Is AAISP a SoGEA service?

Is AAISP's service a SoGEA line or is it a normal phone line but where they just do not terminate calls or something?

I do not understand the technology, so sorry if that question sounds stupid, but I am trying to sign up to iDNet's explicitly labelled SoGEA service and am being told I need to pay a fee to convert the line as there is a live service on it, which was a surprise to me.

There is a number associated with the line on the control panel, though I just assumed that maybe all lines needed an assigned number as a reference. So I tried plugging in a phone and there is a dial tone yet it does not allow me to make calls (solid tone after a few digits of entering a number) or receive them (four quick beeps and disconnected when I tried calling).

But checking the website and knowledge base, there is no reference to SoGEA, and it would be odd for them to not be explicit about the technology. So now I am thinking maybe I misunderstood what they meant on the order form by:

The copper pair (telephone line) is provided solely for use with the associated broadband service and does not provide a telephone service.

Which I took as saying that after migrating the copper pair does not provide a telephone service, but maybe I am being too literal, a curse of being autistic, and it actually means something I am missing?

It isn't SOGEA. It's broadband and line rental, but with the line blocked from making calls.

At the moment new installs are non-SOGEA. We will be publishing our migrations to SOGEA plans and making all new orders SOGEA shortly.

SoGEA mean you will lose your own landline number but I think SoGEA is only available on both FTTC 40/10 and 80/20 but no line rental with phone number.

The point of SOGEA (and having it available to customers) is that it's not a product on top of WLR and so won't stop working when analogue voice services are withdrawn.

In reply to a post by Rebecka:

Is AAISP's service a SoGEA line or is it a normal phone line but where they just do not terminate calls or something?

As it stands, what they do is provision lines normally - eg PSTN + the ADSL/FTTC service. They add a service sold by BT Wholesale to prevent the line being used for outgoing calls - well actually what they do is use a service that means anytime the phone goes off-hook it auto-dials a number - which is a number A&A control and that plays out a generic message they have. They block incoming calls.

It isn't anything "special" - but it has the effect of making the phone line useless to you as a phone line. Perfectly within A&As rights to do so and if you want voice, don't put the PSTN (or copper pair as they call it) with them.

It is effectively a pre-SOGEA way of doing it that only a few people use, A&A being the most well known.

I believe in the past some lines did get a dial-tone and could be used for calls.

Thank you for the detailed explanation, and to everyone else for their replies.

Once my line was migrated to them I immediately unplugged the phone, so did not realize there was a dial tone until being told I had an active phone line and investigating. But I suppose the only difference to a customer is that SoGEA is future-proofed while this method I assume will require a one-off "you may loose service for 10 minutes on Wednesday while we perform essential maintenance "type situation at some point. But I would have happily continued without knowing or caring how my service was provided had it not affected how the it is migrated between providers.

Incidentally, my line does not seem to be auto-dialling a number, the dial tone seems constant until I dial something. Trying just now and as soon as I dial any digit it either goes to a solid tone or silence Not that it matters, just a curiosity I guess.

As I understand it , any ordinary WLR line can be made OCB ( outgoing calls barred ) where dialtone is delivered, but the only allowed calls are to 999, 100, and customer service , typically 150, this is the state TOS ( temporary out of service due to non payment ) customers are placed in , incoming calls barred ICB can be set separately, with TOS lines , the incoming service was maintained, so the Telco could ring the delinquent customer to gain payment , or payment plan etc , but with ICB applied , the net result would be a line , still connected to the ‘exchange ‘ whereas a SoGEA doesn’t need to be connected to anything other than the FTTC cabinet, but effectively cant make or receive calls …however from a wholesale point of view the ISP would be paying more for this than a ‘proper’ SoGEA line
With a line in this state 17070 could still report a directory number , if not already tried , give it a go , although any number reported wouldn’t be of any use as calls to it would still be barred….it’s also possible that 17070 could also be a number that’s unavailable

Edited by Iniltous (Sat 25-Jun-22 11:38:01)

In reply to a post by Iniltous:

the net result would be a line , still connected to the ‘exchange ‘ whereas a SoGEA doesn’t need to be connected to anything other than the FTTC cabinet

SOGEA lines are still connected to the exchange via the E-Side pair for line testing.

The only exception to that currently is 2 small "SOGEA D-Side only" trials in Mildenhall and the East Anglia region.

I am with UnchainedISP now with SoGEA FTTC 80/20 no phone number or line rental anymore. Just GEA FTTC.