This topic

Does Digital Voice limit my choices when switching ISP's?

grahamm1 — Tue, 04 Oct 2022 13:39:09 GMT

I have just read that some ISP's do not offer VOIP which limits options when switching providers once you have BT's Digital Voice.

Does having Digital Voice limit my choices when switching ISP's?

Re: Does Digital Voice limit my choices when switching ISP's?

jac_95 — Tue, 04 Oct 2022 13:42:17 GMT

Hi grahamm1,

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.

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: Does Digital Voice limit my choices when switching ISP's?

licquorice — Tue, 04 Oct 2022 13:49:12 GMT

Digital Voice is a VoIP system that is proprietary to BT. You cannot transfer DV to another provider.

If the chosen provider doesn't have its own VoIP system, you simply use a third party system (which you can do instead of using BT's DV now if you so wish)

If you have broadband, you have VoIP capability with any third party provider, its simply just another internet facility like email etc.

Re: Does Digital Voice limit my choices when switching ISP's?

grahamm1 — Tue, 04 Oct 2022 14:48:54 GMT

Just to clarify; I was not talking about transferring Digital Voice to another ISP.

I read (on a different forum) that once you are using BT's Digital Voice your options for moving to another ISP are limited as some ISP's do not offer VOIP. Having researched this I now realise the person posting this information is either mistaken or was trolling as most of the big ISP's either offer VOIP right now or intend to in the near future.

Re: Does Digital Voice limit my choices when switching ISP's?

licquorice — Tue, 04 Oct 2022 15:04:36 GMT

It doesn't matter if the ISP offers a VoIP service or not, third party VoIP can be used with any ISP.

As I put in my edited post, VoIP is just another service that can be purchased from any source. It is no different to using Gmail rather than an ISP's email service.

Re: Does Digital Voice limit my choices when switching ISP's?

Tim123 — Wed, 05 Oct 2022 18:08:38 GMT

Any ISP that currently offers a home phone service will have to come up with a digital solution if they want to continue offering it beyond December 2025 (or sooner if an Openreach exchange or the PSTN equipment within it closes before that date). That's my understanding, anyway. If they all do, then BT will have competition, but I predict that only the big four - BT, TalkTalk, Plusnet and Sky - will bother. Incidentally, since Post Office pulled out of the home phone market last year, BT is the only provider that continues to offer home phone as a standalone offering (i.e. without internet). Shell Energy, who bought Post Office phone and broadband, don't advertise phone-only on their website, so I assume that's only available for the legacy Post Office Home Phone customers they took on.

Will there still be any local/regional exchange buildings after 2025 or will everything be piped directly from London?

Re: Does Digital Voice limit my choices when switching ISP's?

-Richie- — Wed, 05 Oct 2022 19:04:08 GMT

@Tim123wrote:
Will there still be any local/regional exchange buildings after 2025 or will everything be piped directly from London?

From my understanding, the number of exchanges needed will be reduced once FTTP becomes standard.

Re: Does Digital Voice limit my choices when switching ISP's?

Tim123 — Wed, 05 Oct 2022 22:27:16 GMT

@-Richie- I see. I wonder if they'll re-equip the larger existing buildings or build new ones. The one near me is fairly large but looks old and dilapidated!

To get back to the original poster's question: your choice will only be limited in so far as you'd need to change routers when you change phone provider (the same as you do when switching broadband provider), whereas currently your phones, which plug directly into the wall sockets, will work with any provider. I imagine the two Digital Voice phones will only work with BT and doubtless other providers will come up with their own models in due course.

Re: Does Digital Voice limit my choices when switching ISP's?

jac_95 — Wed, 05 Oct 2022 22:55:44 GMT

With the shift to full fibre. Your local exchange may not be where your fibre terminates before entering your communication providers own network. Where the fibre terminates at the OLT these exchanges are called headend exchanges and there are a select few of these.

More information on the exchange exit programme can be found at: https://www.openreach.co.uk/cpportal/products/the-all-ip-programme/exchange-exit-programme

Re: Does Digital Voice limit my choices when switching ISP's?

spile — Thu, 06 Oct 2022 06:23:35 GMT

I don’t like proprietary solutions like Digital Voice. The only reason I bought in to it when I moved to FTTP was because of cheaper outgoing call charges from my other voip provider which is used to provide an incoming second number.

Re: Does Digital Voice limit my choices when switching ISP's?

iniltous — Thu, 06 Oct 2022 08:29:56 GMT

What doesn’t seem to be appreciated, is that the nature of the relationship between broadband and calls has reversed, originally a ‘line’ was primarily for ‘calls’ , broadband being a service ‘on top’ of that , now broadband is the reason for the line and calls are the optional service ‘on top’ of the primary function of the line, basically falling call volumes etc mean hardly anyone uses the phone line for calls anymore, added to the old fashioned 20th century technology behind PSTN , and the fact it’s increasing problematic reliability/ maintenance etc ( they don’t manufacture it anymore ) a 21st Century solution was needed.

