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Confusion: Digital Voice and Old Phones

Anonymous — Thu, 10 Jun 2021 17:55:39 GMT

Scroll down to the bold text to get to the crux of things

A few days ago BT posted me a letter to say they are switching me over to a digital system called Digital Voice.

Not really knowing what this meant, I have since learned that it is a nationwide elimination of the old copper wire way of doing things, and that landline phones will now somehow operate through internet boxes.

The switch happened today and my five landline telephones throughout the house ceased functioning.

I have since discovered that my internet box (The BT Smart Hub 2) can connect to only one of my landline telephones, but since the internet box is at the top of the house, in a cupboard, having a phone there is pretty much useless to me.

I'm not a young man and I don't use the internet at all, the internet box is just for guests. My grandson is typing this for me as I dictate. I am told the electronic signal doesn't stretch very far, since my house is large. I am very reluctant to change my landline phones: they are all rotary dial vintage pieces in different colours, which light up like the old Adam West Batphone, and match nicely with the aesthetic of my house.

So my question is: If my five landline telephones now need internet juice to function, can I funnel internet juice from my internet box into the master socket, which connects up all five of my landline telephones and sockets? How the devil would I go about doing this?

Any assistance anyone could offer would be greatly appreciated.

Re: Confusion: Digital Voice and Old Phones

imjolly — Thu, 10 Jun 2021 18:01:50 GMT

If you used the search facility you would find similar posts with same question. Here is one

https://community.bt.com/t5/Landline/Digital-Voice-Change-over/m-p/2166365#M77091

Re: Confusion: Digital Voice and Old Phones

Anonymous — Thu, 10 Jun 2021 18:18:18 GMT

It's all a bit advanced technobabble for me I'm afraid. It's all very frustrating. I will try to outline my problems a little more succinctly here:

Is it possible to link my internet box (The BT Smart Hub 2) to the Master Socket, which is connected to all 5 old landline phones in my house via internal circuitry?

Is the Master Socket and internal landline circuitry of my house capable of running the new digital/broadband/wifi/internet system?

Re: Confusion: Digital Voice and Old Phones

imjolly — Thu, 10 Jun 2021 18:20:40 GMT

The link eI posted to other thread explains.

You need to open the master socket and disconnect the incoming wires from openreachwhi h are connected to terminals A&B. you then need to buy the cable shown in the post then connect one end to phone socket on back of hub and the other to phone socket on master - done. Extensions should work but not sure how many extension phones it will support

Re: Confusion: Digital Voice and Old Phones

Anonymous — Thu, 10 Jun 2021 18:29:26 GMT

Ah-Ha! Thank you! So in steps, it's:

1. Open the Master Socket up

2. Disconnect the incoming 'Openreach' wires that lead to Terminals A and B.

3. Use a cable to connect the Green Digital Phone Socket on the back of the BT Smart Hub 2 to the Phone Socket on the Master Socket.

I shall have a look through my cables and see what fits.

Re: Confusion: Digital Voice and Old Phones

imjolly — Thu, 10 Jun 2021 18:44:02 GMT

I have assumed you have FTTP - FIBRE TO THE PRMISES/HOME.

it will not work if you have FTTC

Re: Confusion: Digital Voice and Old Phones

Keith_Beddoe — Thu, 10 Jun 2021 18:52:34 GMT

If you have FTTC, then you would have to disconnect the phone wiring from the master socket,, but leave the broadband connection to the home hub intact.

It may be that you just have to remove the wiring from the front of the faceplate, as that normally goes to the phone wiring.

Re: Confusion: Digital Voice and Old Phones

Anonymous — Thu, 10 Jun 2021 19:54:04 GMT

I don't think I have Fibre to the Premises, would I know if I did? Strangely enough, I called BT on my grandson's mobile phone just now and they said I should not be cutting any wires out of the Master Socket, under any circumstances. Also, the internal landline socket wiring of my house does not support Wireless/Broadband/Internet signals.

They tried to flog me some new ghastly cheap black plastic complicated digital phones. No thank you.

They tried to flog me some adaptors, which sounded good until they said they needed to be in range of both a power socket and Internet signal.

So I am at a loss really. I don't know what to do. Why couldn't they just leave my house alone. I'm 85. I don't use the internet, my life depends on me using the landline and they've taken it away.

Re: Confusion: Digital Voice and Old Phones

imjolly — Thu, 10 Jun 2021 20:10:34 GMT

You will have something like this if you have FTTP.

If you don't have that then you have FTTC and you cannot disconnect the openreach cable from the master socket.

You should be able to either get a free digital voice phone or a free adapter for your existing phone. The adapter plugs into a power socket and your existing phone will connect to the adapter. If you wanted more adapters then you will need to buy them

Re: Confusion: Digital Voice and Old Phones

Anonymous — Thu, 10 Jun 2021 20:28:44 GMT

Yes, I have that white Openreach box: I have no idea what it does, I thought it was another Internet box like the BT Smart Hub 2. So what does this mean? I can rip out some wires from the adjoining Master Socket? Because the BT people said I should definitely not be doing this.

Regarding new digital landline phones and adaptors: It's difficult, because my wireless internet signal covers only two rooms, whereas I have five landline phones scattered throughout the house, so new digital phones or adaptors would be useless in my situation, since they would be out of range of the wireless internet signal.

Re: Confusion: Digital Voice and Old Phones

licquorice — Thu, 10 Jun 2021 20:32:35 GMT

Please don't rip out any wires unless you know exactly what you are doing.

The digital phones do not use the wifi signal, it is a different signal and reaches further than wifi.

