Sipgate Basic - smooth landline number porting

I needn't have had any concerns about Sipgate's ability to handle my number porting.
They handled it seamlessly and kept me informed throughout the process (all 9 days of it!).

I've finally broken the "broadband + landline" bundling and am free to choose whichever broadband provider I wish to in future (after my 18 months with TalkTalk FTTP is up ) without having the hassle of a landline migration to go with it.

So for anyone else wanting to get FTTP, but transfer their old landline to a VOIP provider, I'd definitely recommend them.
£30 was a really reasonable cost in my opinion (especially when the ongoing cost of the service is zero).

Thanks for posting an update.

That’s good to know it all went smoothly Miles.

Possible the only thing you may come up against with Sipgate, if you or yours have especially long calls, is the 2 hour call limit which means a redial. In practice the only time I’ve found it an issue is with extremely long conference calls (pre covid) but now we pretty much live on zoom and teams so it’s not really an issue.

Enjoy 😉

Thanks Pheasant...good to know.
I can't imagine it would be something we encounter, but definitely good to be aware of

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

if you or yours have especially long calls, is the 2 hour call limit which means a redial.

I know one thing, if you had virgin media you would need that extending, I have waited two hours and 30 mins for them to answer before.
That's if they don't hang up on you and you have to dial again

In reply to a post by RR_The_IT_Guy:

I know one thing, if you had virgin media you would need that extending, I have waited two hours and 30 mins for them to answer before.

Why would you ever call them? The community forum works well.

In reply to a post by jchamier:

In reply to a post by RR_The_IT_Guy:

I know one thing, if you had virgin media you would need that extending, I have waited two hours and 30 mins for them to answer before.

Why would you ever call them? The community forum works well.

I tend to use the forum but there are times where I need immediate action for example when full loss of service and I need a next day resolution or ofcom compensation.
I also have to use the call centres when i want to instantiate an ofcom speed complaint which was about once a month for 5 months, they did fix the issues after about 20 engineers. One of the senior managers even called me and was like we can't keep sending engineers for no fault and i was like, "you gotta be joking, your telling me that 1Mbps during peek and any website i try to load is meant to take 10 mins with images loading like dial up in bars. If this is normal in 2020 and is within your estimated speeds, I was getting quicker over ADSL and will fully intend on leaving unless you resolve it"

Lets just say that the manager made his way down quicker than his engineers could fix the problem. The problem was resolved three days after.

Long story short the forum team tried but they advised to keep calling and logging faults and also to tell them each time so they could book an engineer.

You had far more patience than I had with them.
I'm so glad to be rid of them 🙂

In reply to a post by MilesR:

You had far more patience than I had with them.
I'm so glad to be rid of them 🙂

Some of us don't have an option, in the queue for the FTTP future.

In reply to a post by jchamier:

In reply to a post by MilesR:

You had far more patience than I had with them.
I'm so glad to be rid of them 🙂

Some of us don't have an option, in the queue for the FTTP future.

Yeah, that sucks. Hopefully options will improve for you in the near future

In reply to a post by MilesR:

Yeah, that sucks. Hopefully options will improve for you in the near future

At least my VM is pretty good compared to some on this forum! My only issue with them is the random disconnections in the summer months, never an issue in autumn or winter.

In reply to a post by jchamier:

In reply to a post by MilesR:

You had far more patience than I had with them.
I'm so glad to be rid of them 🙂

Some of us don't have an option, in the queue for the FTTP future.

The good news is I saw two openreach engineers today, although one an apprentice, they were helpful and said that the whole of St Neots is getting full fibre within a year and a half, my area being sooner as the cables are in the ground.
The months are counting down.
Once my VM contract ends i'm moving to a one month FTTC plan and moving phone to Sipgate until FTTP is ready to order then things can really take off.

Exactly the path that I took. Good luck with it!

In reply to a post by MilesR:

Exactly the path that I took. Good luck with it!

