This topic

Digital Voice performance from Smart Hub

Noisy_Line — Wed, 27 Sep 2023 19:03:15 GMT

Hello,

My first post here so please be kind 😉 I migrated to Digital Voice this morning and all went really smoothly. Before switching I decided to get a dedicated DV DECT phone and the call quality is far better than the DECT phone that used to be my main phone. I was also hoping to use a couple of existing corded phones using the output of the Smart Hub. However when I plug a corded phone in isolation into the output of the hub the quality is awful.

I’m not entirely green as in a previous life I spent a lot of time up poles and down holes working for BT and the output of the hub sounds very much like an earth contact fault! If I remove the same phone from the hub and plug it back in the redundant socket on the NTE, although now just a stopped line I can dial a quiet line test and it is perfect. When I dial a quiet line test on the same phone via the analogue output of the smart hub there is just an annoying hum. I’ve not tried to make a call but doubt I could tolerate it for too long.

I tried to call BT this evening and spoke to a gentleman from Dundee who firstly said it can take 48 hours to complete and then said you won’t get good quality from the green socket and you need to be use the proprietary DV handsets.

I can’t help but feel this is a cop out. I’ve used VOIP services with dedicated ATAs and the quality was comparable to landline. I have an adapter on its way apparently so I’ll see if the output of that is any better than the hub directly.

I thought I would enquire and see if anyone has had any similar experiences, any help would be appreciated.

Andrew.

Re: Digital Voice performance from Smart Hub

jac_95 — Wed, 27 Sep 2023 19:07:06 GMT

Hi Noisy_Line,

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: Digital Voice performance from Smart Hub

imjolly — Wed, 27 Sep 2023 19:10:11 GMT

If you connect your existing DECT base station to the phone socket on back of hub is the call quality just same as it was connected to master socket?

Re: Digital Voice performance from Smart Hub

VeteranISPUser — Wed, 27 Sep 2023 19:14:13 GMT

Hi @Noisy_Line Just as a comparison, I am trialling a Gigaset Go 100 with E390HX handsets, with a view to moving to a VOIP service. The Gigaset base station is plugged into the SH2. The quality is outstanding and certainly on a par with my BT HD with Alexa phones. I have four, bought cheap off flea bay.

Re: Digital Voice performance from Smart Hub

StuartHK — Wed, 27 Sep 2023 19:18:14 GMT

Just for reference…

I’ve had a Panasonic cordless base station plugged into the green socket for a week now and the phone quality is the same as it’s always been. No better, no worse.

Re: Digital Voice performance from Smart Hub

SRB — Thu, 28 Sep 2023 11:56:47 GMT

Interesting - I had a very similar issue many years ago with the old BT Home Hub 2 - when I removed the connection from pin 3 (old extension ringer connection) on the socket the hub's phone outlet was plugged into it, it vanished. It was a very loud hum across all extensions.

Re: Digital Voice performance from Smart Hub

StuartHK — Thu, 28 Sep 2023 16:40:38 GMT

Ah... I removed pins 3 & 4 from the bt plug years ago.

Re: Digital Voice performance from Smart Hub

Jane2018 — Fri, 29 Sep 2023 10:56:55 GMT

This is a bit worrying for me for the changeover later this year as I just want t plug my corded phones into back of the new hub BT will send me and hoped the quality would be as crystal clear as my current corded landline/speaker phone (which is much better sound quality than a mobile even in this house). I don't know what a dect is and don't want one - I just want to be able to use my corded landline with the same quality as I have now one I plug it into the back of the new BT hub which will be coming.

I just looked up what a BT proprietary DV handset looks like and that kind of ting would not work for me. I need the traditional corded landline that will fit under my chin when typing with the phone up against my ear etc.

Re: Digital Voice performance from Smart Hub

licquorice — Fri, 29 Sep 2023 11:00:31 GMT

The sound quality on a corded phone plugged into the hub is just fine.

Please stop worrying unnecessarily over this.

I'm sure you coped with the switchover to digital television and you will cope with Digital Voice.

Re: Digital Voice performance from Smart Hub

SRB — Fri, 29 Sep 2023 11:00:41 GMT

Honestly, I wouldn't be worrying, chances are it will all be fine, there are loads of people on here who are happy to help with any issues you do encounter.

