ADSL Broadband after changeover

[imjolly]

it is only the phone PSTN that will cease and you will still be able to get adsl broadband until the eventual conversion to fibre

[Keith_Beddoe]

@HHGTTG 

There is a lot of misleading information on the Internet.

Copper is going to be around for a very long time, probably forever.

As far as ADSL is concerned, unless you renew your contract, or your exchange becomes a fibre only one, then ADSL is always going to be an option where there are copper MSANS installed in the exchange building. That covers most of the main exchange buildings. Some small rural exchanges will eventually close, once fibre is available to all of its customers.

In fact, with the closure of the PSTN network, the MSANs are going to have to supply a basic 500kb broadband service to provide a phone service for customers that only want a phone service, and not broadband. MSAN (Multi Service Access Node) can be configured for a wide range of services.

There is never going to be sufficient capacity in the FTTC fibre cabinets to supply all of the phone customers.

[Crimliar]

There are a number of different letters that have gone out to homeowners in this area (Teesside) related to impending POTS (Plain Old Telephone System) changes.

In laws, nice large house on a main road but are currently only able to get ADSL2 have been informed if they do nothing their connection will be switched to VDSL2 (which they currently couldn't get if they wanted) with Digital Voice and they'll get a new router and phone.  ADSL depends on infrastructure at the phone exchange, VDSL potentially doesn't even though it uses the existing copper phone lines to the property.  *As they have the boxes for OR, CF, & VM in a row just off their property they'll probably be offered FTTP very very shortly.

The letter we received last year (5yo house) was to the effect that we would at some point in the future move to either FTTP or Mobile provided broadband as the phone line provided service was to be decommissioned).

The changes are happening, but it's still not one size fits all!

[iniltous]

The PSTN switch off by the end of December 2025 ‘may’ require some consumers to be migrated to SoTAP , (single order transitional product ) , in areas where FTTC isn’t available ( E/O lines , or cabinets with so few customer that would make FTTC uneconomic ) then SoGEA wont be available but DV landline or broadband service needs to be provided.

In majority of cases after PSTN switch off , those still on copper , will be SoGEA ,  only using the copper pair ( the D side ) from the cabinet to the property, the E side to the exchange redundant, those on SoTAP will be using the exchange based ADSL/ADSL2 equipment, so  the E side copper cable to the cabinet as well as the D side from the cabinet to the property will be used , but as with SoGEA , the telephony will be DV .

As stated , there is quite a lot of incorrect information on line , some of it , presumably designed deliberately to get customers to switch before December 2025 , basically ‘frightening’ them to switch using  nonsense about after 2025 your phone  line won’t work , unfortunately there are some that even with constant reassurance, chose to believe the B.S 

[HHGTTG]

Thanks for all your expertise using technical language with which I'm not fully familiar though better informed than I was a few weeks ago thanks to you folks here. The information is gratefully received and I appreciate that. On the positive side and being nearly 86 I might not be around for some of these events, who knows? 

Anyway keeping ADSL running for a while yet would certainly make my life easier with placement of my existing telephones and the BT Hub 2 when it eventually comes through my letterbox. 

[iniltous]

ADSL/ADSL2 or VDSL ( FTTC ) is almost a distinction without a difference when it comes to the PSTN switch off , BT Digital Voice is Internet Protocol ( IP ) and only needs a small amount of bandwidth to operate, so even a relatively small bandwidth product like ADSL can easily handle DV , BT ADSL will continue in locations where there are BT customers with no FTTC or FTTP alternatives.

When  December 2025  comes  around there is no reason for any BT customer to fear being ‘disconnected’ there are legitimate worry’s some may have about a phone service being dependent on ‘broadband’, but this is really a  worry about failure of mains power in the home  , and that can be addressed for those fearing this and who genuinely have no mobile coverage, by using a battery back up ( BBS ) (UPS ) uninterruptible power supply , and if that will not supplied free by BT because the customer doesn’t qualify for ‘free’ , they can always purchase one themselves.

[chrisjp]

BT's own publicity about the switch to DV also talks about "getting rid of the outdated old copper network", so it's natural to assume that when you are told that your conversion to DV is imminent, BT is going to run a fibre optic cable to your house to give FTTP.
I'd had FTTC and an analogue phone line for a number of years and, when I got my DV conversion letter, I assumed I was going to be upgraded to FTTP. Quite disappointed when I realised I would be staying with FTTC and it was just the phone line that was moving to digital!

[wkirkman]

The idea certainly is that you will go to FTTP when available, though until mandatory, you would have to 'choose' to move to it when available. The DV change is a prelude to this, because it is a lot easier to get all phones onto IP first, because then it doesn't matter what the mode of delivery is… copper… fibre… doesn't matter, they can decommission the PSTN equipment at the exchanges. THEN, once they know there are no PSTN connections still, they can quite happily know that swapping someone from copper to fibre, then pulling out the copper, will not deprive anyone of a phone service — theory, of course, though in practice not far off. (Excepting those who it would appear have disabilities and all live on the edges of cliffs in places where they need extreme medical attention but have no mode of communication with the outside world except for a copper phone line that they always use during very frequent power cuts… as exampled throughout this community forum.)

[HHGTTG]

So what would have happened had you been in my position and was sticking with ADSL (hopefully) for the time being, just ignore pressure sales guff from BT and set up my phone/s and  plug into the green socket on the SH2 (or via a DV adapter) when the day comes?

[wkirkman]

As far as I am aware they aren't removing the equipment for ADSL2 signalling. So, there is no reason for you to upgrade to VDSL2 unless you wanted to take advantage of the speed increase. The only thing being systematically removed at the moment is the Public Switched Telephone Network. If you were on Dial Up, then Dial Up relies upon the PSTN in which case I would say you would need to move, but xDSL is still a sold and working technology. Openreach already have the technology ready to go to offer Digital Voice over ADSL (you can search online for it from ISPReview recently — I don't have the link to hand), but when/how they implement I'm not sure. If you hang on to the bitter end you will at some point have the face the choice of VoIP or no phone… but most people will have changed over way before the bitter end because they are making it easy to do so for the majority.