Just one thing to keep in mind. Don't get fixated on the word "landline" if your main aim is to keep your existing number. You can either migrate to an ISP that supplies a VoIP connection which will keep your existing number (providing there are no cock-ups) while routing your call through the internet or your internet service can go to an ISP which does not provide a voice service and you migrate your number to an independent VoIP provider. Either way your number is retained but your "landline" is gone.

I do want to keep the number, yes, but that is not the greatest concern.

I don't want to lose the phone if the internet is out, as that is exactly the time I'm most likely to need it.

In reply to a post by TLM:

I do want to keep the number, yes, but that is not the greatest concern.

I don't want to lose the phone if the internet is out, as that is exactly the time I'm most likely to need it.

Welcome to the great debate which has being going on here and elsewhere for many moons now. The first OfCOM response was that ISPs should ensure that their vulnerable customers could maintain communication for at least 45 minutes in the event of a power cut; this could be by supplying the customer with a mobile phone if they did not already have one or in mobile-free zones by supplying a battery back up to maintain the router for 45 minutes. The justification was that the average power cut lasted about 30 minutes. As the implications of this policy moved out from the metropolitan apparatchiks in OfCOM there was immediate uproar in the rural areas where the average power cut would be measured in hours rather than minutes. As I understand it, OfCOM are still carrying out consultation in order to establish a resilient policy.

Depending on where you live, there is a very real possibility that you will be without any communication after three or four hours of a power cut even if you have your own back-up arrangements to maintain power to your own systems as there are so many mission-critical nodes in the communications system. If you have a mobile signal you should remember that the average mast will die after three or four hours due to the limited battery back-up usually supplied. Similarly the cabinet through which your landline is routed will also die after just a few hours taking out all internet and "landline" phone services.

This should be alleviated when FTTP is available as the head-end exchange controlling your fibre connection should have power generation facilities but until that time you and thousands of others in rural locations are at very real risk of losing any way to communicate with the rest of the world except for semaphore or carrier pigeon in the event of a power cut lasting more than three or four hours.

In reply to a post by TLM:

They are pushing it really hard, so I'm not surprised they didn't put barriers in the way of you switching.

If you don't use your landline anyway, I can see the attraction, but it wasn't any good for me. The guy even tried to persuade me it's better to bite the bullet now, so I will be "ready" for 2025, but terminating my current landline service when I don't already have an adequate replacement (and they weren't offering one!) is clearly madness.

they were pushing FTTP when I was coming to the end of my contract and they did that cheaper than FTTC, that was before the thing about not giving a phone line with FTTC. Now broadband only does FTTC, i presume the phone will be digital voice as that is what Sky is doing and since Now belongs to Sky. so the phone will plug directly into the router, I could be wrong, maybe email them.
At some point everyone will be using digital voice if they want to keep their home phone, I do have a problem with forcing people onto digital voice, certainly for people who rely on their phone if there is a power cut. But a lot of people use Dect cordless phones that don't work in a power cut anyway, and the majority of people have mobile these days. I still don't like this idea of forcing people.

i jumped from Plusnet because they could not give me a decent deal on FTTC, so i thought if i had to got FTTP i may as well go with a better network

Thing is, they weren't even forcing me onto digital voice - the upgrade they were plugging would have left me with NO voice, and the hassle of having to arrange it as a standalone package with somebody else!

I really hate their pushy sales tactics. He didn't even start by checking: "Do you really need your landline?"

Just: "We can do you faster speeds!" So then when I looked at it, I could see at once there's no phone, told him that's unacceptable, but he still tried to blag it that it's actually an advantage, because I'd be ready for the switch-off. Turning off a service you still use, with no replacement being offered, is a pretty wacky form of preparedness, in my view.

Maybe they were advising NATS this week? "Just turn it off with no replacement, because you know it will eventually have to be retired anyway!"

In reply to a post by TLM:

Thing is, they weren't even forcing me onto digital voice - the upgrade they were plugging would have left me with NO voice, and the hassle of having to arrange it as a standalone package with somebody else!

