This topic

digital switchover

mrslala — Mon, 24 Nov 2025 12:09:41 GMT

My elderly mother has been told that her line switched over last Thursday. Given that she:

A) doesn't have broadband and

B) Never saw a BT engineer as its done offsite

How can we prove it's been done? Will she get a letter from BT?

Re: digital switchover

chrisjp — Mon, 24 Nov 2025 12:18:27 GMT

Has your Mother's phone line (plugged into the wall socket) gone dead? If not, then the switchover hasn't taken place.
When you say "your mother has been told" - who did this? Was it a message from BT? In which case it presumably was by letter - but you say you're still waiting for a letter?
People without broadband service will be the last to be switched to DV - and, AFAIK, BT has not yet finalised how it's going to do this, so it's rather unlikely that your mother has been switched.

Re: digital switchover

iniltous — Mon, 24 Nov 2025 12:37:46 GMT

Is the ‘line’ still working ? .

There is a method to convert telephone only ‘lines’ onto a different type of transitional phone service, in effect like Digital Voice , that doesn’t need a visit to the customers property , the work required is in the exchange not the customer address , as far as telling if it’s been done or not may be tricky as in effect nothing changes (that was the entire point to be as unnoticeable as possible) nothing but a small downtime while moved from one system to another , but if this small changeover time isn’t noticed , you may never actually realise you are now connected to different equipment.

If you were in an area where you didn’t have to dial the full number on outgoing calls , so (for arguments sake ) your area code is 01999 and your number is 123456 , and you call a near neighbour also 01999,987654 if you previously could just call 987654 without needing to put the 01999 in front , you would need to now call the full number (no short codes after changeover ) , but some areas have had to use the full national number this for years , so even that may not indicate that a change has been made , if that’s what you did anyway .

If the line is still working , does it matter if it’s still on the old network or the new network ?

You ask if she will get a letter from BT , how was she advised about the supposed change last Thursday, wasn’t that via a letter ?

Re: digital switchover

chrisjp — Mon, 24 Nov 2025 15:24:40 GMT

"There is a method to convert telephone only ‘lines’ onto a different type of transitional phone service, in effect like Digital Voice.."

Is this method now actually in use by BT? I thought that it was merely a proposal for people who wanted telephone but no broadband and that no decision had yet been taken to implement it. The other option I thought was still being considered was to supply such people with some sort of cutdown router to use in their houses.
Please correct me if I'm wrong about this.

Re: digital switchover

iniltous — Mon, 24 Nov 2025 16:41:44 GMT

https://community.bt.com/t5/Home-phone-including-Digital/BT-s-Home-Phone-Standard-product/td-p/2449301/jump-to/first-unread-message

see links in this post if required regarding a pre digital phone line , it seems this ‘no powered equipment needed at home’ transitional product is now available to order , but isn’t the primary solution for ‘difficult’ telephone only customers,( difficult in the sense of their situation rather than their attitude) it’s not preferable to an all IP solution , namely BTDV , achieved in effect by offering a ‘free’ broadband service with DV service the only paid for product, is the first choice solution for existing phone only customers and new customers requiring only a phone service, but there will be edge cases where this isn’t possible so this transition product is also available.