Porting VOIP phone number back to Openreach PSTN

A friend needs to reactivate their Openreach PSTN line and port the phone number back to that line - without risk of losing the number in the process.

They are currently on Gigaclear FTTP and Vonage VOIP. They do not want to exit Gigaclear at the moment - but also do not want their landline phone to be subject to internet outages and power cuts. Local mobile signals from all networks are very variable.

Is there a risk of them losing their landline number if they simply place an order with an ISP to reactivate the PSTN line and enter into the lowest cost broadband and call package they can find?

If there is a risk, how can it be eliminated?

Thank in advance for any advice offered.

I would think that they would need to get the landline activated and then port the number to it from Vonage. In theory they could do this with BT although placing a landline only order is not easy. I am not sure why they would want to to this as Openreach are moving from metal landlines to fibre. Landline calls are very expensive when compared to VOIP.

I have a Gigaclear FTTP service and ported my landline service to Voipfone. The service is much more reliable than the previous BT telephone service, and calls are much cheaper.

I have a Sim only Vodafone mobile service. I recently got Wifi calling to work on my Android phone. I found an app that lets me force the phone to call via Wifi when available rather than via the unreliable mobile signal.

In reply to a post by Michael_Chare:

I would think that they would need to get the landline activated and then port the number to it from Vonage.

Both are generally done at the same time. The gaining provider just need to place an order with number import from another provider.

Vonage get the notification that the number is being exported and if the old Openreach line remains at the property but just stopped, it should start working once the port is complete.

Matt

"I am not sure why they would want to to this as Openreach are moving from metal landlines to fibre."

Granted it is cheaper via voip and better quality however what you and many others fail to realize is that voip relies on power at the users end to power the fibre ont and or router to connect a corded phone and if not on a ups for when a power outage the phone service is dead, a traditional copper line in a rural area can be invaluable in a wide area outage as it is powered from the exchange which has power redundancy in place and mobile signal can also disappear as some towers do not have backup either.
So I can clearly see why they want to go back to copper for phone,

I have bt FVA via the ONT and we had a planned power outage from the utilities company back along and after 60 mins the UPS and ONT BBU died and our phone number would not ring/connect as the ont had no power, a copper phone line would have rung even without mains power, I tried the phone every hour and once it connected I knew we could go home to power but for rural areas the traditional copper still wins for voice in a power outage.

In reply to a post by thomaswarne01:

So I can clearly see why they want to go back to copper for phone,

You should be aware that as Michael posted, Openreach are stopping selling copper phone lines powered by the exchange.

These are going by 2025.

I am aware PSTN switch off because of our FVA phone line and BT no longer supporting FVA either due to VOIP, however in meantime 3-4 years is a while away yet so in the meantime the reliability of copper whilst still available is a good choice for voice.

Edited by thomaswarne01 (Tue 16-Mar-21 20:11:32)

In reply to a post by thomaswarne01:

I am aware PSTN switch off because of our FVA phone line and BT no longer supporting FVA either due to VOIP, however in meantime 3-4 years is a while away yet so in the meantime the reliability of copper whilst still available is a good choice for voice.

At £240 pa + the cost of calls, it is an expensive option. With VOIP via fibre, I have not heard a neighbour's conversation because the line is crossed nor have I been unable to use the line at all because the pair has been taken and used for someone else.

Thanks all for the comments.

The requirement is how to ensure emergency voice connectivity when there is a powercut or ISP outage and the mobile signals are unreliable.

The Gigaclear FTTP solution does not include Battery Back Up - and it sounds as if that is also the case with the current BT FTTP solution.

So, as Thomas has recognised, the only solution currently available is to reactivate the copper..

Re-activating the copper line is an option, but not the only one. Buying a UPS and/or a generator to cover for power loss would be cheaper than the phone line over time.

Can poor mobile coverage be improved with an optimally sited external 4G antenna and 4G router to cover an ISP outage?

How likely is either eventuality? How likely is a double fault?

If the solution really *must* be to have a copper line, how about not porting the number but re-directing incoming calls to the copper landline if the Vonage connection is down? If Vonage can't do this, migrate the VOIP service to a proper provider that can!

Edited by ferretuk (Wed 17-Mar-21 09:35:09)

What about going outside or walking a short distance or even changing operator to get better mobile reception?

Uno may well be much cheaper than BT for a telephone only service.

The Gigaclear router and a VOIP box can be powered from a UPS, I have thought of doing this but not bothered for the last 5 years.