FTTP Broadband Question.

[Iota]

So OpenReach have finally upgraded in my area and I can now get FTTP broadband (finally). However, everything I'm looking at doesn't include a phone line??

So how does that work exactly, can I still get a normal phone number and use a phone with the same number? Seems a bit confusing from everything I've read. I'd like to get decent speeds, and phones are going digital by 2025 or something anyway, but what hardware do I need to still be able to make phone calls without having to use any apps to do so?

Anyone had experience of this?

[Jonj1611]

Usually well for Virgin anyway. You just plug a normal phone into the router.

So I have my normal phone plugged into the router and have a normal phone number with area code

[Hoonigan]

BT provide you with a BT Smart Hub 2 that you can connect a phone to, or they can give you wireless (Not Wi-Fi) phones that connect to the router.

[OwP]

My FTTP provider charges extra for a phone connection. I use a free incoming VOIP service with a local number, combined with a Cisco VOIP adapter (£25 on ebay). Have been running this for 4 years. Looks like the free service I use isnt taking new subscribers, if that goes the cheapest option I found is £1.20/month, or might not bother
https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.ph...nsumers.html/2

[Iota]

Useful to know, none of them seem to mention anywhere how it all works, having a landline albeit digital is still useful. I've got a mobile to emergencies if there is a power cut so that isn't an issue. Going with BT again, they give you a phone for free.

Thanks for the info!

[Saracen999]

You may have already sorted it out, but to get a normal "number" should just be a case of getting phone "service", and you will either need a small adapter (about a fiver, -ish) or nothing at all in the way of "hardware".

I still (for now) have a conventional "landline" phone. Had it years. In fact, tecnically, it's a "base" with several DECT handsets dotted around the house. It's connected to a socket in the wall. I have two socket types - one from BT which is conventional copper and goes WAY back, i.e. 70s, and the other is Virgin, which connects to a box outside the house which is their incoming cable connection, and appears to be where their TV/broadband services split off from their conventional phone service, with those old DECT phones, which are currently plugged in (via RJ11?) to the wall socket.

The reason I menion this is that I'm in the "changeover" period. My old, conventional phone service is being switched off sometime in the next few weeks, whether I like it or not, and I don't, but that'snother story.

What do I need to change over? Well, I already have a new-ish VM router, as the old one died about 6 months ago. The new one has two "phone" sockets on the back, a well as several LAN sockets (not that I use that router as a router - it's in modem mode.

All I need to do to switch to the new VOIP digital phone service is, when their "do it now" letter arrives, or the phone stops working, is to remove the RJ11 cable from the wall socket, plug it into that £5 adapter (which VM supplied) and plug that into the (top) phone socket on the router.

Job done.

No apps required. No extra hardware. No change of number. Nothing else.

M assumption is that the 'adapter' does nothing beyond RJ11 to RJ45, and whatever is needed to use existing phones is built into the routers VM have been supplyig fo some time by default.

I would guess, therefore, if I hadn't had to have the new router 6 months ago I'd need it now anyway. And that that is the essential hardware change necessary IF it hasn't already been done. I'd also guess the same is true of BT, Openreach or anyone else running over those connections.

I know that's a very basic level of description, but I've done it that way, Iota, to hopefully cover you, Iota, but also anyone less techie that happens across this by way of a search engine link. It is NOT, in my opinion, terribly well explained by Virgin, though I've no idea how well BT ec do it. But I sure had more questios than answers, and VM weren't good at covering them, at all.

In fact, for the basic service to be up and running, the user doesn't need more technical skills than unplugging the cable from the wall socket, and plugging it in t the router, maybe via an adapter.

When it gets tricker is :-
- will I still have phone service in a powercut? Answer = no.
- what about if my broadband connection is down? Answer = also no.
- What if I need emergency connection? Mobile phone, or talk too phone provider, who should provide an 'emergency number only' mobile.
- what about other devices? Truecall call blocker? Should work, I'm told.
- Alarm system with call dialler? Ummmm, tricky. Might need to talk to alarm supplier.

[jimbouk]

I will be facing this dilemma soon as we've got fttp on our street. I think I may well just drop the landline - only my mum and every company who demand a phone number who I don't care about get it, the former now actually uses their mobile and the latter, well, the same number would do after it's disconnected!

Power cuts and emergency call buttons were a bit concern, have they figured that out yet?

[Iota]

When it gets tricker is :-
- will I still have phone service in a powercut? Answer = no.
- what about if my broadband connection is down? Answer = also no.
- What if I need emergency connection? Mobile phone, or talk too phone provider, who should provide an 'emergency number only' mobile.
- what about other devices? Truecall call blocker? Should work, I'm told.
- Alarm system with call dialler? Ummmm, tricky. Might need to talk to alarm supplier.

