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

[Anonymous]

Here it is. I just hope you can't see my phone number.

You will probably tell me I can get broadband it's nothing to worry about! 😂 Some VDSL has been impacted on our line. Is that normal?

[BLaZiNgSPEED]

@licquoriceThe fault was area outage. When I went to enter my BT landline it showed there was a fault in the area and estimate time fix was 5pm when it went down at 11am. Though this didn't happen until 5am the following day.

Even the local BT WiFi Hotspot was not connecting! It simply would not appear in my WiFi scanning on the phone.

We were without internet for 18 hours here in the London Bishopsgate Exchange last month. Never experienced this with TalkTalk for over 2 years, though it could be coincidental. Of-course analogue wasn't going to work anyway. But it's futile to check that as on DV analogue is disconnected anyway, so you can't verify if it is working or not.

Actually that day 5am several Openreach vans came outside and immediately the internet connection returned. I'd take it that it was an exception probably some engineer accidentally disconnected the line outside during roadworks.

I contacted support and reported the fault with my mobile network data. Hopefully one day when we get upgraded to FTTP such faults will not occur or at least will be extremely rare.

[Anonymous]

This is from the broadband checker for our area. 😀

[NeilO]

Firstly I would like to ask everyone to please keep it friendly, we want community members to feel comfortable both asking and answering questions.

@Anonymous The outdated network will be switched off for all phone providers by 2025 and there will be no option to stay on the analogue phone service. So, if you want to keep your home phone, you’ll have to switch to Digital Voice.

From the checker results you have posted superfast broadband is available to you so there won't be any issue there. 

If you’re an existing BT customer, you’ll receive a postcard when it’s your turn to switch. This lets you know how to order a free cordless digital home phone handset or adaptor ahead of your Switch Over Day. If you need a Smart Hub 2, we’ll send you one automatically, there’s no need to order one.

We’re currently working on different solutions to keep people who have no Broadband connected. We’ll be sure to let you know well in advance what your options are. Rest assured, you won’t be left without a home phone service.

Thanks

Neil

[iniltous]

You ask where will ‘broadband’ come from , the same place it would come from if you ordered broadband yourself, in your case , it would be a fair assumption that , sometime before the end of 2025 ( if you are still a BT landline customer ) , you would be contacted by BT to say your migration to DV is taking place on a particular date and that you will be supplied with the necessary ( free) equipment .

In the background, your  ‘line’ is connected to broadband , the very low bandwidth version that can run DV , it doesn’t really matter to you if the connection to broadband is made in the exchange or at a FTTC cabinet, this doesn’t affect the phone service at all……on the appropriate date , you unplug from the traditional phone socket , connect the ( mains powered ) BT supplied ‘box’ into the phone socket and plug your phone into the supplied ‘box’  ( this assumes FTTP isn’t available to you at this time ) and wait.

BT do some clever stuff to move your number from PSTN to DV  , and the ‘box’ starts delivering your phone service, same phone number etc , the only differences to you are minor , like you have to call the full number for a local call  , ( 01***, ******, instead of ******) , but you may have to do that already.

Nothing in advance needed to be done to your line apart from connecting you to broadband  , obviously you don’t just connect the router  until you are told to do so , looking at the predicted speeds for your area , you can get regular broadband anyway , if you had broadband already the journey to DV is even easier.

The vast majority of existing broadband customers leave the router powered up 24/7 with no issues, obviously if someone wanted to switch off at the mains overnight or on holidays , they can do so , but obviously the ‘phone’ won’t work , but even this can be mitigated, that person could put the landline number on divert to their mobile , before switching the router off….any incoming call would now be diverted to the mobile , and then in the morning ( or whenever ) switch the router back on and take the divert off.

[Bob1001]

There are a number of scam warnings about warning people if they are asked to phone their bank etc to be careful that they get dial tone. Unfortunately if your phone is plugged into your Smarthub2 as recommended by BT there is no dial tone.

[gg30340]

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@Bob1001 wrote:

There are a number of scam warnings about warning people if they are asked to phone their bank etc to be careful that they get dial tone. Unfortunately if your phone is plugged into your Smarthub2 as recommended by BT there is no dial tone.

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Gosh, my phone that is plugged into the Smarthub2 has a dial tone, does that mean it's faulty?

[-Richie-]

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@Bob1001wrote:

Unfortunately if your phone is plugged into your Smarthub2 as recommended by BT there is no dial tone.

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All 3 means (PSTN/FVA/DV) of BT providing a telephony service include a dial tone.

[Devon_Dave]

@Bob1001 "There are a number of scam warnings about warning people if they are asked to phone their bank etc to be careful that they get dial tone. Unfortunately if your phone is plugged into your Smarthub2 as recommended by BT there is no dial tone."

Not sure that is the case with the Dial Tone. 

[Bob1001]

That is strange, just checked with a spare phone and I don't get dial tone, Mine is still connected by copper (FTTC) if that makes any difference.

I have a BT adapter and I get dial tone on that.