Number porting - yet again

[Ilex]

Thanks @iniltous  all good points.

I did think about the 30 day window but would prefer to port out in advance.  If porting is rejected/fails the only thing I will lose is the porting fee - not the number.

Yes I have daisy chained my own gear off the BT router - I just want to eliminated unnecessary moving parts if I can.

I have carried out a trial using an ATA and the service is acceptable.   (Freeola provision the ATA and/or supply configuration details) 

[Ilex]

Hi @iniltous & @licquorice 

With some trepidation I went ahead last week and requested to port out my number to Freeola.  The signs looked good as I did not get any "sorry you are leaving us messages" from BT.   There was a comment from the Freeola admin along the lines of "as you are already on FTTP your broadband should not be affected".   Today the telephony service on my legacy number went live with Freeola through an ATA plugged into my BT router.  When I look at my BT account I can see that my only product is broadband.  Obviously I am left paying for the BT telephone service which I am no longer using (but only for a few weeks).  I now plan to take stock and make a decision where to go for broadband when my contract with BT ends in a few weeks time.

As @iniltous  suggested perhaps BT have unlinked telephony from broadband.  This of course may only apply to services provided through FTTP.  BTW I am as surprised as you are that this has worked.

In conclusion: In my situation with FTTP from BT I was able to port out my legacy telephone number  to Freeola VOIP without affecting my broadband service.

[licquorice]

Good result, thanks for the update.

[Ilex]

I may have been premature further update to follow....

[Ilex]

TLDR: number porting worked without loosing broadband

I thought I had ported my number out without any problems.  However when I checked my account I saw that my broadband was due to be discontinued in the next week (but no automated messages about this).   I phoned BT and complained and after a bit of to and fro it was sorted.  I got an automated message saying my new router would be delivered soon!?  I'm guessing that a new digital voice service had been requested. After a few days I saw that BT telephony was marked as active in my account with a new number (but not active in my BT router).  So it was a bit ugly for a moment  or two but I ported out my number without loosing my fibre broadband.  

[imjolly]

@Ilex 

yours is second post I have read where customer has managed to port out phone number without disconnecting the broadband.  Now on broadband only contract instead of broadband with phone

Have BT eventually improved the system to allow customers to port number to  a VOIP provider without terminating existing broadband contract?

[iniltous]

Presumably you didn’t receive a second sorry to see you go message just for broadband as you had already received a sorry to see you go message for the bundle , so it was fortuitous that you kept looking and saw your broadband was on a path to cessation.

You seem to still have a phone service from BT/EE that you are paying for but is unnecessary, but the phone number you were keen to maintain is now with the VoIP supplier, so that’s a reasonable result but not a brilliant one .

There has been for ages  , but for some strange reason rarely used by VoIP providers, a wholesale order type , ‘renumber and port’ , whereby the existing phone number is renumbered to any old number maintaining the broadband service , and the existing number is then ported to the new provider ( often a VoIP supplier ) , you seem to have in effect arranged is something similar to this , but not exactly in a seamless way .

Has your broadband service been recontracted ? , the new router suggests it has been , plus you are presumably still paying £3-5 a month for a PAYG service with a random phone number you won’t use , and should you try to remove that at some point you may well face the same hurdles keeping broadband active as you did in porting the now VoIP supplied number in the first place 

[Ilex]

@iniltous  Thanks for your comments

I timed the porting out (3 weeks before contract end) so that I would have enough time to roll back if it looked like it was all going wrong but not pay too long for a telephony service I wasn't using.  I think I got it about right as it's only cost me about 3/4 of my monthly telephony charge (ie a few quid).  The "new router" has not arrived so I think that was a dummy order.  The new number is not active on my existing router so I guess I could grumble about that if I was being really picky and petty.  If I was "staying" with BT I could have gone with the flow and started a new data only contract with EE aka BT.   I am actually going to another provider (for fixed IP and other benefits).  Although I didn't get the second round of "sorry you are leaving" messages I am getting frequent requests to return the router - if I could be bothered I would point out to BT that I am still in contract and that  I am still actually using the flipping thing.  I did also get the offer of what looked like quite a good contract price to stay - so that's a way of getting a cheaper deal with BT...

 I may ask Freeola if they ever use the port and renumber order.  As you say this is what I have actually achieved.

@imjolly asked: Have BT eventually improved the system to allow customers to port number to  a VOIP provider without terminating existing broadband contract?

The answer is "sort of".  It's only a sensible course of action is you are very near the end of your contract because the telephony service must still be payed for until the end of the contract.