Should I upgrade to FTTP & SIP phone?

[#1]

I'm currently on FTTC and have been since it was first made available to my area well over a decade ago.

My current speed is: 50Mb down & 20Mb up, with a static IP address (on a domestic connection)

I still have & use my phone. I'm old school and have had the same number since 1983.

I currently pay (April 2024) £57.44 and thats for unlimited broadband & phone line (only used for incoming calls).

I'm thinking of upgrading to either 500Mb or 900Mb speed with FTTP

That would obviously mean I'd lose my old land line.

Therefore I was thinking of going for a SIP line, but I don't know what would be my options there.

I use my own Dratyek router (Too many restrictions on ISP supplied devices) and I believe I would need to buy a sip phone, although I already have a Yealink SIP phone, which I could maybe use in my home office and then install a soft phone on the mobiles.

I dont 'NEED' the extra speed but it would be good to have it.

Is my thought process for upgrading reasonable?

Would I be getting a 'better deal' entering into a new contract with better performance?

Are my options with the SIP phone realistic in being able to achieve this in a simple way?

Would I need to keep the broadbant & phone with Plusnet? (I like to keep things uncomplicated)

Would I be able to keep my static IP address the same?

I would have preferred to email Plusnet to ask all this, because i know it would be an absolute nightmare trying to ask this on the phone, because I can guarantee that the person I would be speaking to would definately not had all the answers on the 'answer sheet' in front of them.

[#2]

@_Larry_ 

If you're happy with 50 down then I suspect you really don't need 500 or 900. You could start with the basic speed (FF74) and if that's not enough jump to FF145 or FF300. PN will upgrade you at any time (new contract?) but downgrading can cost money. I've not checked recently but it was £24.99 for FF74.

You keep the same Static IP address.

You have 30 days to port your number when your landline is ceased. You don't do it before but ASAP after full fibre is up and running.

Don't know anything about SIP lines but A&A see to be a good choice for a VOIP account. Then tend to know what they're doing with ceased lines. See the following for details and costs.

https://www.aa.net.uk/voice-and-mobile/voip-information/

Brian

[#3]

@_Larry_ 

I recently did the fibre "upgrade" with Plusnet and ported my number to a VoIP provider (scheduled and implemented the next working day after the fibre upgrade was booked) and actually it all went well.

I went for the 145Mb/s fibre as the ever changing Plusnet offers for that service were reasonable the day I booked the upgrade.

You will probably be OK with your Draytek on one of the lower speed Plusnet services although it's worth checking the throughput on their website (the numbers given assume little in the way of configuration).

[#4]

Moderator's note:
Thread moved from Full Fibre to Everything Else

[#5]

@_Larry_ 

I use my own Dratyek router (Too many restrictions on ISP supplied devices)

Which model ?

and I believe I would need to buy a sip phone, although I already have a Yealink SIP phone, which I could maybe use in my home office and then install a soft phone on the mobiles.

If you plan to use multiple phones (or softphones) , check that your chosen SIP provider supports multiple registrations on a single number.

I dont 'NEED' the extra speed but it would be good to have it.

Bear in mind that you will struggle to achieve > 400Mb using a wireless connection unless your router and devices are Wifi 6 compatible.

[#6]

I did the equivalent move but from ADSL/POTS to FTTC/SOGEA which (as it will with you) involved a new drop cable into my house but only because of the way I chose to do it. (There were spare pairs in the overhead wires so an easy job)

As with you I've had the same number for many decades and it was almost exclusively incoming calls. I went to A&A as recommended by others, migrating the phone number once the FTTC broadband was working and I had the relevant kit (had to buy VOIP kit).

Oddly my old POTS line still has dial tone, with a different number assigned for presumably engineering purposes; you can't call in or out using it.

I made a significant saving by replacing my old line rental and calls package with A&A, despite the broadband price step-up. FTTC to FTTP may actually be the same price though, if so I'd go for it and save on the phone costs.

[#7]

@_Larry_   We moved to FTTP about 2 years ago and it's been great... we are on a Full Fibre 74 that replace our old 12M down / 1M up FTTC connection.   We don't need anything faster, the most we really use is about 25M down when streaming 2 x UHD channels (which isn't very often.)  But our old connection used to choke with a tv stream and a work zoom session going at the same time, and we used have issues with line quality because of the distance from the cabinet and proximity to the electrified train line.  We also used to get frequent speed drops when joints got wet from heavy rain.

We gave up on the landline and just use mobiles now, however I used to have a 2nd SIP line used for work but gave that up when I retired.

Migration from landline to SIP seems are reasonably well trodden path now, judging from other posts, so ought to be straight forward...

but if you're getting what you need from your current connection and it's reliable I'd think twice about changing - but it does sound like you need to renegotiate your costs (£57pm sounds quite expensive to me) .....

[#8]

Indeed £57pm is rather high, we were paying about £40pm in total on "out of contract" rates for 20mb ADSL (from PN) and BT phone with calls included. It's now about £30pm for FTTC and A&A.

Like most people, most of our actual phone calls are via mobile, the landline is mostly scam calls, just had one in fact from "your local energy advisors"! Supposedly BT filter scam calls whereas A&A don't/can't but I haven't noticed any change in type or frequency.

[#9]

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@HPsauce wrote:

... Supposedly BT filter scam calls whereas A&A don't/can't but I haven't noticed any change in type or frequency.

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Even though I use various SIP accounts for outgoing calls - with their CLI set to whichever 'owned' number suits for particular types of call - that's one of the reasons I haven't yet ported our BT number to VoIP.

[#10]

That's the one minor downside with A & A voip, they don't offer call blocking. My Sipgate voip at home does, and it will be a slight pain if I ever have to move to A & A. In the office, which does use A & A, its not a problem since the PBX does the call blocking.

Maybe I'll have to run a Freepbx system on my miniPC at home, just for the call blocking?

[#11]

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@MisterW wrote:

Maybe I'll have to run a Freepbx system on my miniPC at home, just for the call blocking?

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It might sound retrograde but I assume that there’s the option of using an ATA / analogue phone with a built in call blocker.

[#12]

I assume that there’s the option of using an ATA / analogue phone with a built in call blocker

@Baldrick1 there is but I already use a Gigaset N300 and DECT handsets since it can support multiple voip accounts and dial plans.

I also have a miniPC running Proxmox hipervisor for other things , so it would be relatively easy to add another VM running Freepbx and use that between the N300 and the SIP trunks.