Unable to port landline number after signing up to Full Fibre

[#1]

I am currently considering porting my long held landline number to A&A VoIP, but unfortunately the phone number I want to port goes through periods of receiving dozens of SPAM marketing calls in a day (the record was 49 in one day) - but fortunately are 99% blocked by an inline trueCall call blocker  so aren't much of a nuisance.

For those of you that have successfully ported to A&A and have access to the A&A VoIP control panel,  is there any 'blacklist' facility to block known unsolicited callers ?. 

I have searched the A&A help pages but could only find mention of an "Allow list", and "anonymous call reject".

It would be a nightmare if I moved to VoIP and started having the phone ringing up to 50 times day from unwanted callers.

TIA

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[#2]

@Anonymous 

I would assume that if you use an ATA with the A&A service then your existing BT phone call blocker will work. I have tried  a BT 8500 call blocker phone plugged in to a Grandstream HT812 and can confirm that caller ID works, so assume that all will be well.

Do please advise if you find that this is not the case.

[#3]

I have a Gigaset N300A (that can simultaneously do both landline and up to 6 SIP accounts) , so was hoping to go VoIP only.

@Baldrick1 - Thanks for the suggestion, I guess that adding an additional ATA to facilitate powering the trueCall and using the Gigaset N300A in landline mode has the possibility of working.

If A&A don't have any sort of VoIP blacklisting, my second choice would be Voipfone who do comprehensive Call Barring

[#4]

@TobyDSC 
Looking at your link you use a different call blocking set up to me. Mine is built in to the mains powered base unit.
Many years ago I had one of these in-line call blockers. This was powered from the incoming telephone line. I don’t know if they now have a separate power supply. Anyway, my old one put a load on the line that presented itself as an impedance fault when diagnosing a broadband fault. I don’t know whether an ATA would be capable of powering one that was powered from the line.

[#5]

Yes my call blocker IS powered from the incoming phone line, and mine shows as a 'loop rectified' fault on broadband line tests but doesn't have any negative influence on my VDSL line stats.

[#6]

For those of you that have successfully ported to A&A and have access to the A&A VoIP control panel,  is there any 'blacklist' facility to block known unsolicited callers ?. 

@Anonymous i dont use A & A at home but do have an account for the office. We have a blocklist facility BUT its on the voip pbx (freepbx/asterisk) . Having logged into the A & A control system , I cant see any blocklist there I'm afraid

[#7]

Thanks

[#8]

Thanks for the suggestion, I guess that adding an additional ATA to facilitate powering the trueCall and using the Gigaset N300A in landline mode has the possibility of working.

That sort of defeats the functionality of the N300. If youve got a RPi lying around , you might be better off installing Freepbx on that and then connecting the N300 as an extension to that. You've then got extensive call blocking and dial plan facilities e.g you could get multiple voip accounts and router calls on a least cost basis.

[#9]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Yes my call blocker IS powered from the incoming phone line, and mine shows as a 'loop rectified' fault on broadband line tests but doesn't have any negative influence on my VDSL line stats.

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For the benefit of others who might read this thread, that's fine until you have a fault. In my case, diagnostic tests threw this up as the fault and would have, unless the presence of an impedance fault had been reported to me, sent fault finding running off in the wrong direction. Consequently before reporting a fault these devices should be removed.

[#10]

@U4iK

That's great to know, thank you very much.

A&A have suggested that I raise the port request a few days before the scheduled FTTP installation, however I'm a bit concerned that if there is a delay or other problems with the installation then the existing broadband service will get cancelled with the number port before the new one is in place. So I will follow your plan and wait until a successful installation before putting in the port requested with A&A, now safe in the knowledge that my landline number can be retreived during the Ofcom grace period.

We currently have the landline permanently on redirect to my mobile for very ocassional incoming calls, so A&A's entry level redirect service should be totally sufficient.

Installation is currently booked for 31/8/23 and I will report back here to hopefully help others.

With thanks,

Toby

[#11]

@TobyDSC  - Wishing you good luck !

I'll watch your progress with interest, as I'm wanting to do a similar thing except I'm going FTTC+landline to SOGEA+VoIP, as there is little prospect of FTTP arriving here before 2028

.

[#12]

OK, update.

FTTP installed by Openreach yesterday and new 300/50 service is working well.

Yesterday evening I completed the number port request with Andrews & Arnold (using "Plusnet" as the service provider) and by 10am this morning I received a Port Request Accepeted notification with a transfer date of 6 September, so exactly one week after the evening of my request.

On the A&A site I've just set it to forward to my mobile, which is just fine or us as hardly anyone calls the old landline number any more, but we need it available for the few people may have missed and could need to contact us urgently.

I do hope this helps.

Regards

TobyDSC

[#13]

I'm planning to do the same. I heard that currently people on VOIP get few scam / nuisance calls. However, would I be correct in thinking that porting my landline number could result in all the scam and nuisance calls that were blocked by my call-blocker device now getting through via my ported landline number meaning I might get inundated with such calls? (Because all the rogue callers / robocalls will already 'know' my landline number).

I have a cpr-call blocker device, it works fine plugged into my Gigaset s850 Go for landline calls, but doesn't seem to work for voip calls (there's  a big red "block call" button that doesn't light up for VOIP calls. Does anyone know of such a device that does work for voip?

My Gigaset can block a few individual numbers (and that works for voip too), but the cpr-call blocker has many blockers for robocalls and the like built in. 

[#14]

Probably not too much help for you but I opted to have all incoming landline calls routed to my mobile and pay a small sub to use the Hiya app to screen calls. I was getting quite a few to my mobile too, so this now Hoovers up about 95% of all of them combined. If in doubt I let it ring out to the message service as scam callers never leave a message.

Another tip: if no message is left and you still want to double check it wasn't genuine, write down the number and call back using the 141 prefix to hide your identity. If you get "number not recognised" or "unobtainable" then you can be sure it was a scam. In the unlikely event you get a real person you can safely ask questions without revealing your identity.

[#15]

@apwood 

Have you read back through this topic, starting here?  https://community.plus.net/t5/Tech-Help-Software-Hardware-etc/Setting-up-ATA-after-Porting-out-Phone...