Can I just confirm this works.

[#1]

My contract ends at end November and, like many PN customers, the new deal doesn't have a landline.
I want to stay with PN but also keep my landline number as I like to give it to people who insist I give them a phone number but who I don't want calling my mobile.

So I have created an account with Andrews & Arnold and a test number as its cheap enough to do that.  All is fine.👍

I read, on this forum, the following procedure getting recommended.

  1) wait for the landline to go dead
     then after the phone has gone dead
  2) create an order with A&A to migrate the old (now dead) number (within 30 days)

Can anyone confirm they have actually completed this procedure successfully?

I see users getting this advice but never seen any one say it actually worked for them.
I'm looking for confirmation that this procedure is going to work.

[#2]

@2Donald 

Basically that's what you do and yes, there have been reports that it works.

However there is one additional step I believe. The port will fail due to A&A's automated system not finding a working line (it's been ceased). You need to get A&A support to contact the number's range holder and get the port done manually.

Brian

[#3]

Given that every Plusnet customer that has a landline phone is going to have to do this over the next year or so it would be tremendously useful to have a clear and absolutely accurate guide as to what needs to be done to transfer a number to a VOIP provider.

I share your concern, @2Donald , there seems to be a lot of mention of what should happen, some suggestion that the process may not work, but little in the way of clear guidance as to how to be 100% sure that a number will be retained and ported to a VOIP provider, with no risk of losing it.

The risk of losing our number is my major concern.  For a host of reasons, including the safety of an elderly family member, we have to keep our landline number and make sure it stays working with as close to zero downtime during any switchover as possible.  I've also been asked by a couple of elderly neighbours if I can help them sort their phones out, as they are also worried about losing their landline phones (like us they can't get a mobile signal), so if there was clear and accurate guidance I'd be better placed to try and help them as well.

I'm very keen to see a definitive answer to this question!

[#4]

For what it’s worth, I have exactly the same issue.  My landline number came to being in 1990 and has been distributed very widely.  In order to minimise any risk, and taking advice from PlusNet itself, I've gone to BT with both Broadband and Phone. That appears to be the only way to guarantee a seamless port.  The take-over occurs on Saturday next, so I'll come back when it’s all done.  The downside, of course, BT's pricing is very different from PlusNet!

[#5]

@2Donald 

Just because the offer you have been sent doesn’t mention the option doesn’t mean that you can’t continue with your landline for the next couple of years.

Ring the Customer Options Team on 0800 013 2632 and ask them to renew your current broadband plus phone contract. As long as there are no changes then they should oblige. In 18 months time this transfer of phone from Plusnet to VoIP process might be much better defined.

[#6]

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@Baldrick1 wrote:

In 18 months time this transfer of phone from Plusnet to VoIP process might be much better defined.

---

Whilst I'm sure you are right, we do not have 18 months in which to resolve this.  According to the master plan, our region is due to lose the landline phone capability sometime next spring.  Our contract with Plusnet ends in May next year.

This means I have at most 7 months to get this sorted, I may well have less time than this depending on the exact point within "Spring 2024" our landline stops working.  FWIW, Everyone in our region (which seems to stretch eastwards from the Dorset/Wiltshire border) is losing their PSTN capability in this time slot.

Therefore there is a pressing need to find a definitive source of guidance as to what every Plusnet landline customer in our region (which covers a large proportion of the UK population) needs to do between now and the start of Spring 2024, if I've understood things correctly.

To add to this pressing need, some areas are losing their PSTN landline capability earlier than planned.  A village a few miles from us lost their landline phone capability a few weeks ago.  Openreach have had a system failure in their area and are refusing to fix it.  The reason given is that it's due to cease working next Spring so there's no point in spending money to repair it. 

The inference I get from this is that we could all lose our landline phones at anytime if there is a major fault that Openreach don't feel is worth repairing given the pending shutdown of the PSTN.  I will add that I can't be sure whether this is Openreach policy, or just a specific issue relating to that area.  I do know that since the fault occurred bidb.uk is reporting lots of work by Openreach in that area installing fibre, at least 7 years earlier than FTTP rollout was planned (our FTTP availability date is post-2030 according to Openreach, same as the whole of this area).

[#7]

According to the master plan, our region is due to lose the landline phone capability sometime next spring.

@JSHarris where are you gettting that from ? AFAIK the Openreach PSTN switchoff isnt until 2025

[#8]

@MisterW this is the map showing the timescale for the start of the switch off of the PSTN by region:

[#9]

@JSHarris it isn't!

That's a map of when BT Retail are switching their customers to Digital voice!

Problem is that people confuse BT with Openreach ( and it doesn't help when they put an Openreach van in thebpicture!! )

[#10]

This map was one that our council sent out to all residents last November!

