Different voice phone and broadband providers with FTTP?

I've recently moved into a new-build house and it just has a fibre-to-the-premises line installed. OpenReach have come round and installed their ONT (optical network termination) box.

The ONT box has one socket with an ethernet cable coming out of it, and one socket with a phone cable coming out of it. Now, as I understand it, it's possible (even with FTTP) to use one provider for the phone, and another for the broadband.

However, this seems to be much more of a headache with FTTP than it was with FTTC. With FTTC I just told BT I wanted phone service with them, and Zen I wanted broadband-only with them, and I got deal from both that didn't break the bank. With FTTP, however, BT are telling me that to get phone-only service from them, I have to pay £20/month (!!!!!) and then in addition I'd have to pay £35/month to Zen.

In an ideal world, I'd just go with Zen for both, but Zen don't yet offer a phone line package, annoyingly.

So I was hoping some people here had some knowledge about what my options are. Let's say I want to use Zen for my FTTP broadband at £35/mo. How can I get a phone line service from another provider? Which providers will do it, and will any of them do it for less than £20/month?

Edited by jez9999 (Thu 24-Oct-19 11:58:31)

As far as I am aware, BT Retail are at present the only supplier of the FVA service to provide voice via the phone jack on the ONT ....

My suggestion would be to take Zen for the FTTP, then set up a VOIP based voice service.

The fibre section on this forum will have more pointers re this.

What's the technical difference between using the phone jack on the ONT, and using a VOIP service over the broadband connection? Is the former more resilient? ie. will it keep working if the internet connection goes down? And what's the difference from a technical perspective in how the two are implemented?

Hi,

Neither will work if the connection is down completely.
The main difference is cost (VOIP is a lot cheaper) and how you connect the phone.
if you get FVA then all you need to do is connect an analogue phone to the ONT and away you go.
if you decide to go for VOIP you will need to either purchase a VOIP to analogue phone adapter or a VOIP phone.

Head over to the open cross post to continue discussion at

https://forums.thinkbroadband.com/fibre/t/4627952-di...