FTTP providers who don't support voice services.

We have spoken many times on this forum about the flexibility of separating out broadband and voice services when migrating to FTTP but does anyone know what actually happens if you're with say Plusnet or Talk Talk with both a broadband and voice service and you want to migrate to a FTTP services with them? do they provide FTTP and cease both the FTTC and voice services?

I appreciate not everyone is interested in having a voice service but some people are and I'm curious to understand what happens with providers who support voice on FTTC but don't support voice on FTTP and what happens for those customers who are in contract and want to migrate to FTTP and still want to retain a voice service.

If I understand correctly, you're saying that:
* your FTTC+PSTN comes from a particular provider
* ...and you want to migrate to FTTP from the *same* provider (e.g. because you want to do an in-contract migration)
* ...but that provider doesn't offer voice over FTTP
* ...and you want to keep your voice number and move it to a VOIP provider

In that case, you'd have to talk to your existing provider, get them to explain what process they may or may not offer to you, and get *in writing* assurances that your phone number will not be lost (which may not help you much if they screw it up).

I think the best you can hope for is that they will offer to cease the FTTC whilst leaving the PSTN line in place, and move you onto a separate "voice line rental only" package for the PSTN - hopefully without a new long contract term. Then you can migrate and cease the PSTN as a separate activity.

If keeping your number is important, I'd go the other way: get the FTTP installed as a completely new service, running in parallel. Then once that's in place, migrate the PSTN number to a VOIP provider, which as a side effect will cancel both the PSTN line *and* the attached FTTC service.

This does mean that you will be paying for both FTTC and FTTP in parallel for a while (which may be a long time if you have a long FTTC contract) - but it ensures you don't lose your phone number.

In reply to a post by candlerb:

If I understand correctly, you're saying that:
* your FTTC+PSTN comes from a particular provider
* ...and you want to migrate to FTTP from the *same* provider (e.g. because you want to do an in-contract migration)
* ...but that provider doesn't offer voice over FTTP
* ...and you want to keep your voice number and move it to a VOIP provider

The assumption above are correct.

I'm asking as I'm trying to guide a few other people who are in this position, I have already managed to separate out my broadband and voice services but those who I'm helping haven't and won't go through the pain of running the two services in parallel. I was wonder if anyone else had gone through the process as I know before Plusnet started selling FTTP they would allow customers to move to the BT brand without penalty and wasn't sure if that was the case for those wanting to keep a voice service. As Talk Talk have been selling FTTP for a while now I was hoping someone on this forum may have had the experience of what they do in this scenario.

In reply to a post by dect:

I know before Plusnet started selling FTTP they would allow customers to move to the BT brand without penalty and wasn't sure if that was the case for those wanting to keep a voice service.

I'm sure Plusnet -> BT would be fine, as the BT FTTP service by default comes with voice.

It's Plusnet -> Plusnet FTTP and Talktalk -> Talktalk FTTP which could be problematic.

I'm pretty sure I remember seeing a thread here where someone had done this, but it was with Talktalk Business (who had kept the voice service on the copper) - and yet they still managed to cut it.

Ah yes, I think this was it:
https://forums.thinkbroadband.com/fibre/4688986-talk...

I think we will see over time the demise of site based voice communication and in a few years home telephones will be something you’ll only see in Beamish or the Black Country Living museums.

Or possibly Cuckoo Oak exchange.

In reply to a post by spile:

I think we will see over time the demise of site based voice communication and in a few years home telephones will be something you’ll only see in Beamish or the Black Country Living museums.

Reminds me of the Orange launch advertising from 1994, "one day we will call people, not places".

In reply to a post by spile:

I think we will see over time the demise of site based voice communication and in a few years home telephones will be something you’ll only see in Beamish or the Black Country Living museums.

I think it will be as the older generations (me included) depart.

In reply to a post by Rhynchelma:

Or possibly Cuckoo Oak exchange.

🤣

In reply to a post by jchamier:

In reply to a post by spile:

I think we will see over time the demise of site based voice communication and in a few years home telephones will be something you’ll only see in Beamish or the Black Country Living museums.

Reminds me of the Orange launch advertising from 1994, "one day we will call people, not places".

Already made it that way here, VOIP on mobiles with a backup VOIP phone onsite (mainly because I am always on mute so never answer calls), not that there is much point because I am nearly always home when i get called and it runs over Virgin Media (Virgin is so reliable I had an hour of area outage this morning). I only get 3G in my area and its over utilised, its a real struggle if the fixed line network is down.

All 4 networks have warnings for my area saying overutilization "we are aware of the issue we will fix it" etc.
That message has been there for a solid 3 years.