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Gigaclear VOIP?

MarkyR74

ULTIMATE Member
Hi, I am now able to ore-order gigaclear fibre. They now offer telephone support too. They use an adapter to just connect your existing phone to their Linksys router.

My questions are, does anyone know if I can use my own router with this VOIP?
Is it worth it? If you have an internet outage you lose the phone which we can’t do.
can I keep my copper line to keep the phone and have Gigaclear fibre?

Am I right in thinking it’s best to get fibre BB first, then move the telephone service after once it’s working?

I am a bit hesitant as I can only remember one fault on my line over the last few years, and IDNet has been a great service to use, but I don’t think Openreach have the slightest interest in brining fibre to my village so am stuck with Gigaclear for now.
 
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I would keep your copper line for calls at present.
Obviously not a long term strategy as BT will eventually shut down the copper network but still possible. In terms of VOIP is better to contract a separate VOIP service so you keep your number and avoid service disruptions when you switch internet ISPs. Mark did a great article on the available VOIP Providers a couple of months ago:

https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.p...ted-home-voip-providers-for-uk-consumers.html
 
Obviously not a long term strategy as BT will eventually shut down the copper network but still possible. In terms of VOIP is better to contract a separate VOIP service so you keep your number and avoid service disruptions when you switch internet ISPs. Mark did a great article on the available VOIP Providers a couple of months ago:

https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.p...ted-home-voip-providers-for-uk-consumers.html

Not sure I can do that though, the fibre and equipment is all owned by Gigaclear, so surely you can only get the providers they partner with?
Sorry unsure how the fibre VOIP works in this regard.
 
Not sure I can do that though, the fibre and equipment is all owned by Gigaclear, so surely you can only get the providers they partner with?
Sorry unsure how the fibre VOIP works in this regard.
Of course you can get a separate VOIP provider. All you need is to choose one from the article I linked and get a compatible handset. Any internet connection would work with any of mentioned VOIP providers. Even Skype allows you to have a landline if you want and use it from your computer directly without having a separate handset.
 
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Thanks. So I will pre-order my fibre BB, but tell them I want to keep my copper line. I assume I can then keep my current FTTC broadband and tel. Then when it's setup I'll move the telephone across.
 
Thanks. So I will pre-order my fibre BB, but tell them I want to keep my copper line. I assume I can then keep my current FTTC broadband and tel. Then when it's setup I'll move the telephone across.
Gigaclear is an Altnet which means their network is completely separate from BT/Openreach. So yes you can order Gigaclear and you can keep your copper line without any changes. In fact that is a good idea, if you can afford keeping both services in parallel for little bit to make sure you are up and running with Gigaclear before you request to terminate the service with IDNet. You could also request to BT to take over the telephone line and just keep the telephone on copper until BT gives you the ultimatum to stop the service (likely around 2025). Openreach might get fibre there eventually too. If you want to migrate the landline number to a VOIP service you should check the link I posted. Different VOIP providers charge different prices to migrate a landline number and it doesn’t work in all cases. So best is to speak with the VOIP provider if your choice to see how the process works.
 
Of course you can get a separate VOIP provider. All you need is to choose one from the article I linked and get a compatible handset. Any internet connection would work with any of mentioned VOIP providers. Even Skype allows you to have a landline if you want and use it from your computer directly without having a separate handset.
Indeed.

It’s a real mindset shift for folks used to associating a landline telephone number to an actual physical line - rather then something these days which is as virtual and portable as a mobile number.
 
Gigaclear is an Altnet which means their network is completely separate from BT/Openreach. So yes you can order Gigaclear and you can keep your copper line without any changes. In fact that is a good idea, if you can afford keeping both services in parallel for little bit to make sure you are up and running with Gigaclear before you request to terminate the service with IDNet. You could also request to BT to take over the telephone line and just keep the telephone on copper until BT gives you the ultimatum to stop the service (likely around 2025). Openreach might get fibre there eventually too. If you want to migrate the landline number to a VOIP service you should check the link I posted. Different VOIP providers charge different prices to migrate a landline number and it doesn’t work in all cases. So best is to speak with the VOIP provider if your choice to see how the process works.

