This topic

Battery back up

foneless — Wed, 16 Jul 2025 14:22:21 GMT

have just cancelled full fibre connection due to digital voice

phone will not work if there is a power cut , there is no mobile signal in the house

the battery back up according to BT only lasts for an hour

in the past if there has been a power cut , which can be for days , we get calls from the power company to update us on the situation

I have read and heard about concerns that people have with regards situations like this , but there doesn't appear to be any solution or any urgency to come up with one , considering they are looking to cut off the old land line system within the next 2 years

this is a household of a person in mid 80's , who cannot be expected to have to walk 100 yards up the road to make a mobile call in potentially inclement weather ( usually is if the power is off) , and would have no way of ever getting an incoming call

was told that BT had a longer lasting battery back , but apparently not

cannot believe we are sleep walking into another situation that puts the lives of vulnerable people at risk because a solution has not been thought of for this obvious situation that will be happening all over the country

Re: Battery back up

licquorice — Wed, 16 Jul 2025 14:33:32 GMT

You are just deferring the inevitable, you will have Digital Voice by 2027 fibre broadband or not.

This has been discussed ad nauseam for years.

There are other battery backup solutions if you require longer.

Re: Battery back up

foneless — Wed, 16 Jul 2025 14:43:53 GMT

yesterday BT person went to find out what other battery back up they could offer ( her suggestion )

cancellation was the BT suggestion , since they are unable to provide a suitable solution at the moment

came back today stating that all they could offer was the one hour back up , which is absolutely no use to anyone that lives in a rural community , where if the power goes out after a storm , it can take days to come back on

it is up to BT to offer solution to a problem that they are creating , not for the customers to find solutions , especially if they are older and are not capable of trawling the internet for solutions

Re: Battery back up

licquorice — Wed, 16 Jul 2025 14:58:52 GMT

So, what would you rather have. A reliable phone system that doesn't work for the duration of a power cut of an unreliable power distribution, or a complete breakdown of an unrepairable telephone exchange leaving no service at all?

Just for completeness, I'm in my mid seventies and live in a rural area and have Digital Voice.

Re: Battery back up

iniltous — Wed, 16 Jul 2025 15:08:02 GMT

What do you do currently if there were a line fault on your existing phone service that made it unable to make or receive calls , would your move out of the house for the duration ? , I’d suggest you probably wouldn’t .

If the power is so unreliable that days can be spent without power , how does the freezer keep food edible, how do the lights work during the hours of darkness, I’d have thought telephone is no more important than those things.

Wether you think it reasonable or not , 1 hour of battery backup is deemed to be sufficient and all BT gave to provide to customers that quality for assistance , and if that doesn’t seem good enough you can purchase yourself something like a diesel generator to keep not just the telephone going but every other essential, if you do suffer outages as you say you do and presumably don’t want to move to somewhere that has a reliable power supply, then perhaps you should explore something like that .

You say it’s upto BT to provide a solution, they have , if you find that unacceptable that’s unfortunate but it’s your problem.

Re: Battery back up

foneless — Wed, 16 Jul 2025 15:12:29 GMT

problem is the lack of moblie signal in this house

on the digital voice contract it states that if you do not have a mobile signal to contact them for a solution

and they are unable or unwilling to provide a solution to a problem that they are creating

not a problem with the phone , it is the internet that has to be upgraded

as usual people are looking for the easy solution that covers 95% and not the solution that covers all customers

Re: Battery back up

foneless — Wed, 16 Jul 2025 15:29:46 GMT

you are completely missing the point

according to BT they are not able to provide an acceptable solution

a call can be made from up the road on a mobile to report a line fault , but you cannot be expected to stay outside on the off chance that you will get in incoming call

food will remain ok for days in a freezer if left unopened

if the power goes out in the middle of the night , what us is a hour battery back up ?

