Please advise about the new phone system that BT will use in 2025

wasty

outtatune said:

the BT Digital Voice already has an answer machine service so it made sense to  the BT Digital Voice already has an answer machine service

outtatune said:-

“the BT Digital Voice already has an answer machine service”

 
Do you have to pay for that.

flaneurs_lobster

wasty said:

outtatune said:

the BT Digital Voice already has an answer machine service so it made sense to  the BT Digital Voice already has an answer machine service

outtatune said:-

“the BT Digital Voice already has an answer machine service”

 
Do you have to pay for that.

To quote from BT Digital Voice online help:

Voicemail  Essential is free. Enhanced Voicemail service will carry a monthly cost.

TBH, I have Digital Voice but have no idea what the difference is between these two levels of service and have used neither.

Jenni_D

https://www.bt.com/help/landline/all-about-voicemail-for-digital-voice-

I'm guessing it is that - effectively ye olde 1571 service.

Neil49

I switched over to the digital system a few months ago but during my research of what was involved I found this useful post on the BT community website which is worth reading. 

https://community.bt.com/t5/Home-phone-including-Digital/Digital-Voice-FAQs/m-p/2207506#M81292

matelodave

I had the BT Digital Voice service from the middle of last year up till January when I changed provider to Vodafone and this is how they work. We also have four Panasonic handsets with an answering machine.

The BT Smart Hub 2 is quite clever insofar as it's a DECT base station, but only for BT Digital Voice handsets (one supplied free by BT), however you can also plug the Panasonic base station (or any other phone) into the Smart Hub and it works just like it did before, except that the Panasonic handsets did not show the caller display.

The answering machine still worked but you had to ensure that the BT answering function was off or that there was a sufficient delay for the Pansonic to answer. (there's no point in having two answering services fighting with each other.

An advantage of the BT DV service was that you could have two simultaneous phone calls on the same line, one with the DV handset and one via the phone socket. You could make or receive a call whilst either the DV handset or Panasonic phone was in use - you could not make two calls using two of the Panasonic handsets

BT also offer a plug-in adapter (like a 13a plug, with a phone jack) in lieu of the the DV handset which allows you to plug your landline phone/base station in and I assume it communicates with the HH2 using the DECT interface (I didn't have one, so cant comment on how it works). You can buy additional handsets or adapters from BT

I did try to pair my Panasonic handsets direct to the HH but it wouldn't recognise them (not surprising really as they are at least 12 years old)

We have now got Vodafone broadband and the router has a phone jack but no DECT facility. We have our Panasonic base station plugged in, all handsets operate normally and all show the caller display, missed calls etc likewise the answering machine functions exactly as it did before.

We returned the HH2 and DV handset to BT when we changed to Vodafone (The handset wouldn't pair with the Panasonic base station, so there wasn't much point in keeping it)

matelodave

No,

Look at the last sentence of my post - the DV handset would not pair with the Panasonic and the Panasonic handset would not pair with the BT Home Hub.

flaneurs_lobster

matelodave said:

No,

Look at the last sentence of my post - the DV handset would not pair with the Panasonic and the Panasonic handset would not pair with the BT Home Hub.

Sorry I appeared thick, your edit to add that last sentence crossed with my post asking the question. I've deleted it.

ImmortalQueen

Evening, to jump on this, I've a two part question (perhaps not in the right area, apologies if it's not).

1). My parents have medical equipment that relies on being close enough to the analogue phone to send through readings with no loss of signal (i.e. no walls to go through). So both are currently located on the grd floor. I know the phone could be relocated next to the router upstairs in the study, but the router cabling can't be moved and neither can the medical equipment. Any suggestions please on how they get around this?

2). Having spoken to Sky, local EE and Vodafone shops, they've all confirmed that broadband internet in my area (with the exception of Virgin who have laid fibre broadband everywhere) can only be received via BT analogue phone (which is what my parents and my block of flats have been wired for).

How is this change going to affect other internet providers like TalkTalk, PlusNet that provide their Internet through a BT analogue phone? I only ask as I want to swap from Virgin's ridiculously high price, but am wary due to this changeover.

TIA