Moving two lines to BT digital phone

[Dorsetyahoo]

A neighbour has asked me the following.  Basically they need to be able to get two different phone numbers going to the same router I assume that they are both domestic rather than one as a business line.

We have 2 lines, different numbers, one personal and one for work. Personal one has already gone digital, when the work one does we will loose it because we can’t afford to pay for 2 routers. This is BT’s solution!

There is no way that the same number can be used for personal and business calls, so we will loose one line. There should be a way to keep the 2 lines but alas there is not. So work needs to go to a mobile number in future, not ideal but a solution. 

[imjolly]

surely if one is for business calls only then that must be classified a business line not residential

[licquorice · Accepted solution]

They are currently paying for 2 completely separate analogue lines, why would they expect it to be any different for Digital Voice.

At some point all providers will need to provide a very low bandwidth option with router for voice only lines, not sure when that will happen though.

[iniltous]

This post is open to interpretation, I suspect it could be that the OPs neighbour has two lines , only one of which has broadband, and that’s been converted to to DV , the other line may not have broadband, so isn’t, in the short term , likely to be converted to DV anyway , ( that’s assuming it’s a BT Consumer  line ) it could be BT Business or another provider anyway.

If and when DV is rolled out to all BT customers , those without BT Broadband,  will be converted to a type of low bandwidth broadband but probably the consumer won’t be aware of that ,  they will ( probably ) simply receive a ‘box’ that plugs into the mains , and the phone socket , and the consumer instructed to plug a phone into it,  for the same price as they pay for the telephone only service , it may come with some set up help for some ‘vulnerable’ groups.

As already stated , if they currently pay for two lines , nothing changes from that point of view so a change of the way the service is delivered, DV instead of PSTN , changes nothing as far as charges are concerned 

[countrypaul]

If BT cannot support 2 numbers on DV, then why not transfer one of them to a VOIP provider (line used for business most likely), which would allow both numbers to run over the one BB supply.

[garybs29]

---

@countrypaulwrote:

If BT cannot support 2 numbers on DV, then why not transfer one of them to a VOIP provider (line used for business most likely), which would allow both numbers to run over the one BB supply.

---

What an irrelevant post, the lines will be separate so never going to run over the one bb supply

The post from @licquorice actually gives the correct advice, the lines will be separate & if one is calls only it'll be migrated separately when it needs to be in the future

[Dorsetyahoo]

Update from my neighbour.     Two analogue lines is a lot cheaper than 2 digital ones both with routers. We are forbidden by BT on having 2 routers in one property just for digital phones. We have asked if we can keep both telephone lines, they (BT) say ‘no’. We don’t want to go digital with the second line but they say we will be cut off, but still charged if we ignore the situation. I am sure we can not be the only people in this situation, so it’s time BT sorted it out. The law now states that whoever you have your broadband with they can (and will) also rent you your telephone line. We have no choice but to have BT, but we would change in a heartbeat if it meant we could keep the second number.

[licquorice]

I have no idea why you think you can only have BT. You can have whatever provider you wish for either line.

[Devon_Dave]

As already mentioned, port the business number to a VOIP provider like Sipgate, get a terminal adapter programmed up, plug analogue phone in, and plug adaptor into home hub.