Elderly/vulnerable customers without Broadband - Notification of new Digital Voice service

[blackprince]

Hang on - something doesn't make sense about this. Back when I used to run my own business from my home office, I used to have a VoIP phone working over my broadband. That service was provided by different company to my broadband provider. So if another company could provide that over my broadband why does my migrated landline have to be provided by my existing broadband company?

[licquorice]

Sorry, I was being over simplistic.

You can't have the traditional smpf arrangement, but you can have broadband without telephony from BT ( with a saving of approx £5/m) or other ISPs and then use a third party VoIP provider to provide telephony at whatever cost they charge.

[blackprince]

And my existing broadband provider has confirmed that I am right.  After switchover I can choose whichever VoIP supplier I want, and it doesn't have to be my broadband supplier.  

[rbz5416]

@blackprince 

But you will have to start paying your ISP instead of BT for the line providing the broadband.

Unfortunately the whole issue of number porting is an unholy mess, so it's anyone's guess how this might work as regards retaining your number with a VOIP provider.

[iniltous]

This post started out as a query about elderly/vulnerable customers without broadband migration to DV and now also incorporates the subject of shared metallic path customers that do have broadband,

SMPF will not be available, it’s a legacy product,  no longer sold , when PSTN is switched off , because two broadband services cannot coexist on the same metallic path ( copper pair ) and one broadband service is required to deliver IP telephony ( BT call their version Digital Voice ) , when these SMPF customers ( those using BT for telephony , with someone else providing broadband ) need to be removed from PSTN, they  will need to make a choice but remaining as they are won’t be one of those choices ( see message 8 )

……the BT customers that this post originally was about , those without broadband at all  , have also had their probable choices indicated, but both categories of BT customers, are not currently being actively selected for migration anyway 

[blackprince]

I don't understand that statement about me having to pay my broadband supplier for the line instead of BT.

My simple view is that I pay BT for my voice service and my broadband supplier for my broadband service.  Why will that not continue?

[blackprince]

I am utterly confident that only a vanishingly small number of people have even heard of this SMPF thing, let alone have even an inkling about what it means. I am putting myself into the zero knowledge camp. It seems absurd to expect anyone who just buys a couple of services to understand this jargon.

[rbz5416]

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@blackprincewrote:
I don't understand that statement about me having to pay my broadband supplier for the line instead of BT.

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You are currently paying BT to provide a line & telephone service. Your ISP provides broadband over that line. So you either:

Remain with BT for telephone but will then also have to switch to them for broadband (for reasons stated repeatedly).

Or you cancel your BT service to move to another telephony provider, in which case you'll no longer have a line for your ISP to provide a service on. Therefore you'll have to pay your current or another ISP to provide both line & broadband.

[chrisjp]

"My simple view is that I pay BT for my voice service and my broadband supplier for my broadband service. Why will that not continue?"
I'm afraid that it cannot continue because, whatever the rights & wrongs of it, BT with government agreement has decided to discontinue the analogue telephone service (the "public switched telephone network" or PSTN) by 2025. The main reason given to justify this is that this old system is now becoming impossible to keep in good repair because of inability to source parts for it.
Instead, BT will provide a telephone service over its Broadband internet network using "Voice over Internet Protocol" (VOIP). This can be delivered over a copper line, a mixed fibre & copper line, or a full fibre line.
This inevitably means you'll need to go with one provider for both telephone and internet service because it's not technically possible to have one organisation providing VOIP, and another one providing broadband, over the same single line.
You don't have to stay with BT, as long as your alternative provider can give you both VOIP and broadband.
However, if you don't stay with BT, it seems unlikely that you'll be able to keep your original, BT-provided, telephone number.

[blackprince]

I so don't understand this.  On the surface this appears to be contradicting what my ISP has told me and what has been said elsewhere in this thread.  So, are we saying that I can have my broadband from my current provider, and my voice from anyone else *except* BT, unless I move my broadband to BT as well?  

I am far from a stupid person, and I used to work in telco.  If I can't understand this, God knows what hope most people have.

I am going to have to do what I assume most people are doing - stuck my head in the sand and ignore it until it all goes t*ts up, and fix it then.