Phone Number and Upgrade Considerations

[net_chap]

OK I currently have vodafone FTTC broadband and am at end of contract. The only deal available to reduce monthly payments is to effectively close my account and start a new one at 25 gbp per month BUT if ending connection and starting new one on same day, OLD ORIGINAL phone number will be LOST. I am wondering, therefore. if I stay as I am (paying over the odds) until my area goes FULL FIBRE then ask to upgrade to full fibre, will my original phone number be preserved as I move to their digital voip calls? Has anyone upgraded and found this to be the case? Or is anyone technically qualified to help here?

[Ripshod]

When I moved from FTTC to FTTP I kept my number, but as anyone here can tell you anything is possible. How does the price of an upgrade compare? If you have a special offer leaflet through your door vf will often honour that price if you upgrade. See what offers you can find - if it's an upgrade there's no early termination fee. 

[CrimsonLiar]

I'd be very cautious about this, as in order to have continuous service you'd have to order the new service as a new customer while the old service was still running.  Frankly, even if that is possible, I wouldn't trust Vodafone not to mess it up!

*Know exactly where you are coming from, when upgrading from FTTC to FTTP Vodafone had no flexibility and was 50% more than I could get a higher speed from BT.  Shock horror, I left Vodafone and am now with BT - for 2 years at least when out of contract the price there will shoot up by 66%!!!  

[Jayach]

I find it difficult to understand why Vodafone seem unable to manage a swap from the Openreach WLR (wholesale line rental) which has the phone service included, to the Openreach SOGEA (single order generic access) which doesn't and so Vodafone then become your VoIP provider, but as they already have the number it should be simple to take it over.

It is all just a paperwork swap, no physical changes occur, but perhaps I'm misunderstanding the ramifications.

There have been posters on here who have moved to digital voice (VoIP) whist keeping their number such as @Ripshod.

If the number really is that important to you, perhaps port it to a VoIP provider. (It's going to have to end up with one eventually. be it Vodafone or someone else) That will apparently end the broadband contract and then rejoin Vodafone (or someone else), but it will be difficult to manage without extended downtime.

If anyone can explain why it seems so difficult to manage what should be an easy, and now very common, change please let us know.

[net_chap]

There is a guy on youtube talking about fairly similar experiences with BT. It appears that what is on their systems applies and nothing else. Certainly not common sense. I am at end of contract and paying 32.24 pm. I recently received email offering upgrade at thrilling 30 pm. If you phone them you can get new customer price of 25 pm BUT. Whereas the 30 pm upgrade does involve receiving new router I don’t think there is any line disconnection and and reconnection (and loss of old landline number) as with the new customer deal. Re third party voip provider Andrews & Arnold seem to offer cheap deal but I’m not sure what else would be needed. ATA adapter? . . . I don’t really want to make landline calls, just be able to receive them.