That's a shame. Been with Sipgate for many years. Hopefully the cost isn't too much, otherwise I think I'll just cancel and rely on my mobile.

Shame you didn’t stay - you would have saved 8 years worth of monthly subs 😁

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

Shame you didn’t stay - you would have saved 8 years worth of monthly subs 😁

[wince]

I emailed sipgate to see what was happening with the starter product and this was their reply. It doesn't exactly fill me with confidence so I think it will be AAISP VoIP for me as I don't want to port the landline number twice.

It's true that new sign ups for sipgate starter is closed. However, the product itself still exists and is running as normal. There are currently no plans to close sipgate starter completely, so your account will remain functional and untouched, and you can still port your number over if you wish to.

I can't say for sure what sipgate will be planning to do in the future as these decisions are made and rolled out rather quickly. What I can say is if that something happens to starter, then you will be notified with plenty of time to make any necessary changes before the changes to sipgate go into affect.

Thanks for the update. They haven’t written to existing subscribers (yet), so I’d expect as they have told you nothing will change for the time being. The snippet linked from the poster at ISPreview indicated a withdrawal in 2023.

It’s not a burning bridge. Still good to be prepared.

In reply to a post by ferretuk:

I moved to AAISP when Sipgate announced the closure of Sipgate Basic nearly eight years ago. They backtracked then (or it was a mistake) but the risk of losing my ported number made me jump ship just in case.

Thanks for the link. If Sipgate follow through this time, maybe Voipfone will repeat their offer of free number ports for Sipgate customers.

(Voipfone's flex plan, currently £1 per month, increases to £1.50 per month from 1st Oct)

After reading this thread I tried to change the automatic account funding back from "active" to "inactive" but I could not find a way to do this.

I wrote a email to Sipgate asking how automatic account funding could be made inactive and I also asked about Sipgate Starter moving forward but no reply so far.

Sipgate normally do reply to emails but phoning has always seemed to be a waste of time.

The reason why I asked about automatic account funding is to keep the balance in the account low so if I cancel with Sipgate I do not have to jump through multiple hoops/barriers to get money left in the Sipgste account back.

As far as I can tell Sipgate will keep any account balance below £6.00 and they will charge a £6.00 admin fee to give back sums of money over £6.00 as long as you jump through their hoops/obsticles, ie. You must ask for it back and provide your personal info / possible your bank info and a copy of your passport.

Fido

In reply to a post by Fido:

As far as I can tell Sipgate will keep any account balance below £6.00 and they will charge a £6.00 admin fee to give back sums of money over £6.00 as long as you jump through their hoops/obsticles, ie. You must ask for it back and provide your personal info / possible your bank info and a copy of your passport.

If this is true then that is a bad reflection on the company, it always seems some companies are happy to take your money but often make it harder when giving it back, £6 admin fee is unjustified.

Going forward I would personally suggest people don't jump from Sipgate until they have had official word about any timescales for the free monthly version closure as that could be more than a year away and may not happen.

+1.

It’s only closed for new entrants. Existing subscribers do your homework, but the bridge isn’t on fire, so no rush to jump.

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

It’s only closed for new entrants. Existing subscribers do your homework, but the bridge isn’t on fire, so no rush to jump.

For all the talk on here about no such thing as a free lunch, many have had their bellies full for many many years so why start paying until you really have too 🤣