88 yr old dad on old line that BT cannot upgrade...

[Midsummer100]

Hello 

This is my question: "will digital voice work if the line is too old for Full Fibre and Open Reach/our council are too inefficient to get the road dug up to lay new cables?"

This is the reason for the question and how we are where we are: 

My 88 yr old dad has BT phone and basic broadband. He's on Fibre 1 and doesn't need any better broadband speeds.

Last year BT started harassing us yet again to upgrade him to Full Fibre so he could have digital voice. Eventually we gave in as they refused to lower his £65 a month bill unless he upgraded.

Open Reach came round, different engineers with the level getting higher each time, and it turns out they can't upgrade his line to Full Fibre. That's because the house was built in the 80's and has no casing for the cabling and the cables are simply laid in the ground. The box is 3 houses away, 2 of which have gone to City Fibre and one who are elderly people who moved in when mum and dad did. 

Open Reach have to get planning permission to dig up the road. Our lovely efficient council took too long to get back to Open Reach, so Open Reach closed the case. 

We then started to get the series of harassing emails again to move to Full Fibre ready for BT Digital Voice.

Several phone calls later and a complaint and eventually got lovely lady with elderly parents, completely understood the problem. She renewed the phone and broadband contract for 2 years at half the price he was paying and said that's bought you a few months time until Open Reach sort themselves out. That was February this year.

Now he is getting emails and letters saying he's to be moved to DV and to wait to be told the switch over date.

His phone is not a digital phone.

The letter said he needed a replacement router. The email said his existing router is fine.

We don't have a problem with him going on DV, although personally I don't see why he needs a landline when his mobile is his lifeline since mum died. 

However, will digital voice work if the line is too old for Full Fibre and Open Reach/our council are too inefficient to get the road dug up to lay new cables? 

Any replies gratefully received as another call to BT is traumatising and it will probably take 3 or 4 hours out of my day that will be stressful and which I don't really want to do.

Many thanks

[iniltous · Accepted solution]

You are confusing two separate things , the phone moving to Digital Voice (DV) and ‘full fibre’ are different things ….DV can be supplied over broadband on copper pairs , it doesn’t need FTTP , so if you have managed to renew broadband on the copper line , migration to DV just needs the phone connected to the router rather than the socket on the wall ….if the BT router already has a phone socket  it’s compatible, if the router is an older model without a phone socket , BT can tell remotely and they send out a replacement router that does have a phone socket .
The problems of converting to FTTP are something that  can deferred for many months , if the copper broadband ‘contract’ has recently been renewed, just move the phone cord to the router socket when advised to do so , often the invitation is bundled with FTTP , just accept the DV invitation (that’s from BT ) and don’t arrange the change to FTTP that’s with `Openreach .

[licquorice]

Digital voice will work on wet string!

You do not need full fibre for Digital voice, if he has broadband, Digital Voice will work. It is exactly the same technology as accessing a website.

He will need a BT Smart Hub2, if that is what he has already he won't need a different router.

Have a look here 

[Midsummer100]

Thank you for explaining it. That's brilliant news.

[Midsummer100]

Thank you for explaining it and for the link. That's brilliant news.

[WSH]

Yes, I was on Digital Voice while on copper broadband for two and a half years before being upgraded to Full Fibre.  It works just like the old phone.

As has been said, the only change is you plug the phone into a phone socket on the back of the Smart Hub 2, instead of the phone socket on the wall.  (The hub itself stays plugged into the socket on the wall though).

Edit:  There is one point to be aware of in view of his age, however.  As it depends on the broadband hub, Digital Voice does not work in a power cut.  I believe BT will supply a battery power unit for vulnerable customers, but I think you have to ask for one.

[Midsummer100]

Thanks so much. Really great information.

[Midsummer100]

Hello.

As an update.

OpenReach came yesterday and enabled Digital Voice. BT had sent us a Motorola FW500 which has a SIM backup. 

Unfortunately it doesn't have the ability to have an extension or 2nd phone.

My dad has gone absolutely loopy, and insists that he needs a 2nd phone by his computer. He doesn't but that's irrelevant. It's caused family rows and he's not speaking to me.

I have emailed my contact at the Executive Office but as yet, no response.

My point is, this is why these threatening and bullying emails and letters are completely out of order. To send them to vulnerable, either disabled or elderly people, often who have illness, who are law abiding citizens and have never had so much as a speeding ticket, is wrong. 

My dad is being completely irrational, but is that is through no fault of his own. He had an emergency operation in June and something happened during the General Anaesthetic that has taken some of his cognitive ability and a lot of his rational thinking. 

So now, I have to solve this. 

At the same time as GP appointments, brain scans, audiology appointments, geriatric clinic appointments, navigating a second parent through dementia, and everything else that goes with having an elderly relative still living in their own house who doesn't have all their mental faculties through no fault of their own. 

So thanks BT, OpenReach and Ofcom for adding to our nightmare.

To anyone commenting on this or other posts about bullying emails, unless you have been in the situation you cannot possibly comment because you have no direct experience of it.

The analogy someone put on a different thread about the fire brigade was so ridiculous and showed such insensitivity to the situation of both our situation and the poster of that thread, I couldn't be bothered to reply. 

If the BT people reading this could please get our Executive Office agent to contact me, that would be great. 

Thank you.

[imjolly]

Can you  not get a DV adapter free from BT which plugs into a power socket and your existing corded phone will connect to that. The adapter connects to hub by DECT and acts like extension socket

[WSH]

Was the phone next to the computer on a wired extension or was it cordless?

I don’t know if it helps or not but thought occurs that you could plug a double adapter into the Smart Hub phone socket and then plug the cordless base station or extension into that.

You just need to make sure your dad is aware that only the FW500 will work in a power cut.

Edit:  imjolly's suggestion is even better.