Digital Voice Landline in another room from Router

GSD5765

I hope I can explain this properly so that perhaps somebody can help. I recently changed from BT broadband to Vodafone. Openreach installed full fibre into a front downstairs bedroom months ago so that is where we had to have the router. The landline telephone was in the hall and connected to the router with a BT Digital Voice Adapter (see pic). Of course, now that we are with Vodafone the BT Digital Voice Adapter will not work with a Vodafone router. I need to keep the phone in the hall so how on earth can I connect it to the router which is a good distance away? Vodafone tell me that they do not offer help with this. Thanks to anyone who can point me in the right direction.

iniltous

You need to run an telephone extension cable from the router location to the place you want the phone , on this new cable you either reengineer the existing Openreach master socket and connect the extension cable to it , or fit a new socket and connect the extension cable to it and plug the phone in ….at the router end of this extension cable you also fit a socket to the extension cable and buy an adapter cable (two male ends you can get them on Amazon etc.) that plugs into  the router phone port and into the new extension socket , thereby effectively extending the router phone socket to the ‘new’ socket in the hall via the new cable  ….you could do this as a DIY job or pay someone to do it for you .

It’s perfectly understandable that BT make the kit they supplied you with (the DV adapter) only compatible with the BT hub , hopefully you didn’t think you would still be able to use it after you stopped being a BT customer and signed up with a competitor.

TheNorthStar

BT’s Digital Voice adapters only work with BT’s own service, so unfortunately they won’t connect to a Vodafone router. That’s why your current setup in the hall has stopped working.

A good alternative is to look at a Gigaset VoIP phone system. These come with their own base station (for example the Gigaset N300A IP or N510 IP Pro) which plugs into your broadband router, and then the cordless handsets connect wirelessly to that base. You can place handsets in the hall or anywhere else around the house.
If you need more range, Gigaset also make a DECT repeater (like the Gigaset Repeater 2.0) which works as a wireless extender for their phones, so you can cover longer distances or awkward parts of the house.

It does mean replacing your BT Digital Voice phones with Gigaset handsets, but once you do that, the system will keep working with Vodafone and with any other broadband provider in the future.

It's a shame BT's phone system isn't more flexible, not great for the environment.
I'm sure other brands exist, but this is the one we use to do the same thing

TheNorthStar

Thinking about it, I probably have a N510 extender that I'm not using. If you decide to go down that route, let me know. I'd be happy to send it to you.

QrizB

TheNorthStar said:

It's a shame BT's phone system isn't more flexible, not great for the environment.

It's a shame that Ofcom didn't mandate an open SIP platform for digital voice, it would make a lot of these problems go away. (OK it might bring some new ones with it, but mostly they'e understood.)

Stompa

Is the phone in question a DECT phone? If so, then you could attach the base station in the bedroom, but keep the telephone in the hall. Maybe buying an additional charger for the hall as well if necessary. Not the neatest of solutions, but it would work.

mgns

Another option could be, to move the Vodafone router to the hallway. Plug that into the electrical socket that was used for the BT Digital Voice Adapter. Then plug the hallway phone into the Vodafone router. You would then need to run an ethernet cable between the router and the ONT in the front downstairs bedroom.

You may need a 'VOIP adapter' (if Vodafone haven't provided you one already) so that you can plug your old phone handset into one of the 'TEL' ports on the router. I think it's just a RJ11 to BT Socket adapter.