Feed
 

Moving to Full Fibre

Avatar David Moon
As my contract with PlusNet is due for renewal and Full Fibre is now available, I have signed up. But this means the landline goes and with it our home number. This is going to happen to everyone by the end of 2025 as per PlusNet:-

It is very easy to set up your new VoIP. Just sign up to one of the many VoIP apps or services available in the UK. These include:
- Skype
- Zoom
- WhatsApp
- Messenger (Facebook)
If you want to make VoIP calls using a normal phone, you’ll have to look at VoIP home phone providers, such as:
- Vonage
- AXvoice
- Ooma
Depending on the service you choose, you will then be sent either a VoIP phone or a VoIP adapter to connect your landline to the internet.
Openreach are retiring the analogue phone network at the end of 2025.

All these look very costly, when all I want is to divert incoming calls to the home number to a mobile whilst we move people off using that number.

Any advice or thoughts?

Re: Moving to Full Fibre

Avatar Richard I
That is disappointing. I had assumed that the ISP would provide a VoIP service instead and you would plug you home phone into the router (my Virgin Media router has a socket for this) perhaps only some do this and Plusnet are not one of them.

Are you still in the cooling off period? You may be able to switch to one that does.

I also assumed that you would be able to migrate your existing home number.

(Note that you would still loose the phone service if there is a power cut because the router would go off. Which? said that you may be able to get the ISP to provide a backup battery if you depended on your landline for an essential service (whatever that may be)).

If you do have to use a VOIP provider, you may be able to migrate your landline phone number to them

Re: Moving to Full Fibre

Avatar David Moon
I agree, it is very disappointing. As the changeover will be compulsory by the end of 2025 I would have thought Ofcom might have taken a stand. But then as they have approved a 3.9% annual increase over and about CPI, they don't seem to be on the consumers' side!
Yes, you can transfer the landline number to a VOIP provider, but they all seem very pricey to me if you can even work out the charging structure which, needless to say, differs between providers.

Re: Moving to Full Fibre

Avatar Lionel Ogden
Isn't the simple way to only use your mobile for voice calls, messages etc. and use your landline just for your full fibre internet connection. It is a pain having to circulate all your contacts with your new number. but sometimes this is necessary eg if your number has been compromised.

Re: Moving to Full Fibre

Avatar David Moon
Having checked with BT, they do offer to include a telephone connection with broadband using VOIP. As PlusNet a subsidiary is is surging they do not.
Ideally I would have thought that we could at least be offered a service where an automated call to (old) landline gives a message with mobile number. Rather like forwarding mail you could pay by the month?
It is all academic now, as we have no power socket in the cupboard where the fibre enters the house, I am going too cancel fibre for now which we sort out power supply and future location of Router etc.

Re: Moving to Full Fibre

Avatar Lionel Ogden
I think you are right David. I rather think that as we get closer to 2025 there will suddenly be a realisation that many people still need a landline, not least because mobile reception in some areas is a bit flaky and I don’t think they will have sorted that out by 2025. If Plusnet persists with the policy of not offering VOIP they will lose a lot of customers.

Re: Moving to Full Fibre

Avatar Barry Guyer
We have full fibre (Virgin) and have had this for many years. About 5 years ago we dropped our virgin phone contract, bought 2 voip Gigaset phones (one upstairs, one in the hall downstairs) obtained a PAC code from Virgin and moved to the Voipfone company. We have had no problems whatsoever, we have kept our old number, and now we have 2 phones that can be used simultaneously - and sometimes are.

Our telephone charges are markedly reduced.

Re: Moving to Full Fibre

Avatar Tony Still
David - I think the problem is that you are a little early. As I understand it, the current telephone providers will be obliged to offer a replacement service when they retire their PSTN (traditional analogue telephones). This would include offering a broadband package to those without one. In your case, you would have binned your telephone company at a critical moment.

We have both Broadband and telephone from Virgin Media and recently had a broadband update that brought a new router. The new router has two phone sockets on it (for analogue phones). I expect this is typical as OFCOM expects the companies to provide the transition and to give continuity of phone numbers (in the VoIP system that they'll provide). OFCOM talks optimistically about the consumer simply having to unplug their existing phone and plug it into a new socket.

I expected to be able to quote the requirements placed on the telephone companies here but OFCOM, in their usual manner, don't quite seem to be able to say "you shall" to the companies. There is a useful summary here though.

You may also have noticed that the PSTN continues to work during power cuts* whilst broadband usually doesn't. This is essential in some cases of vulnerable subscribers. If you are aware of anyone in that position, the companies will be obliged to provide a solution - in Virgin's case this involves a bodge using a battery (that they will supply).

* This is done by 'powering the phone down the line'. Telephone system designers (like my first employer) have always considered this really quite important. In these days of plentiful mobiles there are generally other means ('cos we always have a signal don't we) but it's still major reduction in capability.

Re: Moving to Full Fibre

Avatar Lionel Ogden
Even now you can lose your phone service during a power cut if you have a cordless phone. We keep an old wired phone for such emergencies. Mobiles are not the answer as invariably when we have a power cut (three or four times a year), the local EE mast is knocked out too. I thought these masts had diesel generator backup.

