VOIP for mum

Mu mum is 91 and doesn't want to lose her landline. I'm looking into various options that will allow her to have the internet for her tablet and freely tv but still keep her precious landline as she cant use a mobile due to her dexterity. I'm currently looking at voipvoice.co.uk who offer voip via a dect phone adapter and give 1000 minutes for £15 a month. Is this a good deal as I struggling to find comparison sites or any way to find reputable companies that provide VOIP via 3 DECT handsets. Any help gratefully appreciated.

You could connect a landline type wired phone to a Cisco SPA112 which could connect to a Voip ISP such as Voipfone.

Alternatively I have a Gigaset N300 Dect base statiion and several Gigaset Dect phones.

Andrews and Arnold are a repuitable VOIP ISP and hardware supplier. https://www.aa.net.uk/

Depending on how much support you are able to provide looking after services from multiple suppliers, who currently provides broadband and phone services, and what broadband options are available as this may well impact the migration strategy. It may be worth considering an ISP which offers broadband and a digital voice / VoIP option.

It would be useful to know the current providers, if the connection to the premises is copper (ADSL), part fibre (FTTC/SOGEA) and if there is a stop sell due to being connected to a fibre priority exchange. The checker https://www.broadbandchecker.btwholesale.com/ will indicate what Openreach connections are available or not to ISPs.

£15/mo seems a lot, even if that includes a VoIP DECT base or ATA. For example the Zen Digital Voice option taken on top of their broadband is £7/mo with 1000 minutes included, IIRC, and AAISP have a PAYG VoIP service which is £1.50/mo plus call charges.

Also consider if you need any power backup solution so it is possible to make calls when there is a power outage.

If my wife did not insist on our have a landline/VOIP number we would just use our mobiles, for which we have £5 per month sim only deals that provide us with unlimited calls and unlimited texts with a small amount of mobile data, (that we keep switched off and we never use), for just £5 per month for each sim card.

Personally, for mobile use, I use a Google Pixel 7 Pro phone which has a large easy to see screen and I keep it inside a PVC Flip cover so I dropped it without any issue. (I could if I wished to link it to make/receive VOIP calls and I could instruct it to make calls via voice command by just pressing the Mic Icon and telling it to call someone in the contacts list).

Don't forget that she may also be able to use her tablet, (eg. and IPAD), to make facetime calls.

Also with VOIP it should be noted that if the power goes off the phone goes off so you may want add an uninterruptible power supply if you go down the VOIP route.

With regard to VOIP Providers: personally, I tend to prefer to separate the VOIP providers from the Broadband Providers as changing one service does not then require you to change the other.

For Broadband FTTP we use BT and for VOIP we use two VOIP Providers which are; Sipgate, (no monthly fee but no longer available to new customers), and Voipify which costs us £5.40, (including VAT), per month with 200 minutes of free 01 and 02 calls per month included.

https://www.voipify.net/?mtm_cid=235201820&mtm_kwd=&...

After that the call charge per minute is quite good:

https://www.voipify.net/call-charges/

Regarding, phones we use a Gigaset N300A Base station and we have six Gigaset C575a Dect Phones and the system works great with no issues.

Regarding keeping the old landline number; when we changed to VOIP we just took up one of the local VOIP phone numbers that were free to add and this meant that we could set up the VOIP line while the old landline was still operational and all of the nuisance calls, (solar panel sales etc.), that the old landline number periodically suffered from all disappeared.

Edited by Fido (Mon 08-Jun-26 06:28:17)

Personally, I would keep it simple and go for an ISP that can provide digital voice.
Vodafone currently offering 150 Mbps for £ 25pm + £10 for unlimited UK calls.
Their technical support isn't brilliant - if you don't get the right person the CS agents read off the screen which is the same information you can get from the website and wouldn't need to contact them for.
We've been on fttp with them for 2½ years, had a bit of problem when first installed, in that they failed to update the router firmware for digital voice, but since then only had one voice failure that was sorted by rebooting the router.
Hope you don't mind me adding that they were very good after we added an elderly relative's line to our account but she passed away shortly after. I expected an argument about ceasing the contract but was the easiest and shortest call I had with them - resolved in a 10 minute phone call, with a real person, and email to send the death certificate.

In reply to a post by Michael_Chare:

You could connect a landline type wired phone to a Cisco SPA112 which could connect to a Voip ISP such as Voipfone.

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/un...

its 6 years eol, and any cve (for which there are many) are not patched. Do not use or suggest the spa112

In reply to a post by Fido:

If my wife did not insist on our have a landline/VOIP number we would just use our mobiles

As you've noted, with VOIP/SIP you can use your mobiles for the "landline" number too. For that I recommend Acrobits Softphone, because it uses native push notifications to wake the phone on incoming calls - this means it's not running continuously in the background draining your battery.

It is a one-time purchase (£6 IIRC) and you only need to buy it once if you have Family Sharing, although if one of you has Android and one has iOS then it's two purchases. Occasionally it's offered at a discounted price so you might want to keep an eye on it.

