topic Re: Hijacked landline in Archive

Hijacked landline

Gomer — Tue, 07 Jun 2022 10:12:12 GMT

The end of my Sky contract for broadband with a landline talk package is near and so, as you'd expect, I looked around to see what the current market for broadband is. I would like to keep my landline, but have been told that other companies cannot provide me with a landline because, throughSky, I have 'digital talk'. That means, apparently, that I no longer have a copper line - it's been connected to fibre. So the only way to get my landline back is to get one from BT. If this is the case, then I'm not aware of being informed, before moving to Sky, that I would lose control of my landline so that I couldn't swap to another provider. Is this true?

Re: Hijacked landline

Mark39 — Tue, 07 Jun 2022 10:46:21 GMT

Not entirely. Unless you've had a fibre optic cable laid to your home, your broadband and phone services are still provided via a copper landline.

However, from previous posts, there appears to be a procedural issue for some providers when you're trying to switch away from Sky, if you have Sky VOIP (internet calls), known by some other providers as digital voice/talk.

All providers are scheduled to move to digital voice services by 2025 as Openreach plan to turn off the analogue phone network at that point. I would guess that providers will be working towards enabling a switch of digital voice services between now and then.

Re: Hijacked landline

Highlinder — Tue, 07 Jun 2022 11:03:49 GMT

@Mark39 Seen a few instances of others in the same boat trying to move to another provider, but they were unable to port their number away because they had been moved to VOIP calls. But you would think with the roll out happening that other providers would be finding if the exchange is set on stop sell of non-VOIP lines that they would have the facility in place to port the number over.

Re: Hijacked landline

Gomer — Tue, 07 Jun 2022 11:53:08 GMT

Thanks to Mark39 and Highlinder. Your responses have been most helpful.

No fibre optic lines were brought to the house by Sky. The broadband was connected using our existing landline which is copper, at least back to the main area junction box in the street.

With that set-up, if my current package is VOIP it would seem reasonable that another broadband supplier would just be able to supply a similar service through their broadband, wouldn't it?

Thanks for your help, and best wishes.

Re: Hijacked landline

Mark39 — Tue, 07 Jun 2022 12:37:45 GMT

@Gomer wrote:

.

With that set-up, if my current package is VOIP it would seem reasonable that another broadband supplier would just be able to supply a similar service through their broadband, wouldn't it?

The issue, I think, is that Sky are a bit further ahead than some other providers with supplying digital voice services. I'm not sure who else currently supplies them - not so long ago it was just Sky and BT. That should change as other providers catch up.

Re: Hijacked landline

TimmyBGood — Tue, 07 Jun 2022 15:33:09 GMT

@Mark39 wrote:

@Gomer wrote:

.

With that set-up, if my current package is VOIP it would seem reasonable that another broadband supplier would just be able to supply a similar service through their broadband, wouldn't it?

The issue, I think, is that Sky are a bit further ahead than some other providers with supplying digital voice services. I'm not sure who else currently supplies them - not so long ago it was just Sky and BT.

Although BT currently have their roll-out of Digital Voice suspended (or at least I haven't seen an update since the press release at the end of March)

https://newsroom.bt.com/were-pausing-our-digital-voice-plans-for-consumers-while-we-work-on-a-more-resilient-rollout/