Battery backup system covers the first part for one hour, equally BT do the hybrid thing with EE that still gives you a phone service via a sim card should the broadband have an outage. Alarm system for me personally isn't an issue as that also has it's own sim card.

There was an adapter option to use the old handset, but not knowing if it's DECT or not I just couldn't be arsed and will get the free one to make sure it does work. As far as I can see, the old copper option only goes away in 2025, I'm just jumping into the local exchange while it's available to do so, prior to everyone else having to do so with no foresight on the changes, that haven't been well communicated.

I will be facing this dilemma soon as we've got fttp on our street. I think I may well just drop the landline - only my mum and every company who demand a phone number who I don't care about get it, the former now actually uses their mobile and the latter, well, the same number would do after it's disconnected!

Power cuts and emergency call buttons were a bit concern, have they figured that out yet?

I'd have opted for purely broadband myself, however having both parents living with me so I can keep as much an eye out for them as possible makes it an impossible option due to hospital / doctor appointments galore. Otherwise I'd get rid of it completely, I rarely use it myself now (maybe twice a year?).

Powercuts they've not really figured out beyond battery backup for an hour. Emergency call buttons / medical emergency / fall buttons are still being tested out for compatibility.

[AGTDenton]

This has been an interesting read as my FTTP provider doesn't give you the option to install a phone. They're probably too small an outfit to support such a system.
Not that it bothers me as I've only had a phone line once and all I got were dodgy international calls at 3am so that got unplugged pretty quickly. I still had to make 1 pointless call a month to avoid some stupid fee which irritated me so since then I've never had another landline and I'll probably never have VoIP.

[MrJim]

I've currently got BT FTTP, although my contract runs out at the beginning of May. I'll probably be losing my landline when I start a new contract (not sure yet whether I'll stick with BT or change to another ISP). It seems that almost all new FTTP services are offered without a landline, but if you really do want a landline, you're forced to make do with FTTC instead.

[jimbouk]

Definitely a market for an idiot proof VoIP service, from what people have said it sounds like there's a little box you can get and the set things up yourself. I guess keeping your number would be the killer feature for most people who want a land line, I don't think you can just ask BT for a PAC code though...

[OwP]

Definitely a market for an idiot proof VoIP service, from what people have said it sounds like there's a little box you can get and the set things up yourself. I guess keeping your number would be the killer feature for most people who want a land line, I don't think you can just ask BT for a PAC code though...

You can port numbers across to some of the VOIP services, but you have to pay.

[jimbouk]

You can port numbers across to some of the VOIP services, but you have to pay.

Yeah, I did have a quick search after posting. £20+vat, 20 working days, multiple forms and it cancels your landline & broadband. I guess if you're getting FTTP you could try and schedule everything as independent events then, well it'll probably all go horribly wrong and you'll have no internet for a month and lose your number

[DanceswithUnix]

I guess we're all looking at this if we haven't been through it already.

Our street has been thoroughly dug up by CityFibre and then OpenReach. Still waiting for someone to be able to connect me though, so I guess it isn't all plugged in yet somewhere as broadband checkers tell me the "good news" that I can get FTTC at 70Mb/s

The bit I've been wondering about is what sort of REN drive these routers have. I'm with Zen as an ISP, they say what FTTP router they dish out and that it has a phone port on the side, but our house has 4 phones and digging through the data sheets and manual for the router I don't know if it can handle that.

We don't want a phone where the router lives, so I guess I'm wiring the existing extension wiring onto a BT plug and then perhaps I just see how many phones I can plug in. Replacing the lot with DECT seems wasteful. One existing phone is DECT, and we don't like or use that one

Again, it's only parents and "Windows Support" that phone the landline so tempting to junk it, but for those occasional long phone calls I find the desktop handset is so much more comfortable than a mobile.

[Jonatron]

Are you lot all from the past? Do you still use phone boxes? Still send faxes? Watch DVDs? Use an A-Z map? Send letters? Heat your house with coal?

[MrJim]

We don't want a phone where the router lives, so I guess I'm wiring the existing extension wiring onto a BT plug and then perhaps I just see how many phones I can plug in. Replacing the lot with DECT seems wasteful. One existing phone is DECT, and we don't like or use that one

This is essentially what you'll need to do, I think. Have a 'master' DECT phone plugged into the router, & then other DECT handsets connected to that. It is certainly wasteful - there'll be a huge amount of 'ewaste' generated from redundant conventional landline phones.

https://www.bt.com/broadband/digital-voice