Landline Porting Process

[#1]

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@Mustrum wrote:

Or you could move to the likes of Sky, Talk Talk or others with a digital voice service

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If you do happen to be considering a service with "digital voice",  make sure you look into how much that will actually cost you to make calls with your typical monthly phone usage,  because the "digital voice" product is typically charged similarly to making analogue calls,  whereas an independent VoIP service usually has call charges dramatically cheaper than "digital voice" !

Other considerations are that "digital voice" can usually only be used with your ISP's router or phone adaptor,  whereas VoIP is an open standard which you can run on hardware of YOUR choice, and can be independent of your broadband provider if you ever wanted to move just your broadband elsewhere in the future !

[#2]

@bigfish in your case its simple. When your Plusnet contract is almost up, you order FTTP through one of the City Fibre ISP's, that will not affect your existing Plusnet service. Once its up and running, you select a voip provider and port your Plusnet phone number to voip, that will cease your landline and Plusnet service.

Yes, you are paying for the two services for a short period, and it assumes that there are no facilities such as email on the Plusnet account that you still require

[#3]

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@bigfish wrote:

... most of the ISPs that City Fibre are associated with don't bundle VOIP in with the broadband service.

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Have you looked at - https://www.aa.net.uk/broadband/home1-cityfibre-services/ 

if you add A&A VoIP to that, they bill you monthly your FTTP and VoIP on the same invoice, so effectively it is bundled

[#4]

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@bigfish wrote:

It seemed a little pointless to me to go to the trouble of moving ISP and not upgrading to full fibre from what we get currently.

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If you are moving to FTTP then that opens up more options for you.  MisterW's suggestion seems a good option to consider.

Also I can recommend Andrews and Arnolds as a good VOIP provider (I'm with them now) and they ported my number from Plusnet.

[#5]

@bigfish 

A&A seem to be reasonable and have a good FAQ page.

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

Brian

[#6]

Yes, thank you, I have looked at this page and have a list of questions waiting for a response from A&A as they seem a little reserved in promoting their fibre offering through City Fibre. Going with A&A would be a great solution as it keeps everything in one place including hosting my domain name, email services and VOIP. Thank you for suggesting it though. 

[#7]

MisterW, what would you consider to be a timescale of "almost up"? Given my previous experiences with PlusNet, perhaps we should start to look at migrating away straight away as our contract ends on 3 March. Would you expect that two months is a reasonable timescale to get everything sorted or could I leave it alone for longer? I have no experience of moving ISP or phone services as I have always used PlusNet.  

[#8]

@bigfish You are not migrating away from Plusnet, you keep Plusnet until you have an alternative FTTP connection then port your number to VOIP, that will cancel your Plusnet service.

Read @MisterW 's msg#17 for the details.

[#9]

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@bigfish wrote:

... what would you consider to be a timescale of "almost up"?

There is typically a minimum ten day delay from the time you sign up with a new broadband provider, to when your service actually transfers.

[#10]

@bigfish its going to take at least 2 weeks, probably longer, to get FTTP installed.

You pay for your existing contract a month in advance, therefore if it expires on 3rd March, your last bill at a discounted price will be 3rd Feb. So aiming for an FTTP install soon after 3rd Feb is probably the best approach, that way you will not go to an out-of-contract price. The voip port will then take around 5 days, so in effect your PN contract would cease midway through your last month and you'd get a refund of part of the last months bill.

[#11]

@Anonymous  You are confusing things, @bigfish is not transferrng to a new provider but wants a new FTTP connection.

[#12]

In that case (staying with Plusnet), there is no necessity to wait until the end of an existing contract, as doing an upgrade can be done at any time, and the new FTTP contract will start on the date of the switchover.

[#13]

RealAleMadrid: I will have to transfer out to a new provider as I cannot get full fibre with PN here so I have no other option than to look at alternative ISPs that operate with City Fibre.

[#14]

@bigfish  You are not transferring your existing service, I have read this entire thread (unlike some who are not helping with confusing comments) and fully realise you cannot get FTTP from Plusnet so need to get FTTP from a Ciyfibre ISP.  Did you actually mean to reply to me?  At no point have I mentioned transferring your service.

[#15]

@bigfish 

As having City Fibre FTTP will involve the installation of a new fibre-optic "cable" that has nothing to do with your existing installation,  you could start that process now, and have your new broadband ready to go at around the time your Plusnet contract ends. 

You would end up with two active broadband services for a couple of weeks, but that gives you the time to ensure that the new service is working perfectly before you end your Plusnet broadband, and you can test your VoIP telephone hardware registers correctly on your new service (before your number is transferred).

Then in your own time, you simply port your landline phone number to your VoIP provider, which automatically ceases your Plusnet broadband and phone, and (in my experience with A&A) your phone will only be out of action for maybe an hour !