VOIP Dial9, Gripcom others?

Hi all,

My Plusnet BB is coming to an end next week and want to move to Full fibre. I think it is either going to be Aquiss 550 (£32.50 a month) or Swish Fibre on 400mb (£33.33 a month)
I would like to keep my existing phone number so need to move this to a new voip provider.
Swish have option to port over for £10 a month with 500mins calls to landline and mobile (I was paying £6 something for evening calls on Plusnet).

Are there any other options out there with cheaper bundle that you can port a number over?

Thanks

In reply to a post by ady702:

Hi all,

My Plusnet BB is coming to an end next week and want to move to Full fibre. I think it is either going to be Aquiss 550 (£32.50 a month) or Swish Fibre on 400mb (£33.33 a month)
I would like to keep my existing phone number so need to move this to a new voip provider.
Swish have option to port over for £10 a month with 500mins calls to landline and mobile (I was paying £6 something for evening calls on Plusnet).

Are there any other options out there with cheaper bundle that you can port a number over?

Thanks

Do you "need" a calls package as part of your VoIP service?

Voipfone offer plans - https://www.voipfone.co.uk/plans/comparison (prices are + VAT)

Also Everyday VoIP - https://www.everydayvoip.uk/residential-plans/

Edited by CJT (Fri 19-May-23 19:48:15)

There are a few options:

1. Do you particularly want minimal change to routine and use the landline for both incoming and outgoing calls?
2. Move to a mobile phone plan for outgoing calls, keeping the landline for incoming only but move as many landline calls to mobile number when they occur?
3. Mixture of 1 & 2 focusing on cost savings but it requires a bit of "pain/re-education"
4. Do you really need a call plan with minutes?

In reply to a post by CJT:

Do you "need" a calls package as part of your VoIP service?

Voipfone offer plans - https://www.voipfone.co.uk/plans/comparison (prices are + VAT)

Also Everyday VoIP - https://www.everydayvoip.uk/residential-plans/

Not really but something like that Everyday 5.99 would be ideal. Plusnet was over £6 after the CPI back in April so that looks ideal for the odd calls out.
It's mainly for the parents as I barely use the phone.

In reply to a post by think26872:

There are a few options:

1. Do you particularly want minimal change to routine and use the landline for both incoming and outgoing calls?
2. Move to a mobile phone plan for outgoing calls, keeping the landline for incoming only but move as many landline calls to mobile number when they occur?
3. Mixture of 1 & 2 focusing on cost savings but it requires a bit of "pain/re-education"
4. Do you really need a call plan with minutes?

Yes to number 1, something I can move over and leave as is. The parents use the phone mainly evenings so some calls with minutes would be nice but not essential.

In reply to a post by ady702:

In reply to a post by think26872:

1. Do you particularly want minimal change to routine and use the landline for both incoming and outgoing calls?

Yes to number 1, something I can move over and leave as is. The parents use the phone mainly evenings so some calls with minutes would be nice but not essential.

Sorry can't really be much help there but I am sure others will have ideas.

If you want simplicity over flexibility probably sticking with ISP provided solutions is best but £10/month is very expensive.

A cheap VOIP will probably get you about 3000 minutes of mobile calls for £10 - more than enough for years for my usage.

Edited by think26872 (Fri 19-May-23 20:16:40)

Yeah £10 is abit rich for me!

£5 here is probably better but not sure if that includes mobile calls. Will have a look around and message them.

https://www.voipfone.co.uk/plans/comparison

In reply to a post by ady702:

My Plusnet BB is coming to an end next week and want to move to Full fibre.

You have left it far too late to have a smooth transition of switching to FTTP and having your former landline ported into a VoIP provider of your choice. You have a harsh choice of having no broadband service for a couple of weeks or Plusnet being your provider for both FTTP and Digital Voice.

It takes around a week to port a live landline over to VoIP which when it goes through will see your existing broadband service cut off. Assuming you have yet to place an order for FTTP, that could take a few weeks before an engineer is knocking on your door to do the install,

You can't port over a landline number once the service has ceased.

I suppose it might just be possible to extend your existing contract for another six weeks during which time FTTP could be installed; if it all goes well, the you start the ball rolling to move the landline over into VoIP. This will need to be a regular desktop or wireless phone. It might be possible to use the inbuilt ATA of the router but if not a VoIP enabled phone will be required.

Sounds like you may be going more for a hybrid option as you are considering Voipfone. Perhaps AA at <£2/month for keeping your number and another VOIP provider to complement for cheap outgoing calls could be considered? Or just use a cheap monthly sim in a mobile phone for outgoing calls.

