This topic

Landline

BrianJ1 — Sun, 29 Sep 2024 11:25:04 GMT

My father in law has dementia, is elderly and is classed as vulnerable. . He had a very expensive broadband and home entertainment package (and digital voice) with BT which he was not using. After discussion with BT they agreed to terminate the contract for broadband and home entertainment. We still wanted a "landline" - this is being provided at a cost per month by BT. The HOME hub is flashing purple and neither of the handsets work (cannot connect to the hub). So simple question how do we make it work - we have received nothing from BT in terms of new hardware or instructions / advice.

Re: Landline

imjolly — Sun, 29 Sep 2024 11:57:35 GMT

if your father is now on digital voice then currently you need a broadband connection so the SH2 needs to be connected to broadband for DV to work

Re: Landline

BrianJ1 — Sun, 29 Sep 2024 12:14:30 GMT

I am still very confused how BT can agree to supply a landline package toa vulnerable person - charge a monthly fee - but it does not work because there is no broadband connection.

Re: Landline

imjolly — Sun, 29 Sep 2024 12:24:55 GMT

have you checked MYBT to see what is actually being provided?

you need to contact CS 03301234150 to sort out the phone connection but DV need to have internet access

Re: Landline

iniltous — Sun, 29 Sep 2024 12:41:07 GMT

It’s never been clear how new BT telephone only customers are provided after the stop sell on WLR , ( the removal of traditional telephone service ) all new telephone customers have to be Digital Voice an IP ( Internet protocol) service , that either directly with a router in the customer house , or indirectly by having an ATA ( analogue telephone adapter ) sited in the exchange, need to be on an internet service.

if you asked for broadband to be removed, by default the telephone service , if delivered by Digital Voice will also removed , if the way to re provide a telephone service ( after WLR stop sell means no ordinary telephone connections) is to regrade the broadband to a 0.5Mb service, intended to only provide the small bandwidth required to provide the IP telephone service, then the router would disconnect and then reconnect ( done remotely ) at the new bandwidth, but it’s not clear if that how this is how it’s done , it’s not a common occurrence to have broadband and phone and reduce the service to telephone only , or for that matter someone to order a new standalone landline telephone service.

The fact the router is flashing purple means there is no ‘internet’ connection , if you haven’t disturbed anything , then the broadband ceased but is not reconnected as a telephone only broadband service , that’s assuming that is how a new ( and to all intents and purposes he is a new customer) telephone service only , BT customer is provided

You will need to check , I suspect there has been no telephone service provided, the entire service has been ceased , and no telephone only service provided.

Re: Landline

BrianJ1 — Sun, 29 Sep 2024 20:01:05 GMT

Thanks for your helpful comments . So an update - after about 1 hour on the phone with BT

1) with the cancelling of the Broadband contract - we did lose Digital Voice . This was not explained very well at the time and was not BT's intention.

2) it was intended by BT that a new contract was entered into which BT provided minimal broadband connection sufficient to be able to have Digital Voice. This order" failed" within the BT system.

3) As a result of our 1 hour conversation and BT's agreement that they had manged to completely isolate a vulnerable customer (no functioning phone!) which is not their stated policy. We will shortly have a functioning Digital Voice service at a modest monthly cost - fingers crossed.

All the BT staff we dealt with today were very helpful - they just need a lot more of them!