If only Open Reach would install fibre, but my village / small town only has around 2000 homes, have and do have new ones being built and that's the only reason we have Gigaclear.
It was a real effort for the Council to get Open Reach to install FTTC, they aren't interested in fibre at all.
If I had Open Reach fibre I'd be staying with IDNet for certain.
 
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If only Open Reach would install fibre, but my village / small town only has around 2000 homes, have and do have new ones being built and that's the only reason we have Gigaclear.
It was a real effort for the Council to get Open Reach to install FTTC, they aren't interested in fibre at all.
If I had Open Reach fibre I'd be staying with IDNet for certain.
Well totally get you, ig you are happy with your current ISP why change? Well on one side competition is good. One of the reasons BT and VM didn't start their FTTP builds earlier is because no one was pushing them. VM speeds weren't as good and BT went for the half baked approach of deploying FTTC. All that FTTC money is now wasted, further more so many green cabinets added which now will need to be decommissioned. FTTC uses a lot more power as well which now with energy prices at record levels is costing BT more to maintain. Anyway Openreach is targeting 25m homes with FTTP by the end of 2026, which is roughly 80% of the UK. I would actually argue that now that Gigaclear has deployed on your area Openreach might make a move sooner rather than later. This is what happened with my telegraph pole which was left out of the initial Openreach FTTP build as it was defective and needed a cherry picker. As soon as Community Fibre enabled it, Openreach came 2 weeks later and enabled it as well. IDNet uses Openreach's network. So as more people in your area leave Openreach for Gigaclear Openreach will feel more presure to come and deploy FTTP. Of course there could be some build issues we are not aware of but generally speaking Openreach will not want to avoid matching an area which is served by Altnets to prevent too many customers from jumping ship of its network.
 
Well totally get you, ig you are happy with your current ISP why change? Well on one side competition is good. One of the reasons BT and VM didn't start their FTTP builds earlier is because no one was pushing them. VM speeds weren't as good and BT went for the half baked approach of deploying FTTC. All that FTTC money is now wasted, further more so many green cabinets added which now will need to be decommissioned. FTTC uses a lot more power as well which now with energy prices at record levels is costing BT more to maintain. Anyway Openreach is targeting 25m homes with FTTP by the end of 2026, which is roughly 80% of the UK. I would actually argue that now that Gigaclear has deployed on your area Openreach might make a move sooner rather than later. This is what happened with my telegraph pole which was left out of the initial Openreach FTTP build as it was defective and needed a cherry picker. As soon as Community Fibre enabled it, Openreach came 2 weeks later and enabled it as well. IDNet uses Openreach's network. So as more people in your area leave Openreach for Gigaclear Openreach will feel more presure to come and deploy FTTP. Of course there could be some build issues we are not aware of but generally speaking Openreach will not want to avoid matching an area which is served by Altnets to prevent too many customers from jumping ship of its network.

I want fibre speeds so am moving.
And Gigaclear have built their own network, so Open Reach would need to do the same right to your door. And we have underground cables so that would mean the driveway being dug up twice I guess. Not sure about that.
I am aware IDNET use Open Reach, as do many others, it's why this whole thing is a complete sham as your forced to use whoever you get, until or unless you are lucky enough to have multiple providers. But that's the route the U.K. has taken.
 
IAnd we have underground cables so that would mean the driveway being dug up twice I guess. Not sure about that.
A bit too late but you should have run a bigger conduit that you can reuse for other FTTP installations. Eventually Openreach (it's one word) will come and maybe even Virgin Media so you will have the same issue. Indeed the game is rigged but hopefully the Altnets will grow big enough to become a third viable competitor to BT and VM.
 
