Alarm system and digital voice

[tobiasd]

My alarm company says that I will have to upgrade the system for it to work with Digital Voice.

It seems most unfair that I should have to spend hundreds of pounds for this.

If customers will be compulsorily moved to DV, shouldn't BT or Openreach have to pay or at least contribute for this?

[jac_95]

Hi trevorfenner,

Thanks for the post and welcome to the Community.

This is an automated response as I can see you have a question about BT’s Digital Voice service. Rather than waiting for a response from the Community, you may find an answer to your question by using the search bar on the Community homepage. We also have a thread that contains a wealth of info related to BT’s Digital Voice, click this link to take a look, Digital Voice FAQs.

To learn more about the nationwide change to this Internet based voice service visit landlinesgo.digital

If you have already looked for the answer to your question and have not found anything that can help, then please ignore this message. One of our Community members will be along shortly to help you further.

[gg30340]

As you may possibly know, the present telephone system (copper) is being closed down by Openreach and all landline  telephone companies will be affected by that and they will need to move to an Internet provided phone system.

You are not being compulsorily moved to Digital Voice, which is a BT propriety system. You can move to any VoIP (Internet)  system of your choice assuming you still want a landline based telephone. There are numerous to choose from or you could choose to do away with a landline telephone and use a mobile phone system.

BT and all the other telephone providers that I am aware of are not going to "compensate" any of their customers and neither is Openreach in a similar way when the analogue TV signal was turned finally turned off in 2012 no compensation was given to all the people that had to change their TV to a digital one.

Perhaps your alarm company should be asked to compensate or at least contribute to your costs if their system can not be upgraded to deal with VoIP systems. 

[-Richie-]

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@tobiasdwrote:

If customers will be compulsorily moved to DV, shouldn't BT or Openreach have to pay or at least contribute for this?

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Openreach announced the closure of the PSTN back in 2015, this was to allow the industry time to prepare for the move away from analogue, so your alarm company have had 8 years to plan for this, if they choose to use this as a profit maker, then there are alternative providers.

Full fibre is available to over 11 millions homes, the rollout is seeing 55,000 new properties served weekly, running the FTTP and copper network is expensive, full fibre is more reliable and cost effective, so it makes sense that the UK finally adopts a telephony system that Europe have used for years.

BT have a telephony service priced the same as previous technology (PSTN or FVA), it's your choice what 3rd party equipment you use with it, which is why neither BT or Openreach would compensate you for any costs your choice of alarm company want to charge you.