This topic

Home phone service upgrade (DV?) - impact on other services using landline

grainywand — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 19:04:55 GMT

We’ve just (4/12/25) received a BT letter indicating that our home phone service will soon be upgraded - to Digital Voice (DV), presumably, though, neither the letter, nor the accompanying leaflet, explicitly say so?? The letter goes on to say that they’ll be in touch to confirm the upgrade date (which we’ve not had yet, as we’ve only had the letter a week), and that, on the upgrade day itself, all being well, the engineer will then carry out the work remotely at the telephone exchange.

My concern is that this implies that the BT landline is only used for our BT home phone service, but the situation is more complicated than that, and the upgrade will surely impact the other 2 services that use our landline?? - namely …

Our 3rd party (Plusnet) FTTC Broadband service - which nevertheless uses the BT landline (I understand), and BT should surely therefore know about it.
Our Monitored Burglar Alarm - also connected to the phone line, to allow it to communicate with the central alarm monitoring station. Note that it only communicates alarm status changes occasionally/briefly using the phone line (eg. alarm set, alarm tripped, etc), and it uses relatively old technology (Digicom, I think?). I obviously don’t expect BT to know about this alarm connection, but it will surely still be affected by the phone service upgrade?

I knew that the BT home phone service upgrade was coming (it’s been on the horizon for ages), but when this formal/individual BT letter came, I expected it to give us the opportunity to raise any issues (like those above), but there’s no obvious way to do so. I don’t know how much advance notice of the upgrade date we’ll get, but I wanted to get ahead of the game and raise these issues now. The BT letter says to call 0330 1234 150 for more info, but that’s just the generic BT contact no., which would no doubt just be an Indian call centre, or similar, who wouldn’t be able to help with anything non-standard like this. Hence, this post on the BT Community, in the first instance.

I’m really just trying to understand the impact of this upgrade on all 3 of our services that use the BT landline, and the possible options, going forward - eg. we might consider getting rid of the BT home phone service (as we don’t use it much now and could just use our mobile phones), change the alarm system’s mode of communication (eg. switch to a mobile-based comms module), and upgrade to full fibre broadband (FTTP) (probably, still Plusnet - see Note 1 below).

In any case, whatever we do will obviously need to be well-coordinated across all parties, to avoid major disruption to our phone/broadband/alarm services (being so interdependent).

(Note 1: our preference is to keep our Plusnet Broadband because we have ISP-based email addresses, which are linked to literally hundreds of internet accounts/services/communications, so it would be a major undertaking to change those email addresses!)

I hope the above makes sense - any help or advice with this would be hugely appreciated, as we’re not sure how else to raise these issues, or indeed, what to do about our 3 services.

Re: Home phone service upgrade (DV?) - impact on other services using landline

iniltous — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 20:09:24 GMT

Presumably you have SMPF (shared metallic path facility ) if you pay BT and Plusnet separately for telephony (BT) and broadband (PN) , you are one of very few still on this what is now a legacy arrangement , it’s unnecessarily expensive, you probably are paying at least £20 a month more that necessary if either BT or Plusnet provided both services and presumably have been paying this for many years (SMPF has been something of a niche product for a decade and not sold to new customers for quite a few years )

BT recently introduced something called a pre digital phone line , that can be used to get ordinary BT phone only customers off PSTN telephony but it’s not applicable in your case as you have broadband from PN , and PDPL doesn’t support what you have .

You need to (and it’s something you could have done at any time in the last few years and saved yourself probably upwards of £500 ) , is to decide who to use for both services (if you want to keep both that is ) , but given Plusnet are not offering telephony to new customers anymore and migrating existing phone customers to BT or EE if they want to keep that facility, you won’t be able to chose PN anyway , that is unless you drop the phone service anyway .

As far as your alarm , that’s really you alarm providers problem , you should be speaking to them about that .

Re: Home phone service upgrade (DV?) - impact on other services using landline

grainywand — Thu, 11 Dec 2025 16:25:27 GMT

Hi @iniltous - many thanks for the quick response, that’s really helped to clarify the way forward!

I’d never heard of SMPF before, but we must have that as we definitely still have copper wire for the last section of the BT line to the property, and that must be shared by BT (phone) and Plusnet (FTTC Broadband), as we do pay them separately for those services.

You’re right that it’s a very unusual/legacy situation that we’re in! - it really just reflects the history of how things developed. We’ve lived here for over 25 years, and when we moved in, in 1999, we only had a BT landline (like many people), in the days when home internet wasn’t commonplace. Later, when dial-up internet became widely available, we signed up with Madasafish (an old ISP, subsequently taken over by Plusnet), as I don’t think it was available from BT, then (though I could be wrong about that, as it’s a long time ago!) … and we then just progressively upgraded our internet connection, through Plusnet, to Broadband Max, and then FTTC Fibre Broadband, when they became available, as it was easiest to stick with them.

