Digital Voice roll out halted.

[zoltronix1972]

Maybe someone can shed some light on this.

Ordered BT Fibre 2 and Broadband on the 11th January 2021. Opted to keep my own number which is being moved across from Virgin Media on the 20th January 2021. At the time of order I was given all the spout about the BT network being upgraded and services were being moved over to VOIP/Digital Voice. I was told on the order my service would be Digital Voice and that in the event of a powercut I would lose Digital Voice unless the Superhub 2 had a UPS connected. I was asked to confirm this was ok.

I was then given the choice of using my own phone, or could order 1 advanced handset or 2 essential handsets, so I choose 1 advance handset.

Been notified today that BT Digital Voice will not be on package on the 20th January, when I pressed for more information I was told the roll out had been suspended due to problems with the service. However I would have thought if this was the case this forum would be crawling with problems from users, but all I see is the occasional issue which you can get with any service.

Is there truth in this, because I smell a rat.

[Keith_Beddoe]

@zoltronix1972 

Virgin Media and BT Retail are totally separate phone networks with their own unique number ranges, so I would not expect you to be able to keep your number, unless it was originally a BT Retail number.

There have not been any posts about Digital voice, but lots of posts about not being able to port numbers from Virgin media.

[RIC9380]

Seems and sounds a bit strange to me.  I've had DV since 2019 without any problems other than a few hiccups at the start of the service and I'm very, very happy with it.  Every now and again the handsets say that they can't update at the moment but then they do but overall I've honestly no complaints at all.

RIC9380

[zoltronix1972]

The number being ported back is an original BT retail number. 

I was originally BT retail, went to Virgin Media for 12 months, but have come back to BT due to abysmal service with Virgin Media.

But have been told point blank today, even when the number is ported BT Digital Voice is not being rolled out due to issues. Which I find hard to believe as I said this forum would be crawling if a service was so bad it had to be suspended.

Again if the number being ported was within the Virgin Media number range I could also understand, but the number is definitely our old BT number being ported back. (0121) 559 is definitely BT retail.

As I said I smell a rat and excuses from Customer Services and Activations.

[Keith_Beddoe]

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@zoltronix1972 wrote:

The number being ported back is an original BT retail number. 

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Then there should be no problem porting it back on a copper pair, assuming you still have an Openreach master socket and are living at the same address.

Once the VM service is ceased, the number returns back to BT Retail, and you can request it back, once you have a working phone line on a new number.

There is no real advantage in BT Digital Voice if you already have a copper cable pair.

[zoltronix1972]

Well it’s been confirmed by service activations.

Existing customers on the service will continue to be supported, but officially BT Digital Voice is dead, no more orders being taken for the service due to poor take up of the service and a lot of customer opposition.

[chrisfsi]

This explains a lot. We had FTTP installed as part of a Community Fibre project last year. I ordered Digital Voice as it seemed sensible and received the 2 handsets. When the fibre service started, these could make outgoing calls but would not get incoming calls. After A LOT of to-and-fro with the BT fibre team, I was told that this was because my number was ported from another supplier (Post Office Telecom) when I switched to Fibre, and there were problems with porting. The Fibre team looked into cancelling and re-instating the DV service, but because the Fibre was already up and running they said they could not re-add it to an existing package. This despite the fact that when I ordered the DV service I did not have Fibre. The rep on the phone was very apologetic, and suggested we cancel the DV service altogether and look to add it in again in the future when DV was more widely rolled out.

So reading this thread, it looks like DV will never be rolled out, at least not in its current format! So I have Fibre for broadband and my old phones are still connected to the old copper network. My question - can the 2 (unused) DV handsets be used at all, or are they just more electronic junk??

[imjolly]

The DV handsets will pair to the SH2 as the dect base station but will not have a phone connection you can check to see if phone number highlighted within the hub manager

DV is being activated for new FTTP installs so it is far from stopped.  The FVA service which was with older FTTP connections has stopped.

i have DV and it works without a problem and has done for over a Year

[chrisfsi]

Thanks for the reply... Both DV handsets are already registered to the SH2, and I can still make outgoing calls (which is a surprise..). But incoming calls still go to the old phone via the copper connection. Is there any way to get the DV handsets to get the incoming calls as well?

[Penybanc]

I have the same problem. Selected Digital Voice following completion of our Community Fibre Project last September.  To receive all incoming calls we soon found that we had to keep the old DECT phones plugged in. Only calls from some mobiles and  call centres (inc BT) came through on the DV phone. Anyone calling via copper wire would come through to the old DECT phones. BT have prevaricated since September on this problem. I’m told this is down to a number porting issue. We have been asked to agree a temporary change of telephone number for two weeks whilst the number is  re-ported. Why it takes 2 weeks I don’t know. BT then conceded in the same call that we might never get our original number back. If thats the case I shall ditch the landline and rely on mobiles and wifi calling.

43 households and businesses joined in our Community Fibre Scheme. 7 took digital voice and all 7 have the same problem with one exception. The exception has the same DV problem but to add insult to injury BT bills him twice and takes double the correct amount by direct debit. Going on for five months down the road and no end in sight for any of us.

I have lodged a complaint with the Ombudsman. BT are well advised to halt the rollout of DV given the problems they are having with the service.  

To answer Chrisfsi directly - as far as I know there is no way that DV phone sets will receive all incoming calls until number porting issues are resolved