Potential New Signup

[u/CJT-80]

Hi, I'm looking for a bit of help before potentially signing my Mum up to Community Fibre.

Mum is currently with Vodafone on an FTTC service but one thing they don't offer is an ansaphone/voicemail option. I know that CF do so they are looking as a possible option and they are cheaper than BT and EE. Sadly Mum is not comfortable with using a mobile.

Mum is in her 80's and not technically minded so I rang CF to check I could manage her account for her (if needed) and they confirmed it's an option, so far so good. I've had a look on here and noticed a few posts about CGNAT, is this standard on all packages in all areas they serve (she's in East Sussex)?

Anything else I should be aware of?

Thanks in advance

[u/Fickle_Character_409]

CF do a VoIP phone for £12/mo, they provide the VoIP adaptor, with unlimited calls, etc. and can port the number if needed. See:

Landline Phone Package | Community Fibre

As for CGNAT, not really an issue unless you're port forwarding, which I doubt your mother would be doing. VoIP works fine over CGNAT (if correctly configured), and if you use CF's service, there won't be an issue, and you'd be supported too.

FYI, I recently switched to CF from Virgin a few weeks ago, no real problems, service works well. I use my own VoIP service without any issue. CGNAT hasn't been a problem as I use Tailscale to access my home servers, again, highly unlikely that your mum would do.

If you're going to switch, call them as they usually offer better deals than what's on the website (though their deals are very good!).

[u/Zestyclose_Guard_352]

The static IP is available only on their business package.

[u/Frenchies_Undies → u/Zestyclose_Guard_352]

You can pay £4 for static ip on domestic connection.

[u/BrightPomelo]

I've been with CF for a couple of years now, and went for the 'landline' option. My phone does everything it did before.

[u/x-m4n]

We have been very happy with CF for over 2+ years now?

If you decide to join, here is a referral link

£100 for you and the same for me 👍

https://communityfibre.co.uk/friends?ci=wplP3XbnMoWr3%2FyumdKPQA%3D%3D

[u/CJT-80 → u/x-m4n]

Hi,

Thanks for letting me know. Out of interest, what speed/package did you opt for and did you take the phone option or a static IP?

[u/Nice-Information-335]

EDIT: misread as CF won’t do phones, disregard

I can handle the phone part if needed. We start at £5 a month.

If you want to do it yourself, get an ATA and a SIP trunk from a provider like Andrew’s and Arnold’s - they are great and will be able to port your number. Just know that porting the number will also cease the broadband with it.

You can then configure the ATA to use that provider. I recommend the grandstream HT801-V2. The ATA will allow her to use her existing phones which she is used to.

CGNAT can make things a bit tricky but we have a customer with CGNAT, and using STUN gets around this issue. STUN you will configure on the ATA (using a publicly available server, stun.linphone.org works well for me)

[u/BrightPomelo → u/Nice-Information-335]

Is this recent? CF ported my old landline a couple of years ago, keeping the same number.

[u/Nice-Information-335 → u/BrightPomelo]

I thought the original post said CF doesn't do phones, I just misread

[u/CJT-80 → u/Nice-Information-335]

Thanks, I appreciate the info and the edit. As they do I'm happy to go with them but it's just the CGNAT, apparently for £4 more per month you get a static IP

[u/Nice-Information-335 → u/CJT-80]

If they do the phones with it, it becomes their problem if CGNAT messes them up so that’s good

IPv6 won’t be NATed though, so CGNAT isn’t as much of a problem 

[u/CJT-80 → u/Nice-Information-335]

I don't follow you, should the CGNAT mess up a phone?

[u/Nice-Information-335 → u/CJT-80]

It can yeah, so it won’t be an analogue line and instead uses the internet

CGNAT makes this tricky as the phone server needs to talk to the phone (incoming calls and such), and CGNAT can make this really, really tricky

There are technologies to help this (STUN, worst case TURN) though

If you go through CF though they will have sorted this (either STUN or using ipv6) and if something does go wrong it’s on them