There are pro/cons and you need the technical to get it all setup (and buy the appropriate hardware) but if you were setting up Voipfone anyway there isn't that much more to do.

The main issue with AA is you can't put a cap on monthly usage which scares me. Most VOIP providers are either PAYG or you can specify a monthly cap.

Suggest reading the other posts in the forum much useful information! Also worth reminding if you are going with an Altnet get it installed and working first (ideally without providing any landline contact number).

Then port your landline number to a VOIP provider and this should automatically cancel your old internet/voice. You are paying a bit more due to cross over but it is worth it.

It is what I will be doing when (if?) I ever get the chance (no altnets no BT FTTP)

Edited by think26872 (Fri 19-May-23 21:01:24)

There's a fairly new 'right to port' protocol. It's now possible to port a ceased number within the 31 days after the service is ceased. People can just do a normal port request and it'll be done within the usual couple of weeks.

Edited by sean2003 (Sat 20-May-23 17:08:04)

In reply to a post by trolleybus:

In reply to a post by ady702:

My Plusnet BB is coming to an end next week and want to move to Full fibre.

You have left it far too late to have a smooth transition of switching to FTTP and having your former landline ported into a VoIP provider of your choice.

That's only if the OP has given instructions to Plusnet that they want the broadband to be terminated on that date.

If they simply mean that their contract is coming to an end, then it can continue to roll on at out-of-contract pricing while the new fibre is installed and the phone number ported.

In reply to a post by ady702:

You have a harsh choice of having no broadband service for a couple of weeks or Plusnet being your provider for both FTTP and Digital Voice.

Last I heard, Plusnet didn't do Digital Voice at all: has that changed? For people who wanted to keep their voice number, they were telling them to migrate to BT.

In reply to a post by ady702:

I suppose it might just be possible to extend your existing contract for another six weeks

They won't agree to that, but why on earth would you even try?? Just let the service roll on monthly. Even if it runs for a month past the end of contract, you're talking about an extra cost of <£20.

In reply to a post by sean2003:

There's a fairly new 'right to port' protocol. It's now possible to port a ceased number within the 30 days after the service is ceased. People can just do a normal port request and it'll be done within the usual couple of weeks.

That's particularly interesting piece of information. As you approach your chosen VoIP provider with a porting request, would they be aware of that? Might need to quote "chapter and verse" of where that protocol is stated. Can you help on that please?

The golden piece of advice with an order for FTTP placed, is to leave your existing broadband/voice service up and running until it is established that FTTP is working. Only then port your voice number over to a DV provider of choice.

Andrews an Arnold (AAisp) do a very reasonably priced voip service. Also experienced at porting numbers.

In reply to a post by trolleybus:

That's particularly interesting piece of information. As you approach your chosen VoIP provider with a porting request, would they be aware of that? Might need to quote "chapter and verse" of where that protocol is stated. Can you help on that please.

You just place the port as normal. If rejected, (BT were doing this accidentally after the rule change in April), you can push this back for them to correct it. Most providers are up to scratch now and it works no different than with an active live - lead time remains the same.

Matt

Yep, my contract will come to an end then go on to a rolling monthly one.
From what I have ready PN still say go to BT for voip.

Seems like you have 31 days to port after the line is ceased (or once FF is installed by new provider)....

In reference to www.offta.org.uk/latest-news/telecommunications-adjudicator-update-...:

Right to Port (EECC Requirement – April 2023)
Under this requirement, CPs must provide number porting to customers that request it for at least a month (agreed as 31 calendar days) after the termination of a contract, unless the customer expressly agrees otherwise when terminating that contract. This requirement extends to scenarios that would not require the number to be ported (hence ‘Right to Retain’) in order to reactivate a ceased number and will address existing issues with customers attempting to recover their number after ceasing service. For more please see under ‘Porting Improvements’

Edited by ady702 (Sat 20-May-23 17:44:53)

Signed up with AA. Are there any decent IOS apps for using AA Voip?

Edited by ady702 (Wed 07-Jun-23 21:42:55)

I use Acrobits Softphone with my AAISP account, I like it, but I do very very few calls.
https://acrobits.net/sip-client-ios-android/

any free ones? looks like that is 6.99

You may find something but it is unlikely to work well - Apple severely restricted background app processing some releases ago so you won't get incoming calls when the app is inactive, e.g. when the phone is locked. It needs a cloud-based service which can send push notifications to the installed app to wake things up.

In reply to a post by ady702:

any free ones? looks like that is 6.99

Worth every penny. A very good app and means of using your VoIP
Service as James has noted 👍