Digital Voice Adapters

[Oldeafnweary]

How much is a Digital Voice Adapter please and where can I buy them?

[licquorice]

As far as I'm aware, one can be ordered free of charge from customer services 0800 800150

[Oldeafnweary]

Yes, you are right, thanks. But I have 4 phones around the house, so need more than one..

[Keith_Beddoe]

---

@Oldeafnweary wrote:

Yes, you are right, thanks. But I have 4 phones around the house, so need more than one..

---

Do they all have to be plugged into a phone socket, it would be unusual, as most just have a base unit, and the phones connect to that.

[imjolly]

Did you get a free DV HANDSET when you got DV as you get free phone or free adapter after that you need to buy them

[Oldeafnweary]

Thanks. Yes, all our landline handsets (currently) have to be plugged into a phone socket.  I'm moderately deaf. My wife and I are both in our 70s in a large two-storey house. Two of the handsets are (expensive) amplified phones, and one of these is fitted with an (expensive) Oticon bluetooth device so I can hear it through my hearing aids. I use this one to make calls - or pick up calls  once my wife has answered a call for me on one of the other handsets. (BT sold us mobile phones and SIM cards falsely assuring us we had a good mobile signal at home.)  We are concerned that, once we have been moved over to Digital Voice (DV), in a power cut, we will have no means of communication.  So Wifi Calling isn't a solution. We have yet to be moved over to DV but have had 'the letter'. I'm trying to work out options to avoid the situation in which, having been switched, we have only one handset  or, in a power cut, none. I have considered battery back up but that seems to have a one hour life - it doesn't seem to say whether that is one hour of use, several hours if on standby or whether it powers the router or just the phone? 

The best solution so far seems to be to connect the router to the socket system - disconnecting the faceplate from the incoming copper wires if I am able, and buying SIM cards from a network that gives us a  mobile signal at home?

Alternatively I could buy 3 Adapters (to add to the free one) or 4 adapters (to add to the free handset). All our phone sockets have mains plugs adjacent. Hence my question: 'HOW MUCH DOES AN ADAPTER COST'? I guess BT aren't saying what the price is because they want customers to buy new handsets. This may no be a viable option for the deaf and retired. Please excuse the length. Thanks

[Keith_Beddoe]

If you use multiple DV adapters, I do not think you could pick up calls between phones.

The simplest option would be to use one DV adapter, and plug your existing internal phone wiring into it.

You would have to locate your master phone socket, as all the internal wiring should be connected to the back of the bottom front removable section. This would depend on which master socket you have.

[Oldeafnweary]

That's helpful. Thank you. My BT Smart Hub 2 is adjacent to my Master Socket. So I believe I can run a one metre,  'BT631A Plug to BT631A Plug' cable from the green phone socket on the router (Hub) to the master socket having removed the 'external wiring' as you say. My master socket is a BT Openreach Mk3 (with sockets one above the other.) I understand it's cables terminating in A and B that need to be disconnected once switchover to DV has happened?

(I suppose, if that were to work, I'd need neither the free Adapter or free handset? But may as well take the handset?)

[Oldeafnweary]

Thankyou to everyone who responded. You folk are life-savers.

It was this piece of BT advice which misled me: 'If you have a number of normal phones (i.e., not Digital Voice phones) you'll need to use adapters. ' NB 'ADAPTERS', plural

THE COST OF AN ADAPTER IS £14.98.
The (apparently) sole source of this information online is accessed by clicking here and entering an eligible landline number: http://bt.com/dvequipment 
I imagine (hope) you can buy additional DV equipment here (i.e. additional to the free adapter or handset)

[Keith_Beddoe]

---

@Oldeafnweary wrote:

Thankyou to everyone who responded. You folk are life-savers.

It was this piece of BT advice which misled me: 'If you have a number of normal phones (i.e., not Digital Voice phones) you'll need to use adapters. ' NB 'ADAPTERS', plural

THE COST OF AN ADAPTER IS £14.98.
The (apparently) sole source of this information online is accessed by clicking here and entering an eligible landline number: http://bt.com/dvequipment 
I imagine (hope) you can buy additional DV equipment here (i.e. additional to the free adapter or handset)

---

The only issue with doing it that way, is if you have a power cut, you would lose all of your phone connections, however if you connect the internal wiring directly to the smart hub 2 phone socket, then you only have to provide backup power to the Smart Hub 2, (and ONT if you have FTTP).