No consumer one needs to use BT , if BT want to make the telephony offer via a proprietary system , DV , than that’s entirely up to BT ,all options are covered, don’t want telephony you don’t need to take it , don’t want DV , don’t take BT telephony, want telephony but not with BT , but want BT broadband, that can be done use a third party VoIP provider, the only option not on the table is to stay on PSTN.

Personally I cannot understand what the fuss is about , some may have concerns about not having ‘telephony’ during a power outage , but the legacy PSTN network having this ‘facility’ was never a design imperative, it was an unintended consequence of the technology at the time , yet some people seem to think the primary function of telephony ( it’s ‘raison d'être’) is to be available when there is no power at the customer end , but it never was the case , it’s and certainly isn’t now.

There are options that couldn’t have been dreamed of when telephony was introduced ( over a hundred years ago ) , like mobiles and UPS ( uninterruptible power supply ) that can keep people contactable during power outages, so retiring the PSTN shouldn’t be a ‘worry’ to 99.9% of consumers.

Anyway the original post was about DV potentially reducing choice , it doesn’t , you can port a DV number to another provider , same as existing PSTN numbers, it down to the ‘new’ provider if they want to import , BT don’t block exports of PSTN or DV numbers , if a potential new provider refuses to import due to DV , that’s their choice, it’s only really reducing choice in the same way company’s going bust reduce choice, but you cannot blame company’s that don’t go bust for reducing choice, companies pick and chose what they want to do , and stand or fall on those decisions

Re: Does Digital Voice limit my choices when switching ISP's?

sonjetty — Sat, 26 Aug 2023 23:24:36 GMT

Thanks for this detailed answer.

As a current DV customer what you say makes total sense around the options in switching to other ISPs with their own or independent VoIP telephony offerings .

The limitation I am wondering about is the fact that the BT Smarthub 2 I have, has a dedicated telephone line for Digital Voice - in which I plug the BT DECT handset base which gives me 4x phones around the home.

Conversely, the other new Fibre ISP provided router I am switching to does not (it just has 4 standard Ethernet ports).

So as well as signing up to an independent VoIP e.g. numberpeople.co.uk, would I also need to purchase any new hardware / adaptors, to allow me to connect the DECT handset to the new router I have - e.g. into an Ethernet port instead of the standard BT wall telephone connection?

Also now wondering if the BT DECT handsets I have would be compatible with another VoIP provider but I presume they would be, if I can find a way of connecting the base to the router?

Thanks for your support

Re: Does Digital Voice limit my choices when switching ISP's?

spile — Sun, 27 Aug 2023 06:43:44 GMT

Something like a Cisco ATA191 VoIP or a Grandstream HT-801 Telephone Adapter would allow you to keep your pstn phones.

Re: Does Digital Voice limit my choices when switching ISP's?

sonjetty — Sun, 27 Aug 2023 11:42:13 GMT

Thanks but doesn’t the fact that it’s a DECT device mean it’s not analogue. Therefore not needing an ATA? Or is DECT more about the communications between the handset and the base.

Re: Does Digital Voice limit my choices when switching ISP's?

licquorice — Sun, 27 Aug 2023 12:08:06 GMT

DECT is purely between handset and hub and is just the way that BT have decided to implement Digital Voice

Re: Does Digital Voice limit my choices when switching ISP's?

google1901 — Tue, 14 Nov 2023 03:27:16 GMT

Hi, BT reminded me I'm about to move to DV. However, we have Netgear router; the BT router I was originally sent is SmartHub 6, it has no phone socket. So I should request SH2, but could I as an alternative use Groundstream HT801 with existing router (or Smarthub6) & existing phone (base station + several handsets) once I'm moved onto DV?

Re: Does Digital Voice limit my choices when switching ISP's?

caravanj — Tue, 14 Nov 2023 03:54:15 GMT

@google1901

I would expect BT to send you an SH2 otherwise you couldn't use their Digital Voice facility but you can check with BT to see if this will be the case.

We've recently had full fibre with digital voice & we just connected our existing phone extension network to the SH2 phone socket & everything works, DECT & analogue phones, just as it did with the old copper lines.

You just connect whatever telephony you have to the SH2.

It's that simple.

Re: Does Digital Voice limit my choices when switching ISP's?

Anonymous — Tue, 14 Nov 2023 07:48:05 GMT

@google1901wrote:
could I as an alternative use Groundstream HT801

No, the SH2 is the only option for DV.

You could in theory port your number to a third party VOIP provider & then use the ATA of your choice. But whether by accident or design, BT have made that nigh impossible.