From landline to 4G - porting phone number?

[Escapegoat]

I pay £10/month for a basic SIM-only with Vodafone, and another £33/month for a landline+broadband with Plusnet. The latter is terrible - very slow at about 1MB/s at best - and there's no real prospect of it improving any time soon (semi-rural location, and this particular cabinet was missed/skipped).

I've checked with USB tethering to the laptop and the 4G performance is fine - a huge jump over broadband. So I'm ready to cancel the landline contract and upgrade the SIM-only deal to include more data - looks like I can get 40GB for about £30 +/-.

But... what are the practicalities of forwarding/retaining the company's existing landline number? It would be nice if it was totally transparent to everyone (i.e. so they only see the old landline number and not the actual mobile number).

Ideas/advice?

(I cross-posted this from the Business forum which is a bit quiet - maybe it's more relevant here)

[Slushbox]

Do it in stages.

You have to be careful as 'cancelling' anything landline related instead of moving it to another provider can 'cease' the line, maybe lose the phone number and cause havoc. Don't rush into this.

If you have good 3G or 4G signals you can either find a SIM/data phone plan that works for you and tether, or get a 3G/4G mobile broadband router or a MiFi. (See other 4G home broadband thread on here).

3G mobile broadband will give up to 25 Mbs down, 4G, twice that with good signal strength. An 'unlimited' 4G Mobile Broadband (MBB) SIM plan with Three is currently £20 a month. Mifi units: £40, or a router: £90. Three HomeFi plan with a WifI router: £22 a month.

To retain the landline number but ditch the landline, you might port it to a SIP/VOIP provider, like Soho66 or Sipgate, (there are others) then use either a VOIP desktop phone, or a VOIP app on the mobile or both, or just have all the calls forwarded from the VOIP number. Then finally cancel the old landline.

If you commit to this, the best place to start is to find a VOIP service, check with them first to find out if the number can be ported, have the number ported if it's possible, get the MBB working *if you need it*, and finally cancel all the copper-wire services. Takes up to three weeks or so.

Once the number is ported to VOIP it might not be possible to port it back to a 'landline.' You'll have a choice as to whether the Caller Line Ident (CLI) displays the ported landline number, or your mobile number. You can make calls from your mobile with a VOIP app, which will display the ported number, or use a SIP/VOIP desk phone on a home 3G/4G MBB router. VOIP plans usually come with call forwarding, voice-mail messages and missed call notifications by email.

Single number VOIP plans run from PAYG (free 'local' number and incoming calls on Sipgate Basic) to business plans from about £5 a month.

Soho66:

https://soho66.co.uk/

Sipgate:

https://basichelp.sipgate.co.uk/hc/en-gb/articles/...

Edited by Slushbox on Thursday 27th June 08:23

[Escapegoat]

Thanks for the detailed advice. I'll check the VOIP things - landline porting and apps - first.

Three looks good value, but I'm sort of stuck with Vodafone - it's the only one with good coverage at the workshop. It's about £30/month for a decent amount of data.

[Slushbox]

You're welcome.

There are some reports of SIP/VOIP not working well with Vodafone SIMs in 3G/4G routers, should you want desktop VOIP services over Vodafone. No-one, including Vodafone's HelpDesk is quite sure why this is, and there are plenty of dealers selling Static Public IP address SIMs on the strength of it for £99 a go. :-)

SIP/VOIP is very workable over 3G/4G, including using an Android or iPhone as the handset, so the number porting part is probably the most drawn out bit of the process, prior to living landline-free.