Why is bt's rollout of digital voice such a disaster

[nednott]

I  ordered full fibre 100 with mandatory conversion to  digital  voice in Dec 23 .  The  engineer  visited on 8th Feb 24  ,  cut  the old line installed  smart  hub  but was unable to get dv working  .  He  rapidly scarpered  proferring an  urgent callout  as  excuse .  Since  the  we  have  had  poor  broadband at only 50mbps and  no landline or  digital voice .  The  activation date  for   digital  voice  has been  deferred on  four  occasions without  explanation ,  at  present  scheduled  for  2nd april  .  We  are  both  elderly  though not disabled   and  our  lives  have  been  significantly  impacted  by loss of  service .  Does  any body  know  what is  going on  and why  bt   do not have  the  courtesy to provode an explanation

[jac_95]

Hi nednott,

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.

To learn more about the nationwide change to this Internet based voice service visit landlinesgo.digital

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.

[nednott]

I've already spent hours doing that .Lets face it BT's rollout of digital voice is a complete disaster , we've been without a landline for 5weeks and the activation date keeps being constantly deferred without explanation . BT are acting irresponsibly putting lives at risk and acting with impunity . The programme should be paused till the technology is sorted out

[iniltous]

As a counterpoint, my migration to DV was seamless, I unplugged my landline phone from the copper NTE master socket and into the phone port on the newly supplied SH2 router , and within 2 minutes the DV phone service was working  (via the broadband connection ) …..obviously it’s unfortunate when things go wrong ,as they seem to have done for you ,  but you have to keep a sense of proportion, most migrate to DV with no issues at all .

[nednott]

Have  a  look at  trustpilot  there is not one positive experience on there

[WSH]

I was moved over in September and everything went fine.  I've had no problems since. 

(Although it was delayed at one point.  The original move was scheduled for June and then cancelled, for no obvious reason).

Edit: The problem with things like TrustPilot is that most people only post a review when they are unhappy, so it is automatically bias.  I know, I'm guilty of it myself.

[licquorice]

Sigh, people don't report successes, they only complain.

My transition to DV was seamless, as was the vast majority I suspect. There are very few posts regarding problems with the transition despites thousands of customers being transferred. If there was a massive problem, the forum would be inundated, it isn't.

[-Richie-]

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@nednottwrote:

I  ordered full fibre 100 with mandatory conversion to  digital  voice in Dec 23 .  The  engineer  visited on 8th Feb 24  ,  cut  the old line installed  smart  hub  but was unable to get dv working  .  He  rapidly scarpered  proferring an  urgent callout  as  excuse .

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He wasn't there to setup Digital Voice, he was there to install the broadband, to Openreach you don't have a phone service, you only have broadband.
Digital Voice is not an Openreach product, it's a BT service.

[Jane2018]

It cannot be going well if we in London were told we would be moved by end of 2023 and it has still not happened and even the messages about it on my telephone bills no longer appear (as it if is in some kind of yet against postponement phase). Not that I mind it is not happening as long as I change nothing on my accounts ever,,, the longer I am forced on to it the better. It would be great to be the last person in the UK left on the analogue service that works so much better.

[chrisjp]

"...obviously it’s unfortunate when things go wrong , as they seem to have done for you , but you have to keep a sense of proportion, most migrate to DV with no issues at all ."
This is true - my migration to DV want reasonably smoothly also. But I think the real problem is BT's/Openreach's apparent inability to put things right promptly whan installations do go wrong. And also their complete inability to keep the customer informed about what is being done to put things right.