What happens to analogue phone line when switching to Digital Voice?

[BLaZiNgSPEED]

Hello,

On Monday I have switched to BT Home Essential 2 (FTTC). I'm in the process of migrating from TalkTalk FTTC after over 2 years. I mainly switched because TalkTalk out of contract price hiked to £40 a month and BT is offering same deal for £20 a month for Social Tariff. I'm supposed to be live by the 18th of July.

Anyway, I opted and selected the Digital Voice option with the free Alexa Advanced Home Phone.

Alexa Advanced Home Phone	-
Smart Hub 2	-

I received an email and text message with a tutorial and video that says the new Alexa phone needs connecting to the router. Does this mean that if a traditional phone is plugged into the Master Socket (Faceplate NTE5C) telephone port, there will be no signal?

Will Digital Voice mean Analogue phone gets disconnected altogether making the telephone port useless with BT? Or will they work side by side at the same time?

There seems to be no clarification on that. I have an existing vintage Antique Telephone Old Fashioned phone. I heard I need an adapter for that to connect and use it with the router for digital voice? There was an option for that, but instead I selected Alexa Advanced Home Phone instead as it seems like the better choice.

But if I don't and just plug it to the telephone socket does it function or is Digital Voice 100% replacing analogue?

I'm aware of December 2025 analogue turn off. But I'm curious to know if Digital Voice and analogue run side by side.

Many thanks.

[jac_95]

Hi BLaZiNgSPEED,

Thanks for the post and welcome to the Community.

This is an automated response as I can see you have a question about BT’s Digital Voice service. Rather than waiting for a response from the Community, you may find an answer to your question by using the search bar on the Community homepage. We also have a thread that contains a wealth of info related to BT’s Digital Voice, click this link to take a look, Digital Voice FAQs.

If you have already looked for the answer to your question and have not found anything that can help, then please ignore this message. One of our Community members will be along shortly to help you further.

[imjolly]

Once you move to DV then your existing phone socket in master socket will not work (unless you make some changes)

However you can connect existing old phones to phone socket on the back of hub and phone will work

[BLaZiNgSPEED]

Many thanks for that clarification! That is what I suspected, but wasn't sure.

You say that I can then plug this old traditional telephone to the router and it still will work. But does that not mean I will need the adapter?

I just had a look at this guide https://www.bt.com/content/dam/bt/help/user-guides/Digital-Voice-Adapter-userguide.pdf

This guide shows the Digital Voice adapter plugged into the power socket and telephone to the DV adapter rather than to the router. Yet, in other guides it says you can connect traditional phone with the router and not just Alexa phone.

Is this DV Adapter only needed if you want a phone far away from the router, say in another room? Otherwise there aren't any other special benefits to it? If all that's needed is connecting old phone to the router?

[jac_95]

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@BLaZiNgSPEED wrote:

You say that I can then plug this old traditional telephone to the router and it still will work. But does that not mean I will need the adapter?

....

Is this DV Adapter only needed if you want a phone far away from the router, say in another room? Otherwise there aren't any other special benefits to it? If all that's needed is connecting old phone to the router?

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There are 3 ways to use BT Digital voice based on your preference:

1. Use your existing handset and plug into the green phon port on the back of the Smart Hub 2

2. If your want to use your existing handset but don't/can't plug in into the back of the Smart Hub 2 say due to wanting it in a different location, then you can use the BT Digital Voice adaptor to wirelessly connect back to the Smart Hub 2 via DECT.

3. The BT Digital Voice specific handsets that wirelessly  connect to the Smart Hub 2 via DECT 

So to answer your question, yes you can connect your existing handsets's base station into the back of the Smart Hub 2 via the green phone port. The BT Digital Voice adaptors are just for you to connect your existing handsets if you don't want to position it next to and plug it into the back of the Smart Hub 2.

[licquorice]

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@BLaZiNgSPEED wrote:

Many thanks for that clarification! That is what I suspected, but wasn't sure.

You say that I can then plug this old traditional telephone to the router and it still will work. But does that not mean I will need the adapter?

I just had a look at this guide https://www.bt.com/content/dam/bt/help/user-guides/Digital-Voice-Adapter-userguide.pdf

This guide shows the Digital Voice adapter plugged into the power socket and telephone to the DV adapter rather than to the router. Yet, in other guides it says you can connect traditional phone with the router and not just Alexa phone.

Is this DV Adapter only needed if you want a phone far away from the router, say in another room? Otherwise there aren't any other special benefits to it? If all that's needed is connecting old phone to the router?

---

As all explained in the FAQ

[VeteranISPUser]

Hi @BLaZiNgSPEED 

The digital voice adapters are cheap to buy so you have a choice, connect your existing phone to the back of the SH2 or use a DV Adapter.

https://shop.bt.com/products/bt-digital-voice-adapter-100121-bt1-G4Z7.html

[Devon_Dave]

Just to make you aware that the vintage phone if connected to the hub pstn port will work for incoming calls however if your vintage phone uses pulse dialling this is not compatible. And you will not be able to make calls. There are pulse to tone convertors available, suggest a Google search. 

[BLaZiNgSPEED]

Many thanks for the explanation! In case I can't use my traditional phone, it won't be a deal breaker as I will have the new Alexa phone to use instead.

Am I correct to think that this service is the equivalent of SoGEA (Single Order Generic Ethernet Access), but simply has Digital Voice added to the package instead?

Since analogue phone is naturally turned off and Digital Voice being activated instead, this should mean a more reliable service, right?

I think this should be positive news because before I use to have problems sometimes when internet would disconnect when unplugging and replugging the telephone wire into the master socket. Frankly, even the upgraded NTE5c faceplate socket did not completely fix this issue when I upgraded to FTTC over 2 years ago.

Also I had problems where connection would drop out when it was ringing, something that was more common in ADSL.

But my solution was to simply leave the phone line unplugged and never use it. Hopefully with the transition to Digital Voice I no longer have to worry about this problem! 🙂

[licquorice]

No, it is not SoGEA. That has no voice capability at all.