You’re also right that we need to talk to our alarm company (they did warn us that the BT home phone upgrade was now imminent and would have an impact), and I think we need to start by ‘divorcing’ our alarm system from the phone line, asap (probably change to mobile-based comms with the monitoring centre, as already mentioned). For info, we do occasionally get interference from the phone, causing the broadband to drop out, briefly, and I think that’s actually down to an intermittent issue with the phone line ‘spur’ connection to the alarm, rather than a problem with the SMPF (which is obviously designed to work with phone/broadband, together).

I think we’ll then ditch the phone landline (the alarm is really the only requirement for it, so if that goes), and upgrade to Plusnet* full fibre (FTTP) (*due to the emails issue already mentioned).

If you don’t mind me ‘picking your brains’ a bit more to complete the picture, just a few more quick questions/ clarifications for you …

If we do upgrade to Plusnet Full Fibre (FTTP) will that ‘automatically’ result in the BT landline/associated contract being turned off/terminated? Or, will we need to contact BT, too?
Leaving the alarm connection to one side (as I know that’ll be affected), as a matter of interest, would our existing phone/FTTC Broadband even work, after the BT upgrade to DV, with our current setup (SPMF)? Or, would it ‘expect’ to see a BT Router on the end, with our existing DECT phone connected to that? … rather than our Plusnet router, and the separate phone connection to the BT master socket on the wall? It’s not clear from the BT letter/leaflet we received whether the DV upgrade includes/implies replacement of the last section of copper wire to the property, with fibre?
Have you any idea how much time we’re likely to have before the BT home phone upgrade actually happens? (given that we’ve only just received the BT initial ‘warning’ letter about it). It obviously won’t be a quick process to get, both, the alarm system modified, and, the Plusnet FTTP upgrade done, especially around Xmas! … though BT probably won’t be doing much DV phone service upgrading around Xmas, either!!

Huge thanks again in anticipation of your responses to these few additional questions!

I’m really pleased that, with your help, the plan for the way forward is now much clearer.

Re: Home phone service upgrade (DV?) - impact on other services using landline

iniltous — Thu, 11 Dec 2025 17:31:33 GMT

1.If you become a FTTP customer with Plusnet , the status of your BT telephone service can’t be predicted with any certainty, what’s more if Plusnet treat your application for FTTP as totally separate to your existing SMPF FTTC service you may conceivably have FTTC and FTTP simultaneously , unless you advise BT yourself to cease your telephone service , then obviously you are dependent on what PN do with your broadband and notification towards BT …historically telephony can exist without broadband but broadband (on legacy SMPF) can’t exist without telephony from someone .

2.Although you have received some advanced notification, your situation as a SMPF isn’t really clear , BT can’t arbitrarily remove Plusnet , Plusnet can’t arbitrarily remove BT , but both services cannot remain as they are , you will need to decide , if you leave it , presumably one or the other (or possibly both ) will remove their service.

3.The absolute last date for PSTN retirement is Jan 2027 , your BT telephone service will either change to DV (if you remain a BT customer ditching Plusnet ) or be removed by this date , in which case you won’t be a BT customer , your relationship with PN would need to be discussed with them .
TBH it’s seems clear your preference is to join PN on FTTP , personally I’d arrange that migration, if you get a notification from BT that your telephone will be removed by this action , great that’s what you want , if you don’t get a notification from BT , independently of PN , you ask BT to cease your telephone service , potentially after the FTTP is installed, that way no break in broadband service is likely

Re: Home phone service upgrade (DV?) - impact on other services using landline

grainywand — Thu, 11 Dec 2025 18:38:30 GMT

Many thanks again for the quick responses, @iniltous, that’s all really helpful!🙏👍😁
I’ll just get on with it now, as soon as possible, allowing for the Xmas/NY break …

Re: Home phone service upgrade (DV?) - impact on other services using landline

grainywand — Fri, 19 Dec 2025 19:11:52 GMT

@iniltous - Rather strangely, having started exploring in earnest (and in depth) with the alarm company, the options to move away from our monitored alarm system’s connection to the BT landline, I’ve suddenly (today) received a BT email saying that “we’ve had to cancel your Home Phone upgrade order”!! … with no explanation as to why??

(Note that the original BT communication about the coming home phone service upgrade was a letter, received by post … and we’d not had any further BT communication re the actual upgrade date, until today’s cancelled’ BT email.)

