And IIRC, "Not Active" was the error message reported by A&A in the first 2 (failed) port requests.

[#6]

@rflitcroft  on your other post I notice that you lost your static IP , what happened there ? and have you got it back ?

I've changed products many times and still have the same static IP from the early dial-up days. There was a temporary problem around a year or so ago whereby accounts reverted to dynamic during a change from an 'fttp trial' account to a Full Fibre product. However, the static was still attached to the account and once the problem was resolved, the static IP was retained.

[#7]

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@MisterW wrote:

on your other post I notice that you lost your static IP , what happened there ? and have you got it back ?

I just paid the £5 for another one - not like me but I just couldn't be bothered to spend any time on it, and the only place it is used is on a corporate whitelist for which I am the administrator(!).

It was odd, since on first connection via FTTP I had my old static 212.xxx.xxx.xxx IP. After subsequent reboots I noticed the IP address was changing.

[#8]

Very strange!

I just paid the £5 for another one

Did you just do that online ? AFAIK the online process is broken and you would have needed to call in, in which case I would have expected any agent to waive the fee.

and the only place it is used is on a corporate whitelist for which I am the administrator(!).

Similar to me, mine is configured into the company PBX firewall to allow my IP phone to connect from home. Whilst I can access the PBX via VPN to change it, its a little bit of a pain...

[#9]

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@MisterW wrote:

Very strange!

I just paid the £5 for another one

Did you just do that online ?

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Yes, and it just worked (this would have been about 14th December). Shame, since it cost me the price of a pint. Oh well.