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Switched to Digital Voice now Visonic Alarm erroring saying line error

Sharron_louise — Sat, 16 Sep 2023 12:08:44 GMT

This week I was switched to Digital Voice. I have my landline plugged into an adaptor, this is working fine. However, my house alarm is now erroring saying line failure. And bleeps at me every minute.
we have had to resort to turning the house alarm off at the power so the house is now compromised whilst we are away as we can not set the alarm.
The alarm line is hard wired into the master socket which we believe we are not allowed to touch so do not have the option of trying to plug into an adapter. I have spoke to BT who sent a tech expert to assess the situation. He attended today and said there was nothing he could do.
Due to the alarm being hard wired I believe this is a BT/OpenReach problem and I shouldn’t have to be paying to get an alarm company to come and resolve the situation. I don’t even know if the alarm would be compatible with Digital Voice
Please tell me what direction I should be going in.

Re: Switched to Digital Voice now Visonic Alarm erroring saying line error

jac_95 — Sat, 16 Sep 2023 12:12:06 GMT

Hi Sharron_louise,

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: Switched to Digital Voice now Visonic Alarm erroring saying line error

imjolly — Sat, 16 Sep 2023 12:42:02 GMT

@Sharron_louise

you should contact your alarm company as they have known about the openreach change to VOIP and that BT is changing customers to digital voice. They should have a solution

Re: Switched to Digital Voice now Visonic Alarm erroring saying line error

licquorice — Sat, 16 Sep 2023 12:52:56 GMT

It is entirely an alarm company problem, they have known about the analogue switch off for years.

Re: Switched to Digital Voice now Visonic Alarm erroring saying line error

Sharron_louise — Sat, 16 Sep 2023 13:02:48 GMT

And what about any call-out or engineer costs. Why should I be liable for this when I had a perfectly good working alarm until the switch over.?

Re: Switched to Digital Voice now Visonic Alarm erroring saying line error

imjolly — Sat, 16 Sep 2023 13:08:04 GMT

@Sharron_louise

until you contact your alarm company you have no idea if they already have a simple fix bearing in mind your alarm company have been aware of change for a few years (as already been said)

Re: Switched to Digital Voice now Visonic Alarm erroring saying line error

ogelman — Fri, 20 Oct 2023 18:22:00 GMT

We have the same problem. To fix the line error you need to turn off line fail reporting - pstn - in the consule in installer mode. Your alarm will then work but you won't be able to dial into it remotely to turn it on/off if you're not at home. The alarm won't call you either if it goes off as your old BT line no longer works. Your old BT line has been replaced with phone over broadband so the master socket is no longer working and it will be safe to cut the wires and remove the socket. BT supplied us with a wireless phone adapter for the alarm console to plug into (which is designed for analogue phones to make calls using the router) to allow the alarm to make and receive calls using the router wirelessly. They did this free of charge. Alarm engineer came to re-wire the console but it wouldn't work as the BT adapter doesn't throw out enough voltage. It needs to be 45-50v for an analogue alarm but is only throwing out 30v. Apparently all analogue alarms need around 50v to dial in/out. BT must have had lots of complaints about this. A solution may be a GSM dial out adapter with a SIM but this will be £185 + the SIM but there will need to be a good signal by your console. If only the BT adapter chucked out 50v. Am not sure if running a cable from console into phone socket on back of router will work as that may not throw out 50v.

Re: Switched to Digital Voice now Visonic Alarm erroring saying line error

licquorice — Fri, 20 Oct 2023 18:38:45 GMT

What a load of misleading nonsense.

Anybody reading, please don't cut any wires, the switch to Digital Voice doesn't necessarily mean a switch to full fibre.

Re: Switched to Digital Voice now Visonic Alarm erroring saying line error

ogelman — Fri, 20 Oct 2023 18:48:50 GMT

Well that’s exactly what my alarm engineer did! You obviously need the brains to cut the correct wire

Re: Switched to Digital Voice now Visonic Alarm erroring saying line error

licquorice — Fri, 20 Oct 2023 18:53:33 GMT

Telling customers to cut wires when they don't know what they are doing is a bad idea.

You have presumably been moved to full fibre, not everyone on DV has. The 2 things are not related.

Re: Switched to Digital Voice now Visonic Alarm erroring saying line error

caravanj — Sun, 22 Oct 2023 15:02:40 GMT

@Sharron_louise

This would seem to be a solution to your problem as I understand it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Id_KGXMcJHk

Re: Switched to Digital Voice now Visonic Alarm erroring saying line error

bharatpatel200 — Thu, 18 Jan 2024 16:51:38 GMT

I am in the same boat and I had the same experience with the BT engineer, who had no clue how to go about it.
Why should I pay to sort this.

Re: Switched to Digital Voice now Visonic Alarm erroring saying line error

imjolly — Thu, 18 Jan 2024 17:18:53 GMT

As I posted previously your alarm company has been aware of the switch to VOIP and end of PSTN so have you contacted your alarm company for a solution