This topic

Advanced digital phone is locked to BT only ?

i3ant — Wed, 21 Jun 2023 10:19:36 GMT

Having moved from BT to vodafone, to save some money for a while. I find I cannot connect the Advanced digital voice phone to the vodafone hub at all. Then I read the phones will only connect to a BT hub.

Is that true and if so, when are BT going to software update them so that I can have a working landline again ? I cannot afford to buy another phone right now.

(my phone is the one on the right)

Re: Advanced digital phone is locked to BT only ?

licquorice — Wed, 21 Jun 2023 10:34:02 GMT

The BT Digital Voice system is proprietary to BT, hence the handsets will only work with BT.

Ask Vodafone why they aren't supplying free handsets like BT do.

Why should BT do anything to make their handsets work with other providers?

Re: Advanced digital phone is locked to BT only ?

Colin_London — Wed, 21 Jun 2023 11:14:30 GMT

I have just been force switched to Digital Voice. Free handsets are *no longer offered*. The only thing you can get for free is one digital voice adapter if a phone is not located near the Home Hub 2.

The website now says you can however get a ‘discounted’ DV phone - I am presuming this is why the pricing on the BT shop is low.

This does raise the question about re-use and electronic waste. Are BT making clear to purchasers that they are buying a product that will become useless if they stop the service, and it will go to landfill?

It seems strange that BT are taking this approach to sell phones when they have switched to a service based approach for routers and TV boxes which you have to return when the service finishes.

Re: Advanced digital phone is locked to BT only ?

Dode — Wed, 21 Jun 2023 11:22:00 GMT

@i3ant Have BT not asked for this phone back?

Re: Advanced digital phone is locked to BT only ?

VeteranISPUser — Wed, 21 Jun 2023 12:31:07 GMT

@Colin_Londonwrote:
It seems strange that BT are taking this approach to sell phones when they have switched to a service based approach for routers and TV boxes which you have to return when the service finishes.

Hi @Colin_London Have you not seen those wonderful demonstrations of how germs and viruses are spread especially while speaking. Telephones must be classified as a real bio-hazard. I don't know about you, but I don't speak into my router or TV boxes daily from a few inches away.

Re: Advanced digital phone is locked to BT only ?

Colin_London — Wed, 21 Jun 2023 12:52:57 GMT

You mean you don’t clean your phone after every call and hold it with a cloth whilst in use?! Shocking!

Re: Advanced digital phone is locked to BT only ?

Les-Gibson — Wed, 21 Jun 2023 13:14:39 GMT

@Colin_London

BT's well publicised policy is that ALL equipment is supplied on loan only and should be returned if the service is ceased, they even operate a 'fines' system for those who fail to return any requested equipment.

Wherever possible, all returned equipment is then refurbished and reissued in an attempt to prevent it from going to landfill so that argument doesn't apply.

See How to return and recycle your BT equipment for free | BT Help

Re: Advanced digital phone is locked to BT only ?

Colin_London — Wed, 21 Jun 2023 16:52:23 GMT

@Les-Gibson I was pointing out above that the only way to get a DV phone now (I.e. in June 2023, notwithstanding the case that they may have been free in the past) is to *buy* it from the BT shop (at a discount) rather than getting it for free.

As you are buying it yourself, from an online shop, it is your equipment, not BTs, so there is no contractual compulsion to return it when you no longer need it. Hence although BT may offer a recycling scheme there is a chance much equipment goes to landfill when the service is ceased as people find it easier to chuck in the bin than go to the post office with it if there is no contractual penalty. Human nature unfortunately 😔

Re: Advanced digital phone is locked to BT only ?

imjolly — Wed, 21 Jun 2023 16:55:28 GMT

@Colin_London

I agree with you if you purchase the DV phone from BT shop then there is no need to return phone when you leave BT however if it was supplied free when you changed to DV then it should be returned together with the SH2

Re: Advanced digital phone is locked to BT only ?

Colin_London — Wed, 21 Jun 2023 17:02:59 GMT

I’m sure that free equipment has to be returned. Just advising that in the migration I have just gone through (as part of the re-start) free phones are no longer provided. Converters, yes. Phones, No.

Probably because they are about to start migrating whole regions at a time and that would mean giving away millions of free phones! They want people to use their old equipment unless they are prepared to buy equipment.

Re: Advanced digital phone is locked to BT only ?

i3ant — Thu, 22 Jun 2023 09:35:56 GMT

3 problems.

The phone is given free. You see that ? FREE. Not stated as loaned or unstated, like the router.
I have sat here for 2 years, possibly dribbling on it. Sweating on it. Little bits of spittle when I talk maybe.
I was told not to return it. Kind of moot given the phone was given FREE. Literally labelled "free".

Do you want that second hand phone ?

Let's focus on the original question and keep our dummies firmly in our grasp.