The BT email also says that “we’ll be back in touch when we need to place a new order”, so I guess that the upgrade will still happen at some point … but I was wondering if it could be anything to do with our unusual SMPF situation ???

TBH - (as the BT DV upgrade will surely come at some point) I’m inclined to just carry on pursuing it with our alarm company and get our alarm system ‘divorced’ from the BT landline asap, in the new year, and then, once that’s done, get our broadband upgraded from FTTC to FTTP with Plusnet, as already indicated … but I thought it was worth getting some insight on what this latest BT email communication really means. Any ideas???

Any insight/advice that you can give will be hugely appreciated, as ever! - many thanks.

Re: Home phone service upgrade (DV?) - impact on other services using landline

iniltous — Fri, 19 Dec 2025 19:58:58 GMT

The cancellation of your home phone upgrade order probably is due to your SMPF product, chances are the original notification was just part of a bulk trawl of BT telephone customers still on PSTN with a view to converting to Digital Voice , only later did the issue of your non BT broadband sharing the copper pair come to light , hence the cancellation as DV isn’t possible in those circumstances, or the home phone upgrade was to be a pre digital phone line and it’s BT ‘policy’ rather than any technical issue disallowing that to coexist with someone else’s broadband, the result is the same , a cancellation of phone service ‘upgrade’ for the time being.

As stated previously, you would be better advised to make a decision regarding this yourself and act upon it sooner rather than later , otherwise you risk having something imposed, what that may be can’t really be predicted, but I’d suspect your PN broadband will cease (PN’s decision , all they need to do is give you some notice ) and BT can then provide you with a pre digital phone line , (so not a PSTN service) , but not Digital Voice either .

As PN broadband seems to be your preference for broadband and you have no particular attachment to the phone service from BT , seems clear what to do .

Re: Home phone service upgrade (DV?) - impact on other services using landline

grainywand — Fri, 19 Dec 2025 20:44:21 GMT

Many thanks for the quick response @iniltous, hugely appreciated, as ever!🙏

Okay, that’s pretty much what I suspected.

As you say, the thing to do is to take control of the situation myself, otherwise I won’t know what will happen! (or indeed, when!) …

I'll do that, as I’d more or less already decided to, anyway. All the very best and many thanks again.

Re: Home phone service upgrade (DV?) - impact on other services using landline

grainywand — Mon, 22 Dec 2025 17:27:06 GMT

Hi @iniltous - now I’m truly baffled!

Today (22/12), I've received another BT letter, by post, confirming that our home phone will be upgraded on 6th Jan! … having received, only last Fri (19/12), a BT email saying that ‘we’ve had to cancel your home phone upgrade order’!!

So, I don’t know what to believe anymore?? … as there’s no precise date on the letter (only ‘Dec 2025’).

I suspect that this latest BT letter is actually the confirmed date ‘order’ that last Friday’s email ‘cancelled’, and the letter just arrived after the email, especially with Xmas postal delays! … but I don’t know how to check?

I’ve logged into my BT online account, and tried to ‘track orders’ but it just throws a red ‘error message’ indicating that there’s a problem and my orders can’t be accessed! I’ll check that again, later, as it could be a temporary error, but I suspect not …

It’s all very confusing and unhelpful, as I’ve tried to ‘take control’ of the process by provisionally arranging a date (19th Jan) for the alarm system mods to be done, to ‘divorce’ it from the BT landline (that’s the earliest date the alarm company could do) … and I now don’t know what will happen with BT before that, on 6th Jan, if anything!

Any ideas??? Do you think my suspicion about the latest letter is correct? - ie. it pre-dates the order cancellation email. Is there any way to check the status of this ‘order’?

Many thanks, as ever, for any help or advice you can give! …

Re: Home phone service upgrade (DV?) - impact on other services using landline

Lesley_W — Wed, 24 Dec 2025 15:20:23 GMT

Hi @grainywand

Thanks for coming to our community.

I can see @iniltous has given some great advice there and has been able to help navigate these changes with you.

As far as your regaining questions, we'd really need someone to take a look at your account to check specific dates and any orders placed. They can also check the sequence of the letters you were sent.

I know you have concerns over calling the number on the letter, but our teams are based in the UK and Ireland and are trained to help with these matters. If you get through to someone who can't, they can transfer you to the right people.

Lesley

Re: Home phone service upgrade (DV?) - impact on other services using landline

grainywand — Sun, 11 Jan 2026 14:47:07 GMT

Hi @Lesley_W

Many thanks for your input/advice.

