This topic

Digital Voice Upgrade

krlwell — Wed, 30 Jun 2021 22:16:02 GMT

This is the first time I have posted to this forum so please bear with me.

A few weeks ago I decided to apply for the Full Fibre upgrade which included Digital Voice. When the SH2 was delivered I managed to get everything up and running with an hour and all worked fine including my landline.

Last week the engineer visited to complete the Full Fibre upgrade. Since then I have been unable to make or receive calls via my landline. The most urgent are missed calls from my GP who has been trying to contact me about a medical problem which requires a telephone consultation.

The engineer did not bother to check the phone when he carried out the Full Fibre upgrade and gave me the impression that he was in a rush to get the job done as soon as possible. The Full Fibre Broadband is working and I am impressed with the very fast speeds . However I had to carry out two factory resets on my BT View box in order to be able to receive programmes.

The worrying thing is that at no stage did BT ever offered me an adaptor to allow my exisiting phone to connect to my SH2 or one of the new handsets. The end result is that I have been unable to make or receive calls for nearly a week.

I contacted BT to raise a fault which is still unresolved ( the target date according to the website to resolve this is 5/7/21). This morning (via my mobile) I spoke to a very helpful lady who explained that I should have been offered either an adaptor for my old handset or one of the new models of handsets as part of the upgrade. She has arranged for the Essential x2 Handset pack to be sent to me which I am hoping resolves the problem.

Has anyone else experienced problems similar to this ?

Re: Digital Voice Upgrade

Keith_Beddoe — Thu, 01 Jul 2021 05:25:20 GMT

@krlwell

Have you plugged your phone into the phone socket on the BT Smart Hub 2, its shown in green on this picture, and may have a sticker over it?

Re: Digital Voice Upgrade

krlwell — Thu, 01 Jul 2021 09:15:40 GMT

Yes and I have rebooted the SH2 and followed the other suggested steps but the problem still exists. I received two Essential Digital handsets this morning which I will try and connect to see if this fixes the problem.

Re: Digital Voice Upgrade

krlwell — Sun, 04 Jul 2021 22:38:17 GMT

Further to previous posts. I have now installed the 2 Digital Homephones and while I now seem to be able to make calls, I cannot receive any incoming ones. The new phones registered with the hub fairly easilly

Three relatives who I asked to call me as a test could not get through and e-mailed me or phoned on my mobile to say that all they get is a loud howling sound when they dial my number. Weird thing is I tried calling my number from my mobile a few times and sometimes it gets through , sometimes it does not.

This fault is now estimated to be resolved on 8th July meaning I have been unable to receive any incoming calls since 28.6.21. Appalling service and the complaint I logged with BT also seems to have disappeared from the on-line log without being answered.

Re: Digital Voice Upgrade

krlwell — Thu, 08 Jul 2021 21:49:47 GMT

Latest position. Fault is still outstanding unable to receive incoming calls and the target date to resolve it is now 14th July. Brilliant service (not!!!!).

One consolation I do not appear to be alone as my sister who lives a few miles away has an almost identical problem but is with Virgin Media.

Still at least my mobile phone which is not BT is working.

Re: Digital Voice Upgrade

CaptainT — Fri, 09 Jul 2021 11:54:09 GMT

Went through all of this last year when full fibre was installed. Talked to lots of people who had no idea what they were talking about. Found the fault originally an hour after the engineer left. Called him and he advised to put the original plate back on the wall mount. That got the cordless Panasonics working once I realised the base unit had to be plugged in and not an individual phone. I also did not get the "freebie" phone but with all the problems that followed I now have five "deluxe" VOIP phones and five Panasonics. They were all working until 21 June when it all went down again - for about the third time. Promised today it will be fixed after five working days. Unfortunately, I have heard all this before. One thing to remember that when it all goes down the VOIP phones are "wiped". In other words all the directory names and numbers are gone and require re-installation - I no longer bother. It did take quite some time to get it all working and required an engineer visit but unfortunately, and as nice as he was, he was a copper specialist and did not have a clue about fibre. Good luck but don't hold your breath!

Re: Digital Voice Upgrade

Andy005 — Fri, 09 Jul 2021 12:16:17 GMT

Hi @CaptainT

If you access your Hub Manager (192.168.1.254 in your browser) and click on your phone number, then click on the Contacts Tab and you'll be able to export/import your contacts as a file for your VOIP handsets.

You just need to remember to export every time you add/delete a contacts, then if they are wiped again your contacts can easily be restored in a few seconds.

Re: Digital Voice Upgrade

CaptainT — Fri, 09 Jul 2021 14:04:47 GMT

Thanks for that Andy. I'll give it a go once it's all working again.

The VOIP phones do have one negative compared to my old Panasonics (which do not lose the contacts) is that when a call comes in the phone number shows on the phone but even if in the Contacts it goes not give the name - just the number. The Panasonics on the other hand not only give the name on the screen but also announce it. Very handy when deciding if you want to take the call!

Re: Digital Voice Upgrade

Andy005 — Fri, 09 Jul 2021 14:36:51 GMT

@CaptainTwrote:
Thanks for that Andy. I'll give it a go once it's all working again.
The VOIP phones do have one negative compared to my old Panasonics (which do not lose the contacts) is that when a call comes in the phone number shows on the phone but even if in the Contacts it goes not give the name - just the number. The Panasonics on the other hand not only give the name on the screen but also announce it. Very handy when deciding if you want to take the call!

That's odd, mine show the name of the contact, yours should too.

Re: Digital Voice Upgrade

CaptainT — Sat, 10 Jul 2021 07:20:49 GMT

Interesting! Is iy an automatic function or is there somewhere to switch it on?

Re: Digital Voice Upgrade

Andy005 — Sat, 10 Jul 2021 07:44:49 GMT

@CaptainTwrote:
Interesting! Is iy an automatic function or is there somewhere to switch it on?

It should be automatic if Caller Display is active, if it wasn't you wouldn't see the number either.

It may be worth trying a reset on your SH2 by holding something in the reset hole in the back until it reboots. Most problems I've had with DV have been fixed with a SH2 reset.

Re: Digital Voice Upgrade

krlwell — Sun, 05 Sep 2021 12:06:33 GMT

Been a few weeks since I had this problem. I thought I would provide an update in case anyone else has experienced this.

Following several exchanges of e-mails , calls to BT using my mobile , three formal complaints, an "engineer's" visit (who thought they had come to install my SmartHub 2 and not fix the 'phone as they admitted to having no training in Digital Voice) and my threatening to refer the matter to the Ombudsman one of BT's Executive Team took up the case.

It was quickly discovered that the problem was caused by the port in the exchange not being properly configured during the switchover to DigitalVoice. Perhaps I am naive but I would have thought this should have been one of the first things they checked. This has now been rectified and the service is back to normal.

The downside is people who call me have become used to my landline being out of action they have been using my mobile number instead and are continuing to do so, so the landline is now not heavilly used. 😞

Re: Digital Voice Upgrade

PS123 — Sun, 05 Sep 2021 12:21:26 GMT

Some more negatives too.

BT Digital Voice only works with BT’s Smart Hub 2. If you are planning to use your own router then you must be willing to give up on using the phone service.

Also, in BT’s infinite wisdom, there is no facility to child lock the Digital Voice handsets. I have young children and I can’t even leave the handset anywhere without the worry of them getting their hands on it and start dialling random numbers.

Surely a child lock feature can be implemented via a firmware update?

Otherwise this is a massive oversight.

Re: Digital Voice Upgrade

krlwell — Tue, 09 Nov 2021 18:26:23 GMT

Really useful tip which I have just read. Many thanks.