BT Phone going digital - Forcing an ISP change?
Discussion
Who are the go-to ISPs now? They need to do both phone and internet.
I'm sure this has been mentioned before, but I'm not sure quite what to search for so... Here goes. Apologies if its a bit muddled, I'm kinda working this out as I go, and its a bit stressy and noisy in my head right now.
I'm pretty much a full-time carer for my elderly dad and live in the family home to look after him. At the moment, our home phone is with BT and is still on the analogue system. Dad pays for this (line rental+calls). Internet is via Plus-Net FTTC, which I pay for. As part of the Plus-Net deal, I received a free .co.uk domain, which I use a lot for the email address.
A few days ago, BT sent a letter saying that we are very shortly being moved over onto a digital phone, which will require the phone being plugged into the router via a dongle. However, it seems the phone provider and internet provider now have to be the same company, and BT are pushing pretty heavily to move to their service. This is a pain in the bum as it might well mean losing my domain. It also feels like being rail-roaded and forced into changing to their ISP, which doesn't feel right.
I was going to move the phone to Plus-Net, in order that I would keep my domain+mail. But it seems Plus-Net don't do phone any more, and redirect you to sister company EE (yes I know BT owns them both) who are offering a 2-year Full Fibre 150Mb/s (125/30 guaranteed) for £28 (rising £32, £36...) with phone at £13/month with unlimited calls, so £41 total. I guess this is a decent deal, but finding another good ISP+phone provider is kinda frying my brain. Keeping the same phone number is essential.
Any recommendations for suppliers? Also, I'm not seeing any mention of line rental on EE's site, would we still be paying BT in addition to the phone charges?
It seems Plus-Net are moving subscribers domains and email to Greenby (free for 2 years, then charged) but I haven't heard anything from them about it yet.
Any info that can help me focus down on this is much appreciated! Cheers.
I'm sure this has been mentioned before, but I'm not sure quite what to search for so... Here goes. Apologies if its a bit muddled, I'm kinda working this out as I go, and its a bit stressy and noisy in my head right now.
I'm pretty much a full-time carer for my elderly dad and live in the family home to look after him. At the moment, our home phone is with BT and is still on the analogue system. Dad pays for this (line rental+calls). Internet is via Plus-Net FTTC, which I pay for. As part of the Plus-Net deal, I received a free .co.uk domain, which I use a lot for the email address.
A few days ago, BT sent a letter saying that we are very shortly being moved over onto a digital phone, which will require the phone being plugged into the router via a dongle. However, it seems the phone provider and internet provider now have to be the same company, and BT are pushing pretty heavily to move to their service. This is a pain in the bum as it might well mean losing my domain. It also feels like being rail-roaded and forced into changing to their ISP, which doesn't feel right.
I was going to move the phone to Plus-Net, in order that I would keep my domain+mail. But it seems Plus-Net don't do phone any more, and redirect you to sister company EE (yes I know BT owns them both) who are offering a 2-year Full Fibre 150Mb/s (125/30 guaranteed) for £28 (rising £32, £36...) with phone at £13/month with unlimited calls, so £41 total. I guess this is a decent deal, but finding another good ISP+phone provider is kinda frying my brain. Keeping the same phone number is essential.
Any recommendations for suppliers? Also, I'm not seeing any mention of line rental on EE's site, would we still be paying BT in addition to the phone charges?
It seems Plus-Net are moving subscribers domains and email to Greenby (free for 2 years, then charged) but I haven't heard anything from them about it yet.
Any info that can help me focus down on this is much appreciated! Cheers.
Look at Andrew’s and Arnold £1.20 +vat a month for a voip line. Plus calls.
You can have your number transferred for £15 I believe.
You will need to buy and configure the handsets or voip adapter if you wish to use the existing phones.
I’d suggest setting up a test line first if keeping your number so you are clear on the process before moving the existing line.
Also how is your broadband presented is it fttc or fttp?
This could also have a impact on delivery.
You can have your number transferred for £15 I believe.
You will need to buy and configure the handsets or voip adapter if you wish to use the existing phones.
I’d suggest setting up a test line first if keeping your number so you are clear on the process before moving the existing line.
Also how is your broadband presented is it fttc or fttp?
This could also have a impact on delivery.
Start with the overall plan, before you worry too much about the detail.
I'd suggest you focus first on how technically skilled you are. Are you happy managing the additional complexity of multiple separate providers for email, domain, voip and broadband? If not, which ones are you happy to bundle together?
