Digital Voice with different Router

[jac_95]

@ChunkyTheCurmudgeon 

Just a reminder on the timelines of the PSTN switch off and move to VoIP based voice service (digital voice/VoIP/internet calls)

Reference: https://www.openreach.co.uk/cpportal/products/the-all-ip-programme/wlr-withdrawal

"When do I need to change to a digital phone line?

We'll be switching off the existing network by 31 December 2025 and most people in the UK will need to have a digital phone line before then. To help us prepare we'll also stop selling analogue phone lines to new customers by 5th September 2023."

Reference: https://www.openreach.com/upgrading-the-UK-to-digital-phone-lines/for-my-home-or-business

Providers be that BT, Sky and 600+ others who have customers with voice service today will be migrated well before the closure date and providers are likely to start ramping up their mass migration programme from September.

So in summary, you maybe able to delay the switch over to digital voice at present but by September and when stop sells start coming in then you'll have to be prepared for this nationwide digital switch over. If your concern is more around having to use the BT Smart Hub 2 then there's workarounds along with going broadband only and using a third party VoIP provider.

It's best to get prepared now so you are ready and so the switch over to digital voice goes as smoothly as possible

Find out how to get prepared at https://landlinesgo.digital

[Alansmithee]

It's best to get prepared nowso you are ready

Don't bother ringing the landline it doesn't work.

Shame - there is no easy way to port the number out to a proper VOIP provider. 

[Alansmithee]

Sigh... BT love sending me smarthubs - the third one is on it's way - I guess it's because they cannot detect it (because it's not plugged in)... 

[S_G]

In principal I have absolutely nothing with moving do IP based telephony. As long as BT complies with Net Neutrality regulation and does not force me to use their hardware.

[ChunkyTheCurmudgeon]

As for the it all being done by end of 2025, it's hardly over a year since BT announced that they were suspending digital voice roll out until they could get a workable plan.    https://newsroom.bt.com/were-pausing-our-digital-voice-plans-for-consumers-while-we-work-on-a-more-r...

So it looks like they've spent a year working the PERT and Gantt charts over again and now can proceed with vigour.  Hmm....  I continue to have faith in BT, in tight collaboration with Openreach, to continue to project manage things with their usual needle-sharp competence.  🤣🤔. 

 That's not even taking into account the recent announcement of 55,000 job cuts of which 15,000 will be engineers; all of them presumably highly motivated to work themselves out of a job.  I've been there, done that and bought the tee shirt.  It went as well as you might expect.

Back on planet earth, the job cuts are to be by 2030 which sounds like a more reasonable expectation of when they'll cut my copper line.  I'll be in a care home, drooling soup and making inappropriate 1970s vintage  comments to the nurses by the time I need to plug an SH2 in.

[Bob1001]

We recently had a long power cut which exposes the weaknesses of "Digital Voice", it is all very well saying use a mobile but the power was off to the local tower as well.

There is no solution as all providers are going that way, easier for the likes of BT but a disaster for customers. I missed a hospital appointment as they were rearranging it and could not contact me.

BT and others believe it is progress I am not convinced. copper and a big battery in the local exchange never gave any problems.

[Stuart8]

I'm in the same boat. I'm thinking that it will be AP mode for the Orbi router and move all the router functions to the Smart Hub 2 plugging in the phone to the green port on the smart hub. Reckon you'll need to setup DHCP and any other setups you had on the Orbi on the Smart Hub and then reconnect all the wifi devices. Hope this helps.

[gg30340]

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@Bob1001 wrote:

We recently had a long power cut which exposes the weaknesses of "Digital Voice", it is all very well saying use a mobile but the power was off to the local tower as well.

There is no solution as all providers are going that way, easier for the likes of BT but a disaster for customers. I missed a hospital appointment as they were rearranging it and could not contact me.

BT and others believe it is progress I am not convinced. copper and a big battery in the local exchange never gave any problems.

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Did you have cordless phones which you used before the you were moved over to "Digital Voice" because if you did they would not have worked either in the event of a power cut. The "old" system would only have continued to work if your phone, not a the cordless base station, was plugged into the phone socket.

[techlobo]

I agree - the transition to Digital Voice effectively removes a national fallback service, which is a backward step.

I realise that there is a cost to maintaining this infrastructure, but the alternative is the loss of communications when prolonged issues occur with power provision, and subsequent network availability / congestion problems.

[techlobo]

True, but those who realise this kept an analogue phone connected to the network in addition to the DECT phones (and also probably a spare or two in reserve).