Can you port a BT Digital Voice Number to an VoIP provider?

1. Am I correct in thinking that when BT stop PSTN via copper and put you on their Digital Voice, you retain your same telephone number?

2. Can you then later port that Digital Voice number to a VoIP provider such as A&A etc ?

Thanks.

Cheers!

1. Yes, you retain the old number. Athough, it appears with FTTP they also allocate a 06xxnnnnnnn ! Have yet to work out exactly what it refers to though.

2. I believe you can - however, not as yet tested here.

In reply to a post by Ancient_Mariner:

2. Can you then later port that Digital Voice number to a VoIP provider such as A&A etc ?

Yes, but as things stand porting out the phone number may well cease the broadband service unless BT have a process to migrate customers from from a broadband+DV service to broadband-only.

The Ofcom regulation of number porting is well behind the myriad of new scenarios which will exist, providers are not going to spend money voluntarily to upgrade their systems and train staff in the new processes unless they have to.

Ported a clients number from BT DV to AAISP with no problem and it didn't cease their BT VDSL service. They are on business contracts, but the DV contract was separate to the VDSL contract.

Also, BT didn't cease the DV either as the client was still in contract, but the early termination fee was cheaper than keeping the service, given the clients requirements.

No you can't.
Porting the landline number of a bundled BT Broadband and voice service will cease the broadband, even on Digital Voice.

BT simply get a notification that you are migrating your service away, and write to you to confirm if you are indeed migrating.

Edited by j0hn83 (Tue 18-May-21 14:34:42)

In reply to a post by timandhaylea:

Ported a clients number from BT DV to AAISP with no problem and it didn't cease their BT VDSL service. They are on business contracts, but the DV contract was separate to the VDSL contract.

Also, BT didn't cease the DV either as the client was still in contract, but the early termination fee was cheaper than keeping the service, given the clients requirements.

I assume that's BT Business?

Certainly with BT residential packages they are a single contract.

How did BT continue the Digital Voice service if the number was ported away? Did they provide a new number?

Yep, business contracts.

For the DV, they were "happy" to keep charging for the service without a number attached to it!

In reply to a post by timandhaylea:

Ported a clients number from BT DV to AAISP with no problem and it didn't cease their BT VDSL service. They are on business contracts, but the DV contract was separate to the VDSL contract.

Are you sure it was Digital Voice, the BT Business offerings (BT Cloud Phone, BT Cloud Voice) would typically have a Yealink VoIP DECT base or desktop phone(s) connected by ethernet cabling to a BT Business Hub which provides the internet access.

Whilst the Yealink devices are locked and managed by BT they do not rely on having the BT Business Hub, they still connect and operate as expected using a third-party router.

Yep, Client wanted a full office setup, so migrated number over to AAISP, added another block of numbers and installed Snom phones. Yealink VoIP DECT phone retired to the cupboard. This was significantly cheaper than the BT offering for a similar setup.

Broadband contract still with BT Business for the moment

Was the DV number originally a landline number, or a DV one issued for that service when it was signed up to?

AIUI such a new number is always issued at setup time, but the landline number can then replace it if desired.

What I'm getting at is that we have had two different unequivocal but contradictory answers to the original question. Both could be correct, depending on where the migrated number originated. Migrating the DV number should not be a problem. Migrating the original landline number that had been transferred to the DV service could very possibly cease the broadband.

A very good point - I had to think back a few months!

The number was transferred in from the old office and moved to DV as a separate service, so not linked to the broadband.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

What I'm getting at is that we have had two different unequivocal but contradictory answers to the original question.

We have, but there was a distinction between the 2 answers.

The other answer had the important detail that allowed a Digital Voice number to be migrated without ceasing the broadband.

They are on business contracts, but the DV contract was separate to the VDSL contract.

As i said in my answer, you cannot migrate a landline number to VOIP from a bundled broadband+voice service on BT (residential at least).
That goes for both a PSTN and Digital Voice number.

BT simply get a notification that the bundled service is being migrated. Porting the number to VOIP will result in the bundled broadband being ceased.

I'm not sure what the result would be of trying to port a Digital Voice number to VOIP on a BT Business line if it is a bundled service.
The fact the VDSL and Digital Voice were separate contracts might have been what allowed this to happen.

Some people don't even get that far.
There are lots of examples of BT customers with Digital Voice who are unable to migrate the number at all. Other providers just don't recognise the number.

I think we are all in agreement. The devil is in the detail.

But the aspects covered should help the OP when considering the options.

In reply to a post by timandhaylea:

A very good point - I had to think back a few months!

The number was transferred in from the old office and moved to DV as a separate service, so not linked to the broadband.

Digital voice is specifically the BT service where BT deliver an analogue phone port on the router in order to allow them to move the voice service from the copper phone port to the BT router. I think you are talking about a different service to this that is VoIP rather than BT Digital Voice?

In reply to a post by ian72:

In reply to a post by timandhaylea:

A very good point - I had to think back a few months!

The number was transferred in from the old office and moved to DV as a separate service, so not linked to the broadband.

Digital voice is specifically the BT service where BT deliver an analogue phone port on the router in order to allow them to move the voice service from the copper phone port to the BT router. I think you are talking about a different service to this that is VoIP rather than BT Digital Voice?

Not quite ... they will deliver it to one of their own managed devices which could be the analog port on the router, or a separate ATA, or a DECT base station.

