This topic

Digital voice

tmarsh12345 — Wed, 28 Jul 2021 07:58:45 GMT

Is digital voice available on FTTC or do you need FTTP?

Re: Digital voice

RobbieMac — Thu, 29 Jul 2021 09:02:44 GMT

Thanks for your post and good question.

Digital Voice is available on both FTTC and FTTP lines. However, we're only offering Digital Voice in certain scenarios to begin with. We will contact you to let you know when you can move over to Digital Voice. In the meantime, you can check out the following link for more info >> What is Digital Voice and how do I get it? <<

Cheers,

Robbie

Re: Digital voice

tmarsh12345 — Thu, 29 Jul 2021 14:03:24 GMT

Thanks.

Re: Digital voice

tmarsh12345 — Thu, 29 Jul 2021 14:10:49 GMT

Just off the phone to BT and they say digital voice is not available on FTTC, must be FTTP. Is that correct? Or do they mean it's just not offered to FTTC users at this time?

Re: Digital voice

licquorice — Thu, 29 Jul 2021 14:32:40 GMT

You were given the answer earlier by @RobbieMac

Its not available to you so its academic why.

Re: Digital voice

Keith_Beddoe — Thu, 29 Jul 2021 14:49:04 GMT

@tmarsh12345 wrote:

Just off the phone to BT and they say digital voice is not available on FTTC, must be FTTP. Is that correct? Or do they mean it's just not offered to FTTC users at this time?

It is all tied up with the phased closure of the analogue phone network. Your FTTC connection would not be part of the current phase, but is likely to be in future.

Why the rush for BT Digital Voice, you may regret it?

Re: Digital voice

tmarsh12345 — Thu, 29 Jul 2021 15:02:37 GMT

I have just moved to BT FTTP so have ordered digital voice for myself as it will be switched over anyway, 2025 I think. The FTTC digital voice is for my mother-in-law, her old landline phone needs replacing so it makes sense to go digital now if possible, that's why I'm trying to get it, hence my question.

Re: Digital voice

Keith_Beddoe — Thu, 29 Jul 2021 15:13:19 GMT

Bear in mind, she would lose her phone line in a power cut, and that phone line may be essential.

Personally I would leave things alone. If she needs non-wired phones, then there are plenty of existing DECT phones available, and they can still be used with Digital Voice by plugging them into the smart hub 2. Also normal wired phones are cheap and plentiful, and they can still be used with digital voice.

Of course both those option do not work during a power cut, unless some form of backup power unit is available.

Re: Digital voice

tmarsh12345 — Thu, 29 Jul 2021 16:21:49 GMT

Yes, fair point. She does have a mobile but prefers the landline. My thinking was if she has to change eventually she might as well get a free phone but as you say, they are cheap enough.

Interesting that phones will no longer work in a power cut.

Re: Digital voice

imjolly — Thu, 29 Jul 2021 16:24:52 GMT

@tmarsh12345 wrote:

Interesting that phones will no longer work in a power cut.

No different to existing cordless phones which do not work in power cut

Re: Digital voice

Keith_Beddoe — Thu, 29 Jul 2021 16:29:46 GMT

@tmarsh12345 wrote:

Yes, fair point. She does have a mobile but prefers the landline. My thinking was if she has to change eventually she might as well get a free phone but as you say, they are cheap enough.

Interesting that phones will no longer work in a power cut.

Digital Voice is delivered to the BT Smart Hub 2 over the Internet. If power is lost to the hub, then none of the phones will work. Any other equipment like alarms that rely on the phone connection, will also stop working.

Also, the free DV phones still need power to charge up the battery, so if they go flat, then they do not work.

BT do sell a suitable backup power supply for the home hub, but its not cheap, and other alternatives are available.

Re: Digital voice

tmarsh12345 — Thu, 29 Jul 2021 16:38:23 GMT

Do you mean a UPS?

Re: Digital voice

NeilO — Thu, 29 Jul 2021 17:10:27 GMT

@tmarsh12345 if your Mum is vulnerable and moves to digital voice she would be entitled to a free battery backup unit to call the emergency services if needed. However, as you mentioned she has a Mobile so that could be used in the event of a power cut.

Thanks

Neil

Re: Digital voice

Keith_Beddoe — Thu, 29 Jul 2021 18:25:14 GMT

@tmarsh12345 wrote:

Do you mean a UPS?

Yes, the BT one just provides 12V, but a mains output UPS would power the home hub and phones and keep the broadband working of course.

Re: Digital voice

stevepage — Thu, 02 Dec 2021 05:25:20 GMT

You need to be realistic as to how long a mains UPS will last in a power outage, smaller ones are lucky to get 30 mins.

OFCOM recommend an hour minimum for the hub at least……remember your handsets are battery powered and likely to last hours without power and they are connected to the hub not a DECT base that would have required power to work. So you only need to power the hub really.

Re: Digital voice

David500 — Thu, 02 Dec 2021 19:30:50 GMT

@stevepage If you have FTTC then you only need to provide a UPS for the HomeHub, but if it's FTTP then you need to provide a UPS for the HomeHub and the ONT.

Re: Digital voice

Salem874 — Sat, 12 Mar 2022 06:23:59 GMT

This really interests me.

Without going into the long (and complicated back story), when ibre-upgraded/ordered an FTTC connection, back in February, I was also upgraded to Digital Voice. I was surprised by this as whilst I knew "Copper phone service" was being shut down by 2025, I believed customers on FTTP were being migrated first.

I know it doesn't make a difference but is there any rationale as to why an FTTC based customer would get migrated to DV? As I say I'm just interested really...

Re: Digital voice

iniltous — Sat, 12 Mar 2022 09:19:51 GMT

As already stated, the PSTN switch off is due to be completed by the end of 2025 , so everyone on FTTC will eventually be migrated onto DV , ( some may not take a ‘BT’ telephony service at all ) if you have been migrated it’s simply a consequence of where you were on the ‘list’ , some done before you , some will be done later than you.
New FTTP customers will get DV as standard ( if they take telephony ) , some early adopters of FTTP who kept the telephony over the copper pair will also be migrated , but no doubt some will be already converted to DV and some others still to be done.

All BT broadband customers that want telephony from BT will have DV , FTTP and FTTC are the low hanging fruit ( easy to do ) , the ‘problem’ BT customers will be those that don’t have any sort of BT broadband , as they will ( in effect ) have to be provided with a low bandwidth broadband connection just to keep telephony