Moving from FTTC to FTTP, with fixed IP and porting out old number

[#1]

Just a bit of good news - I decided to trust the advice from this forum and bite the bullet, so upgraded from FTTC to FTTP. All went well - my new line was active by 9:30 in the morning, and my existing  fixed IP was active on the new full fibre line as soon as it was activated.  The day after installation, I  set up a VOIP account and requested a port of my landline number. That happened about a week later, and I now receive calls to my landline via a SIP client on my mobile.

Very happy with the transition - all very smooth. PN really seem to have got their act together.

Mike

[#2]

For information, which VOIP supplier did you use ?

There seems to have been problems with Sipgate porting non-live numbers whereas A & A were fine. It would be useful for others to have details of which suppliers were sucessfull

[#3]

I’m using A and A, and I’m using Zoiper as the SIP client on my Android 12 phone. 

Mike

[#4]

@Emseedee thanks for that, seems that A & A are (at the moment) the only provider we know will port a 'ceased' number correctly.

[#5]

@Emseedee 

Did you talk to A and A before you started the change, or did you wait until you could actually transfer the number?

Regards,

Alistair

[#6]

@Emseedee 

Excellent news on your upgrade, especially the port out.

Seems it is now possible with PN though you have to watch who you choose for your VOIP supplier.

Brian

[#7]

Didn't actually talk to A&A at all - just used their web site. You can start the process of porting a number on their website without having an account, and then you set up your account as part of the workflow. The only thing that almost caught me out was that once you have completed everything on the website, they send you an email asking for more information before they set up the port, and in my case that email went to spam. 

Mike

[#8]

Mike,

That's great news! I'm just about to trigger a similar process and had pretty much concluded that the only viable way to port my number out (other than telling Plusnet I'd like to switch to BT) was to switch to another provider who offer FTTP and VOIP (few decent options available), or get Plusnet to agree to install FTTP on a new account, then trigger the port out (which would also terminate my old FTTC account). 

After researching VOIP providers, A&A and Vonage were leading contenders, although A&A stood out for their technical capabilities and low monthly costs. I called them earlier (got straight through to a sensible person in the UK) and he advised that it's preferable to have an active line, although there is now the requirement to provide phone number porting for at least 30 days after the termination of a contract (unless the customer expressly agrees otherwise when ending their contract). 

So I'm going to ask Plusnet to confirm that they will honour a port out request after an upgrade, but I'd be interested in hearing about any other experiences of porting landline numbers to A&A, or about getting Plusnet to install new FTTP lines and keeping FTTC/landline account active for a period.

Thanks 

Tom 

[#9]

A & A successfully ported the number in this thread https://community.plus.net/t5/My-Order/Unable-to-port-landline-number-after-signing-up-to-Full-Fibre... where Sipgate failed. It does show that PN  honour any port request after the line has been ceased due to the upgrade.

It would appear in this case Sipgate never actually attempted the port due to the line being inactive, at least A & A know it is still possible to port a ceased line!

[#10]

When I placed my upgrade order, the PN agent didn’t know anything about porting out numbers, so I went with the advice from this forum, which suggested it would work, as long I was within the 30 (or perhaps 31) days. 

Various people also made it quite clear that porting out while the line was active would almost certainly result in cessation of service, together with an early cancellation fee if I was in contract.

Mike

[#11]

Thanks @MisterW and @Emseedee 

Looks like there's light at the end of the tunnel! I'm not sure whether early termination charges would apply (will try and find out) if I port out a phone number ceased by the upgrade, but may wait until the end of the month to clear the contract just to be sure! Will let everyone know how I get on. Thanks for the info