BT phone line/service 'upgrade'

[bernardgreen]

The landline is dead. Long live the landline.

Dead. stone deaf dead when there is a power cut

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

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.

If/when you move to fibre, it will need a fibre router, with a phone port, to give the line an IP number. My router is provided with two VoIP sockets, so I could have two lines/phone numbers. Your old, DTMF phone will then plug into that, and work as normal. I'm not sure whether old pulse dial phones will work, I don't have one to try.

Other than that - my phone continues to work, just as normal, and any callers numbers, show up on my DECT phones.

 

[RrogerD]

I don't know why they try to 'sell' it to customers that they are 'upgrading your service' when it does nothing at all at the pointy end. Why aren't they just honest and simply say, "we're working in your area". Sounds to me that they're forever trying to justify their extortionate line rental-fees. I don't buy it though. Still a bloomin' rip-off but Hobson's Choice here annoyingly.

 

[Vicario]

Bernard - I think that some telecoms companies will provide a power backup to vulnerable customers who will be cut off during a power cut and can't/don't use a mobile phone. The move to digital telecoms is not a bad thing - I bought a couple of BT phones when I was upgraded to fibre (although my old ones still worked). They have many more features (backup for the contacts list for example) and they work flawlessly - only through the BT hub though. I asked for my old copper line to be removed and the Openreach chap drilled a hole in my wall (and then attached a rope) to support his ladder feet as he was working alone. When I offered to put my foot on the bottom rung he said that he couldn't let me do that as it was a Health and Safety issue!

 

[Why Not Indeed]

I don't know why they try to 'sell' it to customers that they are 'upgrading your service' when it does nothing at all at the pointy end.

Not quite nothing, see pcaouolte's post. They have to tell everybody to dial full numbers now. A dull, technical thing happening in the background is being spun as a wonderful new dawn for humanity!

 

[Diver Fred]

You will know if the system has changed from 'landline' from exchange to 'landline' from Broadband Cab as you will have to dial all 11 digits of your neighbours number. That is the most obvious part of the change.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

Not quite nothing, see @pcaouolte's post. They have to tell everybody to dial full numbers now. A dull, technical thing happening in the background is being spun as a wonderful new dawn for humanity!

Shows how little I use the landline, I didn't even realise that.

 

[plugwash]

BT was trying to force everyone onto "digital voice" services where the voice traffic is carried using VOIP over the customer's broadband connection, but evidently that is not working out or at least not as quickly as they would have liked.

Moving voice onto the fiber to the cabinet infrastructure, if that is indeed what they are doing, accomodates BT's goal of closing many telephone exchanges and massively reducing their copper network. Of course it comes at the cost of reliability.

 

[morqthana]

Other than that - my phone continues to work, just as normal,

Where is it plugged in?

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

Of course it comes at the cost of reliability.

Generally, the system will be more reliable, apart from the risks of home power outages. How such outages might affect local exchanges, cabinets, and mobile masts, is anyone's guess.

 

[JohnW2]

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"

Yep, I received a letter identical to that.

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.

As I've said, in my case the bit between the exchange and the street cabinet was 'upgraded' to fibre several years ago, with copper from there to all the houses (as remains the case today) - so that still leaves me wondering what they actually changed last week. As you imply, there has to be some ongoing power source for our phones, either from batteries in the cabinet or via persisting copper back to the exchange.

Maybe the communication between exchange and cabinet was analogue until last week, and is now digital - which would presumably require a two-way analogue-to-digital converter to have been installed in the cabinet?

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

Maybe the communication between exchange and cabinet was analogue until last week, and is now digital - which would presumably require a two-way analogue-to-digital converter to have been installed in the cabinet?

Perhaps you have not noticed the improvements, because you are not using all the available services, on the line? You said you are not using the line for Internet.

 

[Vicario]

I think that there is at least one VOIP provider that won't let you dial a foreign number - can't remember which one. As I dial Spain quite often and France occasionally that would be a big disincentive. Check before you sign up if this would be an issue!

 

[plugwash]

How such outages might affect local exchanges, cabinets, and mobile masts, is anyone's guess.

My understanding is that telephone exchanges have robust backup power from batteries and generators, while cabinents and mobile masts have limited backup batteries at best and nothing at worst.

 

[JohnW2]

Perhaps you have not noticed the improvements, because you are not using all the available services, on the line? You said you are not using the line for Internet.

As you say, I do not use the line for Internet access. However (and, I suppose, inevitable, given it's all I use the line for), all the communications I've received from BT have related specifically to the telephone service (and alleged 'improvements' therein) - and, as I've said, I have noticed no changes whatsoever ('improvements' or otherwise), other than the fact that I now have to dial the full number for 'local calls' (and I would struggle to see that as an 'improvement' )