Re: Advanced digital phone is locked to BT only ?

iniltous — Thu, 22 Jun 2023 10:14:43 GMT

To stick to your original point , the free BT DV phone ( Digital Voice isn’t a generic term for IP telephony but the name of BT’s proprietary IP telephony offer ) supplied , is so the BT consumer can use the DV service, chances are they could have done that anyway, as the consumers existing regular phones would almost certainly have worked anyway .
Once someone moves away from BT and DV , why would they expect the BT DV equipment to work with a competitor’s equipment , if ( for example ) someone had Sky TV and leaves for Virgin, they don’t expect the Sky set top box to work with Virgin do they ?
If the consumer has to make a separate purchase so they can use a service they are paying for , that presumably should influence their choice of provider in the first place , after all it makes no sense ( for example ) to change provider to save £2 a month on a 24 month deal only to have to spend £50 extra on new equipment, so they they can use the new providers services.
Even if the DV phone was supplied without ‘strings’ , so it was genuinely free , there is no obligation for the supplier of it , to make it compatible with anything other that the product it was supplied with , in fact it would be commercially nonsensical to make it so .

if you are with VF and they don’t supply something necessary to access their version of IP telephony ( hopefully they don’t call it DV as that’s just confusing ) then obviously you are at liberty to use other equipment you already have that is compatible or purchase something new , but its unclear why you would have an issue with BT about your VF service and your presumably inability to use it without spending some more money on new compatible equipment

Re: Advanced digital phone is locked to BT only ?

Les-Gibson — Thu, 22 Jun 2023 10:01:32 GMT

@i3ant

Fair do's the conversation has drifted away from the original question.

Your question was correctly answered in message 2, Digital Voice is indeed a proprietary system for BT and the phones were developed on behalf of BT for use on that propriety system.

Bearing that in mind, I wouldn't advise that you hold your breath whilst waiting for BT to enable your Vodafone telephony because it's simply not going to happen.

You can still request a returns kit from BT though if you prefer to recycle rather than bin, just dial 0800 800 150

Re: Advanced digital phone is locked to BT only ?

i3ant — Thu, 22 Jun 2023 11:25:06 GMT

I dont know who marked post 2 as a solution, i unmarked it though. The whole "it's my ball and your not playing with it" needs to be put where it belongs. In the selfish kids playground.
because :
Sure, I get the idea of throwing money away, because they have limited it to only work on a bt connection. You understand I know that is the case.

I moved to save money. I don't care for profitable limitations that are to cost me. I have a mobile phone but it would have been nice to use the "only works where there isn't a power cut" faked phoneline.

Next year the real phonelines die. Permanently.

My entire communication package now costs me £12 for broadband and £2 for mobile phone sim, per month. I would have happily stayed with BT after this mostly problematic 2 years but they won't align to current prices so something had to change.

While people want to scream "Why should BT does this that etc" - here's why :

because we worked our fingers to bone to pay our bills to BUILD BT.

Thank you to those who see what the real issue is.

Re: Advanced digital phone is locked to BT only ?

licquorice — Thu, 22 Jun 2023 13:35:32 GMT

Yawn, whatever.

Re: Advanced digital phone is locked to BT only ?

RobbieMac — Thu, 22 Jun 2023 13:40:30 GMT

Hi @i3ant

Thanks for posting back.

Your thread has been marked as solved as post 2 of the thread answers your question.

Your question: When are BT going to software update them (advanced digital phones) so that I can have a working landline again?

The answer posted in message 2: The BT Digital Voice system is proprietary to BT, hence the handsets will only work with BT.

I know this may not be the answer you were looking for however it is the answer to the question asked. I have went ahead and marked message 2 as the accepted solution for the benefit of anyone else who comes along to find the answer to that particular question.

Thanks,

Robbie

Re: Advanced digital phone is locked to BT only ?

Anonymous — Thu, 22 Jun 2023 23:18:41 GMT

Just my tuppence worth but my understanding is that the BT handset isn’t proprietary to DV, it’s a generic DECT handset. Therefore it should work with any DECT base station, albeit likely only to make/receive calls.

Your specific issue is that Vodafone haven’t built DECT into their routers, so you can only use a wired handset or DECT base station. Therefore your question/expectation really isn’t valid as the two systems utilise different connectivity. To add another analogy, if you bought a new gas cooker & then moved to an area with no gas supply, it would be unrealistic to expect the manufacturer to make it work on electricity.

As for cost, you can pick up a DECT phone for very little these days, even less used.

Re: Advanced digital phone is locked to BT only ?

licquorice — Fri, 23 Jun 2023 07:12:17 GMT

Yes, that could be the case, although there does seem a problem that generic DECT repeaters don't appear to work to the hub suggesting that even the DECT portion is somehow proprietary despite generic handsets being able to register to the hub.