The fundamental here is that Landlines are dying off. Before you go into the rabbithole of complexity - do you REALLY need a landline? Pretty much any mobile phone contract these days has unlimited calls to UK landlines, paying on top for a landline and calls is going to push the costs quite a bit.
If you must have house-phone-like handsets , BT sell a cordless handset that will connect to your mobiles via bluetooth, and then work much like the traditional house phone.
"ooh, everyone's got that number, can't get rid" - OK, buy the cheap PAYG landline service, and only use it for incoming calls. Combined with the phones above, that works. (my own aged and technically inept mother does exactly that and now saves about £20 a month on "landline" calls)
And getting rid of the landline number is not as hard as you might think. There'll be a handful of regular contacts, and a bunch of great-aunts and the like who never use it anyway...
There's a few ways to do this, but here's one possible route,
Landline -> VoIP easy - BT or Sky both offer digital voice services that are more integrated into the service. You pay them, and plug your phones in the router they supply.
Landline -> VoIP cheaper but trickier - AAISP as above are about the cheapest going, but you have to change to VoIP adapters or handsets, manage the migration, etc.
I would personally avoid EE for a digital voice service (they do offer it), as they have an answer machine that cannot be switched off, ever. That's a PITA.
Domain - migrate it out to a provider like IONOS.
Email - easy - pay IONOS a few quid a month on top for email services too if you need several email addresses.
Email - cheaper but trickier - use Purelymail for email services.
I'd suggest you focus first on how technically skilled you are. Are you happy managing the additional complexity of multiple separate providers for email, domain, voip and broadband? If not, which ones are you happy to bundle together?
The fundamental here is that Landlines are dying off. Before you go into the rabbithole of complexity - do you REALLY need a landline? Pretty much any mobile phone contract these days has unlimited calls to UK landlines, paying on top for a landline and calls is going to push the costs quite a bit.
If you must have house-phone-like handsets , BT sell a cordless handset that will connect to your mobiles via bluetooth, and then work much like the traditional house phone.
"ooh, everyone's got that number, can't get rid" - OK, buy the cheap PAYG landline service, and only use it for incoming calls. Combined with the phones above, that works. (my own aged and technically inept mother does exactly that and now saves about £20 a month on "landline" calls)
And getting rid of the landline number is not as hard as you might think. There'll be a handful of regular contacts, and a bunch of great-aunts and the like who never use it anyway...
There's a few ways to do this, but here's one possible route,
Landline -> VoIP easy - BT or Sky both offer digital voice services that are more integrated into the service. You pay them, and plug your phones in the router they supply.
Landline -> VoIP cheaper but trickier - AAISP as above are about the cheapest going, but you have to change to VoIP adapters or handsets, manage the migration, etc.
I would personally avoid EE for a digital voice service (they do offer it), as they have an answer machine that cannot be switched off, ever. That's a PITA.
Domain - migrate it out to a provider like IONOS.
Email - easy - pay IONOS a few quid a month on top for email services too if you need several email addresses.
Email - cheaper but trickier - use Purelymail for email services.
Edited by shtu on Wednesday 10th June 09:49
Also look at Zen:
https://www.zen.co.uk/
Not the cheapest but they have very good UK based support & can offer FTTC plus Digital Voice (the same as BT) for the phone line.
When you say a free Plunet domain is it registered & administered by you so you can transfer it?
Are you using the PlusNet email service or do you use the free domain with GMail or similar? I think Zen still give you a zad@zen.co.uk email address but the tricky bit is updating all of your existing sites that use the Plusnet address. I'd strongly recommend creating a GMail email & start the proceed of transferring everything over to that. It can take a long time to find everything because you need to find all the hidden & unused recovery email addresses & update them otherwise you won't be able to do it after moving if you are using a PluNet address.
You might find that letting PlusNet move you to Greenby & just getting over the change & then going elsewhere is the least disruptive route. Also make sure you & your father are registered as vulnerable users by BT & PlusNet.
https://www.zen.co.uk/
Not the cheapest but they have very good UK based support & can offer FTTC plus Digital Voice (the same as BT) for the phone line.
When you say a free Plunet domain is it registered & administered by you so you can transfer it?
Are you using the PlusNet email service or do you use the free domain with GMail or similar? I think Zen still give you a zad@zen.co.uk email address but the tricky bit is updating all of your existing sites that use the Plusnet address. I'd strongly recommend creating a GMail email & start the proceed of transferring everything over to that. It can take a long time to find everything because you need to find all the hidden & unused recovery email addresses & update them otherwise you won't be able to do it after moving if you are using a PluNet address.
