Switch phone/broadband supplier?
Discussion
Mr Pointy said:
You will have to tread carefully if you want to retain your phone number - as I recall you use it for your business.
Yes, I do. Retaining the phone number is my overriding concern. Losing the number would cost my business way more than any potential monthly saving.I might be stuck with BT, at least for the landline contract.
I took a big hit when I moved house (just 1 mile) 13 years ago, and had to get a new landline number on a different exchange.
Out in the sticks, landline numbers are a lot easier to remember, note down, or pass on. Just 6 digits and the exchange name, rather than 11 digits for a mobile.
clockworks said:
Mr Pointy said:
You will have to tread carefully if you want to retain your phone number - as I recall you use it for your business.
Yes, I do. Retaining the phone number is my overriding concern. Losing the number would cost my business way more than any potential monthly saving.I might be stuck with BT, at least for the landline contract.
But,
Lesson 1: Trust no-one. BT will promise they can do things, and then not deliver. Other providers may also make promises.
Lesson 2: This isn't really the sort of thing you can rely on doing via a suppliers web site/portal - you need to pick the phone up and talk to them, bearing in mind lesson 1
The way forward for this is to port your number to a VoIP provider - you are then completely independant of any of the major providers going forwards.
On doing this, you will either find it isn't possible (very rare) and you are exactly where you are - no loss of number etc.
or, you then become in control.
The only gotcha here is, once you port the number away from your existing BT provision - it will kill all the services on that line.
So, you really need to have your alternative broadband up and running first.
Also, to do it 'properly' swap you phone to one that uses native IP... By this I mean that the base station (I believe you still want DECT handsets) has a ethernet connection as opposed to an analogue phone connection.
You will end up with your number on a provider's VoIP service which you control, plus your choice of broadband supplier that you also control and are free to mave at any time as the critical part (the number) isn't tied to the broadband.
I can give you a contact at a VoIP provider - who I think are actually local to you - who would do it for you, just ask if you would like it.
I'm more than a little concerned about the whole voip thing.
I know that it can work well for big businesses, where money and volume of calls holds sway. Obviously the hardware works fine, as long as the handset has an Internet connection and a power supply.
What concerns me is the "behind the scenes" bit of making sure that the phone number dialled gets through to the correct handset at the other end. That is, who ultimately controls and maintains the address/routing tables?
I can be pretty sure that a dominant player like BT, who own and maintain most of the infrastructure, can be trusted with continuity of service.
How does it work if I entrust a third party, who probably own next to nothing apart from a mass of data, with something as important as my main means of contact with customers?
I've been in that position before with email. Company (Freeserve) ceases operation, email address dies with it when EE eventually pull the plug. At least in that case there was plenty of warning.
What happens if the ISP handling my number just goes bust?
It took years for my business to recover when I moved house and had to get a new phone number. I can't risk that.
I know that it can work well for big businesses, where money and volume of calls holds sway. Obviously the hardware works fine, as long as the handset has an Internet connection and a power supply.
What concerns me is the "behind the scenes" bit of making sure that the phone number dialled gets through to the correct handset at the other end. That is, who ultimately controls and maintains the address/routing tables?
I can be pretty sure that a dominant player like BT, who own and maintain most of the infrastructure, can be trusted with continuity of service.
How does it work if I entrust a third party, who probably own next to nothing apart from a mass of data, with something as important as my main means of contact with customers?
I've been in that position before with email. Company (Freeserve) ceases operation, email address dies with it when EE eventually pull the plug. At least in that case there was plenty of warning.
What happens if the ISP handling my number just goes bust?
It took years for my business to recover when I moved house and had to get a new phone number. I can't risk that.
clockworks said:
I'm more than a little concerned about the whole voip thing.
I know that it can work well for big businesses, where money and volume of calls holds sway. Obviously the hardware works fine, as long as the handset has an Internet connection and a power supply.
What concerns me is the "behind the scenes" bit of making sure that the phone number dialled gets through to the correct handset at the other end. That is, who ultimately controls and maintains the address/routing tables?
I can be pretty sure that a dominant player like BT, who own and maintain most of the infrastructure, can be trusted with continuity of service.
How does it work if I entrust a third party, who probably own next to nothing apart from a mass of data, with something as important as my main means of contact with customers?
I've been in that position before with email. Company (Freeserve) ceases operation, email address dies with it when EE eventually pull the plug. At least in that case there was plenty of warning.
What happens if the ISP handling my number just goes bust?
It took years for my business to recover when I moved house and had to get a new phone number. I can't risk that.
Moving house and therefore area code becomes a non-issue with VoIP. You can receive/make the call where ever you are on the planet as long as you have an IP connection. My phone system here has a couple of London numbers plus a few local numbers too. 200 miles from London and don't have a physical London office, but it can easily appear to be located there. (Not that we use them - just historical reasons).I know that it can work well for big businesses, where money and volume of calls holds sway. Obviously the hardware works fine, as long as the handset has an Internet connection and a power supply.
What concerns me is the "behind the scenes" bit of making sure that the phone number dialled gets through to the correct handset at the other end. That is, who ultimately controls and maintains the address/routing tables?
I can be pretty sure that a dominant player like BT, who own and maintain most of the infrastructure, can be trusted with continuity of service.
How does it work if I entrust a third party, who probably own next to nothing apart from a mass of data, with something as important as my main means of contact with customers?
I've been in that position before with email. Company (Freeserve) ceases operation, email address dies with it when EE eventually pull the plug. At least in that case there was plenty of warning.
What happens if the ISP handling my number just goes bust?
It took years for my business to recover when I moved house and had to get a new phone number. I can't risk that.
Your point about Freeserve is valid - but even in the early days, companies should have registered and maintained their own domain which they owned/controlled. However, I accept that it maybe wasn't that easy to foresee if you weren't an IT focused busines, nor had external IT support (like thousands of small businesses at the time).
If you take 'ownership' of your number, and you choose where to place it, it shouldn't be at risk in the future.
BT Voice concerns me - I see why they push it. It gets people off the analogue network, and lets them use their old analogue kit locally. It is however a half-way house, and you may as well just bite the bullet and go IP from the handset. (Actually if you want wireless, I would go for DECT between the handset and the base station rather than WiFi handsets - but that is a detail). As far as I am aware, they won't give you the server details so you can use your own phones, plus the Yealink phones they supply 'pre-configured' at an inflated price. That just seems to blow away one of the main advantages of being standards based, and not relying on one provider. BT Retail like lock-in.
The one MAJOR thing that needs to be understood is what happens when the power goes off. You need the whole chain to be 'up' - handset, switches, router and ONT. Even on a UPS you are not going to get much run-time. You need to decided if this is a problem and mitigate any issues that it might present. Sometimes having a mobile phone as a backup might work - but there are places where that coverage is poor too.
ETA: Interestingly it has all been digital/IP based for decades. It has been a long long time single copper pairs were directly connected to trunks. All that has happened is the encoding/decoding point is being pushed back. It used to be analogue to the exchange, then just analogue to the cab, now it (with BT Voice and a terminal adaptor in the router) is just analogue within the home... The final step is as above, digital from the handset, with the voice encoding/decoding being done in the handset. Mobiles have been digital end-to-end since GSM came in in the early 90's
Edited by No ideas for a name on Wednesday 22 May 17:49
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