Well if you want to move on at an upfront cost of £30 to a guaranteed slower service and probable hassle rather than pay VM an extra 50p a month I guess that's your perogative.

I checked and there are Ofcom regs regarding number porting - from what I could make out VM are obliged to release the number but BT/TalkTalk are not obliged to take it on for some reason.

TalkTalk have an even worse CS reputation than VM with umpteen tales of screwups with new installs and line takeovers from BT

Porting is not exactly automatic. You have to let VM know that you want to keep your existing number.

In reply to a post by broadband66:

You have to let VM know that you want to keep your existing number.

Here lies the first hurdle: getting any sense out of VM.

"I would not be able to oversee the transfer to xxxt. This is
because of Data protection - I could not get involved in your xxx account."

In reply to a post by kwikbreaks:

rather than pay VM an extra 50p a month I guess that's your perogative.

It's not about saving 50p a month; it's more like £7. So £7 x 12 = £84. £84 - £30 = £54 saving a year.

Ofcom say "consumers should not only have the ability to retain their phone number
(as they have had for many years) but should also be aware of this ability
and should be able to obtain number portability easily, reliably and
conveniently." ref. http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/consultations/gc18r...

As usual things are NEVER simple!

I understand Talktalk are bad, but to be honest I've yet to find a communications company that can communicate!

In reply to a post by kwikbreaks:

I though all operators offered number porting. In fact I thought they had to but must admit I'm far from certain.

The main drawbacks to moving from cable to ADSL (imo) are...

18 month contract on BT line unless you pay and sometimes you have to pay anyway if there was never a BT line.

ADSL can be dire on long lines and often is on short ones if you pick a rubbish ISP

Like for like cable is actually cheaper - you only save if you don't need more than a few GB a month usage.

lets not forget the openreach callout lottery as well charges racking up if the engineer decides router is faulty.

In reply to a post by Chrysalis:

lets not forget the openreach callout lottery as well charges racking up if the engineer decides router is faulty.

In my own experience I had 5 separate visits from OpenReach engineers and still they didn't fix the line fault. That's the prime reason I'm on cable. Mind you having seen the way things have gone with my old ISP (O2) I'd probably have moved anyway.

Speaking personally I'd rather go over to 3G than use TalkTalk but I guess they are cheap

He clearly didn't read the thread properly. You notify who you move to that you want the number ported and they make the necessary arrangements with your current provider. You don't need to talk to VM at all beyond terminating the contract. If you are moving to TalkTalk I'd suggest you leave that until their service is up and running. You may well be a customer of both for some time.

In reply to a post by kwikbreaks:

He clearly didn't read the thread properly.

Who's "he" in this case?

In reply to a post by Chrysalis:

lets not forget the openreach callout lottery as well charges racking up if the engineer decides router is faulty.

Had this in years gone by. They decided that the call sign switch was faulty, despite it working fine on number A. It just didn't work with number B. As there was only one phyical line carrying two numbers this was beyond them.

broadband66 who said "You have to let VM know that you want to keep your existing number." Which is the case if you are moving to them not if you are leaving.