I believe you are confusing ceasing a landline rental, with its attendant phone no., with porting the phone no. to a VOIP provider.

In reply to a post by Michael_Chare:

I would like to argue that porting to a VOIP provider should be included as (AIUI) an Ofcom procedure.

BT's T&Cs are talking about switching the line rental to another provider through an approved process NOT porting just phone no. to another provider whether through an approved OFCOM process or not. You are not switching the line rental to another provider; you intend to cease it altogether.

In reply to a post by Michael_Chare:

If BT want to charge me 30 days rental, they should at least leave the line working, either for outgoing calls or with a new number for both outgoing and incoming calls. -IMHO

It's not a Q of what BT wants. You have contractually agreed to give BT 30 days notice of ceasing the line rental. Beyond that they have no obligations to you. It is their line; they do with it whatever they will.

At the back of all this is that BT realises that when you switch line rental to another provider, the BT Group still receives the revenue from it, which they don't when you just port just phone no. to VOIP and cease the line rental.

In reply to a post by XRaySpeX:

I believe you are confusing ceasing a landline rental, with its attendant phone no., with porting the phone no. to a VOIP provider

No confusion. It does appear that if I port the number then the line is ceased immediately. Presumably I would then have to pay 30 or maybe 14 days rental for a line that I can not use. There does not appear to be a way of avoiding this. If I were just to request a termination then I could use the line up to the end of the 30 days.

See http://www.voipfone.co.uk/PB_Porting_Numbers.php

BT's T&Cs are talking about switching the line rental to another provider through an approved process NOT porting just phone no. to another provider whether through an approved OFCOM process or not. You are not switching the line rental to another provider; you intend to cease it altogether.

That may well the the intention, but can you point to anything in the T&C which justifies the point that you make.

It's not a Q of what BT wants.

I would presume that BT's T&C bear some relationship to what they want.

At the back of all this is that BT realises that when you switch line rental to another provider, the BT Group still receives the revenue from it, which they don't when you just port just phone no. to VOIP and cease the line rental.

I expect you are right but are the T&Cs written in a way that exactly achieves this objective. They just use the words "If you are switching to another provider through an approved process"

To state the bleeding obvious, to use VoIP you need an Internet connection. The usual method is via a landline where your choice of providers are many, through a wireless connection or a satellite service. I suppose you could always piggy back onto someone else's service as well.

There are VoIP providers who give a full in/out service and others that only provide an out service. Some support emergency service calling, like 999, and other's don't. Some VoIP providers will allow an existing number to be used on their system and some can't or won't.

To successfully port a number into VoIP it must currently be connected to a landline and in an operational state. Ask a VoIP provider who provides a full service, with or without emergency functionality, to port the number in and your desires will be granted by proving a copy of your last bill.

Several things to bear in mind. 1) If your broadband service is not working, then voice calls via VoIP are not available. 2) If the power supply goes down, then you are in a communication blackout that may last for a considerable period of time. However in some cases an auto divert to another number for incoming calls is available. 3) Porting a number back to a landline or another VoIP provider may be impossible to achieve. 4) The speed of your connection plays an important part in the quality of calls in progress. 5) You might need to configure your router to be VoIP friendly. 6) Having a fixed landline for voice services is not to be sneezed at when surrounded with abnormal circumstances and the emergency services are required,especially if you are not in a coherent state of mind.

All other things considered, VoIP is very good, it, can save you a small fortune in call charges and has an array of extra features that are free. Think of you fixed line just as an insurance policy; you may never need it but when the chips are down, it's a godsend.

Just for the record, an emergency situation in our village saw ALL services lost except for the plain old telephone system, the only trouble being that few people had a basic telephone! Do have one of these connected toy your line just in case.

Indeed, but my point was that you don't need this info to answer my original question.

I do indeed have plans and I will be disappointed if I don't get a 100 fold increase in performance. I will believe I will get this service when the man with a digger gets a bit closer to my house.

If you want to show how clever you are, stop asking silly questions and refusing to answer perfectly sensible questions.

Good luck with your VOIP over the ether.

You snotty git!

In reply to a post by trolleybus:

To state the bleeding obvious, to use VoIP you need an Internet connection.

Why are you telling me this?

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

In reply to a post by trolleybus:

To state the bleeding obvious, to use VoIP you need an Internet connection.

Why are you telling me this?

The response just happens to be in that position in this thread and was intended to bring the conversation back on track for the OP's to consider the points mentioned. Using VoIP requires a broadband service and it wasn't clear how the OP was getting that service. For sure, the number could be ported to VoIP but without the fundamentals in place it would be a pretty pointless exercise.

My entry could have been taken in the spirit it was intended but you decided to take umbrage. Why eludes me.

Thanks, I plan to use Voipfone. The requirement for power is certainly an issue if I discontinue my Pots line. I plan a standby power supply. My mobile phones will work from a car battery so I have some fall back arrangements. Last year my phone line was repaired 4 times, so it is not as if that was a perfect service.

Surprisingly I found 'Vodafone' written of the manhole cover to which I hope to be indirectly connected.

It doesn't go through there

In reply to a post by trolleybus:

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

In reply to a post by trolleybus:

To state the bleeding obvious, to use VoIP you need an Internet connection.

Why are you telling me this?

The response just happens to be in that position in this thread and was intended to bring the conversation back on track for the OP's to consider the points mentioned. Using VoIP requires a broadband service and it wasn't clear how the OP was getting that service. For sure, the number could be ported to VoIP but without the fundamentals in place it would be a pretty pointless exercise.

My entry could have been taken in the spirit it was intended but you decided to take umbrage. Why eludes me.

While I was penning my earlier response additionally information came to hand which leads me to conclude that the OP is probably switching to VM or FTTP neither of which require a landline. While the OP doesn't wish to divulge how he is about to get his internet connection, I don't understand; it would have been helpful to know!

Anyhow, as previously mention, VoIP has its pro and cons and is more than adequate, with more bells and whistles the average punter is ever likely to use but the service may not be there when you really need it. Therefore a back up landline remains a sensible adjunct.