topic Re: Moving broadband to one provider and porting phone number to another at the same time in Talk

Moving broadband to one provider and porting phone number to another at the same time

Emilee — Mon, 23 Mar 2026 15:39:21 GMT

Hello.

I've recently initiated moving my fibre broadband to EE 1.6 Gbps from Sky 900 Mbps. That's due to happen on 9th April when BT Openreach pop out and install a faster fibre modem.

Meanwhile, I've also joined Voipfone and requested that they port our Sky phone number to them. I've had a confirmation from Voipfone that this will happen on the 1st April.

We don't have a landline anymore. When we moved from ADSL to fibre a couple of years back, we kept the phone number and used Sky Talk PAYG using Sky's own VOIP with the FXS (Tel) port on the back of the router.

There are some concerns that as the phone number is linked to the broadband service (but no longer a landline) when the Voip ports the number over to their service, it will also disconnect the fibre broadband service too. I've spoken with Sky Talk just now but she didn't really understand what I was getting at and wouldn't let me speak to tech support, she just kept going off to check with a colleague and assured me.

I tried to explain that my broadband is going to EE on 7th and my voice (Sky Talk) service is going to Voipfone on 1st but she didn't get it.

In the Voipfone FAQs it says there's a danger that if the broadband is linked to a landline number (even if it's VOIP and not landline) then porting the number could also terminate the broadband. Voipfone have confirmed it's all been accepted by Sky but what I don't want to happen is for the Sky Talk to port the number to Voipfone on 1st April only to have the broadband also terminate on that day because they're associated services.

Does anyone know how this will work and if this has ever actually happened? I don't have an actual telephone service, I just have a phone number that is reached via Sky's own VOIP.

Failing this, does anyone have a direct number for Sky Talk tech support? I've Googled and I can't find anything at all, only the main Sky 0333 number.

Re: Moving broadband to one provider and porting phone number to another at the same time

Mark39 — Mon, 23 Mar 2026 15:49:24 GMT

@Emilee so far as I'm aware, Sky can only port a telephone number when the service is switched to another provider. They won't switch solely a telephone service - your broadband service will go at the same time. Their terms and conditions make it clear that they won't provide solely a landline service or solely a broadband service.

Re: Moving broadband to one provider and porting phone number to another at the same time

Emilee — Mon, 23 Mar 2026 16:05:41 GMT

Thanks for your answer.

So, given that both services (EE and Voipfone) have already stated that everything's going ahead, does that mean that

i) my phone number won't actually port to Voipfone on the 1st even though they've said it will
ii) my broadband will switch to EE on 9th as already arranged but the phone line will go with it (when I signed up to EE, I didn't select a phone service)
iii) my phone number will port to Voipfone but it'll disconnect my broadband early (EE is clearly the incoming ISP so I would've thought this unlikely

I appreciate that none of the options above can be certain, I'm just a little confused that Voip have received the go ahead to port from Sky already.

I'll check the Sky Talk terms and conditions as well and see exactly what that says.

Re: Moving broadband to one provider and porting phone number to another at the same time

Mark39 — Mon, 23 Mar 2026 16:39:23 GMT

@Emilee I'm afraid I don't know enough to be able to address the practicalities. You would have to persevere with Sky if you want to go ahead with this. I'm not even sure that Sky can provide a broadband service without a phone number assigned to the line, which would be the case if the number is ported before the broadband switch.

Re: Moving broadband to one provider and porting phone number to another at the same time

Emilee — Mon, 23 Mar 2026 16:53:29 GMT

Thank you.

My account is listed by account number not phone number (like in the ADSL days).

I guess the safest bet would be to postpone the porting date to after EE have taken over my fibre supply. I've contacted Voipfone to get clarification from them.

If I get a good answer, I'll post it on here so that others can benefit from the answer too. I appreciate it's a complex situation that's out of the ordinary!

Re: Moving broadband to one provider and porting phone number to another at the same time

TimmyBGood — Tue, 24 Mar 2026 07:53:08 GMT

@Emilee

It's important to remember that the Sky voice product isn't actually VoIP in the sense used by Voipfone and other 'real' VoIP providers: it's very firmly attached to the broadband service and Sky hardware.

Re: Moving broadband to one provider and porting phone number to another at the same time

Emilee — Sat, 28 Mar 2026 08:30:09 GMT

Not really an answer, but I've cancelled the porting for now. I can go without a landline number for a short while but not broadband.

I've spoken with EE and they've said that my landline number is actually a BT/EE pooled number (I ported from BT to Sky Talk about ten years ago) so when it terminates with the broadband moving to them, it'll go dormant but into the pool of numbers they control.

They've said that it'll sit dormant for a few years before being recycled, but if I call up quickly (as it, the afternoon of or next day from my new EE connection) they will be able to pick it back out and reassign it to my EE line.

All I need to do is wait a few days and then put a new porting requesting in with whichever VOIP supplier I want to use. Sky Talk and EE are both similar prices, £15 - £20 a month for unlimited calls which isn't even slightly competitive with VOIP suppliers. It's the convenience of using the FXS port I guess that's attractive.

Thanks for those who tried to help, it is appreciated.

After 23 years with Sky we're ditching both broadband and TV and it does feel like a shame (unless the TV retention team call us up with an amazing offer!) but you've got to go where the money can be saved!