Upgrade to digital voice and FTTP

[fisherking]

I got an email and letter telling me Openreach will be coming in early March to change my line to digital voice and FTTP.

I’ve been on Home Essentials fibre 2 for 3 years, capped at 55/10 for some reason. Will the speed exactly the same on FTTP or will it be more? Also if I decide to move to another ISP will I need to ring BT or just put in an order with another ISP?
Thanks.

[licquorice]

The speed will remain the same.

Just place an order with new supplier, do not contact BT.

[Kimberlin]

@fisherking 

As advised, don’t contact BT if you initiate a switch. You can even use One Touch Switching online, but if you have a landline, you’ll need to factor in your choice of ISP.

Be aware, if you initiate a switch, be prepared to be bombarded with calls from BT Retentions. Your choice as to whether or not you entertain talking to them, they may or may not offer you a deal worth staying for.

Up to you, but I’d also think carefully about the timing of any switch. The annual price increase is implemented at the end of March, so even if you switched now, you’ll still get the £4 a month hike.

[WSH]

You don’t give your reasons for asking or what your concerns are, so a bit more background, just so you‘re aware.

If you move to another supplier, you will still end up having to take their equivalent of Digital Voice as the old analogue PSTN phone system will be switched off from January.  (And not all providers are offering a phone service).

Digital Voice, (or its equivalent), requires an internet connection, but it does not necessarily have to be Full Fibre.  It will work quite happily over the old copper wires, it’s just that Openreach are keen to do the move to Full Fibre at the same time as the move to Digital Voice.  (This gets rather complicated, as it may be that your exchange will now no longer allow new copper services etc. and so they will insist on the move to Full Fibre but, if possible, Digital Voice will work over copper).

Running the phone over the internet effectively adds nothing to the speed you require, so it won’t affect your existing speed.

While it might be quite a few years down the road, you will eventually have to move to Full Fibre, as the old copper wires are eventually destined to be retired all together.

[Kimberlin]

@fisherking 

I don’t know what your circumstances are relating to your actual landline use, but if you’re not already aware and you have a smartphone, you don’t necessarily even need a landline anyway. Many of us don’t bother because the smartphone when enabled with WiFi calling, you can use it even without a phone signal as the router handles the call via Voip. It all of course depends on your circumstances, some folks don’t have or can’t stand smartphones or just find them completely impractical to use.

[fisherking]

I’m not too too bothered about switching to digital voice but I would prefer more download speed. Although 48 Mbps is fine most of the time, downloading a large file like a game game can take about 4 hours and I wonder how long 48 Mbps will be enough for streaming VR video on my VR headset.

[fisherking]

I prefer to keep the landline just incase.

[Kimberlin]

@fisherking 

Speeds, yes, I get it. Even downloading large iOS updates, 11gb or more, often takes less than 5 minutes with my 500mbps FTTP.

The landline, yes, I actually do get it that some folks just can’t or won’t do without one, even if it means they actually never use it and I suspect many fall into that category. It’s probably a demographic thing too. For us, the decision was easy, binned it, never looked back and I’d never have one again.

[chrisjp]

"I’m not too too bothered about switching to digital voice but I would prefer more download speed."

Although it's likely that, if you do nothing except accept the migration to FTTP and DV, you'll stay at the same broadband speed that you currently get, full fibre is of course capable of much higher speeds and you should be able to negotiate with BT to get a higher speed - at an increased price of course.

[WSH]

I think Essentials Fibre 2 is 67Mb/s and, unlike copper, distance from the cabinet doesn’t matter with Full Fibre, so you should get the full 67.   (In fact, Full Fibre doesn’t use the cabinet).

At 55Mb/s, whether that’s going to make any practical difference to your performance is another matter, of course.