This topic

Digital Mess

dave59 — Tue, 20 May 2025 14:56:43 GMT

BT cut off my landline which was working perfectly. I thought it was a fault so reported it. Spoke to BT faults who said they would send an Openreach engineer. Someone turned up but he wasn't from Openreach. He tested the master socket and said it was a network fault so would need an Openreach engineer! Something I told them to start with!

Line still dead today 20th May. Spent almost two hours on the phone talking to people in Exeter, Accrington, Blackburn and Newcastle. None of these people seemed to know what caused the 'fault' until one said it was because of digital voice. My date for that is July 23rd but they cut off the analogue line on May 13th.

So they were going to leave me without a phone until then? I said I wanted it reversed and my proper landline back until nearer the time. No chance. They said Openreach "can't" do that so they moved forward the DV activation date. I've since had no text or email confirmation of anything said this morning.

Never have I come across such widespread inability to organise anything. Only one person was as helpful as she could be and very apologetic, the others were friendly but otherwise a waste of fresh air. A complete disorganised mess and I have no confidence it will be sorted any time soon.

Re: Digital Mess

jac_95 — Tue, 20 May 2025 14:57:39 GMT

Hi dave59,

Thanks for the post and welcome to the Community.

This is an automated response as I can see you have a question about BT’s Digital Voice service. Rather than waiting for a response from the Community, you may find an answer to your question by using the search bar on the Community homepage. We also have a thread that contains a wealth of info related to BT’s Digital Voice, click this link to take a look, Digital Voice FAQs.

Got some questions or want to learn more about BT’s Digital Voice rollout? BT are running localised events as part of the regional rollout of Digital Voice - Click here to view the Digital Voice events

To learn more about the nationwide change to this Internet based voice service visit landlinesgo.digital

If you have already looked for the answer to your question and have not found anything that can help, then please ignore this message. One of our Community members will be along shortly to help you further.

Re: Digital Mess

imjolly — Tue, 20 May 2025 15:00:36 GMT

are you a BT broadband customer? if so FTTC or FTTP broadband? is broadband still working?

Re: Digital Mess

licquorice — Tue, 20 May 2025 15:02:22 GMT

So have you checked to see if Digital Voice has been activated?

Re: Digital Mess

dave59 — Tue, 20 May 2025 15:41:58 GMT

The first (non-Openreach) person checked that and said it hadn't. I can't check myself because I have a Home Hub 5 which has no phone socket.

Re: Digital Mess

dave59 — Tue, 20 May 2025 15:43:54 GMT

Yes FTTC broadband is working fine. I am a BT customer.

Re: Digital Mess

imjolly — Tue, 20 May 2025 15:53:09 GMT

You need a BT SH2 to access digital voice

Re: Digital Mess

dave59 — Tue, 20 May 2025 15:55:42 GMT

Yes I assume they will send one.

Re: Digital Mess

licquorice — Tue, 20 May 2025 16:29:45 GMT

I wouldn't assume anything if I were you.

Call customer services and insist they send you one immediately. At least then you can check when/if DV is activated.

Re: Digital Mess

dave59 — Tue, 20 May 2025 16:51:51 GMT

Yes I can do that when I get the new hub. They did say they would send one but some of these people seemed to know little more than I do so not much confidence.

Why they can't just tell Openreach to reinstate the analogue line for now is beyond me. Ideally I don't want DV until they install FTTP. I had extended it until July and have email confirmation of that. Some individual has not done as they should.

Re: Digital Mess

iniltous — Tue, 20 May 2025 20:50:41 GMT

So you were presumably given a date in May for migration to DV and ‘complained’ and supposedly had the date changed to some time in July ( and apparently gave an email to confirm this ) ,but when you lose your PSTN telephony , you don’t immediately think , ‘they have not applied the new date for migration and done the DV migration on the original date’ but report a fault instead and presumably, like on this post , keep the relevant information to yourself until late in the proceedings.
As far as restoration of the PSTN telephone , that isn’t going to happen, but TBH , what difference does the date , July instead of May make ? what is it you are you changing at your end between now and July that will make the migration OK then and not now ?

Re: Digital Mess

dave59 — Wed, 21 May 2025 07:32:04 GMT

I didn't 'supposedly' have the date changed, BT gave me confirmation by email of it. It showed as July on their system according to everyone I spoke to but someone didn't tell the other branch of the organisation to change it on theirs. You are right the original date was May. I wanted to delay removal of my line for as long as possible. Plenty of people using other providers are still on analogue in the village. Those who have DV hate it and have many issues. The bills are not going to reduce so I prefer to keep the full service while I can. Indeed when I made the change to July the person said "give us a call at the beginning of July and we'll be able to extend it further." I was also mindful of the fact that it wasn't plug and play with the existing extension sockets although I see there is now (belatedly) a faceplate for the Master socket to achieve this. If a system is going to 'move on' affecting so many people it should be backwards compatible from the start just like the change was from analogue to digital TV.

I didn't report a fault I reported a dead line. Who do I report a dead line to if it isn't faults? I suspected the reason was something to do with DV but it was for BT to deal with. It came up on their fault tracker with an estimated fix date. Why? It wasn't a fault! They should have immediately recognised what the issue was without me making endless phone calls to (eventually) get it out of them.

Re: Digital Mess

imjolly — Wed, 21 May 2025 09:16:07 GMT

as it now appears you have been moved to digital voice you need to phone CS 03301234150 and explain you have been moved to digital voice and need someone to send you a SH2 so you can get connected

Re: Digital Mess

dave59 — Wed, 21 May 2025 09:22:10 GMT

Thank you. I'm told the hub is on its way. I also need a faceplate for the master socket.

Re: Digital Mess

Kodikid — Wed, 21 May 2025 10:09:26 GMT

Much prefer Eton mess, but hey each to his/her own

Re: Digital Mess

imjolly — Wed, 21 May 2025 10:43:09 GMT

@dave59

what is wrong with the existing faceplate as you just connect your new hub to the same socket where your current hub is connected currently

Re: Digital Mess

WSH — Wed, 21 May 2025 10:45:23 GMT

When you say "faceplate for the socket" exactly what is it you need?

You may not be aware of it, but the old filter was more for the voice side of things than the broadband. I was moved to DV 18 months ago. I removed the filtered faceplate and went back to just a phone socket to see if that improved the connection any. I'm not so sure it improves anything but both broadband and DV certainly run fine through just the phone socket. What you might need is an RJ11 to BT plug lead or an RJ11 to BT adapter but the filter, as such, is now redundant.

Edit: And, as imjolly says, the orginal connection point should still work.

Re: Digital Mess

licquorice — Wed, 21 May 2025 10:52:49 GMT

Not sure if it is still available, but a dedicated faceplate for voice re-injection on FTTC was provided by Openreach.

It isolates the extension wiring from the incoming line.

Re: Digital Mess

dave59 — Wed, 21 May 2025 11:40:49 GMT

Can't see one for sale anywhere.

Re: Digital Mess

WSH — Wed, 21 May 2025 14:28:00 GMT

There is a picture of it here:

https://www.draytek.co.uk/information/blog/the-end-of-analogue-phone-lines-pt2

along with an alternative way to re-enable your extensions.