Just a rant about DV

[Bob1001]

BT have managed the enforced change over to DV incredibly badly. They have rashly assumed everyone has one phone and it is near enough to plug into the hub.

They should have given more notice and a better explanation of what needs to happen. There are so many combinations of installations that one size does not fit all.

If you have multiple phones etc they should IN ADVANCE have provided FREE enough DV adapters for the number of phones we have.

After all apart from BT's claim of better audio (no noticeable difference) there is NO advantage in it for us.

And don't forget that anything that needs a wired connection will not work and you will have to dial the full code, it took me ages to add the local code to all the numbers stored in my phones and of course they don't work if there is a power cut. SO BT should provide a battery back up.

[jac_95]

Hi Bob1001,

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[iniltous]

There doesn’t have to be an advantage for you, the legacy PSTN network is past it useful life , the 21st Century replacement requires you use your broadband router for telephony.
Maintaining the current exchange switching equipment is not tenable, obviously some will be affected by its ‘switch off’  more than others , but your ‘internal’ installation was always your own responsibility, if you have wired extensions ( for example ) and they went faulty , you would have had to arrange the ( paid ) repair yourself.
IMHO, I think is really generous that BT actually offer ‘free’ DV handsets or adapters at all, it will be interesting when other ISP’s make the same change , will they  also offer ‘free’ equipment or simply say the phone service is now via the phone port on their router.

I’m guessing that you will be old enough to remember the removal of leaded petrol , and the ‘complaints’ from those that had a vehicle that required ‘leaded’ fuel, it still went ahead , those affected had paid themselves to have their engines re-engineered to take unleaded , or used an additive to the fuel…the supply of  leaded petrol wasn’t maintained  for those few that would have preferred to keep what they already had.

[Les-Gibson]

Essentially there is no change to the way you use your phone, for example;

Let's assume that prior to DV you had a cordless base station plugged into the wall socket and three DECT handsets, simply unplug the base station from the wall and plug it into the telephone socket on the back of your router and they will work as before.

[Bob1001]

@iniltous  I accept the need to change BUT it is the way it was handled, YES the internal wiring and phones belong to us BUT by changing to DV they would stop working unless it was a single phone (or DECT)that plugged into the hub.

After all the change was not optional.

Progress for BT but not for the rest of us.

[Bob1001]

@Les-GibsonYes in theory that would work except I don't have a phone near the hub and only one of my phones is DECT. I thought about unplugging the master socket and using a phone to phone lead to plug the extension side  to the hub. Unfortunately BT had wired it incorrectly with both the master and extension sockets being wired directly to the block outside the house.

I am an ex GPO employee and left after 40 years when it all fell to bits at least the payoff was good.

[imjolly]

@Bob1001 

if by the block outside you mean something like this then at the time this was your external master socket and all internal wiring was connected back to this.   I thought openreach not BT Retail have rewired these so you now had an internal master and a test socket available to you

[-Richie-]

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@Bob1001wrote:

After all the change was not optional.

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It wasn't optional for BT or the 600+ providers that use the Openreach network, the costs of maintaining the PSTN network is huge, Openreach consulted with the Govt and the decision was made to withdraw it, most of Europe already have a system like this in place.

That meant BT and the other CP's had to find a solution, BT came up with Digital Voice, others have their own product with their own name, failure to act means having no voice service, so as a BT customer your choice is Digital Voice or nothing, keeping the PSTN isn't an option.

[Bob1001]

@imjolly  It is a very old round black box and both the main and extension are directly wired to it, so with mine unplugging the "customer side" does not disconnect the wiring from the outside wiring.

[Bob1001]

@iniltousThere is no comparison with unleaded petrol as there was lots of notice and leaded remained available for quite a while also you can still buy an adative to put into unleaded petrol, My 1936 Riley Monaco ran fine with the adative.