Landline Cancel
 

Our landline deal is coming up for renewal in the next month and I'm not sure that I want to keep it. However I would like to keep the phone number but is there a way I wonder of doing this for free in the UK. I suspect that it can be done for a fee by porting it to a virtual landline service but that and the ongoing cost for such a service will defeat the main purpose of the exercise - which is to reduce costs and consolidate them in the one provider. I've seen some advising to port it to Google Voice for its current one-off $20 fee which would be ok if Google offered that service in the UK but I don't think that it does ... US and Canada only from what I've read. Anyone done what I'm thinking of or got any advice or suggestions?

Yes you can, you just arrange with your new provider and they'll transfer your number over.

Have done it twice now in recent years ;)

Russ

Ah, looking at my post again I see it is not clear from it what I have in mind. What my intention to do Russ is to bin the landline altogether, not just my current deal, and then move over to a sim-only mobile broadband and phone deal. If I do so initially I expect to access the net by tethering my mobile phone to my laptop but I have been looking at routers with a sim card slot which provides for a 4G/5G broadband service via the mobile phone network. Landline numbers I know can be transferred to another ISP who will deliver the service via the same means, that is a landline or cable/fibre, but porting a landline to a mobile phone I don't think is generally allowed. I've asked 3G if it is possible and they said no, not with them only mobile phone numbers allowed to be ported. Vodafone do seem to offer a service which allows for landline porting but it comes at a price and with some specific requirements and I'm not sure if it is available in the UK.

There’s a young lass I work with and she has no landline only a 4G router. She uses it for Netflix etc but no idea of the cost but what you’re proposing can certainly be done. In fact I’m considering buying my mother’s house and doing the very same thing

I know that a lot of people have gone mobile only but in my view a landline has the big advantage that it will work with total electrical power failure as it runs on its own power from the exchange which has its own backup . ( None cordless phone needed, that's why I keep a corded one at home for the same reason.

Thing is though Les, as I understand it, Willy wants to retain his current landline number for use on the mobile, and this is where the problem lies. I don't think it can be done to be honest, but happy to be proven wrong (won't be the first time :}).

Cliff

Yes, the 4G router service is definitely available and I suspect a growing number of people are opting for it as the cost of mobile data allowances seems to have dropped to very competitive levels with those of a landline. 4G is the way I'm looking to go but as Teflon said retaining our long-standing landline number without a landline is what I would like to do, but only for free or a one-off fee as per Google Voice. I suspect that a virtual landline might be the only way of doing it regardless of how it is advertised but I've not yet seen any free offers for that service and the only viable option for me would be Google Voice if it were available here in the UK. Google I think might offer a way of doing it in a roundabout way in the UK but not for a $20 one-off fee. From what I've read it is aimed at its business customers and requires a subscription to two of its services.


As I said earlier, Vodafone offers a service, it is called Vodafone Mobile Landline Service, but it is not free and is likely a virtual landline affair. Click

BT used to recommend having a corded phone for the very reason you mention. Is there still 50v on the end of a fibre cable?

macafee2

Mines fibre to cabinet not to the house, and the corded phone still works so must have power

Most domestic are fibre to the cabinet (FTTC). The copper wire from the cabinet to the premises does carry voltage. Fibre to the premises (FTTP) is faster but much more costly. I guess when 5G arrives that will be the moment when a lot of people abandon landlines for good as the copper wire restricts speeds. That in addition to the contention ratio at the server that the provider allows. Business broadband used to be limited to 20:1, but domestic was often maxed out at 50:1 which explains how speeds vary depending on how many people are using that server at the same time. Several geeky teenagers downloading movies and playing games 'contending' at the same time on your server and you're going to be slow.
We only use our landline for broadband since we got fed up of spam calls and unsolicited marketing, but if 5G was available here now, the landline would probably go completely and I'd tether a 5G mobile for internet. (That is also subject to no credible bad news on electrohypersensitivity and 5G.)
We have BT broadband at the practice which has occasionally failed, and since all our records are in the cloud, that's a disaster for us. We therefore invested in a Vodaphone dongle for emergency back up which works very well on the odd occasions it's been needed. When our BT landline line failed the last time, BT help told us their line tested fine and it would be an automatic £130 call out fee if it was our faulty wiring. The engineer observed we did have untidy wiring, but had to admit the fault was in the green cabinet along the street in Truro. A great relief since I was in a hurry when I installed our spaghetti junction :D