Landline with no broadband

[chrisjp]

"BT retires your old PSTN (analogue) line — the copper service that currently carries your landline number."

Actually that's potentially confusing wording. If you receive your broadband via fibre to the cabinet (FTTC) rather than fibre to the premises (FTTP), your old copper landline can't, and won't be, "retired" - it's still needed for your broadband connection. It's just the association of your telephone number with this line which will be retired.

[iniltous]

What ???
You chose to ask ‘AI’ what will happen , (when you have already been told ) and then apply your own interpretation to that AI reply seems an odd thing to do .
Your telephone only ‘line’ , ( assuming what you have said here about the information you have received from BT directly is accurate ) will  change  your standalone PSTN (legacy phone system) telephone service to BT Digital Voice and you are being sent a BT SH2 router to enable you to be able to continue to have a telephone service this ‘line’ , albeit , it’s will be a DV service .

Your  instructions from BT (presumably we only have your interpretation of what BT have said to you rather than the actual document ) is for you to connect this new  router to the ‘phone only’ line and then connect your phone to the this new router on the date you are told , and this change will be applied, that’s it .

Why you then go and ask AI is unclear , and then you put your own frankly bizarre ‘fever dream’  interpretation on that AI response, which is supposedly swapping your old SH2 on the broadband only line with the new SH2 and by some ‘miracle’ your broadband only line will become a broadband and telephone line , with the number moved from the phone only line to what was the broadband only line ( I guess that’s what you are saying ) but that is utter nonsense, no one from BT telling you that this is what will happen.

If you want to ‘believe’ that’s what will happen , when no official BT channel has said that , (even your own AI answer doesn’t actually say that )  , obviously that’s up-to you .

You could have at any time in the past , combined your phone only line and your broadband only line into a single ‘line’ with broadband and telephone  ( cheaper for one thing will no reduction in functionality ) you presumably had your own reasons not to do this , why you think that BT will arbitrarily impose that on you now , isn’t based on reality , simply your own flawed interpretation of an AI answer to a question you posed yourself, 

[gg30340]

@Jane2018 

You have been making a mountain out of a mole hill for months now regarding your switch over to Digital Voice.

You have over complicated everything in your own mind regarding this and now you are adding confusion upon confusion by adding AI into the mix inside your head. 

BT/Openreach will get this sorted when the time comes to change you to DV without you having to do anything other than call BT when the time comes and ask them for assistance to do it.

[licquorice]

Seriously @Jane2018  get somebody who knows what they are doing to completely rationalise your frankly bizarre communications arrangements.

[Jane2018]

I am very grateful to the help offered on here - thanks. It sounds like the concept that BT will port the landline only number line to the broadband only line on the same account that AI generated is likely to be wrong.    BT have definitely note made it one iota clear as to what I am to do when the hub2 comes as to if I replace my old BT hub on the line without a landline  on it or I plug that into a master socket I have not yet found for the landline only line. It sounds like the AI suggestion which makes loads of sense to me is a red herring I should ignore. 

So that takes me back to trying to find a master socket for the landline. 

When the hub comes I might therefore start by trying to plug it into the place where my landline currently plugs in so see if that works although I don't think that is the "master" socket. If that doesn't work I will then get ladders in the garage and plug the hub into what I think might be the  master socket for that landline in the garage.

If that does not work I suppose I could try the AI suggestion  of replacing the hubs and plugging landline into the other number line hoping BT port over.

The BT email today does not mention telephonenbumbers or account numbers and says "When your equipment arfrives. For help getting set up ..refer to the set up guid that came with your equipment or vist BT broadband set up pages.. if you're using one of our older hubs... it wont' work with your service " [ I am not using any hub on the landline number line] "You'll need to replace it with the hub we;re sending you"

I think they should add for people like I am "If you have no hub or broadband on that line just plug the new hub into your telephone master socket. This does not affect any separate broadband line you have on the same account which you should leave alone".

I really don't think I will be the only customer with inertia in the UK who still has a legal landline with broadband on same account but different line from days of old dial up when 2 lines meant you were not engaged when on internet or telephone and if you wanted both at once you had to pay for 2 lines.

If I were BT I would port people like that to the one line but I suppose if they want the hassle and expense of providing two modems and keeping 2 lines going then that is up to BT. It is all as clear as mud to me.

[gg30340]

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@Jane2018wrote:

It is all as clear as mud to me.

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That is because you have made it that way. 

When BT contact you to tell you the exact date that the change over is to be made, call BT and ask them for assistance with getting things changed over as you have absolutely no idea what to do and that you are unable to change things over your self. 

BT will send somebody out to assist you.

Until then DO NOTHING especially do not ask AI or people who have even less knowledge than you. 

[iniltous]

As pointed out ad nauseam , the phone line you have without broadband has a phone connected via a cord , either a corded phone or a DECT phone base station , the cord is plugged into a phone socket …it doesn’t matter if it’s not a master socket and is an extension socket , as you only need DV telephony  , if broadband would be poor from this socket , that is unimportant , as you only need a tiny amount of bandwidth to run DV , so it not being as efficient as a master socket would be for broadband is irrelevant…..plug the new router into that socket that has the phone connected to it  at the moment, exactly whats is difficult about that ?  just trace the cord from the phone to locate the socket.

You seem to be unsure what line this BT communication is about  , is it phone number only line or the broadband only line , it’s not like to be the broadband only line , if it has no telephone service then you don’t need a new router for it do you , but the obvious thing to do ( which you presumably haven’t done yet ) is call BT and ask , ‘is this router being sent out in relation to my telephone line or my broadband line ‘  , have both account numbers ready as obviously your broadband only line needs the account number to retrieve its details as it doesn’t have a telephone number .

[licquorice]

Actually it does matter if the master socket is filtered. The extension socket will work fine whilst on the PSTN but won't work with DV if the hub is plugged into it.

As previously stated, @Jane2018 needs to get the whole place sorted out by someone who knows what they are doing.

[iniltous]

If this line has never had broadband why would it be working as an extension from a broadband filtered master socket , if it’s an extension socket , I’d wager it’s a ‘regular’ extension socket , but admittedly it may not be .

[Jane2018]

I remain grateful for the help. This gave me a ray of hope/simplicity "it doesn’t matter if it’s not a master socket and is an extension socket , as you only need DV telephony , if broadband would be poor from this socket , that is unimportant , as you only need a tiny amount of bandwidth to run DV , so it not being as efficient as a master socket would be for broadband is irrelevant" as that until I had a moment of truth in bed last night was what I thought I would do (as I did very successfully for my other landline that has broadband on it and a different account nuumber a month or two ago - master socket in that case is right by the phone in my office).

What I think I will do is try plugging the new hub into where I currently plug in the land line and see how that goes. if it does not work there I wil try the garage possible master socket. If I then have to call BT I expect that will take 60 minutes and be very unlikely to get me anyone who understand the concepts of 21 different accounts to the house, 3 telephone lines and all the mixtures I have so a good chance they might well cut off all broadband on each of the 2 broadband accounts on which we depend. If BT are not understanding on the phone my other option is simply ask them to cut off that landline number but even that worries me as they might cut off one of the 2 other numbers by mistake.

I will try not to think about any of this until the new hub arrives.