Help with Digital Voice - Utility Warehouse

sirmione

Hoping for some advice about how to sort out Digital Voice for my elderly mother. She's with Utility Warehouse for broadband and landline. They haven't been in touch with her about Digital Voice and she's now worried about what happens in January. I dont think she was even aware it was happening until one of her friends got their system upgraded for it by their provider.

I've told her to phone them tomorrow to ask but does anyone know if Utility Warehouse should have been in touch by now? Her original supplier was different but there has been a number of company buyouts/have sold their broad band business on so she's now with UW. Is it possible she's been forgotten about because of her previous supplier (think it ws Ovo) being bought by UW? Or does she maybe not need it at all, I think I read that a specific type of copper wire is still going to work post January?

Basically, Ive got a worried technophobic mum who needs some support and I don't really know where to start?

Thanks for any help you can give

Vitor

OP should register her mother with UW as a vulnerable adult.

Digital Home Phone Switchover - FAQs Broadband and landline FAQs

flaneurs_lobster

Is your mother receiving communications from UW in the normal run of things, so monthly bills and so on?

The switchover shouldn't come as a surprise, as long as UW communications are opened and read routinely.

Are you familiar with the process? Only real issue is if the router needs to be replaced - means passwords need to change somewhere.

sirmione

Thanks for the replies so far. She has been getting and reading bills from them but she says nothing in it has mentioned that she needs to take any action on the switchover.

To be honest I don't know much about the process, my own supplier Is VirginMedia and they sent me a new router and told me how to set it up, no idea on how providers who use the copper lines go about it.

The router she has is old so i suspect she'll need a new one, but will she need anything else done like new wiring?

molerat

The only thing that is changing is that the separate analogue voice signal will be switched off and instead passed as a digital signal. The existing wiring will not be changing (in the immediate future) and the existing phone will need to be plugged into the back of the router, either directly or with an adapter which will be provided by the ISP, instead of the socket on the wall. Not all routers will support digital voice so the ISP would need to supply a new router which would mean changing log ins either by reconnecting each device or changing the new router SSID and password. The only slight complication is that if her phone is a really old pulse dial she would not be able to dial out so would need another phone.

https://help.uw.co.uk/article/digital-home-phone-switchover-faqs?relatedArticle=true

sirmione

Thanks @molerat for explaining that so clearly.

Sounds like she just needs to contact her provider and find out if her router supports it If it doesn't, she'll need to get a new router from them and then it'll be for me to set it up and connect her device to it. Hopefully it goes as smoothly as that.

Thanks to everyone for their help, much appreciated

danco

If you are doing the setup, it is worth checking if you would prefer to get broadband from UW and phone from somewhere else, might be more convenient.

Technically, to do that, you would need either an ATA adapter for the router or a third party router with an included phone socket. That's because the phone socket on the provided router can't (in practice, may be theoretically possible) be programmed to hook up to a different provider.

Of course, all that may just be too much of a hassle for you.

iniltous

If Utility Warehouse are a wholesale customer of Talk Talk (which is quite possible) then they are unaffected by the PSTN switch off (Publicly Switched Telephone Network) because they are not on PSTN to start with , Talk Talk have their own equipment in the BT exchange (called a MSAN) capable of providing telephone, broadband or both ( it’s a multi service access node ) , this isn’t PSTN equipment , so when BT and Virgin (really the only PSTN suppliers) switch off their PSTN equipment in January 2027 , TT customers (and customers of communications providers that use TT MSAN equipment ) continue as they were completely unaffected , TT were even making a virtue of this , advertising for those worried about PSTN switch off to join TT to avoid the PSTN switch off , TT MSAN telephony is similar to PSTN in that it doesn’t need broadband or local power at the customer to power the telephone , the MSAN provides the 50v down the copper pair like PSTN .

At some point TT will need to go to IP telephony,( DV is just what BT calls their IP telephony, it’s unfortunate that others also call their IP telephony DV as it’s fools people into thinking all IP telephony is DV , but it’s just BT brand name really) but TT are not working towards January 2027 .

None of this is affected by TT being rescued from failure by BT .

sirmione

Thanks for the most recent comments, even though they've muddied the waters somewhat…. I'll see what UW say to Mum when she speaks to them and will take it from there

JSmithy45AD

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82172935#Comment_82172935

Ha, I was thinking the same about one or two of the later posts.

I can't see that anyone has asked or you've mentioned it but what is her house phone actually plugged into at the moment? If it's plugged into the old BT phone socket on the wall, then the router at least will change and (hopefully) the existing phone simply plugs into the new router with possibly a short cable due to the different sockets used.

If it already plugs into the router then nothing will change for her at all.

spenderdave

My sister in law also is on UW (broadband and phone via landline) and similar has had no communications at all from UW apart from normal bills. Thanks for the explanation, it seems she has nothing to worry about.