Re: Moving to Full Fibre

Avatar Rick Churchill
I have been visited by a Brand Ambassador offering Full Fibre (900 Mbps) which would be coming in about a month. All round Poole CityFibre has been ripping up the roads and laying cable in trenches and my next door neighbour approached a man up a ladder at our shared telegraph pole to be told he was installing optical fibre. My toob (all lowercase) representative confirmed that entry to the building would be by overhead wire. Unfortunately they offer no VOIP interface with their LinkSys modem or service, only pointing me at some of the companies that David mentioned.

I assume that toob lease the fibre network from CityFibre for the customers that they ensnare. I was hoping to be approached by several "ambassadors" but this hasn’t happened because I have read that CtyFibre and toob are in partnership to bring full fibre to the masses in the south.

It seems to me that the government, instead of legislating for one company to lay down a network for all ISPs to use like they made BT do, are allowing cartels to impose a one company offer who can decide whether they bother to offer a VOIP service or not. I don’t expect that more companies are going to dig up the road and lay their own network and then try and persuade consumers who have already entered into contracts to change. There is already Virgin and Sky that I think share their network so that hanging on to get a better offer is not going to work, but then I’m a pessimist.

I am wondering that once signed up for £25 a month how the price will jump when the contract is renewed (if it doesn’t already contain a contract clause allowing increases during the term)?

Re: Moving to Full Fibre

Avatar Mick Burrell
Rick - I was under the impression that the network of fibre was ultimately controlled by OpenReach. However, the scale of the operation means they employ other companies to assist with the digging and connections. For example, here, we had DOCWRA digging holes and laying cable with both Kelly Communications and OpenReach connecting people on behalf of their ISP.

We had a completely free choice of ISP. I stuck with Plus net (who don't offer VOIP - I chose to abandon our landlines) but could have gone with BT who do offer it. You may be able to do the same.

Re: Moving to Full Fibre

Avatar Rick Churchill
I don't think that is true. In what I have read I can find not a mention of BT however I did find this question in one report "What we don't know at this time is which CityFibre resellers such as Vodafone, TalkTalk, Air Broadband, Zen Internet, IDNet and others will launch first in the toob footprint areas."

Whether this means that they intend using CityFibre or their own network I don't know but if they are, it seems strange that no other salesmen have come acalling which is allowing toob to sign up their customers and makes me think that CityFibre has signed an exclusive deal with toob for domestic customers.

Re: Moving to Full Fibre

Avatar Mick Burrell
This may interest you:

About OpenReach

Re: Moving to Full Fibre

Avatar Rick Churchill
Sorry Mick just another article saying one day we might service you. They talk about the fact that at present they connect the copper from the street cabinet to your home but that's all going soon. I note under Gigabyte broadband that TalkTalk have an agreement with Sky and CityFibre for Gigabyte Broadband but it's only in York. I still think CityFibre are picking an exclusive deal with one ISP to supply particular areas. Making partnerships in this way maximises profits for both companies.

There is a link to a Full-fibre checker (and I'm fed up of putting my postcode into them or signing up for information) which takes you to Cable.co.uk where it says I can get Virgin which would be via the existing cabling in my street. Unfortunately it would mean probably digging up the drive which I want to avoid. There is no mention of toob in the companies appearing on the Cable.co.uk website so I don't know whether it represents all ISPs

Re: Moving to Full Fibre

Avatar Stuart Affleck
CityFibre are most definitely not doing exclusive deals. In Pompey I can get fourteen ISPs via CF's cabling. Check via the CityFibre website and there only to find out those options- Meerkat, USwitch, etc do not mention any connections via CF, unfortunately. BT/Openreach are doing their own FTTP services, and unfortunately the roll-out is progressing very slowly. My PlusNet contract is up in a few months and an upgrade with them is not looking likely. Much faster speeds for less money is a no-brainer.

Re: Moving to Full Fibre

Avatar Tony Still
In Bournemouth I believe I have the choice of 3 separate fibre networks, being BT Openreach, Virgin Media and City Fibre. City Fibre here has been offered to us by Vodafone and, I think, just one other. Sky, I believe, is on Openreach.

"Copper" is one of those words you need to treat with care: it can mean ADSL (etc) being your old phone line or it can mean co-ax. The original installer of VM's 'cable' system (NYNEX) installed co-ax which is more capable (and generally newer); I'm surprised they still instal co-ax from the cabinet but Rick did say it's going soon. However, my VM co-ax delivers 1 Gb/s of data.

Re: Moving to Full Fibre

Avatar Rick Churchill
Stuart is absolutely right! Toob have advised me that the network is ready and I can now sign a contract with them at £25/month so I accessed CityFibre's website and entered my address to be advised that 14 ISPs are able to offer me their services.

Strangely TalkTalk where I filled in their form to advise me when their service was ready have not contacted me and their package which falls short of Toobs is £45/month.

It will take a while to plough through the offers to see if anyone mentions a VOIP phone deal although after talking to various friends who gave up their landline some time ago I'm having second thoughts about retaining mine.
 
Feed