EE's 1.6Gbps service 'not compatible' with DV/HP or 3rd party VOIP?

[MDE500]

Hi, we’ve had FTTC with BT for a number of years now along with a standard copper/PSTN landline. As we’ve been out of contract for a long time and new fibre cabling has been installed a few months ago ready for FTTP, we spoke to BT/EE about upgrading to an FTTP package with Digital Voice/Home Phone.

We then found out we could have the new EE 1.6Gbps broadband but as it’s only available for new customers, they said they’d need to cancel our BT account and create us as a new customer on EE to place the order which is now due for installation in a couple of weeks.

The problem we’re having is that we wanted to keep our landline number as we’ve had it for 20 years and use it quite a lot. We were told that if we’d have chosen the 900Mbps package, they could’ve migrated it to Digital Voice/Home Phone and kept the number but as we’ve chosen to go for the 1.6Gbps package, we’ll lose our number because DV/HP can’t be ordered at the same time with that particular package, (or we’re thinking that it’s more likely due to them having to cancel our original BT account so we’ll be a new EE customer).

We’ve read a lot of articles online and with 3rd party VOIP providers that as long as you place an order for a VOIP service within a month of your existing copper based landline being cancelled, most of the time they’ll be able to retrieve your original number for you.

I then went back to BT/EE to ask if this would be possible for us – after the 1.6Gbps FTTP has been installed, could we then arrange for DV/HP to be set up and try and retrieve our old number, (if possible as it’ll be well within a month since cancellation).

However, the person I’ve been speaking to said that they’ve checked into this with another department and told me that it’s not possible to have DV/HP at all, even with a different number when you're on the 1.6Gbps package because it isn’t compatible. They then said it might never be or it might be possible next year, they currently don’t know because it’s ‘new technology’.

This didn’t make sense to me because as far as I was concerned, it’ll be the same fibre cable coming into the property and the same Smart Hub Plus router that the 900Mbps service uses. The only difference I can think of is we’ll have the newer ONT with a 2.5Gbps port to support the 1.6Gbps service but I still can’t see why that would prevent us having DV/HP.

I then asked if that means we’ll have to choose a 3rd party VOIP provider, (as that won’t be reliant on the Smart Hub Plus like DV/HP) and they told me that any form of VOIP isn’t compatible with the new 1.6Gbps and that it’s currently not possible to have any type of ‘landline’ DV/HP or VOIP phone service without choosing a lower speed package.

None of this makes sense to me as I thought VOIP just needs a broadband connection. I also thought that the only requirement for DV/HP to work is that you need to use the BT or EE hub. I can’t understand how a faster speed service where the only difference is the ONT prevents you from having DV/HP or even 3rd party VOIP services.

I’d really appreciate it if someone knows about this or has any ideas as to what BT/EE are saying. I’d also like to know whether anyone else has had the 1.6Gbps package from EE and have been able to use either BT/DV or a 3rd party VOIP service with it.

Thanks!

[jac_95]

Hi MDE500,

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.

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[jac_95]

@MDE500 

VoIP is compatible with any broadband connection that is able to supply enough bandwidth (which pretty much all broadband connections can as VoIP would work ok with 0.5Mbps)

The issue here is that 1.6Gbps package may be broadband only and EE does not have a combined package for that service product that also includes Digital Voice. This means your home phone service would be removed and the phone number would be released once moved onto that.

However, I think once the phone number is released BT hold it for 30 days where you can request it to be ported or renumbered back to that phone number. There is a chance in some cases where the porting or renumbering may not be possible.

As for the 1.6Gbps service with Digital Voice again I’m not sure this is available as a combined package.

[Jane2018]

This is going to be quite a big issue going forwards for those of us who make extensive use of a longstanding landline number and want to carry on doing so. (We don't have FTTP yet but it will come soon via London only Community Fibre). I have had my number over 25 years and no way would I risk losing it and trying to get it back with a chance that would fail.

So I suppose I could take FTTP Community Fibre and then would try to move my landline/broadband line down to a basic landline only which I presume BT would hate and make impossible (whereas were I paying BT more money and adding things - as my sibling just did in adding FTTP to her landline only line BT were happy and quick to do).

I wonder if ultimately landlines are just going to have to die out. Yet BT are very keen those paying extra a month for one with a broadband package find it very hard to remove the landline part of the package.

[licquorice]

Never let an opportunity pass to comment on a thread.

[MDE500]

@jac_95 

Thanks for clarifying that VOIP should work on any broadband connection. This is what didn't make sense when EE told me that Digital Voice / Home Phone or even any VOIP would be 'incompatible' when choosing 1.6Gbps.