I really hate their pushy sales tactics. He didn't even start by checking: "Do you really need your landline?"

Just: "We can do you faster speeds!" So then when I looked at it, I could see at once there's no phone, told him that's unacceptable, but he still tried to blag it that it's actually an advantage, because I'd be ready for the switch-off. Turning off a service you still use, with no replacement being offered, is a pretty wacky form of preparedness, in my view.

Maybe they were advising NATS this week? "Just turn it off with no replacement, because you know it will eventually have to be retired anyway!"

Plusnet seems to have got rid of voice, I know on their FTTP they did not have it, now their FTTC don't. If plusnet was cheaper than others I would say ok, fair enough, but they are not that much cheaper than other providers these days, if at all. Now broadband is cheaper than Pusnet, which is why I was looking at going there, until Zzoomm sent me a good offer.

When I phoned them, they were pushing me onto FTTP and they did not ask about my phone at all, I never used it, I wonder if he knew that by looking at my records, but I doubt it.

Sadly, this is the way it is going to go and Openreach don't care who it affects.

Looking at Now siteand their packages, they have Pay As You Use Calls. Both FTTC packages is the same price, so may as well go with the higher speed one, even if you can;t get the highest speed.

My VOIP is playing up at the moment, so some reason it is not connecting, I don't know if it is due to the problems Zzoomm is having, or the adaptor have gone belly up, it is getting on and was cheap when i got it.
That is the problem with relying on Voip.
I use my mobile more these days, IU would get rid of the Voip, but i still have £8 on it

In reply to a post by TLM:

Thing is, they weren't even forcing me onto digital voice - the upgrade they were plugging would have left me with NO voice

BT group are relegating Plusnet to the bargain end of the market. Many people don't need a voice landline these days, but for those that do, it's a way to force them to pay more for BT/EE service.

Your salesperson at Plusnet, having learned that you need a home phone service, should have offered you a migration to BT or EE. But you'd still end up with digital voice.

There was a comment above along the lines of "welcome to the great debate", but in reality there's no debate: Openreach's analogue PSTN equipment *is* being switched off in December 2025, end of story.

If you want to continue with analogue telephony past Dec 2025, there's only one possible route, and that's to go with a provider who has their own voice-capable equipment in the exchange - Talktalk is the prime example. Like Plusnet, they don't have any digital voice offering, but unlike Plusnet, their exchange equipment (called MSANs) can provide voice service directly onto the copper. So if they do offer you voice+broadband, it will be analogue voice. Since they connect directly to the copper, it's not affected by the switchoff of Openreach PSTN equipment.

However, it won't last forever. Sooner or later, Talktalk is going to become fed up with the cost of running this equipment for the reducing number of voice subscribers, and/or Openreach is going to want to remove the E-side copper lines or shut down the exchange building completely and terminate their lease.

In reply to a post by candlerb:

There was a comment above along the lines of "welcome to the great debate", but in reality there's no debate: Openreach's analogue PSTN equipment *is* being switched off in December 2025, end of story.

The debate is not about the ending of the PSTN service, it is the more fundamental point of providing a resilient service to vulnerable customers (usually in the rural areas) who would be left without any means of communication in the event of a typical power cut. However, as usual this point goes straight over the head of those in the metropolitan elites who have no concept that there is a world beyond their cushioned environment.

I'm not sure why he should have offered migration to another brand under the same umbrella, as he didn't refuse continuation of the landline I've already got.

He just gave me a hard sell of an "upgrade" that wouldn't have had any landline AND omitted to draw my attention to that.

If I'd been frail and a bit confused (I'm not in the best of health, but still compos mentis, touch wood), I might have said: "OK, thanks, that sounds great!" and not have realised I was consenting to give up the landline until it stopped working!

If I imagine my mum, in her 80s, as a party to a similar conversation, for example, she might very well have said: "Thank you for the lovely deal!" and it doesn't appear he would have checked at any point that she was OK about losing the landline, and had an effective alternative.