LANDLINE to DIGITAL?

[glenleeegardens]

Sorry if this is the wrong thread but I can't find a suitable one. I am totally flummoxed about hearing landlines will no longer be a thing by 2025 and everyone will have to pay to change to digital. I can't afford to be paying out for changing over and getting a new system installed so is this even legal? Has anyone already changed over? How do you go about it and how do I know which providers are the best deal? It just doesn't seem fair to me to suddenly make everyone change over from perfectly good system to something new and possibly unreliable.

They will give her a battery but it only lasts a few hours. We have regular power cuts. They often last much longer than the batteries they plan to dole out. It's a poorly thought out plan and people will be harmed/die as a result.

It's not just the elderly and disabled with alarms, it's also people in rural areas who won't have batteries and have poor mobile reception.

During the big storm that took out a chunk of Scotland people lost power for DAYS. In a storm when people are likely to need emergency services etc. And we are only going to get more of these extreme weather events.

It's a disaster waiting to happen.

@midgetastic "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"

That's exactly the info I was hoping for, but we just got told that digital will go ahead as there's no way they are maintaining copper.

In terms of locals, there are several elderly people in the mile circle surrounding mum. I know two carers who don't drive and their clients are all in that circle.

I did wonder if that might be enough to keep a local copper connection but the staff at BT probably haven't got to specific localities yet. We decided to stop enquiring and worry when they get to us.

As a less important aside I am so concerned about the quality of the digital landline calls. If it's anything like WiFi calling (which is such crap quality I've turned it off) then the digital landline will be completely useless. Not too much of a problem for me. I have a mobile phone which with a most of the time although the signals not great in the house, but will likely increase the isolation of the elderly.

I think if I lived somewhere that had constant power cuts I'd be more annoyed with the power companies for the flaky infrastructure rather than blaming BT for no longer being able to provide an independently powered communications solution. And look at investing in a decent capacity home battery. There must be more annoying things about not having electricity than just the lack of comms.

@WhatNoUsername Exactly. And I understand a lot of people have poor signal across the country.

In the building I live in - like a spread out development - there are a couple of sections in the common parts where signal goes completely and we're near a mast.

To confuse me even more, I got told mum was already on digital - but the landline is connected to a phone point connected to a copper point thingy in the street.

The landline can be used in a power cut at the mo.

Sometimes the geography of an area means when there is wind/rain it tends to get battered! I live in one of those areas and the electricity infrastructure and maintenance, especially in bad weather, is very good. The length of time the power cuts are for are normally due to how long it takes to reconnect all the lines which have been damaged. The recent storms, the power was lost in the first storm but the subsequent windy weather meant the engineers could not climb the poles to fix the lines due to safety issues.

The VOIP move is a good one in theory but the infrastructure needed for it to be a successful migration is not fully in place - cart before the horse situation.

The storms that affect the electric system hit the phone system also

Before my time but I think there was a move / significant investment to bury as much telecoms infrastructure as possible following the Michael fish storm/ hurricane

So you know that could happen with the electricity also to make it more reliable

Environmentally it feels like a step back, but heyho.
We know weather patterns are changing and power cuts will often result but humph who needs to communicate with anyone during a power cut.
My hearing is pretty shot, I have fibre calling at work, I loath it, I often can't hear what the speaker is saying, and quite often there is a delay....a bit like the old landlines of 40+ years ago, or when calling an over seas line. But along with phasing out the combustion engine and changing from filament lightbulbs to shitty long life ones which only stay bright for a few weeks then give off a crappy half light for years, replacing car bulbs to LEDs (where the whole unit will need replacing rather than just a bulb), it's always half thought out. I mean it's so bloody obvious it's nothing to do with convenience or the environment and everything to do with money exchanging hands.
Always under the umbrella of technology or environment or some other codswallop.

I have a digital phone system now. It's going to be utterly useless in a power cut. But hey-ho, progress, eh?

Yes improvements could be made to the electricity system I’m sure to stop all the powercuts people get in rural areas. But if we are relying on this happening, it should be in place BEFORE the copper line is phased out, not afterwards (or as it seems not even on the plan!). And this issue is widespread across much of the country. It’s going to take a significant investment and take a long time to get the system up to scratch to stop these issues. I doubt that investment is gong to come but if it does it will still be years of the users outlined on this thread, before we see any change. It is very shortsighted and a plan that’s likely to result in deaths.

