Digital Voice and unpowered phones

[Pilchard]

Fibre recently arrived in our isolated rural community and I have just signed up to a BT contract out of preference to staying with EE because BT still provides for a home phone line.

There is no mobile phone signal here so, when at home, my mobile phone relies on my home broadband and router. 

When power outages occur here... and they occur with annoying regularity... I connect an old and very simple handset to the BT line socket in order restore contact to the outside world. This handset requires no 240volt power but relies entirely on the low power in the BT copper wire. It isn't just a life-saver in metaphorical terms but... as we are getting older... might even one day be a literal life-saver. 

Will I lose this facility under BT, or do I have any options?

[pippincp]

Depends if Openreach have placed a stop sell order on copper connections for your exchange. They are slowly doing so as the PSTN (copper phone) network will be fully swithed off by 2025.

"In 2025, the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) is being switched off by Openreach, which means everyone, including businesses, currently using PSTN-based services will need to move to another service before then."

[licquorice]

If you are moving to full fibre you will almost certainly be moved to Digital Voice at the same time.

As @pippincp says, all providers will be switched to VoIP by 2025

[rbz5416]

If you have signed up for a full fibre service then the phone will almost certainly be moved to Digital Voice. In which case you will need to make alternative provisions to keep both the new "modem" (ONT) & the BT Smart Hub 2 powered in the event of a power failure. The cost of this will vary depending on how long you wish.

It would be worth having a look at the Ofcom mobile checker to see if an alternative network may provide you with better coverage at home in an emergency.

https://checker.ofcom.org.uk/en-gb/mobile-coverage

[Anonymous]

The analogue phone network is being switched off after 2025 so you won't be able to plug in your old telephone into the phone socket anymore after this time to make a phone call like you simply did before.  Instead you have to plug the phone into a Smarthub router that you will be sent and connect the router (which will be blocked for normal internet use if you don't already have the internet) to your phone socket to make phone calls with, via your broadband connection.

If you switch off the router or there is a power cut you won't be able to make or receive calls, but it does have a backup battery which lasts an hour I believe.

You either take it or leave it, so I'm told that too.

Hope this helps 😀

[garybs29]

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@Pilchardwrote:

Will I lose this facility under BT, or do I have any options?

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You can also try contacting your electricity supplier & putting pressure on them if the powers that unstable

[Les-Gibson]

"The Priority Services Register (PSR) is a free service offered throughout the energy industry. It's available to customers in England, Wales and Scotland. Read our frequently asked questions for more information."

Priority Services Register - extra help for those in need | EDF (edfenergy.com)

[Pilchard]

Thanks for all the responses.

It seems that we will all be losing the copper connection sooner or later, as the Brave New World of digital takes over our lives, and we are required to learn to love it on the basis of... "it is what it is".

You can't stop progress, can you.

[licquorice]

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@Pilchard wrote:

You can't stop progress, can you.

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Indeed not, or we would all be driving behind a man walking with a red flag.🙂