This topic

Re: Confusion about land line and Digital Voice

oldles — Sun, 21 Jan 2024 10:59:21 GMT

Trying to be ahead of changes , re landline, My hub 6 does not have a phone socket anywhere ? What will be my options, I have 3 wireless handsets one as a base unit. Will i be forced int buying new phones, would an ATA box work for me

Re: Confusion about land line and Digital Voice

licquorice — Sun, 21 Jan 2024 11:07:06 GMT

You will be supplied with a Smart Hub2 when you are converted to DV. You simply plug your existing base station into its phone socket.

Re: Confusion about land line and Digital Voice

ChrisGee — Sun, 21 Jan 2024 19:15:44 GMT

Liquorice: you do seem to be very knowledgeable concerning landline / digital voice. I’m just surprised that in a post some time back you said that landlines don’t work during a power cut which is not correct. Unless in my power cut hotspot i have a magic phone since recently during one of our multitudinous power outs it was my only means of making a call.

Re: Confusion about land line and Digital Voice

licquorice — Sun, 21 Jan 2024 19:51:47 GMT

Digital Voice does not work in a power cut unless you have a backup power supply. No idea what phone you were using but it wasn't via Digital Voice.

Re: Confusion about land line and Digital Voice

jac_95 — Sun, 21 Jan 2024 19:54:33 GMT

@ChrisGee

The UK is moving to Digital based landlines, referred to names such as Digital Voice, VoIP or Internet Calls.

This service runs over your internet connection and needs your broadband equipment to be running to allow the phone service to work.

In an event such as a power cut you'll either need to have an alternative method of making a call such as a mobile phone or a way of continuing to power your broadband connection and home phone.

There are solutions available to allow you to make calls in a powercut such as a battery backup unit, hybrid phone or using a mobile.

BT offer battery backup units or hybrid phones. If you give customer services a call they can go through these with you along with more information on BT's Digital Voice service. 0330 1234 150

https://www.bt.com/broadband/digital-voice?s_cid=con_FURL_digitalvoice

OFCOM'S guidance: https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-telecoms-and-internet/advice-for-consumers/future-of-landline-calls

Also remember that DECT cordless phones require power to them too whereas corded phones generally draw power from the line or unit it's connected to.

Re: Confusion about land line and Digital Voice

ChrisGee — Sun, 21 Jan 2024 23:33:26 GMT

Licqorice: i was talking aboug a landline.

Re: Confusion about land line and Digital Voice

iniltous — Mon, 22 Jan 2024 08:55:56 GMT

PSTN landlines work in a power outage at the customers address , DV ‘landlines’ generally don’t work during a power outage at a customer’s address , obviously PSTN ‘lines’ working as they have done for over 100 years is hardly news , whereas the migration to DV , and it’s ( in some people’s opinion ) inferior design ( as far as resilience ) is newsworthy, and obviously some people are ( in my opinion ) needlessly worried, or massively overstating the impact it will have for the overwhelming majority and chose to ignore the mitigation available ( like BBU/UPS ) for those with a genuine concern.

Perhaps you can provide a link to the individual post you claim states DV landlines work in a power outage as it’s unlikely that any claim that DV works ( without the necessary mitigation such as a battery backup , power supply ) was ever made , it’s much more likely you have misinterpreted whatever was posted.

Re: Confusion about land line and Digital Voice

ChrisGee — Mon, 22 Jan 2024 09:11:12 GMT

@ Iniltous Not being a telecoms expert (I don’t need to be presumably) the landline i was referring to is clearly from the Victorian era but it has worked during the multitude of power outages we suffer in this area. A previous poster a Sage / Guru commented that landlines didn’t work during a powercut. It was that comment i was responding to. Hope that clears up the basis of my comment?

Re: Confusion about land line and Digital Voice

ChrisGee — Mon, 22 Jan 2024 09:56:50 GMT

@iniltous Just to clarify, i didn’t actually say that DV phones work during a power cut since i’m well aware that they don’t without a back up power source. I used the phrase ‘landline’ as i understand that to be the understood term for the old copper system.

Re: Confusion about land line and Digital Voice

VeteranISPUser — Mon, 22 Jan 2024 10:01:45 GMT

@ChrisGeewrote:
A previous poster a Sage / Guru commented that landlines didn’t work during a powercut. It was that comment i was responding to. Hope that clears up the basis of my comment?

Hi @ChrisGee Please reference this post, so we can see if your remark is true.

Re: Confusion about land line and Digital Voice

oldles — Mon, 22 Jan 2024 10:26:04 GMT

Also , no expert in any field, but have measured about 50volts +- on a 'copper' ( not always ) landline , so the change to VOIP , I presume will result in the GPO 😁 cutting said voltage , ( big cost savings I guess ) The network will still use the pair( if your lucky ) of wires to reach my house for the time being, till they move to 5G or fiber. so powering the hub may be all is needed to keep the phone socket live. Am i wrong ?

Re: Confusion about land line and Digital Voice

ChrisGee — Mon, 22 Jan 2024 10:32:24 GMT

@VeteranISPUser I’ll do my best and give a reference, but this forum isn’t the easiest to navigate. Perhaps you could give me some advice on how to search comments to track down the one you are asking me to reference?