A generator , great idea , just think about all the old / vulnerable people having to set up generators and cables

i was asking for a solution to a problem that BT seem unable / unwilling to help with and all i am getting is that it is the customers problem to sort out what BT cannot be bother to , complete corporate white wash

if people cannot come up with solutions do not bother

Re: Battery back up

HHGTTG — Wed, 16 Jul 2025 15:42:19 GMT

@licquorice

I have several acquaintances that don't have Broadband of any sort and unlike myself (who has ADSL) they have not been bombarded by BT to get BB or the subsequent DV which which no doubt will be be necessary before Jan 2027. What happens to them? As state here previously and am told that I can have DV over ADSL and yet BT pester me time and time again with upgrading to Fibre. Either the Copper is being removed or it ain't!

And I'm 88 years old or nearly so but have two mobiles and if it were not for SWMBO I would ditch the landline and use my mobiles. All my mates have died and so I make or receive hardly any calls. I could then get one of those 4G/5G routers from one of the mobile operators and use that for Broadband and ditch BT altogether.

Re: Battery back up

licquorice — Wed, 16 Jul 2025 15:48:30 GMT

There are a few posts on the forum where telephony only customers have been supplied with a restricted broadband and Smart Hub 2 to provide Digital Voice.

Digital Voice will work over 'wet string', it only requires Kb/s of speed rather than Mb/s.

Re: Battery back up

gg30340 — Wed, 16 Jul 2025 15:52:05 GMT

Is the main problem here not the poor electrical supply that you have from your electrical power company.

Have you been in touch with them to complain about the lack of a good reliable power supply. I will hazard a guess that you are paying good money for that but they are obviously failing to supply it.

If the power company fixed their very poor unreliable service, there would not be a problem.

Re: Battery back up

foneless — Wed, 16 Jul 2025 15:54:08 GMT

all we are trying to do is upgrade the broad band , which at times is atrocious , it is the digital voice that is causing the unnecessary problem , there is nothing wring with the phone line , but the digital voice will cause potential problems ( this is coming from the BT person that was dealing with the job ) they can see a problem but cannot come up with a solution

Re: Battery back up

HHGTTG — Wed, 16 Jul 2025 15:55:13 GMT

'wet string'?

Re: Battery back up

foneless — Wed, 16 Jul 2025 15:58:27 GMT

there is intrinsically nothing wrong with the power supply , but over the past few years there have been a number of big storms that have resulted in numerous trees across power lines and as result the power can be of for days , at this time you get calls from the power company to tell you what is going on

Re: Battery back up

foneless — Wed, 16 Jul 2025 16:00:29 GMT

no mobile signal

Re: Battery back up

licquorice — Wed, 16 Jul 2025 16:01:19 GMT

@HHGTTGwrote:
'wet string'?

Technical term for very poor quality line.

Re: Battery back up

garybs29 — Wed, 16 Jul 2025 16:05:32 GMT

It's not clear is it no mobile sognal from.any network or would you maybe be better looking at a different network instead?

Ultimately though nothing is going to chsnge from what you've already been told no matter how many times you ask & ultimately to be absoluteley frank it was your decision to live there too

Re: Battery back up

gg30340 — Wed, 16 Jul 2025 16:06:43 GMT

As regards trees getting blown over. There was a day when power line runs were inspected for potential hazards such as trees growing to close but I guess it is now cheaper to fix a break rather than employ people to be proactive before a problem occurs.

Perhaps you should approach the power company to see what they can offer to keep the property supplied with power during a power cable break.

Re: Battery back up

iniltous — Wed, 16 Jul 2025 16:11:35 GMT

Remarkable these storms blow trees over that take out the power supply but manage to not take out the telephone service ….

message 1

in the past if there has been a power cut , which can be for days , we get calls from the power company to update us on the situation

message 13

there is intrinsically nothing wrong with the power supply

If there is nothing intrinsic wrong with the power supply then DV is no different to the existing PSTN service, what do you expect, BT to keep a 40+ years old telephone exchange going just for you ?

Re: Battery back up

foneless — Wed, 16 Jul 2025 16:09:30 GMT

have you not seen the pictures of the destruction from a few years ago

Re: Battery back up

gg30340 — Wed, 16 Jul 2025 16:12:15 GMT

@fonelesswrote:
have you not seen the pictures of the destruction from a few years ago

How often does that happen and as has been pointed out how come the phone lines never came down!