Looking at your ISP it will be literally the same, I have been looking at talktalk Fibre 500

In reply to a post by RR_The_IT_Guy:

Looking at your ISP it will be literally the same, I have been looking at talktalk Fibre 500

Hopefully they will have got their admin systems improved by the time you order 🙂
I've still not got my online account as yet, despite the installation being 16 days ago.

Apart from that, I don't have any other real issues with it.

Do you have your account number?

I got an email containing my account number a couple days after the service was live.
I used the account number to setup an account up myself.

In reply to a post by j0hn83:

Do you have your account number?

I got an email containing my account number a couple days after the service was live.
I used the account number to setup an account up myself.

Nope, don't have it as yet. I'll give them a call to see if they can give it to me.

So it looks like they've completely messed up. They can't find my account in the system at all.
He did say this means they can't invoice / bill me...but I'm sure they'll find a way!

They also have no record of the compensation I'm due (because OpenReach delayed the install due to not wanting to do the job late on a Friday afternoon)...so they've escalated the issue, but no-one there authorised to deal with it, I have to wait until Monday.

They messed up my onboarding at TTB as well. I started getting invoices for paper billing (never signed up for that) whilst in my promo “free months” no invoice period. They kept doing it despite several attempts at rectification. They finally got it right 3 months later and did the credit and correct.

It’s just the way of TalkTalk….😎

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

They messed up my onboarding at TTB as well. I started getting invoices for paper billing (never signed up for that) whilst in my promo “free months” no invoice period. They kept doing it despite several attempts at rectification. They finally got it right 3 months later and did the credit and correct.

It’s just the way of TalkTalk….😎

Ha, just need to accept their admin is rubbish eh? 😄

I would echo the sentiment from @jpm in another thread….

”Getting to use TalkTalk's network and not having to deal with TalkTalk seems like a good deal.”

😎

hahaha, very true.

They managed to sort my account overnight, so at least that part is done.
I'm awaiting their call on Monday / Tuesday to find out what they'll do about my compensation for delayed installation...I'm sure that will be fun

In reply to a post by MilesR:

I needn't have had any concerns about Sipgate's ability to handle my number porting.
They handled it seamlessly and kept me informed throughout the process (all 9 days of it!).

I've finally broken the "broadband + landline" bundling and am free to choose whichever broadband provider I wish to in future (after my 18 months with TalkTalk FTTP is up ) without having the hassle of a landline migration to go with it.

So for anyone else wanting to get FTTP, but transfer their old landline to a VOIP provider, I'd definitely recommend them.
£30 was a really reasonable cost in my opinion (especially when the ongoing cost of the service is zero).

I'm looking to do the very same... though I'm seeking to do it in tandem with a house move, i.e. keeping the old landline number and moving it over to VoIP with Sipgate.
(Not that it matters greatly, but the new place is in the same area code as the old one so I'd not be causing any geographic numbering confusion by doing this.)

However I've left things rather late to get this sorted out before the move - and I'm a tad worried as Sipgate's number porting team hasn't responded to the email I sent them first thing this morning (Tuesday after Easter Monday), it now being the evening. I was careful to include all the requisite information as specified by Sipgate.

@MilesR - how quickly did Sipgate respond to you throughout the process? I'm hoping it's just a small backlog after the long Easter weekend.

Also, Sipgate suggest a 7 working day time-scale for a number port from BT. In my case it'll be a number port from Sky (the actual number is from Sky's own number range)... I hope that doesn't mean it'll take much longer.

I do of course have no-one else to blame for cutting it fine... just crossing my fingers that Sipgate's people (and indeed Sky's as well) will play along so I can get this in under the wire!

Hey @Binary...
Just checked my emails. Applied at 15:30 on the 11th October. They came back to say my application had been accepted on the 13th October at 10:00, for a porting date of the 19th October, which was achieved.

Fingers crossed yours is all good!