Landline's being switched off - Questions

PHK

twopenny said:

Not heard a thing about this
 and while they've fitted fibre I belive (the vans were here and that's what they said when I asked) it would be devastating if that happens suddenly.
Our little estate has 90% frail and elderly who rely on landline and old fashioned packages.

And while prices of food and fuel are astronomical having to buy a pricey fibre package is going to cause real problems.

Surely there has to be some slow and informed change?
We're already struggling with 3g being shut off and the cost of new phones.

I'm in an area where we go with the flow for mobile reception quite happily and there seems to be no care or trying to deal with that first.
There is no fibre for other than towns and poor mobile with an exceptional number of vulnerable people in a wide rural area.

This is one of the most ill informed and sensationalised posts. (Ageism suggesting older people don't use technology is out of place and patronising  the technogy averse exist in all age groups) 

This transition  started in 2004 and plans have been in place for years apart from a pause during COVID. The same scaremongering happened with Digital TV switchover but that was successfully. 

There are plans  to assist the technology averse.  Someone will come and fit a box that replaces the master socket and supply adaptors for the old phones to plug into. 

As for 3G switch off, something else that started years ago,  it's unlikely most people will notice any difference as their phones will simply use 2G or 4G. 

MouldyOldDough

A local ISP is charging just £4.00 for an unlimited calls package on top of a 150Mb full fibre connection at £25

That's cheap

RumRat

JohnB47 said:

As has been said, once a house is moved to full fibre broadband (FTTP) and home phone, if the broadband fails, the phone stops working.

But also of note is that it will no longer be possible to plug a 'plain ordinary telephone' into the master socket and get service that way. Not just because there won't be such a master socket - the technology will be completely different.

That's my understanding anyway.

I was given an adapter that fits into the router and my 'ordinary telephone' works as it always has.

Miser1964

BT/OpenReach have -

1) Committed to make a phone-only option available at the same cost as current phone-only tariffs to people who don't make any use of internet in their home.

2) Agreed to provide vulnerable customers with a battery backup that will ensure digital phone services will work for an additional hour a power outage occurs. This is a separate provision to using a mobile for 999 calls. Of course one hour isn't so useful as rolling power-cuts due to gas shortages over winter will be in 4 hour blocks.

Marvqn1

One issue is, phone sockets are often at the front of the house where there is no electrical socket. So I guess this means that householders will have to pay for an electrician to fit a power socket for DV?

PHK

Marvqn1 said:

One issue is, phone sockets are often at the front of the house where there is no electrical socket. So I guess this means that householders will have to pay for an electrician to fit a power socket for DV?

I guess there are some properties that have never had a powered phone, answering machine or router plugged into the master socket but I don't know what the answer for that would be or who would pay.

Newcad

Marvqn1 said:

One issue is, phone sockets are often at the front of the house where there is no electrical socket. So I guess this means that householders will have to pay for an electrician to fit a power socket for DV?

Surely easier/cheaper to run an extension from the phone socket to nearer an electrical outlet?

That's how I did it, phone socket is next to the from door with a filter/splitter plugged into it, I got a 10 metre RJ11/RJ14 cable for a couple of quid and ran that along the skirting to where I wanted to site my BT SmartHub2 in the middle of the property.

(TBH I'm not sure the filter box is needed now that it's DV, but it acts as an adaptor for the BT socket to RJ11).

JohnB47

RumRat said:

JohnB47 said:

As has been said, once a house is moved to full fibre broadband (FTTP) and home phone, if the broadband fails, the phone stops working.

But also of note is that it will no longer be possible to plug a 'plain ordinary telephone' into the master socket and get service that way. Not just because there won't be such a master socket - the technology will be completely different.

That's my understanding anyway.

I was given an adapter that fits into the router and my 'ordinary telephone' works as it always has.

Yes but my point is that when your broadband goes 'off' your ordinary telephone won't work. You would have to rely on a mobile phone with access to 4G, 5 G or whatever to make telephone calls.

An ordinary phone relies on 50 volt DC supplied from the telephone exchange, which does not exist on Full Fibre to the Premises (FTTP). Even if that voltage could be supplied locally (using a battery as mentioned by others) you still couldn't make a call because broadband would be down.

flaneurs_lobster

JohnB47 said:

RumRat said:

JohnB47 said:

As has been said, once a house is moved to full fibre broadband (FTTP) and home phone, if the broadband fails, the phone stops working.

But also of note is that it will no longer be possible to plug a 'plain ordinary telephone' into the master socket and get service that way. Not just because there won't be such a master socket - the technology will be completely different.

That's my understanding anyway.

I was given an adapter that fits into the router and my 'ordinary telephone' works as it always has.

Yes but my point is that when your broadband goes 'off' your ordinary telephone won't work. You would have to rely on a mobile phone with access to 4G, 5 G or whatever to make telephone calls.

An ordinary phone relies on 50 volt DC supplied from the telephone exchange, which does not exist on Full Fibre to the Premises (FTTP). Even if that voltage could be supplied locally (using a battery as mentioned by others) you still couldn't make a call because broadband would be down.

The battery backup described upthread is to keep the router alive during a power cut, it has nothing to do with keeping the handset powered. If you have a simple plug-in handset (not a cordless type) it will still function. Broadband does not "go down" during a power cut.

B0bbyEwing

I've not read the replies so maybe this has been answered:

You've been without a land-line for nearly 2yrs but now you say they're being phased out, you're concerned about emergencies....

What do you do currently for the 'just in case emergency' scenario??