BT phone line/service 'upgrade'

[JohnW2]

The BT phoneline/service to my village were allegedly 'upgraded last week.

We were unaware of the change happening, and everything now seems to work as before. In particular, we clearly still have a 'powered' copper line coming to our house, since 'dumb' phones still work.

I therefore wonder exactly what has been 'upgraded'. I presume/imagine that some of it consists of a change to 'digital', at some places in their network, although it is apparent that what is going in and out of my house still is (or can be) analogue.

As an aside, as was recently suggested to me about my posts here, it looks as if BT could do with a 'proof reader' ...

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

I therefore wonder exactly what has been 'upgraded'.

Probably, they have now linked to your local village exchange, with fibre.

 

[Murdochcat]

What was your down load speed?
And what is your down load speed now?

When we had a similar upgrade a good few years back we went from and about 6 to 22 mbps

 

[JohnW2]

Probably, they have now linked to your local village exchange, with fibre.

They did that years ago - as far as the cabinet in the middle of the village, but left the cooper from there to houses.

 

[JohnW2]

What was your down load speed? .... And what is your down load speed now?

I don't use their wire/cable for my internet connection.

When we had a similar upgrade a good few years back we went from and about 6 to 22 mbps

When they changed the connection from exchange to their cabinet in our village from copper to optical fibre (a good few years ago) those in the village who used it for their internet connection experienced a marked increase in speed - but I am not one of those people!

 

[333rocky333]

We recently had extra boxes stuck on all the poles down my road ,i have one right outside my house , the bloke opposite still has an old dial phone running from a a copper cable, as an elderly ex post office engineer he refuses to change, i am connected to this same pole but with a fibre cable.

 

[JohnW2]

We recently had extra boxes stuck on all the poles down my road ,i have one right outside my house , the bloke opposite still has an old dial phone running from a a copper cable, as an elderly ex post office engineer he refuses to change, i am connected to this same pole but with a fibre cable.

As I implied, whatever they did, it did not involving changing the copper cables going into all the houses in the village(and, as I implied, have also promised that all types of phone will continue to work), yet a few years ago they changed the connection between their exchange and the cabinets in the village - which seemingly doesn't leave much more they could do, other than to the equipment at their exchange. They haven't (at least, not yet) suggested that any further work will need to be done in the future.

 

[morqthana]

the bloke opposite still has an old dial phone

He still has a pulse-dialling phone which works for dialling numbers? Does he have a pulse to DTMF converter gizmo?

as an elderly ex post office engineer he refuses to change

Is he refusing to change because he is elderly, or because he is an ex post office engineer?

If the latter, what's his engineering justification? And how does he get it to successfully resist engineering changes rolled out by BT/Openreach?

 

[JohnW2]

He still has a pulse-dialling phone which works for dialling numbers? Does he have a pulse to DTMF converter gizmo?

You remind me that I do have some pulse-dialling phones (without any gizmos) somewhere, so it would be interesting to try one of those now. However, I have plenty of 'dumb' DTMF ones, and they certainly still work - which they obviously couldn't if the entire path into my house was optical fibre.

Do you (or anyone) have any idea what this recent 'upgrade' I have apparently experienced may have involved?

 

[morqthana]

The only thing I can think of would be switching off the analogue phone service, an "upgrade" being rolled out everywhere. That has nothing to do with replacing copper cables with fibre, it would not have affected your internet connection had you been using one which ran over copper wires.

But it would have killed any analogue phone stone dead, and you say yours are still working.

 

[333rocky333]

He still has a pulse-dialling phone which works for dialling numbers? Does he have a pulse to DTMF converter gizmo?




Is he refusing to change because he is elderly, or because he is an ex post office engineer?

If the latter, what's his engineering justification? And how does he get it to successfully resist engineering changes rolled out by BT/Openreach?

No idea , will have a look next time i see him, not seen any gizmos its still wired in to an old screw terminal junction box, reason bit of both i think bit of nostalgia and of the mindset of if its not broke keep it, his wife has a mobile though.
He still has old test meters with PO stamped on as well as Telecom

 

[JohnW2]

The only thing I can think of would be switching off the analogue phone service, an "upgrade" being rolled out everywhere. That has nothing to do with replacing copper cables with fibre, it would not have affected your internet connection had you been using one which ran over copper wires.

Indeed, but ....

.... But it would have killed any analogue phone stone dead, and you say yours are still working.

Quite. It's still working fine (albeit a DTMF one). Mind you, do any of the standard phones that people have been using (prior to any 'changeover') actually understand 'digital'?

 

[morqthana]

No - they all stop working as soon as the analogue phone service is switched off.

The physical devices can still be used - there are a number of options.

My experience is limited to BT broadband and the BT Home Hub modem. I believe most broadband providers include a VoIP service. Which broadband modems have analogue phone sockets IHNI, or support adapters with wireless connectivity IHNI.

On the BT broadband modem there's a Type 600 socket on the back that you can plug 1 phone into, and internally the modem does analogue to VoIP conversion and generates a ring signal.

If your home is hard-wired with a number of phone sockets you can take a cable with a 431A plug on one end, bare at the other, connect the appropriate cores to terminals 2, 3, & 5 of the nearest phone socket, and plug that into your modem.

BT do adapters which plug into a mains socket and you plug the phone into that, the adapter connects wirelessly to the modem. These are not the dreaded "powerline" networking thingies. I think they are DECT converters, and the BT modem has an inbuilt DECT base station, and with varying degrees of compatibility you can register any DECT handset with the modem. Or plug your DECT base station into the modem.

You can get VoIP adapters with a phone socket that connect over WiFi or Ethernet to your modem.

You can sign up to a dedicated internet VoIP service as an alternative to the one your broadband provider offers.

The landline is dead. Long live the landline.

 

[JohnW2]

No - they all stop working as soon as the analogue phone service is switched off.

Thanks. That's what I thought and underlines the fact that they haven't switched off our analogue service. They said that the work would only take an hour or three, would be done 'remotely' and would not result in any noticeable change for subscribers other than during the period whilst the work was actually done - and that seems to have been the case, so I continue to wonder 'what they actually did' (they seem to be regarding the 'upgrade' as being 'exciting' ) !

The rest of what you say is roughly as I expected/understood, but thanks for summarising it!

Kind Regards, John

 

[pcaouolte]

I'm due to get exactly the same "upgrade".

According to the letter received from BT my home "phone service is about to get a whole lot better". I will "get an enhanced call plan, which includes calls to any UK mobile and landline numbers - at any time of the day". "On the day of the upgrade the engineer will carry out work remotely at the exchange." "You can continue to use your current phone and phone number and don't need any new equipment."

"There is one significant change, though. You'll need to add the area code to all outgoing calls."

"Your phone still works of there's a power cut"

So, my conclusion from that lot is that the backend somewhere is going digital and the bit between the BT street cabinet and my house is staying the same, copper wires backed up by a battery in the cabinet.