Re: Digital Voice performance from Smart Hub

iniltous — Fri, 29 Sep 2023 11:10:45 GMT

The OP ‘s experience isn’t common, if there is nothing wrong with your corded phone and meets the current standards then it will work when connected to the SH2 phone socket .. this future migration to DV seems to be causing you a completely disproportionate amount of stress , you appear to post on each and every DV related post on this forum , but to what end , you have been repeatedly reassured, yet it seems to make no difference, which begs the question, what exactly do you want from this forum ? , you will apparently continue to fret over something that is inevitable, and TBH , it’s probably only at that point of migration and you are on DV , that you will come to the conclusion that all your concern was massively overblown.

Re: Digital Voice performance from Smart Hub

Jane2018 — Fri, 29 Sep 2023 11:07:48 GMT

Many thanks for the reassurance. Like a lot of people these days I do often work from home so need to make calls even international ones for work - the calls in a sense pay for my phone bills and much else so having working telecoms particularly in an area of London with not great mobiles is quite important to me and for daily calls to family. On TV switchovers I have not really watched TV on a TV set for 20 years actually but I do watch Sky etc over my computer at home every day on Skygo so yes I certainly do use digital stuff - in fact I can only watch like that because I raised a third of the money to enable internet fast enough to watch TV on it about 10 years ago and Openreach paid the other two thirds.

I do appreciate the reassurances from everyone on here and I know there are some very good real experts so thanks for all the help. I am sure my concerns will increase as we get closer to London moving into digital voice in 2023.

Re: Digital Voice performance from Smart Hub

Anonymous — Fri, 29 Sep 2023 11:09:41 GMT

@Jane2018wrote:
I need the traditional corded landline that will fit under my chin when typing with the phone up against my ear etc.

Not heard of the handsfree/speaker option then?

Re: Digital Voice performance from Smart Hub

StuartHK — Fri, 29 Sep 2023 11:12:44 GMT

I was switched over 10 days ago. Switch when through at 3:50 in the morning with no disruption to the Internet. Both the new and old phone systems ran in parallel until I switched the phone from the master socket to the back of the SH2 and rebooted the SH2 next morning. (Worth noting, it did take a reboot to finish the move).

I have an old Panasonic cordless base station plugged in and so far, I can’t tell the difference between the old and new systems.

I really think you are stressing about this far too much.

Re: Digital Voice performance from Smart Hub

Jane2018 — Fri, 29 Sep 2023 11:15:12 GMT

I don't like using the handsfree speaker option and never have even back in the 1980s because there is often noise in the house (try having five children which we had at one point ). Also for confidentiality reasons the speakerphone function is never best for me. I just want the corded landline under my chin and then I type with 2 hands but the all is relatively confidential to me and my mouth is going directly into the landline bit so there is no way I am moving to these dect phones. I appreciate there might be some kind of head set I could buy but don't like the idea of something pushing into my ears and my hair pressed down. I just want the corded landline to work which it sounds from what people have said to be very likely so that will be great - plug it in back of hub and off I go.....

Re: Digital Voice performance from Smart Hub

licquorice — Fri, 29 Sep 2023 11:30:42 GMT

For goodness sake, your continued negativety and reluctance to make things simpler and easier for yourself are getting tiresome. It's going to happen, fretting and worrying about it and continually posting on the forum is not going to change that.

You have been continually reassured that it's a non event but you refuse to accept that. You will make yourself ill with all the unnecessary angst

Re: Digital Voice performance from Smart Hub

Noisy_Line — Fri, 29 Sep 2023 11:59:31 GMT

Thanks all to the replies to me as the OP. I had a DECT and another BT branded corded phone connected (not at the same time) to the green socket and the hum was pronounced but I had never been aware of it when connected to the NTE and using the phone before the switchover. It’s all a bit academic now as they’ve both been recycled. Interestingly I now have a lovely old Ivory GPO 312 connected and it’s no different to when it was connected to the landline, apart from the fact that it doesn’t dial out without some modern assistance

The native DECT phone is really good having used it a few times now. The other facilities such as call diversion etc. are also really helpful. I’ve got a DV adapter coming so will try that when it arrives.

Thanks to all who have taken time to reply to my original post.

Andrew.

Re: Digital Voice performance from Smart Hub

Keith_Beddoe — Fri, 29 Sep 2023 11:44:11 GMT

Some older DECT phones had a base power unit which had a mains transformer instead of a switched mode power unit. These often had a background 50Hz hum, due to leakage between the mains side and low voltage sides of the transformer. These power units are noticeably heavier.

Re: Digital Voice performance from Smart Hub

Noisy_Line — Fri, 29 Sep 2023 12:02:12 GMT

Thanks for responding Keith. In this case the DECT wasn’t that old so would have expected it to be a SMPSU but the corded phone was just that and no external PSU but the hum was present.

Regards, Andrew.