I suspect you're right and it's just that they're not offering DV/HP as part of that package and it's most likely broadband only. To confuse things more, if I try using the online ordering system and select the 1.6Gbps plan, it says 'You can't order Busiest Home Bundle alongside a home phone service. If you want to get a home phone, order it later or choose a different broadband plan'.

If I change the selection to any other speed, it'll allow me to choose DV/HP with a call pack as expected. The whole thing isn't very clear though because when I spoke to EE and asked if I could add the home phone service after the 1.6Gbps broadband has been installed, (as per their instructions above - 'order it later'), that's when they told me that it's not possible to have DV/HP at all and when I asked if that meant I'd need to go for a 3rd party VOIP solution, they said 'that won't work either because of the new technology used with the 1.6Gbps broadband speed. It won't work with Digital Voice or any other VOIP service. There's a possibility it might be supported in the future, possibly next year but we don't know yet'.

I also noticed some other differences between the 1.6Gbps plan and the others where, on the other speeds, you can choose a Smart WiFi Plus extender, Smart Hybrid Connect, WiFi Enhancer and EE Cyber Security as optional extras and with the 500Mbps and 900Mbps plans you also get Xbox Game Pass Ultimate free for a number of months but with the 1.6Gbps plan, it includes a Smart WiFi Plus extender and WiFi Enhancer by default and these can't be removed, (which is a pain if you want to use your own router because you're effectively paying for an extender you can't use). The 1.6Gbps plan also doesn't include the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate or offer you the other extras like the Smart Hybrid Connect and EE Cyber Security if you should want them so there are clearly some differences with what you can choose when selecting the 1.6Gbps compared to the others.

It looks like I'll have to try a 3rd party VOIP for a home phone solution then and hope they may be able to retrieve my number as it'll be within the 30-day holding period. I am tempted to call EE again before the installation on the 19th December just to see whether I get the same feedback that I can't order DV/HP after it's been installed.

[TimCurtis]

@MDE500 

Seriously who needs 1.6Gbps with the added complications you're getting. You must be doing some very serious downloading, obviously not my place to question your needs.

[brookheather]

Personally I would order the EE FTTP as a separate additional order and once installed port your landline number to a VOIP provider which will cease your existing BT FTTC line.  Having your landline as a separate VOIP connection means you can easily change your router in the future without being tied to using the EE router.

[MDE500]

@TimCurtis 

I know, we went for 1.6Gbps for two reasons - One was to future proof a bit as I have two sons that have tried streaming games with some of the new Playstation and PC cloud services without a lot of success so the higher the speed, the better they'll stream...in theory! The other reason is EE told me that if I go for the 900Mbps or below, I would get the older ONT with a 1Gbps port and if I wanted a higher speed in the future, I'd have to have another engineer to change the ONT again for the newer 2.5Gbps version, (which may or may not be subject to a fee) and also have to re-contract for another 24 months.

@brookheather 

I did try to do this initially but as I was already a BT broadband customer and the 1.6Gbps plan is 'only for new customers', they wouldn't allow me to order a new service on EE without cancelling my existing BT account fully first and then placing an order for the 1.6Gbps plan as a new customer. This is what they've done and told me that the BT account and broadband will be active up until the 19th when the new EE 1.6Gbps service is installed. They also ran a hard credit check against me which I wasn't aware they were going to do, despite being a BT customer for over 20 years because I'm now being classed as a new customer so any changes now, before the new contract goes live, might result in another hard credit check being performed. I also placed the order during the Black Friday offers to get 3 months free so I'd lose that too if I make any changes.

It's obviously the downside for going for something so new and it'll probably all settle down in a few months.

[StuartHK]

Personally, speaking as someone who has worked in the industry, I don’t understand why anyone needs 900 Mb/s, (outside of a business), let alone 1.6 Gb/s.  If you have two kids continuously on games and want to stream 4k movies at the same time this is still way beyond what you need.  Six kids on games plus the 4k then maybe, but even then, I’m not convinced.  I think these speeds are being hard sold to the general public to pay for an upgrade industry needs.  Has anyone pointed out that (as usual) it will be “up to 1.6 Gb/s”.  It’s a shared line, you won’t get the full 1.6 Gb/s anyway.  Another thing people forget is that any connection has two ends.  If it is slow, it is not necessarily your end that is the problem and so a faster connection on your end might not help.

@Jane2018,  it is only a problem if you go for a state of the art brand new product that is not fully up and running yet.  If you do that you have to expect teething troubles.  You really do love to stress over imaginings, don’t you.