There's a slightly more expensive version ("Groundwire") which has some extra bells and whistles that I didn't need - things like 3-way calling I think.

Oh, and you do need to check that your VOIP provider allows multiple registrations, if you have multiple mobiles and/or a wired base station all connecting to the same SIP account.

The big problem which nobody talks about with voip - is support. Which can be very skimpy or non existant.

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

these guys are one of the better outfits for support. And they do unlimited for 14 p/m

I'm using aa and idnet for two lines.

Both can provide you with hardware ..

What dect phones have you got?

If you are ok pluggin in settings then you can get away with no preconfigured hardware..

In reply to a post by Malti121:

Mu mum is 91 and doesn't want to lose her landline

With a 91 year old I would not worry about third party VoIP solutions.

What companies are supplying the phone and broadband today, if you have both from the same company then they should keep everything working and all you will need to do is move the wire from the phone into the back of the internet router.

In reply to a post by jchamier:

In reply to a post by Malti121:

Mu mum is 91 and doesn't want to lose her landline

With a 91 year old I would not worry about third party VoIP solutions.

What companies are supplying the phone and broadband today, if you have both from the same company then they should keep everything working and all you will need to do is move the wire from the phone into the back of the internet router.

a lot of weight should be placed on what you have suggested. Diy route is normally great but unless the op is under budget contraints then the route may be the best way forward.

I must say that keeping it simple with one provider for all was our solution, in a similar situation, however the one time the phone went down the Vodafone cs was useless.

For a 91-year-old, BT is the obvious choice; at least they know how to deal with vulnerable customers. Zen and Sky would probably also be fine.

Whoever you choose, make sure you can get yourself added as a trusted contact.

Thanks eveyone for the help, its been very informative.

I tried the bt broadband checker on the landline number and got "There is no data available. This may be because it is not a BT line or it is a number which has been moved to an IP Voice service. We advise using the address to check availability instead." which seems very strange to me!

I was originally looking at getting an XLink Xtreme Technologies BT Bluetooth Telephone to Mobile Adaptor so she can use the existing panasonic DECT phones, but can't for the life of me work out how to get VOIP to keep the landline number and divert it to a mobile so she can get free minutes.

Unfortunately looks like Voipvoice is the most practicable solution. Thanks everyone for your help.

We still haven't heard whether your mother's connection is FTTP, VDSL or ADSL and who the current supplier is. We also don't know whether the change is being driven by the supplier or by your wish to change your mother's phone connection in your own good time. All of those points have a critical impact on the the possible options you have.

Depending on the answers to those questions, it may be as simple as letting the supplier do everything (provide a new router with a phone port, retain the existing number and then you plug the phone into the router rather than the socket on the wall). As your mother will be classed as a vulnerable customer because of her age you should also check what arrangements the supplier will make to maintain service in the event of a power outage.

If your supplier has warned that they will no longer provide a voice service in the future then pick another supplier that will give your mother a broadband and voice service and let them supply their router which will have a phone connection. No need for you to be buying additional kit.

I don't understand your point about getting free minutes if you divert the call to a mobile. When you transfer a landline number to VoIP you are using a different technology than the mobile telephone voice calls. If you put an app onto the mobile such as acrobits, that connects you through the internet to the VoIP system. You are not using the mobile phone to make a mobile phone call; you are connecting through the mobile phone's internet capability into the connection provided by the app and the supplier's network.

In reply to a post by Malti121:

I tried the bt broadband checker on the landline number and got "There is no data available. This may be because it is not a BT line or it is a number which has been moved to an IP Voice service. We advise using the address to check availability instead." which seems very strange to me!

Like it says, use the Address Checker instead - enter postcode, select house from drop-down provided on next screen.

However, if this is a BT PSTN line it's indeed unusual that it can't be used as a key here. I'm presuming it's not a line provided by Virgin Media or some other company? It would be very helpful if you could say what the existing connection is.

In reply to a post by Malti121:

can't for the life of me work out how to get VOIP to keep the landline number and divert it to a mobile so she can get free minutes.

There are companies that will port the landline number, accept incoming calls and forward them to a specific mobile number, although there's a per-minute cost for that. For example see numberpeople.co.uk (not a recommendation). If the number's being kept just for the occasion calls from the GP or whatever, while friends and family use the mobile number directly, that's not a bad way to migrate to mobile.

But really: she's 91. I would just take digital voice from BT / Zen / Sky so the existing phone plugs into the router, and the entire responsibility for managing the line and the voice service, including support for a vulnerable person, rests on a single company. If it costs you a few quid more per month, I think it's worth it for peace of mind.

Oddly I have just done almost that for my 91 year old mother.

She has a big button handset in her home with a cheap SIM to save costs/hassle of a land line installation in a care home. I have taken custody of the family phone number by porting it to voipfone business bottom of the line £6 per month service (not recommending, though so far they are excellent; the service includes the master phone, one extension and basic PBX features). I use their softphone app on my mobile to get the calls to the landline which I can then transfer to my mother should they be personal rather than scams - those transfers come out of the 100 minutes per month talk time I get with the voipfone service.

