Problem with cabling of landline phone sockets with modern broadband router technology

[Deleted User]

Ofcon define "superfast" as anything over 30mb/s up to 300mb/s which then becomes known as "ultrafast"

Not really useful terms nowadays, and I wouldn't consider 30mb/s fast either and to class 30 and 300 under the same term "superfast" makes it even more confusing.

And as for the term "fibre" being used for both FTTC and FTTP making the whole market an absolute mess in terms of product names.

"Superfast fibre" could mean FTTC VDSL 30mb/s or FTTP 'full fibre' 300mb/s - neither product is comparable in terms of the service they deliver yet can be marketed under the same name.

Anyway, back to your original questions, if you are converting to digital voice lines as many are and everyone will over the next few years, then you can still retain the use of your old telephone extension with some adaptations. You might as well roll with it as it will be happening sooner or later anyway.

Molehusband

Deleted_User said:

Ofcon define "superfast" as anything over 30mb/s up to 300mb/s which then becomes known as "ultrafast"

Not really useful terms nowadays, and I wouldn't consider 30mb/s fast either and to class 30 and 300 under the same term "superfast" makes it even more confusing.

And as for the term "fibre" being used for both FTTC and FTTP making the whole market an absolute mess in terms of product names.

"Superfast fibre" could mean FTTC VDSL 30mb/s or FTTP 'full fibre' 300mb/s - neither product is comparable in terms of the service they deliver yet can be marketed under the same name.

Anyway, back to your original questions, if you are converting to digital voice lines as many are and everyone will over the next few years, then you can still retain the use of your old telephone extension with some adaptations. You might as well roll with it as it will be happening sooner or later anyway.

OK, thanks for clarifying the very confusing terminology where Openreach suggests  "superfast fibre" is available at my address when it's not as it seems I'm actually still on the old copper cabling.as it turns out.

When you mention "digital voice lines", are you referring to VOIP which term no one has mentioned yet in this thread? I already know about VOIP and if you're saying my home phone will actually change to VOIP technology, then there is a potentially a good solution available for connecting my existing landline handsets around my house. I would just need to purchase VOIP adaptors, connect them to my internet cabling (already in different rooms) and plug in all my landline handsets. However, in order to make it work I would need to have the technical details for my home phone to access it via VOIP - will my provider (currently Vodafone) supply me the VOIP data needed for connection?

jon81uk

To my knowledge digital voice is a form of VOIP but you probably won't have full technical access like that, as it is designed to be simple, you just plug a phone into the back of the router.

Molehusband

jon81uk said:

To my knowledge digital voice is a form of VOIP but you probably won't have full technical access like that, as it is designed to be simple, you just plug a phone into the back of the router.

The limit of plugging in just one phone cable in my home is of no use to me. I need to be able to plug in different phones in several rooms. Normal VOIP will allow me to do that by purchasing several VOIP adaptors and plugging each of them into my network in different rooms. Is there no equivalent device for the new "digital voice" system that I can purchase which which can be plugged into different rooms in my network to attach another traditional phone handset?

This "digital voice" seems to take us back some 50 years when we could only connect one phone in our homes. Sure, I am familiar with modern cordless phones but I have 4 sets of them and if I can only plug in one set, what do I do with the other 3 I need to add?

jon81uk

Molehusband said:

jon81uk said:

To my knowledge digital voice is a form of VOIP but you probably won't have full technical access like that, as it is designed to be simple, you just plug a phone into the back of the router.

The limit of plugging in just one phone cable in my home is of no use to me. I need to be able to plug in different phones in several rooms. Normal VOIP will allow me to do that by purchasing several VOIP adaptors and plugging each of them into my network in different rooms. Is there no equivalent device for the new "digital voice" system that I can purchase which which can be plugged into different rooms in my network to attach another traditional phone handset?

