This topic

Smart Hub 2 handset registration

misar — Wed, 29 Jul 2026 10:01:42 GMT

I have a Motorola FW500 and an old BT DECT phone connected to the hub phone socket plus a BT answerphone connected via an EE adapter. All seem to be working normally but only the EE adapter (which I registered) appears in the Handsets listing (as Adapter 1). I used Start Registration in Hub Manager a couple of times including pressing Yes within 2 minutes. With the two analogue handsets there is no way of doing anything to respond within the 2 minutes.

Should an analogue handset attached to the hub green phone port show as registered and if so how is it registered?

Re: Smart Hub 2 handset registration

licquorice — Wed, 29 Jul 2026 10:13:46 GMT

No, registration is a DECT process to allow a handset to connect to the base station.

Your handsets will be registered to the base station that is plugged into the green socket, not the hub.

The adapter will be registered to the hub.

Re: Smart Hub 2 handset registration

misar — Wed, 29 Jul 2026 10:34:32 GMT

I think you misunderstood as I was not asking about DECT registration of a handset to its base station (done long ago).

My question is whether any analogue handset (e.g. the FW500) connected to the hub green port should appear as Handset 1 (etc) in the Hub Manager list of registered handsets.

NB I think this happened automatically when Openreach partially (and temporarily) activated Digital Voice over my original ADSL line. However, as described in another thread, that was before the switchover went wrong so Digital Voice connection restarted from scratch yesterday.

Re: Smart Hub 2 handset registration

licquorice — Wed, 29 Jul 2026 10:50:23 GMT

No, you're misunderstanding. You're handsets are registered to their base station, not the hub. Therefore will not show as registered to the hub as they aren't.

Re: Smart Hub 2 handset registration

misar — Wed, 29 Jul 2026 11:15:04 GMT

Sorry, forget DECT handsets and their base stations. The first part of my question was about whether an analogue phone attached to the hub port should appear in the list of registered handsets.

After my preceding post I remembered that last Thursday I kept an image of the Hub phone status!

As you can see, the analogue phones connected to the hub port were indeed registered as Handset 1.

So my question now is why that is no longer true and how do I fix it?

Re: Smart Hub 2 handset registration

licquorice — Wed, 29 Jul 2026 11:23:04 GMT

Devices connected to the green socket are NOT 'registered' to the hub, registration is purely a DECT process.

All I can suggest is that you somehow registered one of your DECT handsets to the hub rather than it's base station previously. The second device is the adapter.

Re: Smart Hub 2 handset registration

misar — Wed, 29 Jul 2026 11:36:08 GMT

Whatever happened last week it had no relation to DECT registration.

All I did last week was unplug the FW500 and the DECT base station from the old analogue phone line extension socket and plug them into the hub instead.

Yesterday the Openreach engineer disconnected everything from the hub while he was working then plugged them back into the hub exactly as I left them last week.

Re: Smart Hub 2 handset registration

licquorice — Wed, 29 Jul 2026 11:43:23 GMT

I have no idea how the device was shown as registered previously, but as I keep stating, registration is purely a DECT function and does not apply to the ATA (green socket).

It would be interesting to see if anyone else sees a device plugged into the green socket as 'registered'.

Certainly I have never seen any devices I have as registered.

Re: Smart Hub 2 handset registration

WSH — Wed, 29 Jul 2026 11:59:31 GMT

I had a Panasonic cordless base station plugged into the green socket for nearly three years and did not see it ever appear as registered.

Re: Smart Hub 2 handset registration

misar — Wed, 29 Jul 2026 12:01:29 GMT

OK, thanks. Last Thursday was very odd anyway.

As I have said, after an early morning message from BT I found that Digital Voice via the hub was working with all my devices for outgoing calls only whilst still connected with ADSL broadband. Meanwhile the original POTS connection was still working with another handset for both incoming and outgoing calls. Later everything stopped after an evening BT message saying my switchover was complete.

Presumably its fairly rare for anyone to use Digital Voice over an ADSL line?

Re: Smart Hub 2 handset registration

WSH — Wed, 29 Jul 2026 12:07:19 GMT

The only thing I can think of is that you've accidentally registered the old DECT handset somehow.

Re: Smart Hub 2 handset registration

licquorice — Wed, 29 Jul 2026 12:10:09 GMT

As I said in message 6 😀

Re: Smart Hub 2 handset registration

misar — Wed, 29 Jul 2026 12:11:03 GMT

If I accidentally registered the old DECT handset it was without human intervention. As I said, I simply unplugged the base station from the old phone socket and plugged it into the hub.

Re: Smart Hub 2 handset registration

licquorice — Wed, 29 Jul 2026 12:18:35 GMT

As long as all the devices are working, I can't see any advantage in the hub showing the devices as registered in any case.

Re: Smart Hub 2 handset registration

WSH — Wed, 29 Jul 2026 12:51:09 GMT

A random shot in the dark: You say you had Openreach in to work on it. Not the engineer registering a handset of his own, to test it and then forgetting to delete it again, is it?

Re: Smart Hub 2 handset registration

misar — Wed, 29 Jul 2026 13:05:20 GMT

Sorry, you missed!

The image shows it was from my usage on 23 July, the Openreach engineer only appeared yesterday.

Re: Smart Hub 2 handset registration

misar — Wed, 29 Jul 2026 13:06:38 GMT

I was confused by the unexplained handset anomaly last week but in fairness BT's "public" Digital Voice guidance needs improvement.

It is totally unclear from BT's Digital Voice guides etc or the Hub Manager phone status screen that "handset registration" is not simply a requirement for using Digital Voice. Those sources give no indication that the BT Smart Hubs are actually DECT base stations, that registering a DV adapter is like registering a DECT handset to its a base nor, in particular, that registering handsets is solely about linking an ordinary DECT handset directly to the hub.

I was aware of the DECT involvement only from reading these forums. The vast majority of users will see from the instructions simply that a DV adapter has to be "registered". They probably have no idea that their hub is a DECT base station to which they could connect an ordinary DECT handset.

Re: Smart Hub 2 handset registration

WSH — Wed, 29 Jul 2026 13:13:44 GMT

You do have a point there, but I think it's a compromise between keeping it simple and covering it in all the detail.

Re: Smart Hub 2 handset registration

misar — Wed, 29 Jul 2026 13:21:56 GMT

Or a cynic might suggest that its a commercial decision: Don't tell users they could probably connect their old DECT handsets directly to the hub, better to have them buy Digital Voice handsets from us.

Sorry, my recent switchover experience has boosted my BT cynicism.😎

Re: Smart Hub 2 handset registration

iniltous — Wed, 29 Jul 2026 13:30:19 GMT

I’d argue the vast majority of customers don’t need anything but their existing phone (corded or cordless ) and connecting that (the existing DECT basestation or the corded phone ) needs no registration to the hub …IMHO , its only the prospect of something for nothing , originally the DV handsets and now the DV adapter that need registration with the hub basestation , and it’s only the fact it’s a freebie that causes customers to ask for these devices in the first place , …..providing these things is nothing more than a rod made for BT’s own back , customers complaining if they don’t meet expectations, no credit if they do …customers of Sky , Vodafone etc are supplied with nothing like this , and are thought no worse for it .

As far as a corded handset appearing as a registered handset , that doesn’t happen , but more importantly does it really matter ?

A possible explanation, perhaps the router was a refurbished one not brand new , and had a DECT handset registered by a previous user , and the refurbishment process didn’t delete that before it was then supplied to a different customer.