Hope you come up with a solution that fits your requirements - it's much more flexible out there these days but, as others have said, it might be wiser to just go for BT/EE or equivalent so they have all the hassle

In reply to a post by Malti121:

Thanks eveyone for the help, its been very informative.

My friends 90 year old mother moved from Plusnet to EE last year to solve this and as far as she is concerned nothing has changed. Internet works, and telephone works. The telephones are now plugged into the back of the EE router, but as they have a couple of wired phones and a DECT system this is not an issue.

I tried the bt broadband checker on the landline number and got "There is no data available. This may be because it is not a BT line or it is a number which has been moved to an IP Voice service. We advise using the address to check availability instead." which seems very strange to me!

That is quite common in the last few years, it just means the current service is not known by BT, since they are now only ONE of many providers who can use the same physical wires.

My SPA112 has been fine for the past 11 years. It is connected to the Internet via my router. The replacement is the ATA 192.

Sorry Gonepostal

Currently with Now broadband and getting about 60 meg ADSL. Currently paying over £50 for the privilege so I was looking at something like virgin FTTP which is about £24 for the broadband but doesn't include any way of my mum keeping her phone which is why I have been looking at the voip options.

I live in the same house as my mum and have converted the loft.

The point about getting the xtreme bluetooth system was my mum could make outgoing calls on the landline and its using the mobile minutes as its linked over bluetooth, I have tested it previously and it does work but my mum is adamant about keeping the landline. She can't use a smartphone as she doesn't have the dexterity and likes to push the buttons on the landline. The only reason for voip is to keep the incoming calls for friends and family.

She's is 91 and does spend a lot of time on the phone (often over 1 hour on just one call - have previously told her many times because she was on a call plan to hang up after 59 minutes and ring them again but she's never been able to do that which is why our landline calls are so expensive) so I was wanting a way of increasing the internet speed and trying to keep costs low while still keeping the landline and the landline number.

Presumably your mum has no need for FTTP speeds so worth looking at a provider like EE over FTTC for both broadband and phone which will retain the landline number. No idea about prices, though.

I think terminology is mixing us up about the free minutes. Are you saying that your mum uses the landline hand set but is actually making a call using the mobile connection? If that is the case is there any need for you to retain the landline phone connection? You can transfer the landline number to a VoIP provider so you keep the number but for less than you would be paying an ISP for a landline connection then add your preferred bluetooth connection

In reply to a post by GonePostal:

Presumably your mum has no need for FTTP speeds so worth looking at a provider like EE over FTTC for both broadband and phone which will retain the landline number.

If FTTP is available to order at the property, then FTTC and FTTP (at a basic speed like 80/20) will likely be the same price.

In both cases, the voice service will be delivered in exactly the same way: as digital voice over the broadband, where the handset plugs into the router. You have been unable to order or migrate analogue voice (PSTN) services since Sep 2023.

Furthermore, the FTTP service will be more reliable - not relying on powered street cabinets or high attenuation copper affected by temperature, bad joints, water ingress etc.

In reply to a post by candlerb:

If FTTP is available to order at the property, then FTTC and FTTP (at a basic speed like 80/20) will likely be the same price.

Only if the FTTP is from Openreach. The OP said Virgin Media, and it may be VM over the nexfibre network.

Virgin Media do voice services, via the router (“hub”) in both nexfibre, and real virgin areas. If you’ve not chatted to them double check as I know people in coax, RFoG, and nexfibre FTTP areas all with traditional phone line via the Virgin Media hub.

I personally choice NOT to pay for home telephone from the ISP.

In reply to a post by jchamier:

In reply to a post by candlerb:

If FTTP is available to order at the property, then FTTC and FTTP (at a basic speed like 80/20) will likely be the same price.

Only if the FTTP is from Openreach. The OP said Virgin Media, and it may be VM over the nexfibre network.

True. The existing service is 60M FTTC over the Openreach network, but they are paying way too much at over £50 per month; it will be easy to bring that down.

The alternative VM Fibre has £24 per month initial price, but that will likely double or triple at the end of the initial contract period unless you threaten to disconnect. So it partly depends how much they're prepared to jump through those hoops.

I haven’t been able to look though all the answers but I can tell you that in the last week I have had my old landline number ported to a VoIP service (successfully and quickly). For context I already have a (non landline) internet service and was ‘pushed’ to look at VoIP because my landline supplier (PlusNet) are doing the “Digital Switch” and could not supply what I needed.
The company I used is Premitel Connections based in Haddington, East Lothian but I see no reason why you couldn’t get the same service anywhere in the UK. I got an ATA (analogue telephone adapter) so we (well my wife) has something familiar (our existing DECT phones). I know Premitel can & do advise and the main chap Stephen K is responsive & helpful. The switch took less than 2 weeks and it has been seamless - I’m 72 and hope to last to the grand old age of your Mum - I know I would have done the same for my parents had they lasted this long
Happy to answer specific questions if you have them