Keeping landline when not with BT

[chrisjp]

I've been researching alternatives to my high price Halo 3 FTTC plus landline via digital voice deal with BT.

I'd understood that if I moved away from BT then digital voice landline service would no longer be available to me, because this was a BT proprietary system using the phone socket only provided on the Smarthub 2.

However, at least one alternative provider (Onestream Fibre 80) apparently offers to port my existing number to its system and provide me with a digital voice landline.

Does  anyone kmow how this would be done? Does Onestream offer a router with a dedicated landline socket like BT, or do they offer something different?

[Carlusha]

@chrisjp  If I was you, I would check out Onstream on Trusted Reviews prior to making your decision.

Links not allowed so recommend doing a little bit of research.

[imjolly]

@chrisjp 

Onstream will not provide BT digital voice but are going to provide a VOIP phone connection using their equipment

[licquorice · Accepted solution]

@chrisjp It would just be a standard VoIP service if they are providing voice. The BT hub has a built in ATA to provide a telephone socket for a normal phone and built in DECT base station for connection to BT DV handsets. Neither would be available on third party routers.

[rbz5416]

Zen, Vodafone & Sky offer telephony with ATAs built into their routers, but not DECT like BT/EE. If you have any BT DV specific handsets, they won't work with any other provider's system.

But there are also any number of independent VOIP providers you can sign up for independently of the ISP, & buy your own ATA to connect to the router.

[iniltous]

It’s against forum rules to discuss other providers and what they do and don’t offer ,

TBH , the obvious thing to do is contact them , they do say ( on their website ) you plug your phone into your router ( on the telephony page ) which is strange phrasing …( on other forums ) a criticism often raised of your chosen ISP is the way they add on an unexpected charge for ‘renting’ their router ( a router something most ISP supply as part of the monthly fee ) and if they sell telephony to you  , it would a prerequisite to supply a suitable router , otherwise you may be paying for telephony with no way to access it ….they ‘excuse’ this somewhat sharp practice ( of adding several ££ per month if you want a router supplied by them  ) by saying they don’t require a customer to take a router  because the customer may already have a router , but if you use your own router and it doesn’t have an generic ATA ( so not an old Sky or BT router ) how can you access their telephone service that requires an suitable ATA , given this somewhat vague way your chosen ISP do business, you should contact them and find out , rather than asking on a BT customer forum

[Paul608085]

@licquorice 

" The BT hub has a built in ATA to provide a telephone socket for a normal phone and built in DECT base station for connection to BT DV handsets. Neither would be available on third party routers."

I'm soon going to be moving to Zen Internet. Their supplied router is the Fritz!Box 7530AX, which according to its manual has a RJ11 telephone socket , (in addition to the RJ11 DSL socket) - so a built in ATA - and is also a DECT base station.

The telephony menus appear to be configurable in the GUI, so provided the correct settings for BT Digital Voice, (does anyone know what they are?), are put in, would BT DV then work - without using a BT SmartHub2?

In other words, is it strictly true to say that BT Digital Voice only works with a SmartHub2?

If not, where is the flaw in my thinking?

(I'm assuming here that the hypothetical customer has BT Broadband with DV, but does not wish to use the SH2).

.

[rbz5416]

@Paul608085 

BT/EE DV is a proprietary system & not regular VOIP, so cannot be used with any device other than a SH2.

[iniltous]

Digital Voice is accessible via the SH2 only , and was designed to be so  from the outset , it’s an IP service , but it’s not a ‘generic’  IP telephone service , like the IP telephone services offers by some companies ( that generally don’t supply the ‘locked down’ equipment necessary to access a proprietary system, they use an open access version so generic equipment can be purchased by the user ,  so with a third party router with a built in and configurable ATA , ( even a very expensive all singing and all dancing router ) will be of no use with BT DV , as stated BT DV is a proprietary system, and although not a perfect analogy, much like any old satellite receiver that has a multitude of settings can’t ‘decode’ Sky TV you have to use a Sky TV box ( and be a customer of Sky ) and although that’s conditional access and not the same as IP , the principal is the same , if it’s not the right equipment, no access granted ….as has been stated numerous times , want BT and BT DV , use the supplied BT SH2.

BT DV is much more secure that a generic IP system, and should disputes take place over call charges ( for example ) something a regular IP vendor couldn’t dispute is a complaint, ‘can someone ‘hack’ my service and make calls that I have to pay for , because I never made those calls’ ,  BT DV can say ‘No that’s not really possible’ a honest generic IP telephone vendor would have to concede, ‘yep , that’s possible’ .

[Keith_Beddoe]

BT DV is actually more secure than the PSTN system, as nobody can physically tap into your line to make or intercept calls. Crossed lines are no longer a problem.