Computer Related > VOIP again	Miscellaneous
Thread Author: Manatee	Replies: 29

Tue 14 Nov 23 14:18   VOIP again - Manatee

I've lost my landline. Plusnet went out of contract, increased the monthly charges to £54 (landline + FTTC) and the only contract reoffered was broadband only for £24. They say the landline will disappear within 2 years anyway. I signed up for another two years, I can't be bothered with looking for another provider. We haven't used the landline in the 18 months, other than me calling my wife who tends not to answer her mobile - it's often in the bottom of her bag in another room where it can't find a signal, or if it does she can't hear it. Practically nobody has the number because a change was forced on us after we closed the account to demolish the old house. I'll attempt some spousal retraining. We have 3 DECT handsets round the house so I could usually get her to answer. But as of today the landline is gone. I gather I can get a 'landline' number and use my old handset with some some of converter dongle but it will cost something and frankly seems a bit daft. Is there any point now in having a "home phone"? It used to be worth a few points on a credit score but I suspect that is no longer the case, and I don't really care about that within reason. Can I interface the DECT base station in some way so it will receive voice calls on e.g. Whatsapp/Messenger/Skype? Maybe I could use my Alexa app to call the Echo devices? I know it's a first world problem but has anyone a brainwave? If it makes any difference I am using a BT Smart Hub 2. I suppose if I had Smokie levels of home automation I could alert her by turning all the lights on and off. Reply to this message | Report message

Tue 14 Nov 23 14:35   VOIP again - Bromptonaut

I'm moving towards the idea of getting shut of the LL. Had same number since 1990 and it's easy to remember as it ends with two zeros. Apart from her indoors and the kids next to nobody uses it apart from scammers. I don't give it to people any more - just use my mobile which number I've had nearly as long. Need to think again about all telecom provision anyway as PLusnet are stopping mobiles soon. We can get fibre to premises for Broadband. Current offer of FTTC is fine for what we want, internet and streaming I-player etc but FTTP is actually cheaper and future proof. Reply to this message | Report message

Tue 14 Nov 23 15:09   VOIP again - bathtub tom

When we moved to this place there was no landline, despite a 'pig's tail' on the chimney indicating it did use to have overhead provision. Every other property around has an overhead wire. Shell said we couldn't keep our old number (of over forty years) and we'd have to have a new contract. I pointed out I was working in that exchange when I retired and could show them how it could be simply done. This went all the way up the management chain and after previous problems we had with the company, they agreed to close the contract without any exit fee (even paying me for my inconvenience). Vodafone provided FTTD, with a new fibre, overhead line. I'm currently paying a smidge under £30/month for 33Meg, unlimited national and mobile calls (VOIP) and I kept my original number. Reply to this message | Report message

Tue 14 Nov 23 15:34   VOIP again - Fullchat

Having just replaced my ageing wireless base station and one extension I found that the line appears faulty with no dial tone. Contacted our local providers Kcom who encouraged me to transfer to VOIP. They are sending out and adapter to fit the router. This would entail the base station being near the the fibre entry point which isnt really suitable. I wanted to retain the existing wired home network, so the phones are in the right places, and they are sending an engineer to facilitate that. It seems quite simple. Basically its a matter of isolating the original 2 copper input wires and connecting the router to the circuit. Simples. This guy expains it: tinyurl.com/yv6npwph Reply to this message | Report message

Tue 14 Nov 23 16:26   VOIP again - tyrednemotional

...it isn't particularly difficult if your supplier provides a VOIP service. Plusnet don't/won't, and are withdrawing their POTS in a phased way. My understanding is that it is possible to go VOIP under those circumstances by subscribing to an independent VOIP service, which may or may not enable retention of an existing number. Some providers are enabling a "native" VOIP service when decommissioning (BT being one). I've certainly read recently that Plusnet were allowing a migration to BT (their parent company) with no exit penalty (but at ongoing BT rates) for those who wished to retain a "landline" service. Reply to this message | Report message

Tue 14 Nov 23 22:25   VOIP again - bathtub tom

>> withdrawing their POTS in a phased way. Will we please stop using unexplained acronyms? I'm quite prepared to google those I don't understand, but did you really mean: Postural tachycardia syndrome? Reply to this message | Report message

Wed 15 Nov 23 08:14   VOIP again - Falkirk Bairn

POTS = Plain Old Telephone System i.e. twin twisted pair of copper wires. Although in my case Twin Twisted Aluminium Wire - Post Office Telephones (Now BT) saving money in the 70s. We waited almost 4 years for a phone connection. All around us there is FTTC, within 300 metres, but our village is ignored by BT. Reply to this message | Report message

