Ditching BT due to VOIP and Smart Hub

Can someone more knowledgeable than me sense check this? I am currently with BT and have Full Fibre 900 (FTTP) . I’ve been contacted by BT who want me to switch from my analogue/Copper phoneline over to their Digital Voice service. I understand that you have to exclusively use this with their Smart Hub which would mean ditching my Zenwifi AX 8 router something which I do not wish to do. As my contract is up next week I have the option of changing providers. If I was to go down the independent VOIP route and continue to have a dedicated land phone can I go with an ISP like Shell Energy and their full fibre offering than simply sign up with a provider like Sipgate Basic? Can I then just plug in an Analogue Telephone Adaptor into my Zenwifi router? Thanks.

Correct in that BT Digital Voice, on a residential/consumer basis, is solely available using their SmartHub - effectively a closed ecosystem for BTs resi voice offering on their platform.

You can alternatively put a porting request to shift your landline number from BT to your VoIP provider of choice or alternate ISP that offers voice. With a contractually bundled BT voice and broadband service, such a request would effectively cease all your existing BT services including FTTP.

So you would need to be prepared for broadband service disruption or make alternative arrangements, if retaining your landline number in the move is the priority. The only possible get-out here is if your copper phone service is separately billed to your FTTP broadband service, but its generally not for most folks.

[As an aside I feel a certain sense of deja vu - there must be several (hundred thousand?) folks that have received this communique from BT quite recently, as there's several threads asking about this very topic all of a sudden]