Old phones and the new BT internet-only phonelines
 

I can;t say I'm very hapy with the news that BT are over the next 3 yrs going to phase out all the current phone line system, and replace them with Voip system, in wihch the phones apparently have to be plugged into routers.

This is going to be an utter nightmare for me, my router and landline cabling are in compltey different places, and rewiring it all, involving pulling up carpets etc is going to be a nightmare that will cost me a fair bit of money by the looks of it.

At the moment I'm having difficulty finding tecnical information on how all of this is supposed to work.
If it's a case of plugging the phones directly into the routers standard sockets, then I simply don't have a sufficient number of ports on the router. Having the phones connected will mean disconnecting wired internet devices.

But also, I am concerned about the effect on my retro phones, which I don't want to be forced to give up.
I have a dialer phone from around 1980 in the front sitting room. I can't make outgoings from it, but incomings work just fine.
In my attic room, I have a Bell Hideaway phone, also from 1980, from America, operating via an adaptor.
If I can't keep these two phones working, I'm going to be extremely unhappy.

BT just don;t seem to have considered the disruption and costs that this will cause for people, but they haven't been forthcoming with technical details on how all of this works.

Re: Old phones and the new BT INternet-only phonelines
 

I don't think the very small number of POTS (Plain Old Telephone System) users that know why they don't want to change will sway BT at all. Most minorities get special treatment (and why not?). At least they should make an NTE5 (the incoming box) to proper 'phones interface with battery backup the default. Then all existing systems will work.

Re: Old phones and the new BT INternet-only phonelines
 

Most people will need a new router with a phone socket in order to support this. Presumably this will be funded by BT.

Any internal phone wiring will just connect to the router phone socket rather than the NTE socket.

The router phone interface is nothing to do with the RJ45 Ethernet sockets found on almost all routers.

Re: Old phones and the new BT INternet-only phonelines
 

According to one newspaper "Under guidelines laid down by Ofcom, BT must ensure customers can contact emergency services in a power cut that lasts more than an hour".
There are still people with no power many days after the recent strorm.

Re: Old phones and the new BT INternet-only phonelines
 

I hardly know where to start:

https://www.openreach.com/upgrading-...al-phone-lines

Copper wires seem far more future proof than any of the generations of digital services BT has provided.

Re: Old phones and the new BT INternet-only phonelines
 

The change is already happening for new users. A friend moved recently and took out a contract with BT for phone and broadband; it was an old house so there was a pre-existing master socket.

When the router arrived I plugged it in to one socket of a microfilter that was already there, and the internet worked fine. But the phone, plugged into the other socket, refused to work (it was a BT phone too).

On the mobile to BT and the first thing they asked was 'Have you plugged the phone into the green socket?' Duh? Oh yes there is a green phone socket on the router! Tried that as they said and the phone worked fine.

Of course there was nothing in the paperwork they'd sent to indicate that the line would now only work via the router, which was a bit strange and I can imagine that BT will be getting quite a few 'it doesn't work' calls...

Re: Old phones and the new BT INternet-only phonelines
 

Someone I know last week moved into a new-build house which has fibre-to-the-premises; they chose to go with Vodafone as their broadband-provider and the WiFi router that was delivered has a couple of small blanking-plugs on the back next to the RJ45s - both marked "This port is not in use" but which, when levered-out, reveals an old-style BT line-jack and along the top edge of the case are green status-lights marked "Internet", "Phone" and "WiFi" so it's obvious what the plan would be.

They don't have an analog phone to try plugging into this, and neither do I.

Re: Old phones and the new BT INternet-only phonelines
 

BT are unable to supply broadband to me, as I'm in an isolated position, and over 8Km from the exchange. So I have a POTS landline (at exhorbitant cost!) and my broadband is provided by a specialist long-haul wireless provider.
For the past few days, after the storm the broadband system (and any users of VOIP on it) was down. I thus relied in the good old copper-based POTS...

Mobile signals here are flaky, so when the BT wired system is finally dispensed with, what will people like myself do in an emergency, & possibly with no power?

