BT Switching phone line to digital, phone line with BT broadband with sky

Meggie951

Hi

My sister has her phone line with BT (as a low user it only costs her £5 per month) her broadband is with Sky (no longer in a contract) she has received a letter from Sky saying they are sorry to lose her but she has not asked to leave. when she called Sky they said it was because BT are changing her phone line to digital and so her broadband with Sky will be cancelled.

Sky have said once the switch to digital has happed they can give her broadband again but she will lose it for a few weeks during the switch.

Seems she has to either lose her broadband for a while or switch to BT.

Has anyone else had this happen and what did you do?

Thank you

iniltous

Your sister is apparently on two separate legacy products, the light user scheme for BT telephony and shared metallic path facility (SMPF) delivering her Sky broadband, neither can exist anymore .

Sky are probably correct in that BT need to convert your sisters PSTN service to a more modern service ( called PDPL , pre digital phone line , a bit like DV , Digital Voice ) ,this cannot have SMPF broadband on it , hence Sky saying that their broadband has to be removed , there is an alternative that would have been to join Sky for telephone as well as broadband but it’s probably too late for that now, she can stay with just a phone service from BT if she wants , but can’t have separate companies for phone and broadband anymore .

TBH , your sister has probably been fortunate to have been on this arrangement for as long as they have , the LUS telephone product was never intended to be used with broadband from anyone , and years ago Sky told all their regular broadband customers that had a regular BT telephone service they had to join Sky for both telephony and broadband or leave Sky broadband , so presumably your sister somehow was overlooked and managed to stay in these products much longer than they should.

From BT point if view , they won’t even know she had Sky broadband, and initiated the change to a newer phone service , this involves Openreach who triggered Sky about the broadband, who have given your sister notice that their broadband is to be removed .

JSmithy45AD

Have a talk with BT about cost for phone/BB combined, I'm guessing she's out on minimum term with Sky for the BB?

Meggie951

Thank you, looks like she will have to move to BT.

SOGEAnamey

The other option worth considering here, is to get the Broadband on a cheap deal, Sky or Plusnet or whatever, SOGEA'ing the line, cancelling the analogue phone. Then rescue the phone number (30 day holding state) to a good VOIP provider.

I like AASIP service (who only want 1.50+VAT a month + cheap outgoing call rates); will provide you with a preconfigured pre-tested VoIP-phone/set e.g. Yealink. However, their billing and control pages are more aimed at their own broadband customers, not to say it can't be perfectly fine once set up. AA's VoIP can easily be set to also-ring calls to mobile phone after X rings, which can be very useful!.

Phonely, Voipfone, and others do good service options, though I suspect higher rental fees.

In any case, it can be highly desirable (and cheaper ongoing) to separate off VOIP and broadband providers; the tricky bit comes with the changeover. By far the safest way is to set up mobile backup and arrange broadband takeover first, accepting loss of service while set up VOIP equipment and "port in" the old phone number etc…

Another thing worth knowing is you can find (ebay) older BT-advanced phonesets (e.g. 090631 090632) -or- Panasonic equivalents, which can connect by bluetooth to mobile phone; this can give you cordless-phone extensions to mobile phone, not actually needing any "VoIP" at all while giving you cordless phone effect.

You can, for example, get unlimited UK calls for 3.99/month with talkhome SIM card in mobile phone, link via MoneySuperMarket, I can't yet post as a link.

In any case, I suspect you will find EE/BT-Retail phone+broadband needlessly expensive.
I could be wrong — do let us know what you find out and do!.

danco

Also note that many companies regard a phone number as part of the broadband contract, so that you can't move the number while still in contract. But not all of them do that. With Hyperoptic, though I had some confusion at first, they regard the phone as an add-on that can be removed at any time, so I just switched it away.

nigelf1234

I thought that if there were people in the household over 70 you could refuse to switch to digital?

littleboo

If you were to refuse to switch to an alternative product, then you would loose service when the PSTN is switched off in January.

SOGEAnamey

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82064009#Comment_82064009

Turns out, not so black and white; many residential with a PSTN line on 31 Jan 2027 may get switched to EVAC analogue line "Emergency Voice ACesss" and any broadband on that line be cancelled!. AIUI They will find they can call emergency and telecare / alarm centres and so-on but not much else, check your facts.