Modem - Digital Voice

[Jane2018]

I just had a "voice text" from BT to the landline number that is NOT switching over so now am a bit worried. I have set the modem up  the other day on the BT account/line which is connected to  the one of my two BT accounts ending in 86. I just looked at the email from BT an dit gives that account number ...86  This is definitely the account number for the landline number which is not  the number BT used for the voice text.

On not a single email from BT does it give the telephone number of the line being switched. 

I suspect I am one of the only domestic customers in the UK with 

1. One account with a landline number on it and broadband (the account number of the one supposedly switching to DV) 

2. Second account with a different landline number on it on a line that does not run broadband and a third line just with broadband on it. (The landline BT called today with its voice text and the other day too now I come to think about it).

So it sound very possible BT have muddled the two accounts.

This is what I propose to do. Tomorrow mid night which is switch over day I will do nothing. If on Tuesday one of the two landlines goes dead if that is not the one I expect then I will install the new modem upstairs instead which takes about an hour and change all the records of modems etc (the upstairs modem is not Hub 2 and BT has only sent one Hub 2).

I knew this sort of thing would happen although all BT Has to do is look at the landline number on the bills for the account they are switching and make sure they are dealing with that landline number not the one on the separate account.

I can see no reason other than a BT c ock up that I would get a voice text to the landline not on the account supposedly switching over rather than on the landline number that is supposedly switching.

So I suppose if I am right if I did not want the 2nd landline number any more and I did nothing the new hub would continue working and the landline number not being switched but the one being switched would stop working (unless i do the hub 2 installation on that second line instead and bring the upstairs hub which is not  a hub2 downstairs I suppose.

[Jane2018]

I wish I hadn't already returned the modem now as I have returned the one relating to the account on the BT DV emails when BT perhaps wanted back the one relating to the different account number  althoguh I doubt BT cares about that. Why doesn't BT put the landline number on the digital voice emails and then I could have alerted them to the fact theyh may be trying to switch a number to DV which is not on the account number they quote? Now I am all worried again. 

Even just switching the new modem Hub 2 to two floors up in the house to the other line  is going to take ages (never mind of course dealing with the separate issue that that landline  is 2 stories up yet the phone is on ground floor in my desk currently so nothing like as simple a switch to DV as I was expected based on the account number they told me (the account number they told me is the line that comes in downstairs  to the room where I have both landline number phones.

[Jane2018]

In talking to my son I just realised it is much much more complicated than that if BT have muddled the telephone numbers associated with the accounts for the following reasons:-

1. The landline to which they sent the voice text has NO broadband on it at all. it is a line that is a bit like an old person with no internet would have.

2. That account also has a different number with no calls done on it which has the broadband . So surely BT would not be sending me the new hub 2 for this account because it would see broadband on one telephone number and on the landline telephone number different on that account no broadband so it would treat that account as like someone without broadband who wants to keep the number they have had since 1997 and woudl have to send the customer some kind of basic no internet modem so the telephone will work.

3. If BT instead have the right telephone number to switch - the one where they did not send the voice text -  then we are absolutely fine - that account moves over tomorrow and I plug that landline into back of the new modem and hope the other account never has to switch.

As my son just said just wait to see what happens tomorrow. What seems clear is that no matter if BT has muddled the accounts and numbers switching the new modem upstairs won't help because that broadband line has no landline on it anyway so I suppose at least whatever happens I will not be moving modems around and both accounts will keep broadband.

Countdown to getting wonderful seamless digital voice tomorrow now or complete mess up.

I wonder if people who have a landline with no broadband on it are switched over would be sent the hub 2 and if I should not have sent back my old hub despite the BT request and used th enew hub 2 for the landline which has no broadband on that line in that case.

Gosh they certainily make it very complicated.

