To expect BT service to worsen

[newnortherner111]

BT have appointed a new chairman, Adam Crozier.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-58241747

In case you are unaware, under his tenure the Post Office closed large numbers of post offices so making it very difficult to access services (and innocent sub-postmasters continued to be prosecuted), when he was at ITV he introduced a show where two former contestants have committed suicide, and at the FA he gave a very generous contract to the England manager.

I'd call him the male equivalent of Dido Harding, though that might be unkind to Dido Harding.

BT service is already poor, especially where they provide the 'last mile' in communications, and they will not even do timed appointments for business. Broadband provision in rural areas is limited and every possible deadline never seems to be met.

AIBU to think under his tenure it will get worse, and continue to be an obstacle to good business?

Aren’t they already saying no landlines after 2026? If so, not sure what the point of BT existing will be.

@Bargebill19

Aren’t they already saying no landlines after 2026? If so, not sure what the point of BT existing will be.

It's not no landlines, it's changing them from analogue to a digital IP based system.

Analogue phones may be old technology but it's extremely reliable in a way that an IP system isn't. This will have no meaningful advantages for the customers just additional costs such as buying new handsets.

BT isn't the same company as Openreach. Openreach are the company responsible for the phone/cable infrastructure, not BT.

If he's in charge of BT then I feel sorry for BT customers but it won't have any effect on the actual network and infrastructure that everyone relies on!

I assume BT is like British Gas, only customers are those, who, to put it bluntly, are old and trust them for the word “British”. My aunt would never try Octopus Energy or Ovo for example as she doesn’t “trust them”
I assume in about 10 years no one will sign up to these rip off companies

I may be wrong as I'm not very tech savvy but the advantage of an analogue landline is that it always works (barring problems with the phone line itself). It works during a power-cut, for example, and it won't run out of charge like a mobile. I have cordless digital handsets for my landline but I keep a basic, non-powered handset near the phone line to plug in in case of emergency. It was a godsend when our electricity kept tripping for no apparent reason.

@randomchap

Then why were the bbc going on about how disadvantaged oaps who don’t have mobile phones will be stranded? Bad reporting?

If it’s just a switch from analogue to digital for handsets - who the hell would notice? It wouldn’t make it any more difficult for non mobile users to use??

Having said that - we got rid of Bt and all landline stuff in 1999. Don’t miss them one bit!

We have no choice but to use BT due to our very rural location. We have a business account with BT and they are usually pretty good at getting openreach out within 24 hours if we have a problem (which we do frequently due to the location) which I believe wouldn't be the case if we were a residential customer.

We are screwed without an analogue phone. We don't have a mobile phone signal on any network and we have regular powercuts. Without our analogue phone we have no way of calling or going online to receive updates from the electric board, we can't receive text messages with updates.

I assume/hope we can call emergency services on our mobiles even with no signal but fortunately I've never had to try it.

I am genuinely terrified that very isolated properties like ours are going to get completely forgotten about in the digital revolution.

@SquirryTheSquirrel

I may be wrong as I'm not very tech savvy but the advantage of an analogue landline is that it always works (barring problems with the phone line itself). It works during a power-cut, for example, and it won't run out of charge like a mobile. I have cordless digital handsets for my landline but I keep a basic, non-powered handset near the phone line to plug in in case of emergency. It was a godsend when our electricity kept tripping for no apparent reason.

This. We have no mobile signal and frequent power cuts. I am fighting an endless battle with BT against digital voice.

Crozier is bad news for any business. Goodness knows what the future holds for customers and employees.

The digital phone lines is basically Skype. But they'll still charge £21 line rental. £21 that would of covered the maintenance of physical phone lines, but I don't see how they need £21 a month to maintain Skype.

If you don't have mobile signal on any network then obviously you can't use a mobile to call the emergency services.

BT will still have its universal service obligation so as they turn off the analogue landlines they will need to provide a digital alternative, i.e. broadband internet with a VOIP socket that you plug your phone into.

There are other options available now like starlink which is a fast satellite-based service that could support a VOIP-based landline.

@OnlyFoolsnMothers

I assume BT is like British Gas, only customers are those, who, to put it bluntly, are old and trust them for the word “British”. My aunt would never try Octopus Energy or Ovo for example as she doesn’t “trust them” I assume in about 10 years no one will sign up to these rip off companies

Many people have no choice but to use BT services.

I live in an area where it's BT, Sky or TalkTalk for internet. The latter two are constantly having issues so BT it is!

@malmi

If you don't have mobile signal on any network then obviously you can't use a mobile to call the emergency services.

BT will still have its universal service obligation so as they turn off the analogue landlines they will need to provide a digital alternative, i.e. broadband internet with a VOIP socket that you plug your phone into.

There are other options available now like starlink which is a fast satellite-based service that could support a VOIP-based landline.

You can actually call 999 and it will go through. You will need to know where you are and your mobile number though because they will have absolutely no information to trace your call.

@NigellaSeed

The digital phone lines is basically Skype. But they'll still charge £21 line rental. £21 that would of covered the maintenance of physical phone lines, but I don't see how they need £21 a month to maintain Skype.

Ah thank you!! That makes more sense than just switching the gubbins in a handset. But - I’ve never used this either.

If you don't have mobile signal on any network then obviously you can't use a mobile to call the emergency services

You can always dial 999.

@malmi

If you don't have mobile signal on any network then obviously you can't use a mobile to call the emergency services.

BT will still have its universal service obligation so as they turn off the analogue landlines they will need to provide a digital alternative, i.e. broadband internet with a VOIP socket that you plug your phone into.

There are other options available now like starlink which is a fast satellite-based service that could support a VOIP-based landline.

How do you suggest VoIP is going to work with no electricity?

Even if we do have electricity we have a top speed of 2mb... if it's not too windy and the rain is the right temperature we can just about watch a blurry version of something on Netflix.

I don't think people really understand what it's like to live in a really rural area. Powercuts are a regular part of life here. In my house our primary heating and cooking facilities still use wood and coal to power them (although I do have an electric oven as well to use in summer when we can go without heating for a few weeks). We keep battery powered torches in every room and have various wind up/ battery powered radios.

During winter when the weather is bad we can easily go at least a week before anyone can get in/out in anything other than an all terrain vehicle. I've collected a shopping from an ASDA van in a carpark in the nearest accessible village (4 miles away) in a John Deere Gator many times.

Err no, phones aren't magic. They need to be able to reach a mobile signal to make a call. When you make an emergency call it will try to connect even if you have no credit, no SIM card, and will use any network it can detect. But if there's no network to talk to, the call will fail.

If you're seriously worried about power cuts interrupting your ability to make emergency calls then a small UPS would be advisable. It will protect your whole internet connection (assuming the power cut doesn't affect the exchange). I have stayed places with frequent power cuts and UPS was standard to keep computers running. That was back in the early 2000s.

Broadband will have to be stable enough to support a voice line before they switch off the analogue network obviously. But I think 2Mbps should be enough already for a simple voice call. But I think it's good they have set this target as it will force them to improve broadband coverage, speed and resilience.

@icedcoffees

If you don't have mobile signal on any network then obviously you can't use a mobile to call the emergency services

You can always dial 999.

Nothing will happen with no mobile signal. Mobile phones cannot magically make a 999call without a signal.

That is my problem. We have frequent power cuts and BT will not provide afree battery back up for the router so I would be unable to call in emergency.
They keep trying every few weeks to switch me to digital voice..