Forum Discussion

Oldfogi's avatar
Oldfogi
Tuning in
5 days ago

Are Virgin abandoning Landlines?

For a variety of historical reasons, I need a landline.

 

I am an out-of-contract Virgin customer who has often complained about the quality of my landline but, despite engineer visits, moving me to VOIP, promises etc, nothing has been done about it.  The line quality is still poor with regular intermittent clicking etc on most calls.

Time has moved on, and YES, I gettit, a lot of people do not use landlines any more.... but I do.  I think I'd get similar problems with other providers (it may not neccessarily be Virgin's issue) so I've tried to see what offers are there for Virgin BB, TV and landline contracts.... but I can't find any!

Even when I go through my Virgin account, put passwords in etc, I have had to give a new password, new email address and was asked for biometics, passcode (?), and then a mobile number.....just to see what offer they wanted to make.  Without these (and probably more - I jumped before it went any further!) it wouldn't tell me what offers they had for me! 

Googling Virgin offers doesnt even get me to there, so ....  Do Virgin offer a Broadband/TV/Landline contract or not?  If so, how do I find it?  If they don't, it looks like I'll be jumping ship to a provider that does offer landlines.

Any ideas?

15 Replies

  • wilber_force's avatar
    wilber_force
    Superfast
    4 hours ago

    What happens when I get a power cut and need to call 999?

    No power, no ability to call BUT if I still had a PROPER landline, I could.

     

  • Roger_Gooner's avatar
    Roger_Gooner
    Alessandro Volta
    4 days ago

    Of course VM does proper VoIP - how else is voice traffic carried without phone lines. All other managed VoIP providers like BT, Sky, Vodafone and TalkTalk do pretty much the same thing from their hubs - or aren't they 'proper' VoIP providers?

    The hub's built-in ATA does conversion of analogue to digital and sends IP packets in DOCSIS frames for transport to the headend which extracts the voice IP packets for forwarding onto the data centres where the VoiP kit is located.

    [DOCSIS Frame]
  └─ [Ethernet Frame]
       └─ [IP Packet]
            └─ [UDP Datagram]
                 └─ [RTP Packet]
                      └─ [Codec Payload]
    • jpeg1's avatar
      jpeg1
      Alessandro Volta
      4 days ago

      Well that's interesting. There were various discussions in this forum a few years back when VM first introduced VOIP, when it was stated that VM used a different encoding format to stand-alone VOIP providers. Was that wrong, or has something changed? 

      • Tudor's avatar
        Tudor
        Very Insightful Person
        4 days ago

        VM system is NOT VOIP as far as the user is concerned, it’s just presenting to the user a normal POTS signal via their hub as opposed to a directly wired cable. As VM on their FTP users do not have an option to have a landline phone, I expect VM in the future to totally get out of the landline business. Also, if they were going to get into the VOIP business I would have expected this already for their FTP customers. 

  • Steven_L's avatar
    Steven_L
    Icon for Forum Team rankForum Team
    5 days ago

    Hello Oldfogi,

    Welcome to the Community, and thanks for taking the time to post here on the forums. I’m sorry to hear of the issues that you’re experiencing trying to get landline included in your package. To have your package reviewed, please call our team on 150 from a Virgin Media landline or 0345 454 1111. Select options 1, 4, and then 4 again to reach the contracts team, who’ll be happy to look into this further for you.

    Kind Regards,

    Steven_L

    • Oldfogi's avatar
      Oldfogi
      Tuning in
      4 days ago

      Thanks for the replies - I plan to see what other options there are first, then decide if I'll try to see if Virgin can match them.  I know of a couple who do offer landlines, one of which gives me pretty close to what I've got on the whole Virgin package PLUS Sky Sports Football and F1, and for considerably less than I am paying now.  I'm also wondering if their landline (I guess over new wiring from the recently upgraded phone masts locally) may give better reception.

       

      I have to say, much of the VOIP conversation above goes right over my head, but thanks for sharing it folks!

  • Adduxi's avatar
    Adduxi
    Very Insightful Person
    5 days ago

    Move your landline number to a proper VOIP supplier and then you are free to use any ISP. You can even have your “landline” calls answered on your mobile if you wish.  Sipgate or Voipfy spring to mind.

    • Roger_Gooner's avatar
      Roger_Gooner
      Alessandro Volta
      5 days ago

      I do not recommend porting a number to a VoIP provider for the vast majority of landline users as they lose benefits of operator-managed VoIP (namely zero setup by plug-and-play with preconfigured hardware and thus no SIP credential management, quality of service (QoS) by prioritising voice packets, guaranteed routing of all UK short code and service numbers (including 999/112, 101, 111 and 105) and a single point of contact when there is a problem), not to mention discounts which VM typically provides for those who bundle phone with broadband or broadband/TV.

      • jpeg1's avatar
        jpeg1
        Alessandro Volta
        5 days ago

        I disagree. By moving your phone line to a reputable VOIP provider (VM does not use 'proper' VOIP technology) it is secured permanently from any future risks of loss when changing broadband provider.

        You get expert technical support from VOIP specialists, and as previously noted there are useful additional facilities if you want them. 

  • Roger_Gooner's avatar
    Roger_Gooner
    Alessandro Volta
    5 days ago

    VM does indeed offer landline by VoIP - I have one myself - with your existing handset connected to the hub with an adapter cable. Call VM to find what out what you can get (it's bundled with broadband or broadband with TV).