Wed 15 Nov 23 08:40   VOIP again - Duncan

Could someone please explain for this simpleton. Plusnet will, at some time in the future withdraw the landline? Yes? If they do we will all have to use mobile phones? Yes? Lady Duncan never knows where her phone is when she is at The Towers. Her phone is usually in another pocket of another handbag, which is in another room on another floor. What is she going to do? Spend half her life phoning people back because she has missed their call? - And it will all be my fault. ITNA? Reply to this message | Report message

Wed 15 Nov 23 08:46   VOIP again - Bromptonaut

AIUI the current system with analogue traffic over old fashioned copper wires is planned to be run down. Those who need/want a landline can still have one but the service will be delivered in a digital format known as VOIP - voice over internet protocol. You can retain the number you have now though doing so may involve hoop jumping. Not sure about handsets and whether current ones can be made to work with VOIP. Reply to this message | Report message

Wed 15 Nov 23 09:10   VOIP again - tyrednemotional

>> Could someone please explain for this simpleton. >> >> Plusnet will, at some time in the future withdraw the landline? Yes? >> Yes, reasonably imminently, as will all other telecomms providers. >> If they do we will all have to use mobile phones? Yes? >> You wont have to, but if you want to keep in touch it is one of the easier alternatives Voice services in the future will be delivered via "the internet" (Voice over IP) removing a lot of "duplicated" infrastructure. Some telecomms companies will provide, as part of their standard service, a VOIP telephone function (for which there may be an extra charge). This will allow you to plug many existing landline handsets into the router (possibly needing an adapter) and retain your existing number with little difference in use other than the fact that it won't work if you have a power cut since your router will be inoperative. (even this can be overcome with a small UPS providing "bridging" power). BT, ZEN, Virgin are amongst the companies that will provide this. Plusnet have no plans to provide such a service. If you wish to retain a "landline-like" function then you will either need to migrate to a separate, external VOIP service supplier (for which there will be a cost, you may lose your existing landline number, and you are likely to require an adapter for your existing telephones), or move to another broadband supplier that does provide an integrated VOIP service (if you leave this until after Plusnet have removed their 'phone service you may lose your existing number). Plusnet are likely to lose my business, as it very much looks anyway that they are being run down with their withdrawal from various markets (perhaps to be incorporated in the parent, BT?) Since we cancelled our landline phone call packages, it gets no use for outgoing, but I do like having it around for incoming calls (I find the handset(s) ergonomically more pleasant than a mobile). Reply to this message | Report message       1

Wed 15 Nov 23 13:56   VOIP again - Dog

My dog *jumped* on my phone this morning when Mr heating engineer called to finish orf insulating the internal heat pump pipes. Ole woman sez "phone don't work now" So, I plugged in a n other phone and still no dialling code. I phones my LL number using my mobile and I get invalid number message. So I can only ass-ume my LL number is kaput! Thanks Onestream BB :( Reply to this message | Report message

Thu 16 Nov 23 12:43   VOIP again - Dog

>>I can only ass-ume my LL number is kaput! Yeah, they've cancelled my phone line without notifying me. They offered VoIP, but at extra cost. Why should I pay for something I didn't ask for and do not want. Stuff 'em, I'll use my 'smart' phone from now on. Disgusted of Bolventor! Reply to this message | Report message

Thu 16 Nov 23 14:47   VOIP again - bathtub tom

>> Yeah, they've cancelled my phone line without notifying me. Ofcom? Even just the threat can get results. Reply to this message | Report message

Thu 16 Nov 23 16:22   VOIP again - Dog

>>Ofcom? Yup, I won't just accept it. Some ISP's offer free VoIP set up. Reply to this message | Report message

Wed 15 Nov 23 09:16   VOIP again - Duncan

Well, I just said all this to Her Ladyship - she said ok. They are unbelievable aren't they? Reply to this message | Report message

Wed 15 Nov 23 09:17   VOIP again - bathtub tom

>> Could someone please explain for this simpleton. I'd imagine you'd be given plenty of warning and the opportunity to switch to another provider, before being allocated one. Like the energy companies that went under. There should be no need to change your number as the hardware will be the same (the metal wire will be replaced with fibre for part of the way), you'll just pay a different company. Reply to this message | Report message

Wed 15 Nov 23 08:43   VOIP again - Zero

Virgin media are dumping my analogue provision next march, will need to move my phone to the cable hub port. Not an issue it's a fairly recent DECT cordless As an aside, a fairly local fibre provider have been causing chaos round here digging up roads and pavements, stringing up fibre on the BT poles, getting ready for fibre to the premises from the look of it www.boxbroadband.co.uk/ Prices are half that of VM, I'll see how they settle in round here and might switch Reply to this message | Report message