You might find that letting PlusNet move you to Greenby & just getting over the change & then going elsewhere is the least disruptive route. Also make sure you & your father are registered as vulnerable users by BT & PlusNet.
Mr Pointy said:
Also look at Zen:
https://www.zen.co.uk/
Not the cheapest but they have very good UK based support & can offer FTTC plus Digital Voice (the same as BT) for the phone line.
When you say a free Plunet domain is it registered & administered by you so you can transfer it?
Are you using the PlusNet email service or do you use the free domain with GMail or similar? I think Zen still give you a zad@zen.co.uk email address but the tricky bit is updating all of your existing sites that use the Plusnet address. I'd strongly recommend creating a GMail email & start the proceed of transferring everything over to that. It can take a long time to find everything because you need to find all the hidden & unused recovery email addresses & update them otherwise you won't be able to do it after moving if you are using a PluNet address.
You might find that letting PlusNet move you to Greenby & just getting over the change & then going elsewhere is the least disruptive route. Also make sure you & your father are registered as vulnerable users by BT & PlusNet.
This every day! I've been with Zen about 26 years now. Always there and always helpful. https://www.zen.co.uk/
Not the cheapest but they have very good UK based support & can offer FTTC plus Digital Voice (the same as BT) for the phone line.
When you say a free Plunet domain is it registered & administered by you so you can transfer it?
Are you using the PlusNet email service or do you use the free domain with GMail or similar? I think Zen still give you a zad@zen.co.uk email address but the tricky bit is updating all of your existing sites that use the Plusnet address. I'd strongly recommend creating a GMail email & start the proceed of transferring everything over to that. It can take a long time to find everything because you need to find all the hidden & unused recovery email addresses & update them otherwise you won't be able to do it after moving if you are using a PluNet address.
You might find that letting PlusNet move you to Greenby & just getting over the change & then going elsewhere is the least disruptive route. Also make sure you & your father are registered as vulnerable users by BT & PlusNet.
With Zen here too, and have been for decades - superb service.
I'm in a similar process at the moment with my elderly father, and there is no way he'll be giving up his landline! He's been with Zen for a long time for broadband, but still with BT for phone, so I'll be taking him through the fairly simple migration from BT to Zen for it all - as Zen do exactly what you are talking about, their VoiP is £7.50 a month in addition to their broadband, and their Fritzbox routers are superb.
If you are thinking about porting your landline number to A&A or another VoiP supplier first, be aware that if you initiate it from the VoiP supplier, it'll terminate your BT account (if everything comes through that one "line") and therefore your broadband. It'd be better (and far more straightforward) to migrate the broadband and landline to the same provider and allow them to migrate the landline number and provide a VoiP service for you at that point. Then if you want to later on, port that number elsewhere for a really cheap service with A&A.
Transfer the domain to a quality registrar, which will also be inexpensive, like Domaincheap or Porkbun. Zen will hold domains for you too. You could just move the domain to third party provider with free e-mail forwarding (both the ones I mention above provide this), then forward all e-mails to say a GMail or iCloud account depending what is more convenient. You'd only be paying a v modest amount for the domain. Or you could pay a bit extra for "real" email service (POP/IMAP box) on the domain.
I'm in a similar process at the moment with my elderly father, and there is no way he'll be giving up his landline! He's been with Zen for a long time for broadband, but still with BT for phone, so I'll be taking him through the fairly simple migration from BT to Zen for it all - as Zen do exactly what you are talking about, their VoiP is £7.50 a month in addition to their broadband, and their Fritzbox routers are superb.
If you are thinking about porting your landline number to A&A or another VoiP supplier first, be aware that if you initiate it from the VoiP supplier, it'll terminate your BT account (if everything comes through that one "line") and therefore your broadband. It'd be better (and far more straightforward) to migrate the broadband and landline to the same provider and allow them to migrate the landline number and provide a VoiP service for you at that point. Then if you want to later on, port that number elsewhere for a really cheap service with A&A.
Transfer the domain to a quality registrar, which will also be inexpensive, like Domaincheap or Porkbun. Zen will hold domains for you too. You could just move the domain to third party provider with free e-mail forwarding (both the ones I mention above provide this), then forward all e-mails to say a GMail or iCloud account depending what is more convenient. You'd only be paying a v modest amount for the domain. Or you could pay a bit extra for "real" email service (POP/IMAP box) on the domain.
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