Digital Voice service and extension phone

[2greens1red]

I've been told that our Digital Voice is going active tomorrow.  In my home I have a Master Socket 5C and a Smart Hub 2.

Both the above are situated in a remote part of the house. The Master Socket 5C feeds a BT installed phone extension in the part of the house we live in (i.e. far away from both the Hub and Master Socket).

I've realised that I need an adaptor, which has been ordered from BT.

The phone extension from the Master Socket feeds from the back of the socket, not the phone socket on the front of the 5C.

Question: how will the adaptor be installed? I assume it will have instructions, but I wanted to make sure that I'm prepared, as loss of the phone for a couple of days would be seriously inconvenient.

I'd appreciate advice - thanks in advance.

[chrisjp]

The adaptors supplied by BT plug into any mains outlet and then connect to your SH2 by DECT (radio but not WiFi). You then plug your phone into the socket on the adapter. You do have to pair the adapters first with the SH2 by plugging them in near to the SH2 and then pressing buttons on both items - the instructions sent with the adaptors explain this.
You can have as many as you like of these adapters - though you have to buy all but the first one, which is free from BT.
The only wrinkle I can foresee is if the adapters are too far away from the SH2 to connect via DECT. However, I've found that the range of DECT is better than WiFi and even masonary walls don't seem to stop a connection.

[imjolly]

if you find that the adapter has problems connecting to the SH2 due to distance from hub then there are other options to connect extension sockets found in this link from previous post

https://community.bt.com/t5/Archive-Staging/Correct-way-to-enable-all-BT-sockets-after-Digital-Voice...

[licquorice]

Why did I bother writing this?

https://community.bt.com/t5/Home-phone-including-Digital/Digital-Voice-FAQs/td-p/2207485

[imjolly]

@licquorice 

it is easier to just to post your question instead of using search facility  to see if your question has been asked and answered before.  happens all the time

[Jane2018]

I find these threads very helpful even if someone has posted advice before (My DV D day is tomorrow).

[2greens1red]

We're still waiting for our adaptor from BT, to allow us to use our old kit.

Nowhere in the stuff we've been sent by BT, nor by logging in to our BT account, is there any mention of VoiceMail.

We've never used BT VoiceMail. We have a Panasonic answering machine.

I've been going around in circles trying to find out how to access and currently fighting my way through a BT ChatBot to get an answer.

Anyone any clues?

I think I've got hold of a human on BT Chat, but all I get is this:

"Thank you for confirming the pin. Meanwhile, I review the account details and the issue you are facing would you like me to raise a complaint for the same?"

All I want to know is how to access Voicemail....

[licquorice]

There are many posts on the forum regarding Digital Voice and Voicemail, but of course folks can't be bothered to look.

You can cancel voicemail or you can set your Panasonic to fewer rings before answering than voicemail.

[2greens1red]

The Chatbot, human or otherwise, has said the only way of accessing Voicemail is via 1517 on a handset.

I don't have a handset until the adaptor arrives.

Does this mean if I'm not at home the Voicemail can't be accessed?

[iniltous]

If you don’t have BT 1571 voicemail currently but will get the free version once migrated onto the DV platform, it’s odd to expect that you can change the settings on something not yet supplied …as stated plenty of posts on this , many opt to extend the number of rings before BT Answer kicks in and reduce the number of rings before their own personal answer machine intervenes, if the preference is to use your own answer machine , so the BT 1571 service effectively is made redundant, you can   (apparently) also get the 1571 service disabled (once you have it ) .

If you want to ‘access’ voicemail on BT 1571 , again plenty of resources about this , but in simple terms , a modulated dialtone indicates a message has been left , you dial 1571 to listen to it , and follow the prompts as far as saving , deleting etc …the dialtone then reverts to ‘normal’ once the message or messages have been listened to ….dialtone changing again the next time a message is left .