Wed 15 Nov 23 09:33   VOIP again - tyrednemotional

>> As an aside, a fairly local fibre provider have been causing chaos round here digging >> up roads and pavements, stringing up fibre on the BT poles, getting ready for fibre >> to the premises from the look of it >> ...over the last 6 months we've had "Connect Fibre" putting up new poles and utilising existing ones to provide FTTP. They apparently don't like digging up the pavements 'cos our road and the adjacent ones have underground 'phone connections, and have had VM follow them for these, with the preparations now just about finished. Openreach are apparently due as well in the near future, and I'd rather wait for them such that I can have a selection of potential providers over their "wholesale" product (nothing like competition). My renewal timing will probably pre-date that, so I'll have a decision to make on whether to go to VM :-( Reply to this message | Report message

Wed 15 Nov 23 11:48   VOIP again - Kevin

Virgin installed FTTP in our area last year and were stuffing mailboxes and door knocking for months. The WFH crowd jumped straight away but many regretted it. Facebook and Xitter were full of stories about missed appointments, loss of service, slow speeds and lack of support. I think it's quietened down now but people were complaining that they'd been left without broadband for weeks. (I upgraded a Hadoop cluster at a VM datacenter in St Helens about five years ago and if the state of the rest of their setup is anything like St Helens I wouldn't go near them.) Reply to this message | Report message

Wed 15 Nov 23 12:34   VOIP again - Zero

>> (I upgraded a Hadoop cluster at a VM datacenter in St Helens about five years >> ago and if the state of the rest of their setup is anything like St >> Helens I wouldn't go near them.) My son worked as a virgin engineer for a couple of years, he would concur. TBF mine has been OK, couple of major outages, but its been mostly stable and fast. Their hubs are crap tho. Reply to this message | Report message

Wed 15 Nov 23 14:17   VOIP again - Manatee

Thanks T&E for that reply, that's my understanding too. I suspect I've lost my landline number now but I lost the one everybody knew in 2019 when the house burnt down and I moved to a different exchange. My DECT base station is analogue to the phone system so for now redundant. I have repurposed it for now as an internal intercom. Just have persuade management to take her phone around with her. Then I can call her either on the cell network or WhatsApp/Messenger/Skype. Reply to this message | Report message

Wed 15 Nov 23 09:02   VOIP again - bathtub tom

>>our village is ignored by BT. Or is it Openreach? I've lost touch since I retired, having started as a YIT (Youth In Training) with the GPO in the Post Office Engineering Department. Reply to this message | Report message

Wed 15 Nov 23 09:06   VOIP again - Falkirk Bairn

BT/Openreach - effectively the same outfit with a partition, made of cigarette paper, between them. Reply to this message | Report message

Wed 15 Nov 23 09:10   VOIP again - bathtub tom

>> BT/Openreach - effectively the same outfit with a partition, made of cigarette paper, between them. Chinese walls apparently, according to some old colleagues before they jumped ship. It must have been like working with one arm tied behind your back. Reply to this message | Report message

Wed 15 Nov 23 09:41   VOIP again - Bromptonaut

The FTTP cabling here was installed by Gigaclear who are heavily pushing their service with mailshots etc. However the infrastructure is also available to other providers as though it were Openreach. Assume there was some government money involved in funding the roll out hence the need to share. Reply to this message | Report message

Wed 15 Nov 23 14:22   VOIP again - Manatee

I have just discovered that there is a VOIP phone socket on the back of my router which is a BT Smart Hub 2 I bought as an upgrade to the Talk Talk one I had at the time. Not sure if it's any use, I assume it would have to be configurable to make it work with a third party VOIP service as I'm not with BT. Reply to this message | Report message

Mon 4 Dec 23 22:20   VOIP again - Zero

So has anyone here dumped their landline completely?, No VoIP, no number? Reply to this message | Report message

Wed 6 Dec 23 09:14   VOIP again - T junction

My other half worked (retired this week) part time for a small organisation, only employee. They were paying BT a ridiculous amount for a land line and internet. Then Covid struck and she decided to work from home so the phone number was ported to www.virtuallandline.co.uk and landline/internet cancelled. Big cost saving, calls could be answered anywhere on her mobile but out going calls still appeared to come from the office number. Not quite what Zero asked but may be useful to someone. Reply to this message | Report message

Wed 6 Dec 23 09:29   VOIP again - Duncan

>> My other half worked (retired this week) >> Are you in a relationship with Runfer? Reply to this message | Report message

Wed 6 Dec 23 10:26   VOIP again - T junction

Hee Hee. I know it could look that way. Just a coincidence. I wonder how many people reach retirement each week? Reply to this message | Report message