Moving from analogue phone to digital

[richwalsh5]

Hello, my Dad currently has a home phone on the old PSTN system. He doesn't currently have broadband or any access to Internet type services. He's been contacted by B.T. about the switch to Digital Voice/VoIP but no one has explained what this looks like for him, how it affects his bill, what new equipment he needs, will an engineer need to visit, etc. I can't find anything on this site that explains the process for someone without existing internet/broadband facilities. Can someone explain it please? Note. That my Dad doesn't require access to the Internet in hia daily life, so keen not to increase bills/have stuff installed he wont use. Thanks Rich.

[iniltous · Accepted solution]

As been posted a few times on here , there are two ways a phone only  customer can be moved to BTDV , neither changes the terms or conditions of the phone ‘contract’ , so rental and calls cost the same on DV as they currently do on PSTN , some people who currently can call ‘local’ numbers without the to code  , will have to start using the full number as you do with a call from a mobile….some areas  of the country even on PSTN had to do that anyway , so hardly a big deal but it’s something to be aware of.

The two methods are , the work is all done at the exchange, so from the users point of view nothing changes , apart from potentially having to use the full national number , or the customer is basically given ‘broadband’ for free , the customer plugs the phone into the supplied broadband router but uses it’s only for telephone, the broadband bandwidth for IP telephony is tiny , if the customer starts connecting other equipment, and uses  it for ‘internet’  ( as that’s also available ) , and the bandwidth consumption is indicative of using the internet like a regular broadband user , internet browsing, video on demand , games etc , apparently they are warned ,and  if that is ignored then they start paying for broadband that they are now fully using it  .

Which one  of the two your Dad will get in anybody’s guess …if a router turns up it’s the broadband option, if it doesn’t its the exchange based version….if they are told it also includes migration to FTTP it’s definitely the broadband version he will get 

[gg30340]

See link

https://community.bt.com/t5/Home-phone-including-Digital/Digital-Voice-FAQs/td-p/2207485

[Jane2018]

It is not goo enough that people are not told enough information at the start. BT could easily add a sentence for those who have no broadband saying - we know you have no broadband connection so the following will happen in your case .....but for some reason they do not.

[gg30340]

@Jane2018 

It is not "for some reason that they do not" send out your suggested message.

Do you think that everybody that has a BT landline would only use BT Broadband as their Internet Provider and as such BT would automatically know who the BT Landline phone users are that did not have broadband?

You can have a BT Landline phone from BT and you can use one of the 100+ Internet Providers in the UK to supply your broadband. In an instance such as that how would BT know that the BT landline phone customer is not using one of those Internet Providers?

The other Internet Providers do not tell BT that they are providing a BT Landline phone customer with broadband so your suggestion would be a meaningless and possibly cause confusion to the BT Landline customer that does have broadband albeit from an alternative provider.

[chrisjp]

"You can have a BT Landline phone from BT and you can use one of the 100+ Internet Providers in the UK to supply your broadband. In an instance such as that how would BT know that the BT landline phone customer is not using one of those Internet Providers?"

That's all true but BT WILL know if an existing analogue landline user is using BT as their ISP.
If they're using another ISP, then BT's DV changeover won't be possible unless BT provides some sort of broadband service.
So BT will know the difference between an analogue landline user who also has BT broadband, and an analogue landline user who either has a different ISP or who doesn't have any broadband at all. So BT could reflect that in the messages they send out to customers, because the method of setting up DV will be different for the two situations.

[gg30340]

BT will obviously know if the user has BT Broadband. I never said they would not.

I was pointing out that users did not necessarily have to have BT Broadband just because they have a BT Landline phone because @Jane2018 stated in her post "BT could easily add a sentence for those who have no broadband saying - we know you have no broadband connection so the following will happen in your case".  (my bold)

@chrisjp In answer to your post DV is not dependant on the user having a BT broadband package prior to making the change over. BT will provide some sort of broadband service" 

As far as I am aware BT will provide a Smarthub 2 and broadband sufficient enough just for DV using the existing phone line to those that BT believe have no broadband.

It will be a simple process to unplug the phone from the phone socket and plug it into the Smarthub phone socket and then plug the Smarthub into the now empty phone socked and then plug the Smarthub into an electrical socket. 

All of which will no doubt be explained when the change over is confirmed.

I agree that it would be in every ones interest, at some point before the change over is confirmed to establish if the user has a different ISP supplying broadband to the property and if they are I have no idea how BT will deal with that if the ISP is still using VDSL or ADSL. 

[iniltous]

Openreach will know if an end user has SMPF (shared metallic path facility) where BT only supply the telephone service and someone else provides the broadband (its likely BT don’t have this information themselves, but before the migration is undertaken they may include an enquiry with OR , not for the broadband suppliers identity just if there is one , if there is these customers will be amongst the last to be changed to DV , possibly with a separate process showing the options the end user will have ….
The fundamentals don’t change, the end user ultimately cannot keep the two providers arrangement , come the time they are in scope for BTDV , they will need to join BT for both , join the ISP for both , or some other option (like leave both companies) but BTDV can only exist on BT broadband.
However this is way off topic as the OP has stated there enquiry is for a BT telephone only service, no broadband from any source 

[Jane2018]

It is going to be interesting to see how this plays out on my landline without broadband. Today I had the email from BT  (I went through this on the easier account 2 months ago where in that case it was simple - just needed a Hub 2 as telephone and bb on same line). This time round this account has a landline with no broadband on it and a second line with broadband - all from BT on the same account.   

So the email says on 4 Nov they will send me a new hub.  Yet that line has just had telephone service on it since we moved here in 1997 from BT. I do have BT broadband on a second different number on that same account but a new hub for that one into which I coudl plug the phone presumably would not help as it would be on the wrong telephone nhumber.

So when I get this new hub on 5 Nov ready for 6 Nov switch over I wonder if it will be a special hub for people without broadband and I some how plug it into the wall where the landline comes into the house? As I hate calling people I am just going to leave it and see how it plays out.

If the new hub will not provide telecons low level broadband on that telephone line without bb then I will then have to make a call and then my call could even involve my cancelling that landline number entirely which would be the simplest thing as I have another landline number on another account and we could just live with the one of them to save a bit of money.

I suppose may be for we old legacy customers with a separate telephone and broadband line BT might try to combine us on the same line with DV but that is not very simple as preserving the old telephone number is the key for loads of customers so the logcal thing woudl be BT moves the  broadband to that telephone number and closes off the other BUT for me that would not work as we have this 2nd broadband line coming into the house 2 flights up on the other side of the house (as well as one downstairs - I pay for two).  Anyway I am going to wait and see and do things bit by bit. Let us see what they post to me on 4th Nov.  It is impossible that BT cannot know that on this account there is a landline without broadband and there is a broadband on a different telephone number with BT which has only broadband on it - the bill which I downloaded and printed today always clearly mentions both numbers and says what they do.