Advanced digital phone is locked to BT only ?

[i3ant]

Having moved from BT to vodafone, to save some money for a while. I find I cannot connect the Advanced digital voice phone to the vodafone hub at all. Then I read the phones will only connect to a BT hub.

Is that true and if so, when are BT going to software update them so that I can have a working landline again ? I cannot afford to buy another phone right now.

(my phone is the one on the right)

[licquorice]

The BT Digital Voice system is proprietary to BT, hence the handsets will only work with BT.

Ask Vodafone why they aren't supplying free handsets like BT do.

Why should BT do anything to make their handsets work with other providers?

[Colin_London]

I have just been force switched to Digital Voice. Free handsets are *no longer offered*. The only thing you can get for free is one digital voice adapter if a phone is not located near the Home Hub 2.

The website now says you can however get a ‘discounted’ DV phone - I am presuming this is why the pricing on the BT shop is low.

This does raise the question about re-use and electronic waste. Are BT making clear to purchasers that they are buying a product that will become useless if they stop the service, and it will go to landfill?

It seems strange that BT are taking this approach to sell phones when they have switched to a service based approach for routers  and TV boxes which you have to return when the service finishes.

[Dode]

@i3ant Have BT not asked for this phone back?

[VeteranISPUser]

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@Colin_Londonwrote:

It seems strange that BT are taking this approach to sell phones when they have switched to a service based approach for routers  and TV boxes which you have to return when the service finishes.

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Hi @Colin_London   Have you not seen those wonderful demonstrations of how germs and viruses are spread especially while speaking. Telephones must be classified as a real bio-hazard.  I don't know about you, but I don't speak into my router or TV boxes daily from a few inches away.

[Colin_London]

You mean you don’t clean your phone after every call and hold it with a cloth whilst in use?! Shocking!

[Les-Gibson]

@Colin_London 

BT's well publicised policy is that ALL equipment is supplied on loan only and should be returned if the service is ceased, they even operate a 'fines' system for those who fail to return any requested equipment. 

Wherever possible, all returned equipment is then refurbished and reissued in an attempt to prevent it from going to landfill so that argument doesn't apply.

See How to return and recycle your BT equipment for free | BT Help

[Colin_London]

@Les-Gibson I was pointing out above that the only way to get a DV phone now (I.e. in June 2023, notwithstanding the case that they may have been free in the past) is to *buy* it from the BT shop (at a discount) rather than getting it for free.

As you are buying it yourself, from an online shop, it is your equipment, not BTs, so there is no contractual compulsion to return it when you no longer need it. Hence although BT may offer a recycling scheme there is a chance much equipment goes to landfill when the service is ceased as people find it easier to chuck in the bin than go to the post office with it if there is no contractual penalty. Human nature unfortunately 😔

[imjolly]

@Colin_London 

I agree with you if you purchase the DV phone from BT shop then there is no need to return phone when you leave  BT  however  if it was supplied free when you changed to DV then it should be returned together with the SH2

[Colin_London]

I’m sure that free equipment has to be returned. Just advising that in the migration I have just gone through (as part of the re-start) free phones are no longer provided. Converters, yes. Phones, No.

Probably because they are about to start migrating whole regions at a time and that would mean giving away millions of free phones! They want people to use their old equipment unless they are prepared to buy equipment.