This topic

A Cautionary FTTP Tale..

dansus — Sat, 04 Mar 2023 22:05:43 GMT

We have had digital voice for a while now, so when our area was FTTP enabled, i jumped at the chance.

Come install/activation day, Openreach engineer manages mount the ONT after drilling the wrong holes initially, and splice the in/out EZ cable with minimal light loss. When he leaves, its green across the board and digital voice is working great.

Next morning, PON is red and no phones. Call up BT Fibre team, who say Openreach will fix it in a few days, but no one turns up. Next a BT engineer pays a visit, nothing he can do, its down to Openreach to fix. He does switch the Smarthub back to FTTC, and i get VDSL back, but still no digital voice.

Early Life call me, saying voice is provisioned over FTTP, that's why it doesn't work, but Openreach (OR) will fix it by the 28th Feb at the lastest. 28th rolls round, no contact by OR and the light is still red.

Call up BT who say in order to get the phones working again quickly, i need to cancel my FTTP order and make a new order for broadband/digital voice, which will take 24hrs. Fine, whatever it takes to get the phones working again, as my mother needs it to stay in touch with family/friends/healthcare ect.

24 hrs later, not only do i not have working phones, our number that we have had for 37 years is now gone! When someone tried to make a new order with our original number, the system rejected it, and auto cancelled the line.

After having a minor breakdown, was advised to order a new line, and re-number it back to the old number. Order went live within an hour. Of course, the phones still dont work, even with a new line and number, i'm told there is a fault on the line. Now we wait again for OR who im told will fix the line by the 7th March, not heard a peep from them yet, so i have zero confidence anything being fixed by the 7th.

Now it's just a waiting game for the 8th, and i will be emailing the CEO.

Moral of the story, save yourself the tears and heartache, and be very wary of jumping on FTTP in the short term. I would leave it for a while for OR and BT staff to be trained better and to have more experience solving issues. (most agents and techies had no clue on what to do, or even know the difference between analogue and digital voice. Got put on hold and cut off at least 3 times)

Re: A Cautionary FTTP Tale..

jac_95 — Sat, 04 Mar 2023 22:07:06 GMT

Hi dansus,

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.

To learn more about the nationwide change to this Internet based voice service visit landlinesgo.digital

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-Number

dansus — Mon, 06 Mar 2023 10:37:58 GMT

Hello, could someone help me re-number our line back to our old number please.

Its within 30 days, last week an agent managed to lose our number, we have a new line now and need to change back to the number we have had for 37 years before it disappears for good!

Thanks.

Re: Re-Number

imjolly — Mon, 06 Mar 2023 10:40:14 GMT

were you moving to BT from another ISP or just getting moved to digital voice?

Re: Re-Number

dansus — Mon, 06 Mar 2023 10:50:02 GMT

No, been with BT for 37 years..

I think it was supposed to be a regrade, but an agent cancelled our line and ordered a new one with our old number, which the system rejected and we lost our number.

We have a new line now, just need our old BT number back please.

Re: Re-Number

DavidM — Mon, 06 Mar 2023 10:52:35 GMT

Hi @dansus and thanks for posting.

I'm sorry you lost your number during the order process. I can check if we can get that back for you. I've dropped you a private message so please reply with the details and we'll take it from there.

Cheers

David

Re: Re-Number

dansus — Tue, 07 Mar 2023 09:07:57 GMT

Hello, i replied yesterday to your pm with the info requested.

What is the normal time frame one would expect a response?

Thanks.

Re: Re-Number

Keith_Beddoe — Tue, 07 Mar 2023 09:27:00 GMT

@dansus

You would normally get a response within a week, as each request is dealt with in strict order.

Re: Re-Number

dansus — Tue, 07 Mar 2023 11:25:25 GMT

Ok, i couldn't risk waiting too long.

I have spoken to someone in the team, and they have processed the re-number for me, and i just got a confirmation email.

Many thanks to @Keith_Beddoe and the moderator for reaching out.

Re: Re-Number

Keith_Beddoe — Tue, 07 Mar 2023 12:09:01 GMT

@dansus

Please update this thread to confirm when the renumber has actually taken place, as you may still need help from a moderator.

Re: Re-Number

dansus — Thu, 09 Mar 2023 12:21:30 GMT

Update for anyone reading this thread in future.

Someone from the Home Tech team called today to say he had fixed the line. The issue was a config file in the smarthub that had conflicting sets of contact information. The engineer remotely deleted the file and injected a new config, and just like that, the phones are working again.

Why this wasn't checked on day one when i told them the phones were not configured in the hub, is beyond me, but at least it's fixed now and we have our old number back.

😴

Re: Re-Number

dansus — Tue, 14 Mar 2023 11:44:45 GMT

The engineer mentioned that a DV adaptor was causing a conflict, so i asked the Digital Voice team what the issue was. They had no idea of course, but would send me a replacement. They sent me an ADSL filter..

Is that it then, BT have just given up caring? Alt-net cant get here fast enough.

Re: Re-Number

Keith_Beddoe — Tue, 14 Mar 2023 12:07:28 GMT

@dansus

The microfilter is useful on the DV adapter, if you have an old wired phone which needs a third wire to allow it to ring.

Re: Re-Number

dansus — Tue, 14 Mar 2023 12:14:34 GMT

Maybe, but it isn't a Digital Voice adaptor that is needed to replace the faulty one..

Re: Re-Number

Keith_Beddoe — Tue, 14 Mar 2023 12:20:13 GMT

I cannot see how the DV adapter, which is only a DECT receiver, could cause number issues.

It would have been the config file, which holds the phone number and security details, that would have been the issue.

The DV adapter, if you still need it, should work normally.

Re: Re-Number

dansus — Tue, 14 Mar 2023 13:05:34 GMT

Didn't make much sense to me either, but just adds to BT's general inability to present a coherent service.