Switching FTTC provider, landline availability?

I hope I'm posting to the correct section with such general questions about potentially moving to VOIP (or not, or if "VOIP" is what I really mean)...

Having been with TalkTalk (FTTC) since forever, without broadband complaints or problems for the most part, and having negotiated deals with them from time to time, I'm looking at current offers to switch.

My main confusions are are around the change to telephone provision when switching. My parents want to keep their landline, but I'm not convinced I understand what it will look like. Will I have to buy the landline service separately? For example, if I was to switch to Sky's broadband-only offer, do they have a landline product I can buy as an add-on? Can I keep the existing number? Is VOIP "better" for most people (my parents' landline is bad and has been getting worse for years)?

Apologies for probably asking the same questions you've all been answering for a while, grateful for any advice.

I was hoping somebody else would answer this, because I know nothing about Sky, having never used them. I will leave Sky specific questions to someone else.

If you switch now and wish to keep a landline, you will have to transfer it to VoIP. It is no longer possible to order a copper based phone line*. VoIP could be provided either by your broadband supplier, if they offer some sort of digital voice product, or by a third party supplier such as Sipgate or Voipfone over your broadband-only connection.

You will need to connect your phone to your router, not to the BT terminal box. Depending on the relative locations of your kit, that may or may not be straightforward. If you take a voice product from your new broadband ISP, they may supply a router with a phone connector that your parents' existing phone can use. If you go with a third party supplier, you will need either to connect the phone(s) to the router via an "ATA" box such as the Grandstream HT801, or replace the handsets with digital ones that will connect directly to the router.

It should be possible to keep your existing phone number, provided that you do it correctly. It is also possible for this to go wrong and for the number to be irretrievably lost, so be sure that both you and your new ISP understand exactly what you want before you press any "go" buttons.

Whether VoIP is "better" depends on your criteria for better. It's a digital connection, so should be better quality. But unlike copper phones, VoIP is powered locally from your house mains supply, so if that (or the router) fails then so does the phone. If your parents rely on their phone for emergencies, they/you need to think carefully about that. If they have telecare devices that connect over the landline, these might need an upgrade to be VoIP compatible.

*edited to clarify that TT's network uses "full unbundling" unlike most other ISPs, who use LLU. This means they don't use BT's WLR for voice. As it is WLR that is being retired at end 2025, they are not bound by this deadline, nor by the Sep 23 copper stop-sell. But they are still transitioning customers to fibre/VoIP as fibre becomes available.

Edited by Thaumaturge (Sat 02-Dec-23 16:31:13)

Sky's broadband products come by default with a VOIP telephone service which you connect a telephone to via a standard socket on the back of the sky router, I am not sure if you can migrate your existing number in. The issue with VOIP is when the router has no power you won't have no telephone service either but this is the direction all providers are moving too.

Edited by PCJM40 (Sat 02-Dec-23 13:33:38)

In reply to a post by PCJM40:

this is the direction all providers are moving too.

Same with Virgin Media even in areas where they have coax + twin copper the copper pairs are ignored and the phone service provided by the router (aka the "Hub").

I can confirm as I have posted before in other threads that you can successfully port your existing phone number to Digital Voice!
I was with TalkTalk FTTC for 2 years from February 2020 to July 2022. I switched to BT FTTC Digital Voice service. I entered my landline number during signup and the website gave me 2 options to remain on Analogue phone service or switch to the new Digital Voice. I opted for Digital Voice and received Smart Hub 2 router as well as BT Advanced Digital Home Phone with Alexa Built-In.

Phone service works just fine as before. BT Advanced Home Phone works wirelessly where you simply register with the Smart Hub 2 router using the WPS key.

Analogue phone line is switched off, meaning that plugging traditional telephone into the master faceplate socket will result in no dial tone. But you can now plug the phone into your router instead and it works like normal!

So this means that both the landline old vintage phone works as well as the BT Advanced phone. VOIP is indeed better as I described in my other posts. You get clearer sound quality, no crackling on the line. Internet no longer disconnects! If you've had problems with connection drop-outs in the past, rest assured you'll no longer have problems when you migrate to Digital Voice. DV resolves these problems with broadband drop-outs when picking or using the phone.

I know some people have said that I've not really solved the problem but masked it. Well, that for me is pretty much solving the problem as I don't have any general broadband disconnections whatsoever (not since migrating to FTTC from ADSL in 2020)!

The only cons with this new DV service is that you are very much reliant on the ISP router. You cannot currently use Digital Voice with a third party router! So if you want to use your own router you'll have to give up using DV. Also you are 100% dependent on a stable internet connection. Any internet drop or power outage will result in the phone stopping as well. But if your internet connection is stable and you don't have power outages then DV as a service will pose no problems at all.