Digital Voice and full fibre upgrade

[KonchokZ]

Received an email telling me that Openreach are upgrading my broadband to full fibre (no charge) and that my phone would move to Digital Voice.  Appreciate Digital Voice is national programme etc but surprised I was not asked if I wanted the broadband upgrade (appreciate it is free).  The upgrade is much the same speed as my current broadband so does not seem worth the engineer appointment.  If possible I would have a Digital Voice line through my existing broadband i.e. connect my phone to a router (may need to be a new one) and do any broadband  upgrade at time of my choice.  Can I reject the broadband upgrade, get a new router and have Digital Voice that way? 

[jac_95]

Hi KonchokZ,

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.

Got some questions or want to learn more about BT’s Digital Voice rollout? BT are running localised events as part of the regional rollout of Digital Voice - Click here to view the Digital Voice events

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.

[jac_95]

@KonchokZ 

The full fibre upgrade with the move to Digital Voice usually happens at the same time if you are in a full fibre priority area where there is a stop sell of other copper or hybrid broadband types on the Openreach infrastructure

What does it say for your address at: https://www.broadbandchecker.btwholesale.com/#/ADSL

Include the footnotes but remove the address before posting 

[KonchokZ]

Thanks for this.  Got the following:

”Restrictions StatusFTTP Priority Y

ExchangeWLR Withdrawal Y

SOADSL Restriction N

Our records show the following FTTP network service information for these premises:-Single Dwelling Unit Residential OH Feed hoist required.

FTTP is available and a new ONT may be ordered.

As a fibre priority exchange, FTTP has priority over other products if available at the address”

[jac_95]

@KonchokZ 

Yes so that's confirmed you are in a FTTP Full fibre priority area where a copper stop sell has been put in place. Therefore you'll need to upgrade to full fibre too.

From https://www.openreach.co.uk/cpportal/products/the-all-ip-programme/stopsell-updates/

FTTP Priority Exchange Stop Sell

The FTTP Priority Exchange was initially trialled at the Salisbury exchange from 1 December 2020.

It was subsequently agreed with Ofcom and industry, that in exchange areas where Openreach has reached 75% ultrafast coverage (FTTP Priority Exchange programme), FTTP would become the main available product for CPs to consume except where Stop Sell policy permits or exceptions apply.

What does this mean for me?

These rules will only apply to premises in an FTTP Priority Exchange where FTTP is available. In these instances, FTTP will be the only product you can buy. This means WLR3 Analogue, ISDN 2, ISDN 30, SMPF, MPF, FTTC, Narrowband Line Share, Classic, Gfast, SOGfast, SOGEA and SOTAP will be unavailable.

[KonchokZ]

Thanks for that. The email I had from Openreach says “

, if you don't want this upgrade right now click here.”

this seems to allow for doing it later?  So pos of Digital Voice without upgrading to full fibre?

[licquorice]

Digital Voice and full fibre are mutually exclusive.

There is absolutely no reason to have fibre in order to have DV.

However, I have absolutely no idea why you wouldn't want to move from a dodgy rate adaptive copper connection to a reliable full fibre connection if offered.

[KonchokZ]

Thanks for this, good that DV is separate from full fibre.  My current broadband is fine and the proposed upgrade does not give any particular increase in speed.  Without meaningful improvement it doesn’t seem worth the potential hassle of a bodged installation - there was a bad experience with a subcontractor doing work on fibre for my neighbour.  Obviously that won’t always happen but memory is too recent!

[chrisjp]

"Digital Voice and full fibre are mutually exclusive"

I think you might mean digital voice and full fibre are independent of each other. As written it could be taken to mean that you can't have DV and full fibre together, which of course you can.

[chrisjp]

"My current broadband is fine and the proposed upgrade does not give any particular increase in speed. "

That's a bit surprising. Copper based VDSL broadband typically provides download speeds in the 55 to 75Mbps range, while full fibre based broadband provides speeds starting at 300Mbps and going up to 900Mbps or so.
What full fibre broadband speed does your offer guarantee?