LANDLINE to DIGITAL?

The solution to stay on copper for voice only service is being installed

Which is why if you are voice only you should be excluded from migration now because your solution isn't quite ready to go live

If you only have landline or don't have reliable mobile you can demand that you are not migrated at present - you should be automatically excluded from this early stage so you are telling them to do their job properly

I've just seen this on the Age UK website www.ageuk.org.uk/information-advice/money-legal/consumer-issues/changes-to-landline-telephones/#:~:text=For%20most%20networks%2C%20the%20changeover,will%20happen%20by%20December%202025.

You do need non-copper lines though which many rural properties do not have.

You don't need working broadband to make this work

Please let your provider know

They can't fix what they don't know about but solutions do exist

Most people don't ever use their phone lines at all and to replace the current system with a modern equivalent would cost an astronomical amount

If you need super reliable voice with no mobile or broadband you can have it but it's pointless giving it to everyone when barely anyone uses it

We live in the countryside and get power cuts quite regularly. Mobile signal is very poor. We are not happy about the prospect of losing landline.

@glenleeegardens I have recently been discussing this issue with the local MP - the number of calls from BT per day has been almost harrassement. I live in an area where some properties have less than 1mb broadband speed which is unstable particularly in bad weather. The government/BT have said for VOIP to work broadband speeds should be a minimum of 10mb.

The answers from BT to our concerns have been:

We do not have stable or fast enough broadband.
BT - fibre or superfast broadband will be installed to enable you to use VOIP.
Great when will you install it?
BT - as soon as the cost is agreed and you agree to pay. The exhange is quite a few miles from you, so we expect the install cost to be £NNNNNN
I am not paying to install it.
BT - that is fine we will direct your calls to your mobile
We do not have a mobile signal here
BT -It is mandatory for you to switch to VOIP
Then we will have no means of comms

There have been multiple calls from BT until we contacted our MP.

There will be targets each provider need to meet, hence the constant calls - they do not care about issues of rural or other properties.

The recent bad weather caused power cuts here for 3 days - we had to use an old style plus in phone which we keep for such emergencies. Even then the response from most of the authorities was to check their websites - extremely difficult without broadband or mobile signals!

Do you really want to know the technical
Details? It will depend on the specific system in use - a lot of the common systems have already been tested with the new systems

For example in some cases the connection will remain over copper and go to a special new box that is being installed at the exchange

This could easily be another Great Tech Move that turns out not to work. I know elderly people in non-rural areas with working broadband, where their new lines do not work. But still it's rolled out and the "glitches" are written off as an anomaly, an aberration.

It'll only be when someone couldn't call 999 and the worst happens, that it'll get looked into.

It’s typical short termism, no actual thought to what may happen in long term power cuts etc. or a possible future cyber attack that renders mobiles useless.

Reliance on tech will be our downfall.
Cynics will say that it’s also another method of control.

My land-line is via WiFi. The WiFi is good but Internet is shit so every minute or so the land-line goes out. It's a total PITA and I can only make reliable calls on mobile via 4G. I would love to go back to real land-line!

My friend currently has no broadband and no mobile signal within three miles of her home. She is diabetic (very poorly controlled) and suffers falls quite often. I am so worried about her if she cannot have a landline. We are in Scotland and have power cuts quite regularly when there is a storm.

Midgetastic "If you use any kind of alarm or telecare system , or have anything using the phone line that isn't a phone basically, you should inform your phone provider because there is a lot of work to ensure everything works after the change. In some cases your move to digital may be delayed whilst a solution is worked out"

mum has an emergency alarm pendant

we have been told by BT and the alarm provider that everything will be fine - but they can't give an explanation of how it will be fine.

we are just hitting brick walls when we ask what their solution is.

lots of people don't have reliable broadband so they will be affected too, AIUI.

Haven't had a landline in years tbh

It just doesn't seem fair to me to suddenly make everyone change over from perfectly good system to something new and possibly unreliable. You've already been through it once with the phasing out of analogue TV

Your provider will initiate the process.

Landline infrastructure is aging out, and it makes sense to move to newer tech. Fibre is reliable, discrete, and fast. Given time, I think landlines will go the way of the dodo. Digital landlines are just a stop gap, imo.

The technology is changing and all voice will be carried digitally.

I guessing you currently don't have broadband ?

You won't have to pay to have broadband installed. You won't have to do anything. You should not be asked to pay anything.

If you use any kind of alarm or telecare system , or have anything using the phone line that isn't a phone basically, you should inform your phone provider because there is a lot of work to ensure everything works after the change. In some cases your move to digital may be delayed whilst a solution is worked out

If you have broadband then you will plug your phone into the home router not the wall. This has implications for emergency phone use during a power cut. This only applies if you have at least one phone plugged currently into the wall - if you only have dect wireless handsets they don't work on a power cut. Anyway if this is a problem for you and you can't rely on a mobile signal you can ask to have a router with battery back up to provide this safety net

Most of the country is having fibre replace the copper. But you don't have to move to fibre if you only have voice on copper