[Jane2018]

And the over night email start with "Your service is now live" but if you read down it means the complete opposite as it says 

"We're still working on your Digital Voice
If you haven't already, please plug in your Smart Hub so we can get your Digital Voice service up and running.
We'll let you know when that happens, you'll then need to plug your phone into your Smart Hub. You'll find the socket at the back of your hub on the bottom left. "

Both landlines including the one which has no broadband on that account are still working so I will just wait to see which landline BT cuts off today -the one on the account with which they are supposedly dealing which would be the simplest thing or the landline with no broadband on that telephone number to which they have sent the voice texts.

[Jane2018]

Good news

May be there is hope. I typed in the 192.168.1.254  thing and today it gives the landline number which is the number obviously  on that broadband line - the one for which I believed (believe) I received the Hub 2 last week. Before today the 192 thing showed service not connected for telephone and now  and that has changed from service not connected to showing that landline number. It shows the word phone.  However the email today says wait until told to move telephone so I will wait.  ... Ah pause - since typing my first post today the landline has gone completely dead on this line   around now 7.25am..

The email of earlier today says do not move phones until they say but may be I can just plug it in and see how it goes

So the voicetexts to the completely different landline must just have been an outlier.

May be all will go to plan for that line (Goodness knows how they will late hopefully not for months deal with the other account with one landline with no broadband on it and another telephone number with no land but has broadband - the logical thing there woudl be to move the broadband to the landline I suppose but one of those two lines comes into the house 2 floors up with just the broadband on it and the telephone line comes into my office 2 floors down so I probably would prefer to keep as is with BT giving me some kind of basic/dumb BT modem for landlines without broadband lines on the line for that one I suppose)

[Jane2018]

So at the risk of boring people still further I have now plugged the landline into the modem and I can call it from my other landline and from my mobile without so far having to restart that new hub 2. 

So it may have gone seamlessly......

I will now do things like try to enable international calls and see what I can do about my recorded message on what used to be called BT Call minder.

Thanks for all the help since 2023 when I thought London was about to switch.

I just tried letting it go to voicemail and it is the BT message not the one for which I pay but I have some 2023 notes about that so will work on that next.

[Jane2018]

I had to reset remote access to voicemail but that is working now.

International calls were already enabled which is good but I left on the BT general blocking even if that means a child of mine in danger in Myanmar on a holiday cannot get through if a blocked country.

I have re-recorded and enabled my personal voice message.

Voicemail £4.34 a month is on each bill for years although voicemail is not included under Digital Voice. I wonder if that will drop off the next month's bill - very unlikely. I may just wait for that next bill in a momth in order to check there,  as on MyBT it looks like I have to do something like "place an order" if I want to change some things and that sounds like a rabbit hole down which I don't want to go. Although inexplicably this account is £97 a month and the other is £122 a month including  a £30.20 line rental charge a month even though both accounts have a landline on them so I have not understood for at least 5 years why the cost of the two accounts started to diverge like that but have left well alone

Anyway in conculsion it sounds like digital voice has gone very well indeed today so hopefully that will be the end of posts from me for a good whil until the other much mkore complicated account set up on the other landline number and separate broadband line is switched over (hopefully only  in 10 years' time)

[Jane2018]

I was about to log out of MyBT and checked the Bills section. Interestingly BT are estimating the end of August bill at less than I now pay - a very unusual and welcome change. Instead of the £92 of last month plus about £5 for calls during the week (only weekend calls are free - the only time when I do NOT make calls)  the estimate  Broadband package £77.46, Landline £8.68,  Bill total £86.14. May be that just over £5 difference is because they will be removing  Voicemail charge from the bill? Currently on that bill there is no landline charge on the bills but now there will be 8.68; whereas my completely separate other account has £30 something for landline each month (not including cost of the calls).

[Jane2018]

It will be interesting to see what BT do with one of my landlines which has no broadband on the line but on a separate number has broadband only (from the days when your phone was engaged when you dialled up the internet. Would they move the broadband provision to the voice only telephone number ( to preserve the landline number) or simply send me a a simple router into which to plug the phone in? If BT made it simpler to cancel a service I might be up for getting rid of that landline number as I already have a different landline number, but unless that were two clicks on the internet and my bills went right down I would not be in the market for that kind of change. I expect BT will do whatever will make it most profit.