We had fibre to cabinet and took fibre to property when contract came up for renewal ( my DH didn’t actually take the time to understand why he was signing up for, but that’s another subject and I took over management. )

It has been a PITA as the old router was on the top floor, custom wired unseen throughout the house when we were renovating , which we could no longer use. The new router is now downstairs . The old router gave solid fast coverage throughout but we’ve had to buy a disc extender fo the new feed to get my DH’s PC to work upstairs. ( You can get these on subscription but I calculated it to be more expensive above very short term) The broadband speed records as fast but I notice a slight delay.

Anyway, to get back to the Voice. The fibre comes into the house low down via new cabling from the telephone pole opposite - it comes in at a different point from the copper wire telephone line. We assumed the Openreach engineer would take out the old copper wire from the pole to the house. He left it and said vaguely it would stop working at some point. so we’ve got two lines coming into the front of a small Victorian terrace, at different points.

The landline is still working, in and out on the copper wire. We tried to get it working via the new router by plugging in the DECT compliant base telephone as per instructions but to no avail. It’s not the biggest problem for us, we have a short term need for landline which should be solved soon. We also now have an unused telephone extender for the digital voice that is redundant at the moment. So we have the odd position of fibre broadband and copper wire telephone coming into the house.

I did ask the engineer what would eventually happen theoretically about houses in the street that I knew didn’t have broadband currently and didn’t want it but relied on landline and he said they would be supplied with a digital landline version. Who knows what exactly that would mean 🤷🏼‍♀️

I am concerned too, OP.

We have frequent power cuts that also cut power to the nearest mast leaving us with no phone signal.

I've just had to change my elderly mother's system over. It was a pain as they insisted on installing broadband even though she doesn't use the internet, and doesn't want to. Then they decided that the Voip line and the broadband were not going to go live on the same day (!) when I had travelled all the way there specifically to set it up for her.

And the stupidest thing is that the new broadband comes in on the old copper lines...

I was told before switching I could keep my landline and its number.
But it never worked properly, and I kept being charged for it.

In the end I gave up the landline and number, and was refunded.

I think that's the aim: to get rid of landlines.

I think Fibre will soon become riddled with problems and have to be replaced, and will end up as obsolete as a dial phone.

The storms that affect the electric system hit the phone system also

Not true. POTS is 48V DC powered from the exchange which have battery/generator backup, the handset does not need to be powered. VOIP needs to be powered at each end to work, hence why BT offer some people battery packs to keep their phone working.

No you don’t you get your broadband over copper then you get your phone over the broadband supplied by copper

Which does not work if your broadband speed is 0.2mb

I work for openreach and have never heard of that speed
what’s the issue I’m surprised it’s stable enough to stay in sync at that speed
I presume your on adsl on a long line rather than fibre to the cab
what was the reason given for that so when you queried it

My parents are 88 this year and dont have internet just a land line.

I have a digital line which was initiated by BT and it was a simple case of plugging the line into the back of the router. Our mobile signals are very weak and we can only use them in the house if we use WiFi calling. So during the many power cuts we get here we would have no means of making a call in an emergency. Sounds like I need to apply for a battery pack ?

Does this mean they will still have copper being maintained please?

So why did it need changing please?

I'm concerned that when the broadband goes down (when it's very wet or windy it can be compromised) we will have no way to make emergency calls or check on my mum now she's alone and almost 80. My mobile signal is terrible, we looked at all providers and none promise a signal inside the house, currently zero signal for mobile calls at all. I've always kept an older plug in phone for emergencies as the cordless sets don't work during power cuts and I've always worried that we would be completely unable to make or receive calls. Unless they do something about the appalling mobile signals in rural areas many will have the same issue.

No fibre and 0.2mb in the average speed we get. Yes it is a long line, and it is never stable. Openreach have been very good in trying everything to make it stable enough to use. It can get to 1mb on a good day but not often.

The issue is a rural location, surrounded by mountains. No line of sight for using other solutions and no mobile signal. The annoying issue is areas close by, as far as rural can be close by, have fibre and other more stable connections.

Because we had to change her provider because the previous one had badly let her down. If you change provider, they will only offer a digital service.