The consumer service seems to just be via the Smart Hub 2 (although you can buy an add on that allows it to pick up the service via wifi but it still needs the smart hub 2. I am guessing the business side might be offering potentially different options but I would guess they may be more of a traditional VoIP service compared to the very locked down consumer DV service.

Business does NOT have the 'phone port on the hub. they supply a totally locked down Yealink handset. It is impossible to add another line to it - unless BT add extra DV links. They will NOT supply the information to allow a user to programme their own handset either.

So, still totally locked down - putting in security is good, but stopping management by the user is bad.

Call charges are, in general reasonable, however, some destinations I use are expensive and I deliberately use another VoIP provider with good rates to those locations.

First of all, many thanks for all the reply posts. It is interesting that BT Business don't market Digital Voice but instead have BT Cloud Phone for small busineses and BT Cloud Voice for larger businesses. In fact BT Business called me last week to ask if we wanted to upgrade our Village Hall's BT Business line to Cloud Phone, I had never heard of that previously.

Getting back to my OP, I can see that I need to re-ask this in another Forum ie, Andrews & Arnold since this BT Broadband Forum is really for those who have both phone and broadband from BT rather than just phone as I do.

One last question re Digital Voice, if you are phoning someone within the same area code, ie 01244 do you have to key the full number as you do with a mobile phone or can you simply key in the last 6-digits?

Cheers!

In reply to a post by Ancient_Mariner:

One last question re Digital Voice, if you are phoning someone within the same area code, ie 01244 do you have to key the full number as you do with a mobile phone or can you simply key in the last 6-digits?

Even if you can currently just dial the local 6-digit number, OFCOM are now consulting about a proposal that it should not be required for a provider to offer the local dialling option. That makes it likely that conventional landline as well as Digital Voice calls will require the full monty before too long. See para 3.2 and onwards in this document.

Edited by GonePostal (Sat 22-May-21 18:02:11)

Many thanks for your post and link on Local Dialling, was not aware of OFCOM's consultation on that.

Cheers!

Forgot to add that the cover page of the document includes a link to the Welsh language version!

If you are supplying your own handsets then you can often configure the digit map to automatically add the area code when you dial six digits, but SIP service providers will expect the full number in an agreed format on each call.

In reply to a post by jpm:

SIP service providers will expect the full number in an agreed format on each call.

Not all, certainly AAISP allow you to configure a local prefix for outgoing calls in their control panel which will be prepended to numbers missing an area or country code.

In reply to a post by MHC:

Business does NOT have the 'phone port on the hub. they supply a totally locked down Yealink handset. It is impossible to add another line to it - unless BT add extra DV links. They will NOT supply the information to allow a user to programme their own handset either.

So, still totally locked down - putting in security is good, but stopping management by the user is bad.

It is quite reasonable not to allow the user to alter settings on a fully managed service, BT do not appear to offer any non-managed services.

BT Business appear to offer around a dozen hosted (BT Cloud Phone [Basic/Connect/Collaborate], BT Cloud Voice Express, BT Cloud Voice [Basic/Connect/Collaborate/Premium], BT One Phone, BT Cloud Work) or on-premises (Avaya, MiVoice) products, also a managed SIP gateway to connect to your own system (BT Cloud Voice SIP) - and as is usual with BT a confusing array of pricing.

Going back to the original questions the BT Retail Digital Voice product is also fully managed so you can only use the Super Hub 2, and purely due to their systems/processes you cannot port out the phone number without ceasing the broadband service which provides it.

In reply to a post by jpm:

If you are supplying your own handsets then you can often configure the digit map to automatically add the area code when you dial six digits, but SIP service providers will expect the full number in an agreed format on each call.

Partially true and with complications. I would not recommend adding a default dialling code as with VoIP you can just dial an extension number to be connected and there are other variants associated only with VoIP.

In common with mobile phones, if you are dialling out onto the public network then the full area code is required modified slightly if it is an international call.

So you don't have broadband with BT and therefore don't have digital voice and likely won't for a while yet (unless you are in the trial area where they are moving everyone to digital voice). In this case it doesn't sound like you are likely to have anything to worry about for a while and would be doing a PSTN to VoIP move rather than DV to VoIP.

AAISP does not provide a PSTN service Ian . Even if you rent the line from them. So BT dropping the OP's PSTN could get messy.

Hence the thread.

I think I would port it a month or so before PSTN is to cease at your exchange Clive. Eliminate the problem before it arises.

Which means the question is moot - they are not on digital voice. The question is whether moving from BT PSTN to VoIP could cause an issue. Digital voice doesn't come into it.

Except that presumably, as has sort of been discussed, BT Retail phone subscribers will get DV one way or another.

I know, and as per one of my posts that is likely not in the near future and so for the next probably 3 years this question is not going to affect the OP.

Hi

You will be surprised. Area where I live had been made FTTP capable last year. I was one of the first to order FTTP and have it installed just after the first lockdown when OpenReach opened up to allow new installations. However, at the time Openreach had indicated that they would shut down PTSN at the exchange in 2025.

Guess what, BT already encouraging customers to migrate to Digital Voice as soon as practically possible. In fact, my switchover to DV is next week!

I guess it is likely in the near future that as soon as an area is BT FTTP capable, you will find OpenReach/BT wanting to shut down the PTSN service sooner.

Edited by deleted (Fri 28-May-21 17:48:15)