Others who have posted in this thread seem to suggest it is possible to plug your existing cabling into the phone socket on the router so hopefully someone else knows more than me. Given it used to be possible to use phone socket doublers with old sockets that seems plausible. 

matelodave

Are Vodafone offering a phone service with your new router?, if so it's not difficult to connect the phone wiring to the router.

It could be as easy as just plugging the phone cable into the phone socket on the router and the other end into one of the phone sockets as they'll already be wired in parallel, so it doesn't matter which one.

You don't need to faff around with VoIP adapters

However, you will need to ensure that the internal phone wiring is isolated f from the incoming phone line at the master socket.

What sort of master socket have you got.


This is what my Vodafone router looks like - https://forum.vodafone.co.uk/t5/Other-broadband-queries/New-model-of-Vodafone-Connect-modem-router/td-p/2607097

If you'll still get broadband over the existing incoming wires then you will connect your incoming line to the red socket.

Your phones will plug into the Green Tel1 socket

If you end up with an optical terminal unit either now or in the future, then it will connect to the blue ethernet connector.

Molehusband

matelodave said:

Are Vodafone offering a phone service with your new router?, if so it's not difficult to connect the phone wiring to the router - it could be as easy as just plugging the phone cable into the phone socket on the router and the other end into one of the phone sockets as they'll already be wired in parallel. You don't need to faff around with VoIP adapters

However, you will need to ensure that the internal phone wiring is isolated f from the incoming phone line at the master socket.

What sort of master socket have you got.

Before my current broadband was installed I just had a mastersocket with a simple POTS socket for connection of all my phones. BT had previously installed the phone cabling from their mastersocket to all phone sockets at a time when broadband did not exist.

Vodafone broadband was installed about 2 years ago. The contract included a Vodafone landline using the old BT cabling  It took Openreach 2 days to install the new Vodafone system due to the telephone cabling needing be re-routed They removed the old BT mastersocket and replaced it with a much larger & complicated socket. This new socket has 2 connections:
1 being an RJ11 (I think that's what they're called) which only goes to the internet router.
2 a straightforward POTS socket which connects to my whole home telephone sockets.

My Vodafone broadband supplies me what they call "superfast broadband" 80Mbps. This is the maximum performance they can currently provide me at home as there is no date for "Full fibre" yet available at my address. The router has 2 green sockets at the back (RJ11 I think) labelled "TEL 1" and "TEL 2" which I presume are phone socket but I don't use them at all. My Vodafone landline is serviced by the new mastersocket which is so big that it looks much more like an electronic device and Openreach gave me the impression this was new technology ready for optical fibre. It looks to me very much a device designed to separates the broadband router and enable the landline phone system to continue to use my home cabling.

What really concerns me that, having reached the end of my contract, Vodafone tell me that if I want  another contract which supplies me exactly the same 80Mbps service (the maximum currently available at my address) I will need a new router which will only support landline phones via attachment to router. I find this astonishing when my mastersocket is designed to connect both the router as well as my phone cabling. Vodaphone's insistence that I must now connect my phone directly to the router will nullify all the other phone cabling I have around the house. This cabling was installed by Openreach only a couple of years ago requiring a massive amount of work lasting a couple of days and involving a totally new modern mastersocket .I didn't have to pay for the work.

Vodafone is unable (or unwilling) to give me any information at all about what I will need to do under this new technology arrangement to retain the use of all the cabling & phone sockets. They tell me I will probably have to get a quote from a specialist business (eg maybe Openreach), which suggests it could be a complicated a very pricey job. I asked Vodafone why I can't just stick with my present router since the broadband speed will not be increased and there is no fibre. Their response was words to the effect of "tough luck, if you want a new contract that will be the deal".

I have had many years VOIP experience and still use it today for some incoming calls. I'm now beginning to think if I were able to use VOIP with my main landline it might be easier than the possible chaos I might be faced with in trying to retain my current landline cabling situation.

HP_Source

Here is a link to a guide on voice reinjection - https://support.aa.net.uk/VoIP_How_to:_Voice_reinjection. This would enable you to use all your existing extension sockets in the same way as you currently do.