Re: Confusion about land line and Digital Voice

iniltous — Mon, 22 Jan 2024 11:18:52 GMT

The term ‘landline’ has ( in my opinion foolishly ) been used by providers ( not just BT ) as a proxy for all telephony , similarly, BT’s proprietary IP phone system ‘Digital Voice’ seems to be used by others as a generic term for any and all providers IP telephony systems , so regrettably it’s now a confusing term landline isn’t just PSTN telephony over a copper pair .
A consumer with DV on FTTP ( for example ) has a ‘landline’ phone service, as does someone on DV but via FTTC , where at least there is still a copper pair involved….so pointing out that your ‘landline’ works during local power outages just means you don’t have DV ( or you do but have BBU/UPS )

There is no argument , a DV landline will not work in a power cut without mitigation , a PSTN landline will .

If , as you state , a forum member ( of standing ) stated ‘landlines’ without qualifying what type of landline service, don’t work in a power cut , seems pretty unlikely , hence the request to provide a citation for it .

TBH , it’s something of a distraction from the original post anyway

Re: Confusion about land line and Digital Voice

TimCurtis — Mon, 22 Jan 2024 11:47:28 GMT

@oldles

Until there's a switch to full fibre then yes you only need to power the SmartHub2 to maintain a landline phone.

After full fibre the ONT will also need to be powered as well.

Obviously in both situations only handsets which are linked solely by DECT will work so no base stations will work unless also with battery backup. I guess a corded phone connected to the hub would also work.

It's amazing how these threads can wander of the topic a bit.

Re: Confusion about land line and Digital Voice

MikeyJ — Mon, 22 Jan 2024 13:42:03 GMT

There is a Motorola phone which BT/EE market and this goes hand in hand with DV. It's manufactured by Motorola and has an internal battery which should provide up to 8 hours service during a power cut and has a fallback service provided by an EE P&G SIM. Although I'm not yet on DV myself I thought I'd get one before there's a rush on - that and the fact that I'm a gadget freak 😀. The phone is as follows:- BT FW500 Hybrid Back Up Phone and is available from the EE Phone shop for just under the £80 mark. Food for thought maybe

Re: Confusion about land line and Digital Voice

ChrisGee — Mon, 22 Jan 2024 13:58:32 GMT

@iniltous thanks for the response. The forum is to try to get accurate advice / opinions concerning landline and digital voice, hence my comment as i think it’s important to avoid confusing forum members who aren’t technologically savvy in all things concerning telecommunication. For that reason may i suggest that it’s not so much a distraction as a side shoot but still a valid point to make since as you are at pains to point out the two terms seem to have been conflated?

Re: Confusion about land line and Digital Voice

licquorice — Mon, 22 Jan 2024 14:46:15 GMT

@ChrisGee The only person confusing people is you with your spurious unsubstantiated posts.

Landline has become a generic term for any form of fixed location telephony and encompasses legacy analogue, BT Digital Voice and third party VoIP systems.

Nowhere on this forum will you find that I have stated that a conventional hard wired ANALOGUE landline will not work in a power cut. Why on earth would I comment on a system that has been in use for over a hundred years and is well understood.

Re: Confusion about land line and Digital Voice

ChrisGee — Mon, 22 Jan 2024 15:38:55 GMT

It may be useful if you reproduce your comment which is the one i appear to have misread? That would be useful and give me an opportunity to correct my ‘spurious unsubstantiated’ post?

Re: Confusion about land line and Digital Voice

licquorice — Mon, 22 Jan 2024 16:02:18 GMT

You're the one making the assertion, you must know as to which post you are referring. I have absolutely no idea which of the countless posts I have made you are referring to that you have misread.

Re: Confusion about land line and Digital Voice

wkirkman — Mon, 22 Jan 2024 16:13:52 GMT

@ChrisGee

The forum is to try to get accurate advice / opinions concerning landline and digital voice, hence my comment as i think it’s important to avoid confusing forum members who aren’t technologically savvy in all things concerning telecommunication. For that reason may i suggest that it’s not so much a distraction as a side shoot but still a valid point to make since as you are at pains to point out the two terms seem to have been conflated?

To be fair to all and sundry, the 'landline' is not a telephone service. Twice now I have phone up BT to say that my landline has a problem and they start having a go saying that I told them my telephone wasn't working — they should know the difference, at least.

The 'landline' is the line that goes over/under land. It is as simple as that. So whether copper based ADSL, FTTC or Fibre to the Property (FTTP) where no copper is involved, they are still Land Lines.

The telephony service you receive is EITHER the old PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) OR VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) — either way, these are still LANDLINE services as they are provided exclusively over the line that goes over/under the land.

Simples.

This is opposed to telephony that goes over the air (OTA) such as VoIP over 4G (not provided by BT Digital Voice) or cellular services by mobile phone operators.

In this instance, LANDLINE is a correct term for Digital Voice or traditional phone services.

So 'if' someone said that the landline (in context of talking about Digital Voice) won't work in a power cut, then though not word for word exact perhaps, still conveys in context that the Digital Voice Telephone Service running over your LandLine will not work in a power cut.

You know this already. You have stated that you do. So you are trying to pick at people a bit really.