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Which ISP? Need phone and fast fibre, but ...

Last Chance

Casual Member
OK, first post on this forum in the hope that someone can help me make an informed decision as to which ISP I could switch to. My situation is this:

1. I work from home
2. I have a phone line (copper) - important that I retain the current 01527 number if possible
3. I am with Plusnet and have fibre, with whom I don't have any complaints, but ...
4. ... they can't offer a super-duper-fast fibre connection (currently no more than 35Mbps down/6Mbps up) and the cost appears high (~£37 pm, without using the phone)
5. I use Skype (£10.19 pm) to call international landlines on a very regular basis - almost daily
6. I would like to gather up all these services under the umbrella of one ISP
7. I would require good customer service from the ISP

I have tried looking at Vodaphone, but what I can't find out is whether the copper line is included with the advertised £22 charge and how close to the 65Mbps this would actually be. The reason being is their website is chronically bad. Also, try ringing their "Help" line (08080 044 668) - apparently, it is "now closed"!

Zen appears to offer everything I would need (up to 900Mbps), with good customer service ratings (spoke to a human being in the UK), but again I would need to retain my copper phone line @ £16.99 pm.

Is there a better way that I can retain my landline number (landline over fibre - I have to ask: why not?), make free VOIP calls (i.e. drop Skype - I'm a bit hazy on what else is possible), and have much faster broadband?

Or perhaps I should just suffer the loss of my phone number ...

Any help is much appreciated :)

David
 
Hi David,

I believe there are plenty of VoIP operators in UK you could move your phone number to so you don't have to keep paying for the copper line.

I've heard of https://www.sipgate.co.uk/ being used by some on this forum, pretty sure there are many others, too.
 
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OK, first post on this forum in the hope that someone can help me make an informed decision as to which ISP I could switch to. My situation is this:

1. I work from home
2. I have a phone line (copper) - important that I retain the current 01527 number if possible
3. I am with Plusnet and have fibre, with whom I don't have any complaints, but ...
4. ... they can't offer a super-duper-fast fibre connection (currently no more than 35Mbps down/6Mbps up) and the cost appears high (~£37 pm, without using the phone)
5. I use Skype (£10.19 pm) to call international landlines on a very regular basis - almost daily
6. I would like to gather up all these services under the umbrella of one ISP
7. I would require good customer service from the ISP

I have tried looking at Vodaphone, but what I can't find out is whether the copper line is included with the advertised £22 charge and how close to the 65Mbps this would actually be. The reason being is their website is chronically bad. Also, try ringing their "Help" line (08080 044 668) - apparently, it is "now closed"!

Zen appears to offer everything I would need (up to 900Mbps), with good customer service ratings (spoke to a human being in the UK), but again I would need to retain my copper phone line @ £16.99 pm.

Is there a better way that I can retain my landline number (landline over fibre - I have to ask: why not?), make free VOIP calls (i.e. drop Skype - I'm a bit hazy on what else is possible), and have much faster broadband?

Or perhaps I should just suffer the loss of my phone number ...

Any help is much appreciated :)

David
Sounds like you need VoIP. Is there FTTP in your area? If not please could you PM me your house number and post code. Thanks
 
BTW, if you want to call international, Lebara (Vodafone mvno) has many international minutes included in their mobile plans. Obviously you won't be able to use your fixed phone number on Lebara, but perhaps receiving phone calls on your well known fixed number and then call them from somewhere else that is cheaper.

I am not sure I fully understood your situation, so sorry if the above does not make sense. :)
 
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Having FTTP is a worthwhile upgrade in terms of convenience and when it became available in my area (also Bromgrove) I went for it. speed went from 2mb to 499mb. The legacy twisted wire was just something I had to put up with and in a couple of years it will be gone anyway. I have a separate business line using voipphone which runs on a Gigaset system and is only a couple of pounds a month.
 
@Bubblesthefish6 @spile Thanks both. I was intending to get FTTP, but it was whether I should drop the copper line and (potentially) lose my existing number. Now I know that the number can be taken with me (with VoIP), that's no longer an issue.
 
Keep your line until after the FTTP is installed and then do a number port transfer to voip such as Sipgate. The copper line will cease with the port and the FTTP will continue and use that for voip on your old number. Your only issue then will be losing the number during powercuts unless you use battery backup on the router. I got 4G up and running before porting my old landline number across and no issues.

BT seem to have major issues with voip if you involve them, so keep voip and BT separate.

 
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