In reply to a post by simon194:

I use the Siemens N300A IP base with my existing landline and two Sipgate accounts. I'm not sure if Siemens have discontinued it or not but it's still easy enough to get hold of it.

I think Siemens offloaded Gigaset as a separate business? I'm guessing this is the product:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Gigaset-N300A-Station-Answe...

Yes that's it. It has been branded Gigaset for years now. Quite a mature product, firmware is stable the only thing that will kill it a lighting strike (believe me).

Sorry to go back to basics (I understand why this thread has become quite technical) but can someone clarify the following ?

We might be getting FTTP shortly and I will probably go with a BT Retail offering. I want to keep my number and transfer it to a third party VOIP (eg Sipgate) to avoid any complications in the future in possibly losing the number if I move away from BT. I also don't want to go messing with routers, etc

My question is can I use a third party provider for voice if I take a BT Retail FTTP product ? My plan was to get a brand new FTTP service (whilst keeping my copper service live), porting my number to say Sipgate then cancelling my current copper service ?

Thanks

Edited by mikegg (Mon 25-Jan-21 11:22:43)

Yes you can. You should be able to connect to any SIP provider over any reasonable broadband connection. I've done it with Virgin cable, ADSL2, EE 4G mobile broadband and FTTP in multiple locations.

I could even fire up a broadband connection in Australia and have my 01473 and 020 numbers picked up and made there if desired.

I'd just be a little wary of this.

Hopefully someone else can comment on it who may know more.

I'd be fairly sure OpenReach would cancel and replace the copper service as part of the FTTP install. I'm not sure they're geared up to leaving the old service in place and adding FTTP on top.

I believe you would have to keep the FTTP order and the cease of the existing service separate and once the FTTP is installed place an order for the telephone number to be ported to a separate VOIP provider which should cancel the existing non FTTP service.

In reply to a post by MilesR:

I'd just be a little wary of this.

Hopefully someone else can comment on it who may know more.

I'd be fairly sure OpenReach would cancel and replace the copper service as part of the FTTP install. I'm not sure they're geared up to leaving the old service in place and adding FTTP on top.

In reply to a post by dect:

I believe you would have to keep the FTTP order and the cease of the existing service separate and once the FTTP is installed place an order for the telephone number to be ported to a separate VOIP provider which should cancel the existing non FTTP service.

Apologies - I just addressed the technicalities of the running VoIP/SIP over a BT FTTP services (of course perfectly do-able) but nothing related to commercial / contractual *timing* related to porting a number over.

Agreed above. You can't port something you've already cancelled. Conversely if porting then results in a cancellation of an underlying access service, one better have the alternative service up, ready and running.

I just asked OpenReach whether you can have both FTTC and FTTP at the same time and they've said yes.
So in theory it could be done as proposed.

This gives me a lot of hope to do something similar later in the year.

https://twitter.com/openreachhelp/status/13537404572...

Yes simultaneous FTTC and FTTP is completely feasible. Indeed many folks have both and it’s not as uncommon as “Dan” purports.

Also you can have multiple FTTP connections to the same property, so Dan aka @openreachHelp on Twitter is....wrong.

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

Yes simultaneous FTTC and FTTP is completely feasible. Indeed many folks have both and it’s not as uncommon as “Dan” purports.

Also you can have multiple FTTP connections to the same property, so Dan aka @openreachHelp on Twitter is....wrong.

Doesn't surprise me that they're wrong about the multiple FTTP connections 🙂

The plan for me then would be to order FTTP near the end of my FTTC contractual period, get that up and running, then arrange for number porting of the landline on the FTTC connection to a VOIP provider, which should then cease that FTTC service.