Elderly/vulnerable customers without Broadband - Notification of new Digital Voice service

[blackprince]

OK, if no-one knows that would explain the people assertively stating mutually contradictory positions, and getting stroppy when everyone doesn't believe their One True Faith.

I'll just have to accept that BT haven't yet thought adequately about how to preserve service if people like my mother, and we'll need to prepare ourselves for a potential battle get them to behave decently when the time comes.

[wkirkman]

@blackprince 

Though many explanations have already been given and you appear to not understand them, I thought perhaps I would try as well.

Back in the day I can remember in my first job when 'Broadband' first came on the scene...

You had a phone line and a phone service on the PSTN network.

You purchased a broadband service that ran over this phone line using difference signals that didn't interfere with the phones (when using filters when necessary).

So the phone service could be with, say, BT but you could have Freeserve as your ISP, for example.

Not a problem. Different types of signalling, shared on one copper pair.

But PSTN is being switched off and the phone service will now use Internet Protocol packets to deliver the call data, in the exact same way websites are displayed and the such, what we know as 'the internet'.

So, herein lies the problem.

Each ISP is now no longer allowed to offer a PSTN phone service so their options are: offer no phone service, or, offer a VoIP service as a replacement that uses IP packets.

Some ISP are choosing to dump the home phone idea.

Others are choosing to offer the VoIP solution.

So your options here are these:

If you wish to keep your phone with BT you 'MUST' use their broadband service to have it delivered 'by BT' - this is Digital Voice, but to all intents are purposes, call it BT Phone. BT Phone is provided by BT so would need BT Internet to deliver it.

If, however, you wish to stick with your current broadband ISP, if 'they' offer VoIP, you can try to get your number ported from BT to them — or take a new number. If they do not offer VoIP, you can go with a "third party VoIP provider" — I will elaborate on that next.

If, however however, you wish to stick with BT or your Broadband ISP but do NOT want their phone service — well, you don't have to have it. You can 'STILL' opt to port your number to a "third party VoIP provider". That's not a problem.

So, to 'replicate' if you like, what you already have, you could have your broadband with 'whoever it is with' and then have someone else entirely provide your phone service.

The sticking point that is being contradicted is, if you want to STAY with BT for your phone, you MUST use their broadband to deliver their phone service. Just like you can't order a Big Mac at Burger King. Even though they both do burgers.

But you can always go to Burger King and get a generic burger from the burger van down the road  —  no one is stopping you.

As for your mum, my dad is 84 (just turned) and luckily he had a son who is an IT Engineer. For those not as lucky, then yes it will be a change. But as others have pointed out, just because you don't like it, doesn't mean its not fair or not happening. So:

Internal telephone extensions. No, BT aren't going to change that for you. You say that they are going to break it and therefore should fix it? Well, I am going to assume, unless the house is old, they probably didn't put the extensions where they are right now — and if they did, as I said, it would have been a long time ago when Post Office Telecommunications were still solely responsible for such (in which case the wiring needs updating) or they were paid to do so. Otherwise, someone likely had a handyman put them in. Either way, Openreach is only responsible up to the demarcation point of their network. That is in a lot of places at the point where their wires enter the house — in my case its where they enter the house and carry on into a junction box, then to the Master Socket. One way or another, they are responsible up to the 'back plate' of the master socket only. The front plate onwards is, and has been since the mid 1980's your responsibility. That is where the extensions connect, and where they then go. Sorry that you do not find that convenient but it is true, and so… what do you do about it?

Well, simple actually. You attached the extensions to the green socket on the back of the Smart Hub 2 — you don't have one of those (yet) at your mother's house, and so, you can't really 'plan for it' until you do. As I am sure detaching the extensions right now will cause your mum more of a pain as you have nothing new to connect them to. As to 'how' you go about this, when the time is right, there are multiple ways you can, all of them logical and you would have to choose at the time the way that best suits your needs. Mine is just extended out from the bottom of the master socket where it used to be joined, and a BT plug is on the end of that, plugged into the router directly. Yours may have to be different.

I think everyone else has covered the rest as well or better than I would anyway and this is a very long post. Hopefully it is helpful, if not then, I apologise for being not very helpful.

[Jane2018]

I have in preparation for DV removed 5 or 6 landline corded phones from around the house so just have the two separate numbers (landlines numbers) with  corded phones coming into my home office now. I felt I might as well start preparations and get things a bit simpler for when BT send us the hub/hubs 2 for digital voice. ALthough so far it feels like I jumped the gun - I was told BT were moving London to digital voice by end of 2023 and here we are into February and nothing has yet happened. I just to know exactly what will hapen with things and when including the 20+ differences I have so far found out often via here as to what will be different which I don't think BT list as well as they might. I don't want to be told it is simple if lots of things are different - eg taking the phone off the hook which I do every day when I pop into the garden or go off so it goes to call minder as soon as someone rings in - completely different with DV, should be put on a list to customers along with all the other differences rather than conning people into thinking you just plug the phone into a new modem you will be sent as if that were the only change!