Like many people, I'm aware that the shutdown of the PSTN is approaching, and I wanted to get ahead of the process by moving to FTTP and taking advantage of phone number portability to move my current landline number to a VoIP provider. Unfortunately where I live there is no true FTTP available (OpenReach hasn't run the fibre into houses yet), but it is possible to move to a SoGEA broadband offering. In fact, its now the only new broadband offering available in my area.
The issue is that coordinating the upgrade of the broadband package with the porting out of the landline number, while you are still in-contract with Plusnet, is non-trivial.
@Justin3 documented the problem, and how he understood the process was supposed to work over here. My research led me to exactly the same understanding and conclusions, though there have since been some hints that it may have got even more complex since the 5 Sept 2023, as there is now a nationwide stop-sell on *any* PSTN related service.
In summary:
- Trying to port a landline number to a new provider will terminate any broadband package running on it.
- Upgrading to FTTP or SoGEA will terminate ("cease") the phone number, and hand it back to the owning ISP (the "Range Holder", usually BT, never Plusnet)
- When the number reaches the Range Holder it goes to the back of the queue for reuse/reallocation by a new subscriber
- Plusnet tell me that when they cease a phone number, it goes into quarantine for 14 days (and can be ported out) before being returned to the Range Holder
So the way forward is (apparently) to process the SoGEA order, and then port-in the quarantined landline number to your VoIP provider. This is what Plusnet will recommend.
Except it doesn't work. Or at least, it certainly didn't in my case. Once the SoGEA order was processed, my chosen VoIP provider (A&A) were unable to port-in the landline number. OpenReach (Plusnets telecoms provider) rejected the request, repeatedly.
Plusnet now have you on a new SoGEA contract, and frankly don't much care about your lost phone number. Their agents also have absolutely no visibility of the status of the phone number, and very little knowledge of the number porting process (which is horribly complex) so fundamentally can't help you. You will be told to take it up with your gaining CP (the VoIP provider). Meanwhile your VoIP provider are being told the number cannot be ported.
At this point you are entirely at the mercy of your VoIP provider, because Plusnets only suggestion will be for the VoIP provider to approach the OpenReach porting helpdesk to negotiate a resolution to the failure to port-in the number. So rather than using an automated ordering system to port-in the number, your VoIP provider will have to manually find and resolve whatever the problem is. This is slower, less scalable, and therefore more expensive. They CANNOT do this for every port-in request, because it will break their business model.
In my case, A&A tell me that the problem was that when Plusnet had ordered the SoGEA upgrade they had NOT put my landline number into quarantine, which is a state designed to prevent a number from being "ceased". Apparently the number had been simply ceased. Plusnet on the other hand told me that ceasing the number automatically puts it into quarantine. But A&A tried port-ins twice, and both attempts failed. In the end I was lucky that A&A were prepared to resolve the situation manually with OpenReach, but as above, I imagine that if this happens too frequently they will not be able to do that.
So, how to guarantee porting out your landline number with a switch to an FTTP/SoGEA offering? After my experiences I'd be wary of guaranteeing anything, but these are what I suspect are the safest options that don't involve ordering additional connections:
- When you reach the end of contract, port your landline number into your VoIP provider, ceasing your broadband, and then order a new broadband package. But, if you are on FTTC, looking to move to SoGEA, be aware that if your cabinet is full, you might be creating a window when someone else could take your slot in the cabinet. Or,
- Migrate your landline and broadband service to someone like A&A who are prepared to separate the landline number from the broadband manually and then run both for you. Except I believe that this may not be possible now that there is a stop-sell on PSTN based offerings, as I believe it prevents another provider from taking over your current PSTN-based broadband/phone line bundle. Or,
- Hope that Plusnet can seamlessly migrate you to BT Digital Voice and an FTTP/SoGEA offering.
In the meantime I strongly urge Plusnet to publish some properly tested documentation on the process that has to be followed to result in a seamless (no exception processes between porting help desks) migration to FTTP/SoGEA with a successful port-out of the existing landline number. Or, if that's not possible, state that it isn't, along with what are the alternatives, and what are the risks of following those alternatives. Because currently, as a customer, I get a different version of the truth each time I interact with Plusnet, and (perhaps as a result) there seems to be no consistency of outcome being reported in the forums.
