Fibre Upgrade necessary?

[Marlbo]

I have a landline number solely for use for accessing the Internet, it is not/never used for phone calls (I have a separate number for phone calls). As there are no phone calls made from my Internet number, do I need the BT upgrade as it doesn't need to use Digital Voice?

[garybs29]

Yes! Digital voice is mandatory in future so it will need it

[iniltous]

If you have BT broadband and BT telephony currently supplied via the soon to be retired PSTN , so your phone instrument is connected to the socket on the wall , in most instances being notified of the requirement and date to convert to DV that notification also comes with the option to remove telephony completely if that better suits your requirements……FWIW , there has been no requirement to take BT telephony to get BT broadband for many years , so you could have dropped your BT  telephony from your BT broadband if you didn’t need it before now .

[licquorice]

No idea why you feel the need to have separate lines for broadband and telephony, seems bizarre to pay twice, but your choice 

However, there is absolutely no need to have telephony at all on the line used for broadband.

[WSH]

The internet will continue to be delivered over copper for many years to come.  In an increasing number of areas, NEW connections have to be fibre, as there is a “Stop Sell” on new copper products, but generally existing copper broadband connections will go on for quite some time yet.

There has generally been a lot of confusion over this.  It is the old PSTN phone service, delivered as a separate service to the broadband, that is being discontinued.  The phone service will now be part of the broadband connection.  (If you want a phone connection, that is).

As far as the broadband itself is concerned, that will continue to be delivered over copper as well as fibre.  And, should you want a phone connection, BT’s Digital Voice works fine over copper broadband as well as fibre broadband.

(Edit:  Seems iniltous and Liquorice beat me to it!)

[Marlbo]

Thank you Licquorice,

It's a hangover/set up from years ago. I didn't want a big personal pc, monitor and desk clogging up my living room so it made sense at the time to convert a spare room upstairs into an 'office'.

Time to reassess I think?

[Marlbo]

Thank you Iniltous,

Just spoken to BT and they told me "I don't think you can have a broadband only deal"

[Marlbo]

"(Edit: Seems iniltous and Liquorice beat me to it!)"

Thank you WSU, it all helps!

Just spoken to BT and they don't seem to want to commit to confirming that!

[iniltous]

The only way I can see that a standalone broadband isn’t available is if you are on exchange based ADSL without a VDSL /FTTC  option in your location (  FTTC now sold as by OR as SoGEA  ) , apparently the option for ADSL and telephony when there is no  FTTC access is to be converted to EE broadband SOTAP , and a second line just for BT PDPL (a phone line service that isn’t DV or PSTN ) this suggests ADSL can’t deliver Digital Voice hence the two line solution , but obviously even that isn’t your  situation as you don’t want to keep telephony anyway , so SOTAP if you are currently ADSL and prepared to drop telephony is obviously your path ( again assuming you are ADSL without the option of FTTC and you may already be FTTC or it’s available if you are ADSL ) 

You can see what’s available  here (enter your address, you are looking for SoGEA ) or even go to BT.com and click to order as a new customer, the ordering screens effectively are  broadband and phone or broadband only , you simply select broadband only to ‘prove’ it’s possible in your situation 

https://www.broadbandchecker.btwholesale.com/

[Marlbo]

Thanks again for that additional information Iniltous, much appreciated, but it's got to the stage where I'm Googling/getting so much conflicting information that I'm throwing in the towel!

I could always ditch my telephone landline number but connect the phone via the microfilter to the internet number (or throw phone out of the window and use my mobile permanently!)