Connecting Digital Voice adapter without using WPS

[glitchcrab]

well this does rather alienate users who would prefer to use better equipment.

[jac_95]

All communication providers (cp) that offer a 'landline' service who uses Openreach's/VM infra will need to move to a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service rather than the analogue PSTN network. In terms of BT Consumer their VoIP service is BT Digital Voice. Looking at other CPs implementation at present it looks like you will need to use that cp's own kit so BT Consumer's lock in to their own kit is no different to some of the others out there.  Now the question is will this become more flexible in the future as more and more start using it and how the processes of moving to a third party VoIP provider will adapt over time? Only time will tell.

[swinster]

I have just switched to BT for fibre broadband and am now realising this is a bit of a major issue. Personally, I use a separate pfsense router/firewall. This connects just fine to the OTN without the need for the BT Hub, but I can't quite believe the BT Hub cannot be used in bridged mode. I see no other choice other than to cancel the voice service from BT

Any thoughts on other digital voice providers?

[licquorice]

How would a bridge mode for the hub help?

If it was in bridge mode it wouldn't have access to the IP layer and hence VoIP

[swinster]

In which case, that kinda sucks, and you would have thought that the DV equipment themselves would have been pure IP and could exist on any internal network. 

[licquorice]

BT use a proprietary more secure form of VoIP that therefore needs BT kit to implement.

[swinster]

SIP over TLS is pretty damn secure!

[swinster]

Anyhow, if BT are unable to service a need, I wonder, are there any other recommendation of digital voice providers?

[swinster]

FWIW, I thought there might be a way around this. Whilst I didn't want to run the BT Smart Hub 2 as my edge device, I don't mind it hanging off of my internal LAN. Essentially, it's a DECT base station + router, although the WAN port uses a PPPoE client and there is no obvious way to change this, which means needing to provide a PPPoE server and "fake" the upstream BT authentication service. 

PfSense allows you to do this and indeed I can get the BT Smart Hub 2 to authenticate with Pfsense and route traffic to the internet. As far as the BT hub is concerned, it is online and happy.

The only things I would connect to the Hub are the BT HD Digital Voice phones and Digital Voice adapters (no Wifi, no LAN devices). As they are DECT based, then these are able to register to the Hub and the hub connects to my internal router. I am not 100% certain this will work as by Digital Voice service has been cancelled. Unfortunately for me, this has come a bit too late as BT themselves offered no plausible solution so the only option open was to move to a standard-based VoIP provider and use what BT should have been able to provide - a standalone Analogue Telephone Adapter (ATA). 

Hopefully, this might help someone else though. 

[Bob1001]

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@licquoricewrote:

BT use a proprietary more secure form of VoIP that therefore needs BT kit to implement.

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Well more likely to make it more difficult to change from BT, It looks as though when all the suppliers change to VOIP it will pretty well wipe out 3rd party routers and make it more difficult to move, keep phone number etc.

Perhaps something OFCOM should be looking at as it restricts trade, I am told they are but who knows what the outcome will be.