What new DECT phone to buy for router's VOIP port?

[Nicola_Jayne]

Originally Posted by nicam49

I'm in a similar dilemma, as my router is plugged into the incoming 'main' socket, but our one and only landline phone is connected through internal wiring (and a socket) to the kitchen where it is wall mounted, as this is the only really convenient place for it to go. Our EE contract ends in December, so I called them to see how much a new contract would cost, and found they are now amalgamated with BT, and a new contract would involve a fibre connection, and phone plugged into the modem., in short, no longer having a traditional landline that is independant of mains failure. Also, if I go down the DECT base station route, can't seem to find a wall mounted DECT phone to replace the kitchen one. I suspect that all other BB providers also only provide this quasi landline too.

POTS over copper is dead / in it's death throes, for those requiring / wanting resilience the solutions are


1. some kind of UPS for the router and hope the UPS in the local loop/ cabinets hold up
2. router with UPS that falls back to a Cellular connection if the local loop goes down as well
3.a mobile phone

[duncanlowe]

Originally Posted by Nicola_Jayne

POTS over copper is dead / in it's death throes, for those requiring / wanting resilience the solutions are


1. some kind of UPS for the router and hope the UPS in the local loop/ cabinets hold up
2. router with UPS that falls back to a Cellular connection if the local loop goes down as well
3.a mobile phone

Dead as far as O/R is concerned but there's a couple of years left before TalkTalk go that way.
I use solution 1. So far the power in the cabinet has held out longer than my UPS. My UPS also supports the DECT base station.
Solution 2, I often see our local base station falls over before anything else, sometimes it dies as soon as the power fails. Solution 3 has the same problem.

[PJL]

We got converted a few weeks ago and I simply plugged the DECT system into the Digital Voice socket in the back of the BT Smarthub 2. Seems to work fine and the answerphone on the DECT system works as it did before. I also received a free wireless voice adaptor but have yet to give it a go to see if I can relocate the DECT base station.

[emeritus]

We have a BT Decor 1200 phone that we used to rent from BT before they gave it to us a few years ago. We had never paid the extra to activate caller number display, last received/ missed calls log, or answerphone services, but these all now work and are included in our new digital service.

As both myself and my wife are over 70, and we are in a poor mobile reception area, I understand that we could ask BT for a battery pack so we could still make calls in the event of a power cut, but it would only give around one hour's service. My smarthub runs on 12VDC, so I could in principle run it from the 12V 12Ah SLA I use for portable 12V power. Fully charged it should be good for at least 10 hours. In principle, a cable from the battery of our car parked in our drive would also work.

According to manufacturer's data sheets, the alkaline D cells I use have a capacity of around 20Ah. I have several spare battery holders for four D cells, so could make up a long life 12V battery pack using 8 D cells if all else failed that should last all day.

So we have several backup options if we look like having power cuts, the only issue being that BT use a non-standard DC power jack. But I have a spare wall wart from a previous BT home hub that has the same plug, otherwise I would cut the cable of the Smart Hub's power supply and fit a standard in line plug & socket to facilitate connection to the backup supply. However, our mains has been impressively reliable in the 40-odd years we have lived here, unlike a relative in a more rural location, so I guess it's unlikely to be a problem for us.

[spamfritter]

Originally Posted by Doghouse Riley

I have a new dumb phone, it does everything I need. Calls and text and very occasionally, photos. I take it with me in case of an emergency (car, home, golf course). But in a pocket not in my hand. It's a flip phone Doro 6040, £60.
02 sim card £25 a month.

You are paying way too much just for a sim !

[Nicola_Jayne]

Originally Posted by spamfritter

You are paying way too much just for a sim !

Absolutely as I pay a bit less that 25 GBP per month for a month to month O2 contract with unlimited voice, unlimited SMS and 100 GB of data

[stitch1]

Originally Posted by PJL

We got converted a few weeks ago and I simply plugged the DECT system into the Digital Voice socket in the back of the BT Smarthub 2. Seems to work fine and the answerphone on the DECT system works as it did before. I also received a free wireless voice adaptor but have yet to give it a go to see if I can relocate the DECT base station.

Same here. I was out of contract and negotiated a new contract, they (Vodafone) provided a new router and they told me I'd be moved onto VoIP ahead of OpenReach ceasing the analogue line. I don't think I had a choice although I didn't object.

They provided an RJ11 cable to replace the RJ45 on the phone (also provided a RJ45 to RJ11 adaptor in case the cable could not be changed), I have a Panasonic DECT and it all works OK.
No battery back up and the master socket is now dead.

John