Just to close the loop, I called BT Customer Service, between Xmas and New Year, and they were very helpful …

They confirmed that the home phone service upgrade order (originally scheduled for 6/1/26) had indeed been cancelled (and therefore BT didn’t try to do the DV migration on 6/1/26), and that I had received the mixed BT comms (letters/email) in the wrong order, which caused the confusion.

It appears that BT use a different system (‘Velocity’) for these landline only/DV migration orders, which explains why I couldn’t see that particular order in my BT online account … and it may also explain why an email was received when the order was cancelled (whereas the other BT comms regarding the DV migration were letters sent by post).

Anyway, so we’re now going ahead with getting our monitored burglar alarm system ‘divorced’ from the BT landline, on 19/1, as planned … and, once that’s been done, we can then proceed with upgrading our Plusnet broadband to full fibre (FTTP), and getting rid of our BT landline.

Many thanks again to you and @iniltous for your assistance with this, it looks like we’re now on the right track!🙏😁

Re: Home phone service upgrade (DV?) - impact on other services using landline

Lesley_W — Mon, 12 Jan 2026 15:12:20 GMT

Thanks for taking the time to pop back with an update @grainywand

I'm pleased you're sorted with a plan in place.

Lesley

Re: Home phone service upgrade (DV?) - impact on other services using landline

me123 — Sat, 14 Mar 2026 19:05:12 GMT

This is an old thread. I have just come off this SMPF. I have been paying EE since 2014. I was on an old Brightbox after they took over Orange. I was paying EE 26 pounds a month for an old, slow broadband and line rental, and another family member was paying BT for a home phone line rental and call package at about 40 pounds a month. both using the same landline started in 1998. I never really understood it until lately, and I thought this BT digital was going underground and they were doing away with all these telegraph poles and copper wires. Has anyone pursued a refund?

Re: Home phone service upgrade (DV?) - impact on other services using landline

WSH — Sat, 14 Mar 2026 19:10:50 GMT

No, way too expensive to bury all the overhead cables. Even fibre optic can be, (and is), delivered by overhead cables, as well as underground.

The thread is about DV. DV will run quite happily over copper and does not necessarily require full fibre. The driving force behind DV is that the old PSTN, (Public Switched Telephone Network), equipment is old, obsolete and spares are becoming hard to get as no one makes them any more. Hence the switch to a phone system based on broadband, (whether it be copper or fibre).

Refund for what?

Re: Home phone service upgrade (DV?) - impact on other services using landline

me123 — Sat, 14 Mar 2026 19:16:27 GMT

I guess it would be VM came down the street bury cables i though Bt were probably going to do the same,do VM go overhead with cables as well?

Re: Home phone service upgrade (DV?) - impact on other services using landline

WSH — Sat, 14 Mar 2026 19:26:04 GMT

I would expect so. They do have an agreement to share the ducts etc. so I expect that would extend to overhead.

Why don't you ask on the VM forum?

Edit: Ah, I think see where the confusion is. The infrastructure is Openreach. While Openreach and BT are both part of BT group, OFCOM rules oblige them to operate as separate companies. The forum has no more link to Openreach than, say, Sky, so who knows what Openreach may or may not do?

Re: Home phone service upgrade (DV?) - impact on other services using landline

me123 — Sat, 14 Mar 2026 19:33:43 GMT

You seemed quite knowledgeable, that was the reason I asked, I'm not with VM and a BT customer, so it's not worth it to join to find out. It was the second poster who mentioned SMPF, something I learned recently: What is DV?

Re: Home phone service upgrade (DV?) - impact on other services using landline

WSH — Sat, 14 Mar 2026 19:46:44 GMT

Sorry, I thought that was what you were asking about, going by the thread title.

DV is Digital Voice, the replacement for the old Public Switched Telephone Network, (the PSTN), that will be shut down completely by 31st Jan’27. Basically, it’s the phone over the broadband rather than as a separate service sharing the copper wires. (The SMPF you mentioned).

No reason why you can’t create an account on the VM forum and ask questions. I do, on a lot of other forums.

Re: Home phone service upgrade (DV?) - impact on other services using landline

me123 — Sat, 14 Mar 2026 20:12:22 GMT

I see your Edit, have BT never owned the telegraph poles and always belonged to another company? When I was using SMPF, were EE and BT paying Openreach a commission?

Re: Home phone service upgrade (DV?) - impact on other services using landline

WSH — Sat, 14 Mar 2026 20:25:39 GMT

Yes, Openreach (OR) are a separate company who provide network access to a large number of ISPs. And they don't do it for free, of course.

As I said, OR & BT are both part of "BT Group" but they are separate companies and BT the ISP have no more say, influence or favour with OR than Sky etc. do. No one on here will be able to tell what OR may or may not do, as there is no link between this forum and OR.