BT to Virgin

 Also see this thread:-

http://forums.thinkbroadband.com/virgin_cable/f/4568...

I have BT Infinity 1 and a BT Sim card for my mobile. Infinity 1 was taken out in 2015 and the SIM October 2016; rare broadband problems; latest was my internal wiring. Little use of landline calls although a few vital; elderly relatives.


Because of house construction have to use a hard wired (Cat 5) WAP to get wifi from upstairs based router to downstairs devices.


My wife has Virgin TV Full House, with a V+ HD box, which she uses for her TV watching; very rare for her to have a problem. Mobile EE June 2016; 24 months.


Our broadband use is slightly different from most. Wife watches sport and TV; she has found that Virgin Full House meets her needs. I don't watch sport or TV;  the very little I want to see on tv I go to her cinema room to watch. I use broadband for general surfing, emails, computing and now assistant web mastering (I am not hosting) but mainly streaming and that is mainly BBC Radio 3/4; so not  stretching broadband.


I would like to go over to Virgin for my broadband and SIM(s) as it would probably save me some money. I do not really stretch my broadband at present so very high speeds are not really wanted; getting 30mb from BT at present but willing to pay for 100mb.


BT SIM data not very good at home, weak to useless signal but then so is my wife's EE signal, but FON has been useful; at one much visited location there only seems to be FON - prepared to forgo the service, it is a bit weak, if price is ok. I do want to know if Virgin mobile is about the same or better outside towns; a lot of my days are spent in the countryside where signals tend to be spotty but I get by.
What is Virgin like in London and in countryside (I guess this is no better than BT as both use EE masts). My data use is 700-800MB per month and used when abroad, so Roam like Home useful. We never exceeded Text and minutes allowances.

More worried about retaining my present landline and mobile numbers as I have had them for a long time and they are known to a large group of people; what happens to those numbers if I change to Virgin and then want to go back?

What happens to the BT line if I go Virgin for phone?

Any advice?
 
 
 

If you stop paying BT Voice Line Rental then the existing phone line will sit they dormant and unused

So the number also would not be reallocated ? Just in a very similar position, but further down the road, install date with Virgin this Saturday, still keeping my landline with BT for now. Would like to ditch it in future though. So handy to know if I was to move back to BT in the future that the same number would be there ???

I moved from SKY to Virgin this year. Ported home number onto Virgin network (installer did it same day at installing Tivo box)
Old (BT) line is sat redundant as Virgin use their own lines.
Do not use mobile via virgin, as contracted elsewhere, but you can port mobile number as well.

If you cease paying line rental to BT then the number will in time be recycled...

So you might get the same number back, you might not.

You could port the number to a VoIP provider and park the number for future use. Or even use it with a PAYG account.

David

If I transfer the number to Virgin sucessfully, but then decide to go back to BT would I be able to transfer the number back to BT or woukd Virgin keep it?

In reply to a post by athegn:

If I transfer the number to Virgin sucessfully, but then decide to go back to BT would I be able to transfer the number back to BT or woukd Virgin keep it?

Historically my number was from the Virgin pool and ported the number to Zen with no issues. Subsequently moved home and found it was too far from the cabinet to get a decent service and therefore switched back to Virgin. No problem in porting the number that time either although there was about a 24 hour downtime in the equation.

I've read previously on think broadband where cherished numbers have not ported over with absolutely no chance of recovering the number..This could be that it would become an out of area number. That issue would not surface in porting a number to a VoIP provider.

It is not an out of area number.

Virgin have now said will take over existing number but cannot guarantee if I change back to BT!!

Have taken chance.

In reply to a post by trolleybus:

In reply to a post by athegn:

If I transfer the number to Virgin sucessfully, but then decide to go back to BT would I be able to transfer the number back to BT or woukd Virgin keep it?

Historically my number was from the Virgin pool and ported the number to Zen with no issues. Subsequently moved home and found it was too far from the cabinet to get a decent service and therefore switched back to Virgin. No problem in porting the number that time either although there was about a 24 hour downtime in the equation.

I've read previously on think broadband where cherished numbers have not ported over with absolutely no chance of recovering the number..This could be that it would become an out of area number. That issue would not surface in porting a number to a VoIP provider.

That's the good thing about VM over BT - Numbers on BT can only be ported if it's the same exchange.

VM had no such restriction I don't think It's their network or nothing