Technically of course its progress...


David.

Re: Old phones and the new BT INternet-only phonelines
 

Remember that you can make calls to the emergency services using any available network - it doesn't have to be your own. In fact, the phone doesn't even need to have a SIM in it.

My guess is that BT will try to get around the '999 in a power cut' regulatory requirement by handing out cheap SIM-free phones to anyone who wants one.

Re: Old phones and the new BT INternet-only phonelines
 

OK - there is a power cut, or a digital fault. Then you discover that the mobile they have provided has run out of charge. While someone has a stroke or heart attack.

Craig

Re: Old phones and the new BT INternet-only phonelines
 

Yes, I'm certainly not defending it as a full solution. This is a service downgrade.

Re: Old phones and the new BT INternet-only phonelines
 

We have no mobile signal here where we live so using a mobile phone (even a fully charged one!) as an emergency back up is a complete non starter for us.

Steve.

Re: Old phones and the new BT INternet-only phonelines
 

If I had one specifically for emergency use (which I do) I would make sure that the battery is always charged and check that the 'phone functions on a regular basis.

Same with an emergency torch.

BT or whoever will do what they're are going to do and the result will be the result.

Lawrence.

Re: Old phones and the new BT INternet-only phonelines
 

This change has already happened to us here in Poland, where landline phone services are provided by Orange. They told us that at the end of October the copper service was being discontinued, and we arranged to have fibre installed. The fibre goes in to the back of the Orange router, and our "landline" phone is connected to that router. It also provides Ethernet connections for internet and to the "cable TV" box that they also provide. The whole shebang - landline phone, internet and TV - comes down the fibre.

In the case of a power cut we'd have no phone other than mobiles.

Chris

Re: Old phones and the new BT INternet-only phonelines
 

Get a UPS and plug the router into it, all our ipads and laptops work in a power cut, it also shuts down my desktop. My 60's dial phone also works in a power cut, I suppose that will become redundant when they chop the copper wires.
John.

Re: Old phones and the new BT INternet-only phonelines
 

Welcome after, this is almoast finished here in Norway, and the result is in real life that almoast everybody has skipped the phone and does only have the mobile. I had ip telphony for some years, and changed to another company twice because of trouble with the rights to deliver the voip service to a reasonable cost.
Regarding security with a powerdown in the area, it did not work for more than 4 hours.

We have by now a combination of foreign VOIP service (callcentric.com) and a mobil with adapter for incomming calls. The adapter works OK with a pulse to tone adapter on it.

A unit that does the job and accepts both rotary and touchh tone may be x-link BT. Connects to your mobile via bluetooth just as the handsfree in a car, but its not handsfree it has a telephone jack for regular phones. ( www.myxlink.com )

You may need a master socket (your old one) to get divided ringing as often used in UK.

Re: Old phones and the new BT INternet-only phonelines
 

So do the routers come with extra sockets now to facilitae the phone lines too? Getting the cables from my phones to the router will be a nightmare, without any doubt

Re: Old phones and the new BT INternet-only phonelines
 

I have no personal experience (still being purely on copper), but it would appear so from what has been said before.

Re: Old phones and the new BT INternet-only phonelines
 

Yes, that's the way things are going.

You can get DECT wireless phone jacks to make your corded phones cordless, but vintage ones will still need to have pulse to tone conversion done separately.

Re: Old phones and the new BT INternet-only phonelines
 

Chris I did change (port the number) to another operator and bought an ATA that I plugged in to an Ethernet outlet where it was suitable.
I used https://zadarma.com/en/ as the operator, and bought a PAP2 ATA on ebay. (https://www.ebay.com/itm/28325177040...YAAOSwrk1c2j0H) Easy to set up, but... not handling rotary phones, so I had to ad a pulse-tone adapter.
Not sure but toady I would probably have chosen an adapter that accepts rotary, but maybe those are more difficult to set up. Atleast I have an Utstarcom and it works great, but the setup was a nightmare ...

More about ATAS here: http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/f...?topic=20386.0