Re: Confusion: Digital Voice and Old Phones

Anonymous — Thu, 10 Jun 2021 20:52:48 GMT

After much deliberation, I have decided to leave BT. Reverting back to the copper system with another landline company is simply the easiest and cheapest option, there are just too many downsides to running my landline telephones via the wireless internet.

Thank you all very much for your help. Goodbye.

Re: Confusion: Digital Voice and Old Phones

licquorice — Thu, 10 Jun 2021 20:58:13 GMT

Its not just BT dispensing with copper landlines, all providers are.

Re: Confusion: Digital Voice and Old Phones

Keith_Beddoe — Thu, 10 Jun 2021 21:03:11 GMT

@Anonymous

Unfortunately, many other provider are moving their phone service off the copper service. As you have FTTP, Openreach will be disconnecting the copper connection to your house, so you are going to end up in the same situation. It you have been told that your copper connection is being disconnected, then that is what will be happening.

If your phone number is important to you, there is no guarantee you can take it to another provider.

Re: Confusion: Digital Voice and Old Phones

Anonymous — Thu, 10 Jun 2021 22:16:13 GMT

So, I need to sort this problem out now.

The Background: BT has changed the way my landline works, and they are slowly doing so for the whole country. As of two days ago, it worked off the old copper wire system, and my five telephones spread throughout the house and workshop worked wonderfully for decades. Now, however, BT has cut off my landline and says I must use the internet to power my household telephones.

The Problem: My Openreach Box (I have FTTP) , Master Socket and Internet Box (The BT Smart Hub 2) are located in an attic room office cupboard in one corner of the house. From there, the Wifi signal reaches about 1/6th of my house reliably due to stone walls. So getting new BT digital phones or adaptors will not solve my problem, since my landline telephones are spread throughout the house and out of range of wifi. Moreover, I love my old colourful rotary vintage telephones. I'm loathed to put black plastic digital tat out on display.

The Question: Can I somehow keep my old telephones? Can I do something involving the Internet Box (BT Smart Hub 2) and the Master Socket to power up all my old landline phones with internet juice?

(Every seemingly helpful comment before this post has been either contradicted or debunked by the BT people my Grandson called: you cannot, under any circumstances, cut out wiring from the Master Socket; and connecting a wire from the Smart Hub to the Master Socket does nothing).

Re: Confusion: Digital Voice and Old Phones

DaveS1234 — Thu, 10 Jun 2021 23:46:18 GMT

You should be able to use your existing internal wiring with the DV socket on the SmartHub 2 but it will depend on a couple of factors about your existing wiring as to what is the "best" way of doing this. I'm afraid this going to be a bit of question and answer tennis to arrive at a conclusion.

NOTE. I have no idea whether the DV port understands Pulse Dialling as generated by true old Rotary Dial phones that you mentioned - perhaps one of the established members of this forum knows the answer to that.

First Question. Do you know ( or can you find out) how your internal wiring is connected at the Master Socket ?

2: How much slack is there on that cable i.e if disconnected could the end be moved to a new socket mounted near to your current master socket?

3: Do you currently have a phone plugged into the Master Socket (albeit no longer working) ?

The 1st 2 questions are to ascertain whether fitting a secondary socket connected to your internal wiring would be straight forward. This could then be connected to the SmartHub DV socket with a straight through BT Plug to BT Plug lead.

The 3rd question is to identifiy (if you can fit a secondary socket) whether you will need a 2 socket version (one for IN and one for a phone)

Hopefully we can get to a solution without having to touch the Openreach wiring at your Master Socket.

Dave

Re: Confusion: Digital Voice and Old Phones

Keith_Beddoe — Fri, 11 Jun 2021 05:56:02 GMT

@Anonymous

I do not think the DV port on the smart hub 2 supports pulse dialling, but I am not sure about the the extra DV adapter that links to the SH2. Pulse dialling is obsolete, and not compatible with most new phone networks.

Your easiest option would be to use one of the DV adapters, and located it close to where your existing phone wiring connects to your master socket. You can then link it directly to it, thus replacing the copper connection.

The DV adapter connects back to the SH2 using DECT not WifI. DECT is the same as digital phones use, and has a much greater range than WiFi.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_enhanced_cordless_telecommunications

The BT Digital Voice handsets also use DECT, and work over a long distance. You get one of those phones free.

I do not think its going to be a problem, apart from perhaps the dial telephone.

This forum is the best place to get advice.

Re: Confusion: Digital Voice and Old Phones

Keith_Beddoe — Fri, 11 Jun 2021 06:29:02 GMT

@Anonymous

Some additional information about the Digital Voice adapter.

https://www.bt.com/help/user-guides/phones/digital-voice/digital-voice-adapter

There is a user guide on that page. There is no mention of pulse dialling, but it warns that phones over 10 years old. may not work.

The connection point showing for the home phone, would be where your existing phone wiring would plug into.

The only other option would be to have an adapter for each phone, as you can register up to five adapters to the home hub, but I am not sure how many BT would supply for free.

Re: Confusion: Digital Voice and Old Phones

licquorice — Fri, 11 Jun 2021 07:33:28 GMT

@Anonymous Have a read of this article.

For the third time Digital Voice phones do not use WiFi.

Re: Confusion: Digital Voice and Old Phones

Keith_Beddoe — Fri, 11 Jun 2021 08:03:11 GMT

@licquorice

That`s a good link, especially if people start at part 1 first. https://www.draytek.co.uk/information/blog/the-end-of-analogue-phone-lines-pt1

Its better than the other link that I posted before, on another thread.

It also shows the new faceplates, and a method to modify existing wiring.

Its a pity that BT do not provide this information.