Migrate to VoIP without losing broadband? - thinkbroadband.com

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Two altnets are building fibre where I live, and I had hoped to be able to get FTTP within a few months. However, the cost will be iro £50/month once any sign-up discounts have expired, and one altnet has an 18-month contract. This is getting on for twice what I pay for my unreliable FTTC connection now.

I'm a pensioner on a fixed income. I'm looking at a £500/year increase in my energy bills over the next few months, plus general inflation currently at around 5%. Economies are going to have to be made, some luxuries are going to have to go, and I fear my dreams of FTTP soon will have to be one of them.

I had a plan to install FTTP, migrate my phone number to a VoIP provider, and then cease my copper line entirely, assuming FTTP was OK. I've had my landline phone number for about 30 years now. Tracking down everyone who has acquired it over that time would be a nightmare, so I planned to phase it out over a period of a few years, eventually discontinuing the VoIP service once nobody used it any more.

If I don't do FTTP, I'd still like to migrate the phone to VoIP, and just have broadband/FTTC. But if I migrate the number to VoIP, that will cease the broadband service too. My ISP says the standard time to restore it would be 14 days. It might be less, but they couldn't guarantee it. It might be longer if things don't go smoothly. I also understand that if there's a waiting list for FTTC slots in my cab - I don't know whether there is, how can I find out? - I might not be able to get a new FTTC connection at all.

My wife and I do voluntary work which needs a good internet connection. We could get by for a couple of weeks with mobile tethering, if it were the right couple of weeks in the month, but that would likely to be too difficult to arrange. Anything longer would be painful. 4G signals aren't brilliant here.

The only way both to migrate the phone no and maintain broadband that I can see would be to install a second physical copper circuit which I don't need, with another hole in my wall and second NTE box, and set up broadband on that before ceasing my current line. But that seems nuts, and expensive. Anyone got any better ideas?