new virgin media landline

[Flute56]

ive just been told that virgin media will be changing the way they provide landlines. They will providde a fibre system which means they will sendn all people out a device to plug into their router together with a new telephone.

The current lanndline system is centuries old annd they think it is too old fashioned. My only issue is that whilst I have a mobile I sttill use a landline and there are soe people who only hone me on the landline. My current lanndline is a wireless one with a charger and I cann pick it up and take it roundd the house with me . The type of phone virgin media is offering is a wired pone which means whatever room I am in I will hae to rin down to the router to answer the phone. and will have to stay there to talk on the phone. At the moment if my landline is currently sitting on the charger and it rings I pic it up and take it with me into the kitchenn or bedroom

Has anyone else got one of these new type phones and how do you find it. If I say no to this new phone then my landline will be completely cut off whhich I do not want

[Flute56]

I was thinking of going back to BT just to keep the old fashioned way of using landlines. I am very old school and hate change

[PerrinAybara]

I've just been switched to the new landline with virgin media. It didn't require a new phone, it just needed the existing phone (also wireless with base station/cradle) to be plugged into the router .
Are you sure a new phone is necessary?

[Cupcakequeen75]

I am on BT Full Fibre BB (900mb) and they supplied me new phones but they work just like ordinary wireless landline phones.
When you go Full Fibre you will loose the old copper line regardless.

[saraclara]

I think you've misunderstood. I'm being sent an adaptor too. Your cordless phones will work in exactly the same way as it does now. It just gets its signal in a different way.

[saraclara]

You only need to plug your base station into the router. You can still use the phone itself anywhere in the house.

[Flute56]

@PerrinAybara

I've just been switched to the new landline with virgin media. It didn't require a new phone, it just needed the existing phone (also wireless with base station/cradle) to be plugged into the router .
Are you sure a new phone is necessary?

I phoned Virgin Media and the lady on the phone (from India) said to me you must only use the phone we provide you. Then I rang back a couple of hours later and got soeone else (he sounded Chinese) and he said the same thing and he also double checked and saidd the phone we provide you is a wired phone so you cannot take it and use it in any other room..

That was when I phoned BT and they said the phone they provide to custoers is a wireless phone just like my existingg landline phone. I also said to BT that I will keep my virgin media router and just ggo back to BT. I still have the BT phone socket on my wall. They said that is fine and since I will use my existingn virgin media hub and will onnly use BT for the telephone, then I can continue to use what I have always used which is the socket on the wall down by the skirting.

[tribpot]

From Virgin's FAQs here - the wording could certainly be clearer but there's no reason why a cordless phone wouldn't work:
https://www.virginmedia.com/help/landline/how-to-get-a-virgin-media-fibre-phone

Step 1
On the day of your switchover, unplug the phone cable of your main phone (or base station if it’s a cordless phone), from the wall socket.

Step 2
Grab the adapter we provided and plug it into the grey port at the top (labelled Port 1) on the back of the Hub.

Step 3
Plug the end of the telephone cable you unplugged from the wall socket into the adapter.

There are some reports of incompatibility in the Virgin Media forums, like on this thread: https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Home-Phone/Panasonic-cordless-phone/td-p/5075720

It sounds as if Virgin deserve to lose your business for their shonky customer service, but I don't think you have to move.

[Flute56]

Can I also ask what are the advantages to the new phone system? Its just a phone at the end of the day and I dont see how plugging it into your router wil be any better than the oldd system. Currently I have my main phone line in the hall with an extension socket in the bedroom and in thee bdroom I have got an old fashioned 1970s rotary dial phone (a genuine one) which I bought from an antiquee shop an I absolutely love it. Sadly I will no longer be able to use it

[Pasadenadreaming]

so virgin switched us over a few weeks ago and all there was was something to plug into the hub - no change to the actual phone we use. It really hasn't made any difference to us, although the downside would be in the event of a power cut you'd be unable to make calls even you had an old non-powered phone.

[Pasadenadreaming]

virgin were rubbish though - when they sent us the new adaptor they said don't plug it in until we give you a switchover date. Well they never gave us a switchover date - just one day I found my existing phone line had stopped working and so gave the new adaptor a try.

[tribpot]

Can I also ask what are the advantages to the new phone system?
I don't think it is any better for consumers, you've noted a disadvantage and so has @Pasadenadreaming . There are obviously advantages for the network operator to decommission older lines (less to maintain) and not dependent on copper supplies (given the frequency with which the East Coast mainline is disrupted by copper thieves, that would seem to be a good thing).

Btw, I see that Openreach have also announced they are decommissioning copper - in fact I would assume they own the copper cabling Virgin Media are talking about, from the days when BT was the only telecoms provider. So I think even if you move to BT your rotary phone's days may be numbered.

[PerrinAybara]

I did need a new router for the switchover (apparently my existing one was too old and didn't have the necessary functionality). But VM sent out someone to replace it, and that person also set up the phone and checked everything was working. So, all in all, it was quite painless. Surprisingly.

If you call the 'i am going to leave you' option for VM maybe someone will provide you with better information on it. Because I really don't see why you would need their phone.