What problems/costs are there in giving up a landline and later wanting to re-connect it?

[sped]

Considering moving to Virgin because all fibre connections in my area are taken and more won't be available for months, but before I decide I'd like info. on potential problems and cost with my existing landline.

My contract with ISP is ending, if I stopped renting the landline, what happens to the number, and is it still possible to make emergency (999) calls, or to receive calls?

If I, or future property owners wanted to reconnect the landline is it possible to re-use the old number, and what would be the costs/problems of getting re-connected.

If anyone can answer these questions, and/or provide extra information I would be most grateful, andit would help me reach a decision.

[Keith_Beddoe]

@sped 

Welcome to this user forum for BT Retail customers.

Who is your current provider? If its BT Retail, then

If you stop paying for a landline, it will be disconnected, you will not be able to make or receive any calls from it, and you will lose the number and it will not be-reused for many years.

Anyone moving in, will have to pay for re-connection.

[sped]

Thanks for a quick response. Currently with Sky, would change when my contracts ends (soon), but all fibre slots are taken in my area, no chance of more until after April, and no guarantee then. So it's stay with Sky, which will be almost as expensive as Virgin, or change - with the problems of the landline in the future.

[Keith_Beddoe]

@sped 

As a Sky user, you could always post on their user forum.

If your contract is ending soon, its worth looking at what BT Retail offer, as a new customer.

https://www.bt.com/broadband/deals

All prices include line rental.

[iniltous]

If you are currently a Sky customer considering becoming a Virgin Media customer, it’s unclear why you are posting on a BT Consumer forum, but ‘ all fibre connections in my area are taken and more won't be available for months,’ is a strange statement, presumably you are not on FTTC , and your particular ‘fibre cab’ is showing ‘waiting list’ but who told you it would be months before a slot became available......VM can  provide ‘landline’ telephony as well as broadband, using their own network 

[sped]

I have been looking at the packages offered by many of the ISPs available to me.  Most have stated that 'fibre is not available in your area'.  Which is strange because I am using FTTC at the moment and have been for more than 6 yrs. A few ISPs  stated that there are no slots available  in the local cabinet.  I tried all over to find why.  Ofcom was the only answer I could find - that all available slots were taken, more would become available when Open Reach installed more.  Also that different ISPs were allocated slots, so they couldn't take my existing slot as that was owned by/reserved for Sky.

Open Reach stated that all slots were in use and that they hoped to have more installed by the end of April, but no guarantees.  The only options, it seems, are to drop back to adsl, stick with Sky, who want to charge an extra £15+ a month, or move to Virgin.  That last is why I am asking about giving up and possibly  later re-taking landline.   Since the effects of leaving a landline are not ISP specific I have been trying to find the information where I can.  I'd rather not leave the landline system, but  I want all the information I can to make an informed decision.

[Keith_Beddoe]

If you are staying with Sky, then please post on their user forum.

Sky User - The unofficial support forum for everything Sky!

Slots in the cabinet are not reserved by an ISP,  they are simply allocated to whichever ISP places an order. If you leave Sky, then your connection will be given to another person.

[iniltous]

If you are in an area that has FTTC and VM, then no doubt there will be a reasonable turnover of both system customers moving from one to the other (the same as you are considering) , as well as people moving in and out of the area, people giving up landlines completely, bereavement, etc, even if the FTTC is waiting list today, it may not be waiting list tomorrow, so I don’t see how any company can be definitive about no slots for months

If you don’t want to relinquish a landline completely  get one from VM as well as broadband, if your question is more , will it be problematic getting an a Openreach based service in the future if you go with VM, then probably not, but obviously that’s not guaranteed, as if your OR landline went faulty whilst you were a VM customer, no one would notice until you tried to restore OR based service over it, if what you want is another  OR based provider for line and broadband, just cheaper than what Sky are going to charge you, then you may have to keep an eye on the availability, or use ADSL as a temp measure until a FTTC port becomes spare

[RobbieBaron]

What does BT Wholesale Broadband Availability Checker estimate for your phone number? Post just the whole table and the line above it, blanking out your phone number. If it doesn't recognise your phone number, use the Address Checker, not the Postcode Checker.

[sped]

Keith,  what you write about my connection being given to someone else if I leave Sky seems the logical way of doing things.  Which is why I have been puzzled as to why a different ISP cannot simply take over the connection I have been using with Sky.  Not one of them mentions doing this, so I can only assume it is not possible, or for some reason they won't do it.  In a well established community there are not going to be many new connections, much more likely is people wanting to keep their connection but just change ISP.