No mention that this was only for BT customers, the inference from their warning notice was that we all had to take action ASAP to make sure we could retain a landline phone if we needed one (as we have no mobile phone coverage here we fall into this category).

Edited to add:

They also sent out a notice in July 2022 warning that all Salisbury residents would lose their PSTN phones by April 2023: https://www.wiltshire.gov.uk/article/6487/Wiltshire-Council-advises-of-coming-changes-to-landline-se...

Don't know if this happened, we don't live in Salisbury.

[#11]

And that just shows that even your council doesn't understand the difference between BT and Openreach!!

For info, I'm in the white area of your map, whilst I no longer have a landline ( I'm on fttp ), most of my neighbours still have landlines!!!

Salisbury and Mildenhall were the original Openreach trial areas, so  yes they lost the landlines in 2022 but so far no other schedule has been published by Openreach. They have stopped orders of new landlines as of Sept this year.

[#12]

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@JSHarris wrote:

Edited to add:

They also sent out a notice in July 2022 warning that all Salisbury residents would lose their PSTN phones by April 2023: https://www.wiltshire.gov.uk/article/6487/Wiltshire-Council-advises-of-coming-changes-to-landline-se...

Don't know if this happened, we don't live in Salisbury.

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@JSHarris Salisbury and Mildenhall were the two areas where BT decided to trial the PSTN switch-off - by exchange, which is why Salisbury got the message they did.

[#13]

I will try and check to see if Salisbury PSTN really did turn off in April 2023, as the council said they would. 

This does illustrate very well the high degree of confusion surrounding this change, and the understandable level of concern being expressed by those locally that rely on the use of a landline phone.  I designed and built our home a few years ago, and as a (perhaps unwanted!) consequence of that some of our new neighbours believe that I must know about all this stuff (perhaps because we had to get phone and power lines re-routed locally).

One thing I have learned is that there are a lot of people in our immediate area that rely on their landline phone.  Perhaps not too surprising, as there's no ground level mobile coverage in this area and according to our GP the average age of patients registered with her is 68. 

Without wishing to be ageist (and I'm over 70) there does seem to be a high proportion of older people that still very much rely on their landline phone.  Our immediate neighbours are worried sick about losing their phone.  They are a bit older than me, but haven't ever used the internet and neither of them has a mobile phone (not unusual here given that they don't really work). 

I'm reasonably tech savvy (have set up a mast on the roof with a high gain directional antenna and 4G router to enable us to have a reliable VOIP phone over 4G) but I am more than a little concerned at the lack of clear and concise guidance for those that rely on having a landline phone. 

It's not just a local regional thing either.  My mother in law lives alone, around 120 miles away, has no mobile phone (like us she can't get a signal), is partially sighted (registered blind) and relies on speed dial on her landline.  She also has a fall alarm pendant that uses her landline.  So far we've not been able to find out anything about how her phone and fall alarm is going to be maintained when her area switches.  It's worrying my wife, especially as the fall alarm is programmed to call us.

As the OP of this thread has noted, there is an urgent need for clear guidance on what we need to do to maintain the present level of safety that is provided via the PSTN landline system.  I've no problem with change, it's just the conflicting/confusing information and the lack of clarity that I find more than a little irritating. 

A good previous example as to how best to manage change would be the TV digital switchover.  We were bombarded with very clear information for a long time before it happened.  From that I realised that we'd be in the group that would most likely lose terrestrial TV, so I was able to plan ahead and install satellite TV (in our case Freesat).  We really need the same sort of orchestrated and clear public information campaign for the switch off of the PSTN, rather than relying on the rumour mill.

[#14]

My best advice, given that BT are the ones doing all this change is to contact them, although from the odd search I have done on this, there is plenty of information online. Anyone relying on phone-connected alarms should be contacted by their alarm providers.

[#15]

@jab1 ,

Whilst that is sound advice for anyone that uses the internet, my recent experience suggests that there are many landline phone users that don't use  the internet, and who only know about changes like this from radio, TV or the local paper.  Locally it seems that our council may be partly to blame in spreading misinformation, and causing unnecessary worry, I still firmly believe that there is a need for clear and concise guidance to all landline users, explaining in simple language what is going to happen, when it's going to happen and what they need to do.

There are many mentions in this forum alone of the concerns and issues around really simple things, like retaining a needed landline number.  As the OP of this thread highlighted, there is a dearth of information as to what actually works.

Perhaps I'm just overly cynical, but I have zero faith in suppliers providing this advice well ahead of the switchover date.  We know that Plusnet is ceasing to provide telephony, by way of an example, so are Plusnet going to ensure all their landline telephony customers retain this service after the switch off?  I'd like to think they might have an arrangement in place to provide for this, perhaps by transferring customers to BT, but haven't seen anything to suggest this might be true.