Porting a Landline Number

[Julian]

Has anyone ported a landline number? I'm considering doing it and would like to know what to expect.

I've had a regular BT landline in my home since I moved in 24 years ago although the line is now managed by Sky. I'm thinking of dumping the landline but I don't want to lose the number so I want to port it to a VOIP service. To be safe I think it would make sense to port the number first and only once I am happy that it is up and running with the VOIP provider would I cancel the landline. This has me wondering what happens in this circumstance. I can really only see one way how it could work but if anyone has done this I would be grateful for real life confirmation.

I assume the process would be...

1 - Apply to the VOIP provider to have my number ported
2 - The VOIP provider uses some system to place the request to grab my number which gets routed to Sky
3 - Sky inform me that there has been a request to port my number and either asks for explicit confirmation of gives me a time window within which to object to the request
4 - Possibly at the same time as 3 above or maybe closer to the porting date Sky inform me of the new/replacement number that will be allocated to my Sky landline

It's point 4 that is of particular interest since I assume a new number has to be allocated. Come to think of it there is another option in that a request to port a number could be taken as an implicit request to also terminate the landline service that the number is being ported away from in which case no new number needs to be allocated. Since I want to do this one step at a time I am hoping that later option (porting also being an explicit termination request on the old line) isn't how it works since I would want to explicitly request termination a few weeks after the port has been completed.

Can anyone with real life experience of this enlighten me?

- Julian

[pochisoldi]

A read of https://www.voipfone.co.uk/PB_Porting_Numbers.php might shred some light. (the process will broadly be the same whoever you port to).

In short - porting a number ceases service with the old provider (and it also ceases related services on that line e.g. DSL)
Pochisoldi

[Julian]

Many thanks. Not what I wanted to hear but understandable I suppose from the point of view of simplicity for the providers. A change of plan then, I'll need to get the new internet up and running first then probably get a VOIP line with a random number and once I'm happy with that I'll port my old number and close the landline. I am planning to move from Sky ADSL to Virgin Cable (despite UncleE's cautionary tales) so at least that makes it possible to overlap/phase things.

UncleE (if you see this) - I have asked pretty much everyone who I know in my area who has Virgin how they get on with their connection and no one seems to have catastrophic experiences so maybe it is location-specific. Then again, I have also read an awful lot of "don't touch them with a bargepole" reviews on various internet sites as well which is still making me pretty nervous but all my face-to-face quizzing of friends and neighbours seems to indicate that the service in my area is pretty solid with maybe an hour or two of outage every few months. Although that's not as solid as my Sky connection which maybe has an outage that I notice every 1 to 2 years but I think it'll be acceptable. My problem is that there is no FTTC in my area and my use of Netflix and other streaming services is likely to consume enough data to rule out 4G on affordability grounds so I Virgin is my only realistically-priced option (I think) if I want any more than 11Mbps download speeds.

- Julian

[UncleEbenezer]

I ported my former landline number to VOIP when I moved house in 2013. It all went smoothly, but it did involve getting a new VOIP number first, and only then porting my old number to route through to the same destination.

I also got a couple of DECT handsets, and an adaptor to use with my old 'phone. The new kit was nothing but trouble, and only the softphone on my (android) mobile really works without too much trouble. That situation has probably improved in the five years since my move.

[Julian]

I ported my former landline number to VOIP when I moved house in 2013. It all went smoothly, but it did involve getting a new VOIP number first, and only then porting my old number to route through to the same destination.

I also got a couple of DECT handsets, and an adaptor to use with my old 'phone. The new kit was nothing but trouble, and only the softphone on my (android) mobile really works without too much trouble. That situation has probably improved in the five years since my move.

Thanks UncleE. On the handset thing I have a few options. My Fritz!box ADSL router also has a DECT base station and VOIP/SIP capabilities integrated so I can reconfigure it to present the VOIP line to my existing DECT handsets in seconds, in fact I already have it running like that on a zero-fee PAYG VOIP line that I signed up for a year or so ago but don't really use except for the occasional test. If/when I do my "big switch" though I think my preferred route is to refresh my handsets by buying at least one cheap Android phones to run a VOIP client to give a nicer more modern handset (my DECT phones are probably about 12 years old now). I actually posted a thread here a while back to pick away at the handset issue and, subject to whatever phone I get not needing a SIM card in it to even work with WiFi, the conclusion that I took away from that discussion was that it looks like a viable option. (That old thread from November last year is here - viewtopic.php?f=39&t=8168 - This is a very slow-burn project for me!)

- Julian

[taylor20]

I ported my former landline number to VOIP when I moved house in 2013. It all went smoothly, but it did involve getting a new VOIP number first, and only then porting my old number to route through to the same destination.

I did the same, so can't really comment on what happened to the 'old landline'.

I ported mine to SIPGate as they seem to be a quality outfit, for a one off fee of £10 (this was a while ago though). I have some credit on that account but I think I only use it for 0800 numbers, so never use it.

I tend to use freespeech.co.uk (First 10 minutes are free each day) and localphone.com (Cheapest rate overall) for all outgoing calls as they are the cheapest I've found. I also have an account with VoipCheap.co.uk, where (I think) you get 3 months of free calls after topping up, but I no longer use this account.

SIPgate give you a free number when you sign up, so I have two phone numbers with them, once ported you can use the old landline number as caller ID for all outgoing calls.

Freespeech I had to jump though some hoops to get caller ID setup (using my new landline number), i.e. Send them a scan of a phone bill proving ownership of the landline then call a specific number using the landline. Not sure how easy this would be for a SIP number.

Setting up caller ID on the other accounts I did soon after porting, but I don't remember it being much of a hassle.

Caller ID being quiet useful when calling friends/relatives with Call Guardian type services.

In summary set up Caller ID _before_ porting the number if using more than 1 VOIP account.