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

[barryd]

According to GoFibre they are expecting us to be live here in October.  Ill believe it when I see it but because of this I wont be renewing with BT for 24 months. 

There was nothing to misunderstand as regards the conversation with BT. They told me categorically that I cant have DV.  Whether thats right or not I dont know but it makes no difference to me now anyway.

[36ULW]

They won’t need Volunteers.

They’ll just give people the usual two choices;

1. E-Side Jointing.

2. Voluntarily Leavers Package.

Just before Christmas all Frames Engineers were told the jobs no longer required, any Frames Jobs will now be done by SD Engineers. 

Frames Engineers have now been given the choice of SD, Civils or a Leavers Package, which is now 1 Months Pay for every year’s Service with a Maximum of one years Pay.

[iniltous]

The OP apparently being on exchange based ADSL will be a relatively low priority for BT deciding to migrate them  to DV unless the exchange itself becomes a priority, but it’s not clear to me what the OP is actually asking , if they want to renew with BT for 24 months , the chances are for 23 of those months ( those upto December 2025 )   nothing really changes , if they were moved onto  DV during that time , it’s at no ‘cost’ either financially or as a recommitment as far as contract length , if they would prefer to continue on an ‘out of contract’ basis paying more but having the flexibility to leave BT with no early termination charges, to use a different network ( if or when it becomes available ) then that’s a decision really only the OP could make, as that’s entirely a financial decision.

TBH , the ‘BT guide’ that said DV is only available on ‘fibre’ is inaccurate insofar that DV can be had on ADSL  ( and that’s not called fibre ) but there is no imperative  to get BT  ADSL customers,( as well as  BT telephone only customers )  ,  onto DV , so no reason why they can’t remain on PSTN in the short to medium term .

Perhaps any  voluntary request to move ADSL onto SoTAP with DV isn’t necessarily encouraged , if it were then as it’s the customer asking , then a new minimum term is required, whereas if BT instigate the change , nothing changes as far as contractual dates.

TBH I think its probably been poorly explained or the OP has misunderstood,  to illustrate that , if the OP ( for example ) had an  immediate neighbour who isn’t currently a BT customer , and they decided to move their Openreach based service to BT , ( assuming ADSL is the only OR broadband available ,  so no fibre to the cabinet ) they couldn’t have PSTN telephony  ( because it’s not available to new customers ) so they would get SoTAP , which is ADSL broadband and if they wanted a phone service it would be DV telephony  , accessed by plugging a phone  into the broadband router .

Im not sure what the OP request is , do they want advice on being inside a minimum term compared to continuing on an out of contract basis , do they want DV or want to remain on PSTN , do they want to lose BT telephony completely but continue to use BT broadband  ?

[chrisjp]

"So I get through to a BT Support agent this morning on the phone. Basically he tells me we cant have Digital Voice so nothing will change here. He said its only an option with Fibre and as we are on copper we wont be offered it."
This doesn't appear to be correct. Digital Voice does NOT depend on fibre - the digital voice signal can be carried over copper or fibre lines. Migrating to digital voice is determined by when the PSTN system is going to be switched off at your exchange, it is not dependent on when you might be able to get FTTC or FTTP

[barryd]

So I get through to a BT Support agent this morning on the phone.  Basically he tells me we cant have Digital Voice so nothing will change here.   He said its only an option with Fibre and as we are on copper we wont be offered it. 

The long and the sort of it is we either go onto a 24 month contract or move to rolling 30 days. Contract will work out at £32.99 a month or out of contract on 30 days £36.48.  Im waiting to hear back from the Fibre company "GoFibre" as to their roll out plan and Ive yet to test a 4g Vodafone router but with that in mind I think it makes sense to not take on a 24 month contract for the small difference in price.  According to him I can go back onto a Contract at anytime of if I cancel my line completely with BT and GoFibre or Vodafone dont work out say after six months I can rejoin BT and have their services reconnected. 

[Keith_Beddoe]

@barryd 

Local cables are still used for services that are "wires only". These are usually point-to-point services used by utility and council/highway customers. These do not have a suitable alternative method of communication, so still need to be maintained.

[barryd]

Then there is this which is a bit of a worry. Perhaps an isolated incident?

https://community.bt.com/t5/Home-setup-Wi-Fi-network/BT-s-Digital-Voice-adapter-kills-broadband-spee...

I did notice when checking on the BT site for the new services that it claimed my download speed would be 5mb.  Thats half of what I get now. I assumed because its just an estimate but the last thing I want is a reduction in speed.  Its already pitiful.   Do they allocate any bandwidth for voice?

[barryd]

Of course the worry is. How well will those few remaining copper lines and exchanges without fibre be maintained when 99% of them are dumped? The other option I have is moving to 4g with Vodafone which is the only game in town here also. Its not great either though but maybe could be with the right kit. I envisage down the line the BT ADSL Broadband I have will become less reliable in the future.

[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

[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."