A bit too late but you should have run a bigger conduit that you can reuse for other FTTP installations. Eventually Openreach (it's one word) will come and maybe even Virgin Media so you will have the same issue. Indeed the game is rigged but hopefully the Altnets will grow big enough to become a third viable competitor to BT and VM.
Best is to run separate 54/56mm conduits of the correct colour. Then there is no issue of them not wanting to install down the 'wrong' coloured conduit - Virgin for example outside of green. Also minimises any risk to existing cabling. Conduit itself is pennies once you have the trench dug.
 
Best is to run separate 54/56mm conduits of the correct colour. Then there is no issue of them not wanting to install down the 'wrong' coloured conduit - Virgin for example outside of green. Also minimises any risk to existing cabling. Conduit itself is pennies once you have the trench dug.
That's a great tip, didn't occur to me to run multiple conduits under the drive. But 54/56mm seems too big to me. I ran 20mm cinduit from the roof till ground level for Community Fibre and they installed it without any issues. And there is plenty space for multiple cables to run in the same conduit. In my case it wasn't feasable to run multiple conduits but I will keep it in mind for the next time.
 
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That's a great tip, didn't occur to me to run multiple conduits under the drive. But 54/56mm seems too big to me. I ran 20mm cinduit from the roof till ground level for Community Fibre and they installed it without any issues. And there is plenty space for multiple cables to run in the same conduit. In my case it wasn't feasable to run multiple conduits but I will keep it in mind for the next time.
54/46mm is the standard size conduit installed by the like of BT and Virgin from their swept tee and duct infra in the street. It’s industry standard for a small/domestic UG comms connection from street to premises basically.

[caveats and exceptions of course with AltNets that direct bury or otherwise install microduct type drops e.g. Gigaclear.]
 
A bit too late but you should have run a bigger conduit that you can reuse for other FTTP installations. Eventually Openreach (it's one word) will come and maybe even Virgin Media so you will have the same issue. Indeed the game is rigged but hopefully the Altnets will grow big enough to become a third viable competitor to BT and VM.

No chance Virgin will come, they really aren’t interested in areas with circa 2000 households.
I also doubt ‘Openreach’ will either, anyway I ordered my Gigaclear today, the top 900mbps package. I’ll move my phone after.
Also why would I be running conduit under my driveway? I’m confused by your statement on that one, I can assure you I am not going to dig my driveway up, as in ever, that’s a job for the installation team contractors ‘if’ required, but hopefully they’ll just blow the fibre through Openreach’s conduit anyway.
And I would question the legalities of messing around with provider conduits.
 
No chance Virgin will come, they really aren’t interested in areas with circa 2000 households.
I also doubt ‘Openreach’ will either, anyway I ordered my Gigaclear today, the top 900mbps package. I’ll move my phone after.
Also why would I be running conduit under my driveway? I’m confused by your statement on that one, I can assure you I am not going to dig my driveway up, as in ever, that’s a job for the installation team contractors ‘if’ required, but hopefully they’ll just blow the fibre through Openreach’s conduit anyway.
And I would question the legalities of messing around with provider conduits.
It depends how your property will be served. Overhead from a pole or underground. If underground it’s up to the customer to bury the conduit under the driveway. I have VM under my driveway and Openreach + Community Fibre is overhead.
 
No chance Virgin will come, they really aren’t interested in areas with circa 2000 households.
I also doubt ‘Openreach’ will either, anyway I ordered my Gigaclear today, the top 900mbps package. I’ll move my phone after.
Also why would I be running conduit under my driveway? I’m confused by your statement on that one, I can assure you I am not going to dig my driveway up, as in ever, that’s a job for the installation team contractors ‘if’ required, but hopefully they’ll just blow the fibre through Openreach’s conduit anyway.
And I would question the legalities of messing around with provider conduits.
If they can avoid the driveway / hard standing etc. You’ll probably find they just shallow trench it with a spade.

Openreach will eventually get there too. Maybe not imminently.

Good luck 👍
 
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