BT Broadband (ADSL) and land line renewal. What are my options?

[barryd]

I live in a small village in Teesdale in County Durham where our broadband is still copper ADSL.  I get about 10mb down and 1mb up on a good day.  Many in the village dont get close to that and its not that reliable. There are no plans ever for BT to roll out fibre here although there is the possibility of a third party scheme delivering something in the next year or so (possibly).

My broadband contract is up for renewal at the end of this month. I pay my line rental on an annual saver payment on a different date.

I gather all landlines will be cut off next year and I also gather there are options now for broadband only with digital voice with no landline.  Is this something I can have?  Can I dump my landline?  Or do I need to retain it because we are on the old copper lines? More importantly what is going to happen when the lines are disconnected next year to our connectivity?

Just need to be in possession of all the facts before I call BT.

[imjolly]

I would suggest you read the FAQ and then post any questions but your copper line will continue to provide broadband just phone will move to DV  line rental saver is no longer available  line rental is included in your package preice and has been for years

https://community.bt.com/t5/Home-phone-including-Digital/Digital-Voice-FAQs/m-p/2207485

[Keith_Beddoe]

@barryd 

Despite all of the misleading information posted by the media, its only the exchange equipment which is being de-commissioned,  copper cables are staying, probably forever in rural areas.

Before your local exchange equipment is due to be disconnected, you will be moved over to BT Digital Voice if you still need a phone service, otherwise you can just opt for broadband only, (ADSL), saving about £5 a month. That should be available when you renew.

Line rental saver is no longer available as line rental is included in the cost of your broadband.

[Keith_Beddoe]

@barryd 

Just to add, you will be forced onto BT Digital Voice if you renew your contract and want to keep your phone, so if you want to retain your existing analogue phone service, you will have to stay on a rolling month contract.

You are unlikely to get any form of discount when you renew, but it would tie you in to another 24 month contract, which would not be advisable if you think another provider may be installing fibre, as you would have to pay cancellation charges.

[36ULW]

Agree with Keith.

The Chief for Openreach has said Copper Lines will most likely still be around in 20 years time in some areas.

Also they’ve now realised the Metallic Path E-Side Network won’t be going anyway any time soon either. Even though they’ve allowed hundreds of E-Side Cablers/Jointers (mostly those on older Contracts) to take Early Leavers Packages in the past few months they’re now in the process of training existing Engineers to up skill to do E-Side Jointing, a skill which takes 4-5 years to master.

[Keith_Beddoe]

they’re now in the process of training existing Engineers to up skill to do E-Side Jointing, a skill which takes 4-5 years to master.

@36ULW 

That is fairly typical of BT, lack of joined up long term planning, and regular changes in management, I know that from experience.

I cannot imagine there are going to be too many volunteers to sit in a cold/flooded manhole all day, watching out for leaking gas, assuming of course they DID do a gas test beforehand.

I can remember as an apprentice, sitting in a manhole in below zero temperatures, watching a jointer repair a joint. Probably the coldest I have ever been. That was the first day of work, after my induction course.

[barryd]

Thanks for the replies.  Its a bit odd here as I my line rental saver and broadband are still billed separately and unfortunately staggered.  I believe my line rental saver is still paid for up until March.  I pay about £12 a month for broadband currently.  Im sure it will work out in the wash when I renew. 

So the good news is by the sound of it we are not going to get cut off.  The GoFibre roll out which is what is being proposed here is a long way off yet apparently. Possibly some time in 2025.  I have reservations about it though. Government funded 3rd party internet connectivity providers seldom last but its the only game in town other than what we have now.

I hardly use my landline but some people do still call it so if its only going to save a fiver a month to drop it I may as well opt to keep it if I renew with BT which I think I will do for now.  Thanks again.

[garybs29]

@Keith_Beddoe you're wrong copper bb at the minute still keeps PSTN. That'll likely change at some point but copper can be renewed without a force change to DV just now

[Keith_Beddoe]

@garybs29 

https://community.bt.com/t5/Archive-Staging/BT-Digital-Voice-a-better-way-to-keep-in-touch/m-p/21676...

"Digital Voice FAQ’s

• Do I have to take up the Digital voice service when I regrade my contract when DV is available to me? 

Generally, yes you will need to move to Digital Voice when you regrade your service."

[chrisjp]

BT's information about the change to digital voice is confusing, perhaps deliberately so.
When I received letters telling me that DV was coming, these talked about "eliminating the old fashioned and obsolete copper lines", so I naturally assumed that when I was converted to DV, they would run fibre to my house.
In fact this didn't take place - before DV conversion I had fibre to the cabinet and then an overhead copper line to my house, and this has remained after the conversion to DV.
All that has changed is that I plug my phone into the back of the Smarthub 2 instead of the wall socket, but the wall socket and copper line still carries my broadband service and now my phone service goes over it as a digital stream rather than analogue.
Looking at the Openreach website, there are no plans at all to convert my village to fibre-to-the-premises, so the copper lines are going to stay for the forseable future