Switch to digital - old phone

[DavidJ2]

Hello

Photos attached for Reference to this question

We will switch to digital in a couple of weeks.  Will we be able to use our existing phone with the new service - ?  ?

The phone is a BT phone 

[chrisjp · Accepted solution]

If your phone has a standard BT plug then yes - just plug it into the green socket on the Smarthub2 that you should be sent before the DV transition

[DavidJ2]

That's great - thank you for the quick reply.  The salesman said I needed a special adaptor and another person said I needed the VOIP passcode!  I was getting lost in it all.  My 92 year old mother likes the current phone - so we'll do as you say and hopefully that will work.

Thank you again

[Redders01]

We were told our old number would be changed onto new line on same day fibre was installed, well it took them 2 months to port the old number over to DV phones,  you may have to keep an old phone and attach it to hub until number is ported over, 

[licquorice]

Number porting and how and where you connect a phone are entirely unrelated.

DV is only accessed via the hub regardless of number, analogue service can only be accessed via the normal phone socket.

Number porting is not the same thing as transferring to DV.

[StuartHK]

As chrisjp said, all you are doing is moving the phone plug from the wall socket to the green socket on the back of the Smart Hub 2.  If you don’t have a Smart Hub 2 already, they should send you one before the change.  It just replaces your existing router.

Where the adapter comes in is if the position of the Smart Hub 2 is going to be inconvenient to connect the phone.  BT will supply an adapter that acts like a plug-in phone socket.  You plug it into a power point.  Plug your phone into the adapter and it then communicates back to the Smart Hub 2 using similar technology to a cordless phone.

As far as the number goes, I was on FTTC/VDSL Fibre 1 before and after.  The number moved to the Smart Hub 2 the day the switch went through.  There is a bit of confusion floating round here.  The change to DV is completely separate to the change to full fibre FTTP.  The one does not necessitate the other and DV will be delivered over copper where necessary until everyone is eventually moved to full fibre.  (And I wouldn’t hold your breathe for that).

[chrisjp]

I would add that the DV adapters work well - I have two with my old extension phones plugged into them, and one phone plugged directly into the SH2. One DV adapter is free from the EE/BT online shop if you use the code sent to you with the DV migration information.
Just one caveat - some older phones won't ring when plugged into DV adapters, but this can be fixed by using an old ADSL filter between the adapter and phone. The filter connection is of course not needed but I understand that most filter units have a capacitor in them connecting the "bell" wire to the two phone wires. It's a shame BT didn't put a capacitor in their DV adapters.