Phone line no Fibre please!

HelenFaye

Hi, my dad is 80 years old and lives on his own, he doesn't use the internet or a mobile phone and I have to help him with his bills.  I have his phone and broadband through NOW TV (I had to get broadband as its was the cheapest way), his contract with them is ending and its is going up in price dramatically and they want to change him to FAB Fibre.  He apparently now lives in a full fibre area which I would love this but he doesn't need it and Fibre takes away his phone line so if he has a power cut he would be cut off completely as he won't use a mobile.  I have tried several sites but as soon as I put in his postcode it wants to give him Fibre, the only company that does a home phoneline seems to be BT but this is expensive.  Does anybody have any ideas of companies that does just home phone or basic broadband and not fibre?
Thanks you

Londoner_1

I'm afraid old copper lines are being phase out , only fibre is being made available.  Plenty of companies do basic fibre, you just need to contact them and explain what you want. They will only provide a telephone service over the internet though.

p00hsticks

Unfortunately I think at some point soon he's going to have to go over to a internet based phone line, which won't work during a powercut, so if you or he are concerned about that happening you are going to have to get him a mobile for use in emergencies.

iniltous

Lower speeds are available on FTTP as well as copper pair broadband, and ( as an example ) most ISP charge the same for 40Mb on FTTC or FTTP , if your Now broadband isn’t FTTC but ADSL ( 20 Mb or less ) then you may not be able to get that from FTTP .
It  depends what is more important to you and your dad , price or remaining on what he has for the time being, if having a phone  service that doesn’t need the router to work , is the most important thing , stay on what you currently have on an out of contract basis , it will be more expensive but ultimately thats the choice 

onomatopoeia99

HelenFaye said:

 so if he has a power cut he would be cut off completely

I know elderly people that don't use the internet or moblies have far more power cuts than everyone else just by reading on here when the prospect of the traditional copper phone line infrastructure finally being retired is mentioned.

Fortunately a solution is at hand.  You can buy a UPS for around £100 to plug the router that provides the phone socket into which will  power it for many hours, probably for days in the event of a power cut.

matelodave

We have had our phone on optical fibre for the past three and a half years and we get regular power cuts, at least once a month usually a bit more often and it's never ever caused us any problem with our phone service.

It can be a bit irritating when using the computer but TBH it's not been a problem and its no different from when we had power cuts before we had fibre and had broadband and phones service using wires. The router shut down and the DECT phones stopped working because there was no power.

JSmithy45AD

matelodave said:

We have had our phone on optical fibre for the past three and a half years and we get regular power cuts, at least once a month usually a bit more often and it's never ever caused us any problem with our phone service.

It can be a bit irritating when using the computer but TBH it's not been a problem and its no different from when we had power cuts before we had fibre and had broadband and phones service using wires. The router shut down and the DECT phones stopped working because there was no power.

Why on earth do you get regular power cuts?

matelodave

JSmithy45AD said:

matelodave said:

We have had our phone on optical fibre for the past three and a half years and we get regular power cuts, at least once a month usually a bit more often and it's never ever caused us any problem with our phone service.

It can be a bit irritating when using the computer but TBH it's not been a problem and its no different from when we had power cuts before we had fibre and had broadband and phones service using wires. The router shut down and the DECT phones stopped working because there was no power.

Why on earth do you get regular power cuts?

Dunno, we live out in the Cambridgeshire fens - its just dropped again (off for ten minutes whilst I was composing this) and its really annoying when I've set my 3D printer or my wife has set her embroidery machine going.

Just one of those benefits of living out in the country 

Eldi_Dos

JSmithy45AD said:

matelodave said:

We have had our phone on optical fibre for the past three and a half years and we get regular power cuts, at least once a month usually a bit more often and it's never ever caused us any problem with our phone service.

It can be a bit irritating when using the computer but TBH it's not been a problem and its no different from when we had power cuts before we had fibre and had broadband and phones service using wires. The router shut down and the DECT phones stopped working because there was no power.

Why on earth do you get regular power cuts?

Birdstrikes a possibility?

southsidergs

HelenFaye said:

takes away his phone line so if he has a power cut he would be cut off completely as he won't use a mobile.

So does he use a corded phone then? If he uses a cordless phone it doesn't work in power cuts either anyway

armith

onomatopoeia99 said:

HelenFaye said:

 so if he has a power cut he would be cut off completely

I know elderly people that don't use the internet or moblies have far more power cuts than everyone else just by reading on here when the prospect of the traditional copper phone line infrastructure finally being retired is mentioned.

I know this might have been a tongue in cheek comment - but there might be some truth in it. My daughter and son-in-law bought a house that had not been touched since it was built in 1964. There were literally three hardwired fuses in the house, one for the lights, one for the cooker and one for all the sockets in the place - this is a big 3 bed detached house. The previous owner bought it new and never did anything to the electrical installation in the 50-odd years in-between because "it just didn't need a £3000 re-wire" but did say "the area is subject to very frequent power-cuts".

One re-wire later and the power hasn't tripped once in 18 months. We live in the sticks with overhead feed to our 1980s house and had clusters of power cuts (3 in a week, nothing for 3 months, 4 the next month etc). We had an electric charge point fitted for the car and part of this was to inspect the wiring. One socket was found to be faulty and the plastic RCD-protected MCB box was replaced with a new metal unit with multiple RCDs. Six months in and no power cuts at all. It cost us £800 (price included a bit of work to add extra sockets).

So, the best way to approach it might be to at least have an electrical inspection to try to get to the source of the power cuts? I know that if/when I move house again I'm going to get a proper electrical survey done - it's given me peace of mind for relatively little money.