VOIP Back up.

theshed

It seems most Broadband providers are turning to full fibre, at least if you want a decent deal.
This involves removing copper cable so fixed landlines no longer work in event of powercut.
I did look at Vodafone, they said nothing available as back up. Talktalk initially said they could supply a 'back up box'.
This would provide power for upto 60 minutes, but when I called back to sign up they had no idea what I was talking about. Nor did the supervisor ?
An internet search gives varying answers, from not available at all, available for 999 or 112 calls only and available for all calls for a limited time ?
My Wife is a Nurse and needs to be contactable. Having a back up would enable her to notify 'base' that she was offline.
They may be able to use mobile afterwards but initial contact has to be by landline, I do not know why.
So long explanation, but is such a device available or not ?

mluton

Copper is going, going...............nearly gone. If you have a phone line this eventually will be voip service.

You could use a Router UPS, Something like this: https://www.broadbandbuyer.com/products/44819-eaton-3sm36b/?gclid=Cj0KCQjwnP-ZBhDiARIsAH3FSRf3i2DyaWmzyPj-41VCZgNf5zaOUsghfO2zrDMKVS9JgqPZaqEdthgaAqIMEALw_wcB

But if your power is out the local exchange power might also suffer in an outage, so your internet connection may not be usable anyway.

Surely her contact number should be her mobile.

theshed

Thanks, that looks like what we need. I will see if Talktalk will provide before I buy.
Or maybe her employer ?
Bizarrely, when her boss contacts her, at all times, on or off duty, it always by mobile, but when on call it has to be landline ? 

Bradden

It seems a little out of date for employers to insist on a landline number.. a lot of people don't have one nowadays. Would they consider changing the policy or i it not that simple?

littleboo

As above, you could provide a local UPS to keep your router ( and cordless phone?) powered for the duration of the outage. Or, if you move to a VOIP service such s Sipgate, you get set rules so that if you are offline, the call is sent to mobile (at your expense) You would need an ATA or a VOIP compatible phone for normal day to day use. There is then the question of how long your local cell tower would survive a power outage, and so it goes on....
Personally, if you need to retain a landline type service, I would consider de-coupling it from your ISP, so that you just buy internet from whoever and your voice runs independently over the top.

theshed

Bradden said:

It seems a little out of date for employers to insist on a landline number.. a lot of people don't have one nowadays. Would they consider changing the policy or i it not that simple?

I am guessing it due to her mainly dealing with elderly folk who may not be comfortable calling mobile numbers. Often seen as expensive, perhaps.
In reality she rarely gets calls direct, so it probably a 'just in case' thing ?
I not sure having a separate landline would help as the b-band provider disconnects the copper line.
I wonder if we change and then just say to her employer that this is the situation and see what they come up with.

DullGreyGuy

littleboo said:

Or, if you move to a VOIP service such s Sipgate, you get set rules so that if you are offline, the call is sent to mobile (at your expense) 

Whilst you could have it redirected to your mobile at your expense you are much more sensibly going to have a VOIP app on the mobile so it rings at the same time as the home phone.

Less necessary these days but it used to be a massive money saver when one of us was overseas as we could call each other for free. Still relevant now, any calls to anyone else are charged at standard VOIP rates rather than overseas rates 

theshed

Interesting comment about call charges. Back in the day internet call where free, we actually had a dedicated 'phone for this.
Now VOIP is more common, the charges are the same as standard landline. Is this money for almost nothing ?

DullGreyGuy

theshed said:

Now VOIP is more common, the charges are the same as standard landline. Is this money for almost nothing ?

No more than a landline is.

UK to UK calls may not be materially different in pricing but voip to voip anywhere in the world tends to be free and international calls are massively cheaper. BT charge £1.38/min to call home (or £0.68 on international friends & family) but our VOIP is 7.5p 

As mentioned above whilst you are not in the UK you still get UK calling rates and so whereas mobile would jump to over £3/min our voip remains at 7.5p