In reply to a post by njh:

Along with SoGEA, are VRI (Voice Re-Injection) faceplates going to become available?

If everyone is being taken off analogue voice services, there are going to be people who want to continue using their telephone extension wiring with their VoIP phone service?

There were trials of various VRI faceplates including switched, to change between exchange-fed and local, and various components allowing the line test equipment to identify if a VRI faceplate was fitted.

Given the majority of voice installations are a single DECT base plugged into the master socket I suspect providers don't want to get involved as there is a huge mix of both the original NTE5 and new NTE5c, let alone installations which predate them. Customers would have to identify the correct type of master socket and be capabile of fitting it if faceplates were to be supplied by the provider, otherwise the customer/provider is going to have to pay for an Openreach engineer visit.

BT Retail have Digital Voice adapters for their offering, basically the works of a DECT handset which is plugged into a 13A socket and has a standard BT socket. This allows for other wired extensions which are not adjacent to the BT Hub to be connected, but doesn't address anything using fixed extension wiring in the premises.

I suppose some third-party offerings may be produced, it depends if the companies who do this sort of thing see there is any profit in it.

In reply to a post by tdw42:

I suspect providers don't want to get involved as there is a huge mix of both the original NTE5 and new NTE5c, let alone installations which predate them. Customers would have to identify the correct type of master socket and be capable of fitting it if faceplates were to be supplied by the provider, otherwise the customer/provider is going to have to pay for an Openreach engineer visit.

Ah yes, very good point about the mixture of master sockets.

I was thinking that ISPs would just need to put a faceplate in the post - but a relatively small number of people probably have NTE5c sockets.

As long as your sure to disconnect the incoming pair at the master socket, then you can hook up the voice port / FXS port on the router back into the faceplate and have it use the existing extension cabling.

In reply to a post by therioman:

FWIW, A&A use another feature, there is no dialtone.

Perhaps not always the case. Following my Renumber & Export (from BT to A&A) followed by my original BT number being transferred to A&A's VoIP (see my posts in AAISP 21st Feb 2022), I just checked this afternoon and I have a DialTone, dialing 17070 gives me a number associated with our local exchange - this is NOT my original number that I transferred to A&A. Dialling that number from my mobile gives, "It has not been possible to connect your call. Please try again later."

That said, in the very early days of my Renumber and Export, there was NO DialTone, but instead, ""This is line number one. This is a monitored broadband only copper pair provided by Andrews and Arnold. Do not disconnect or re-use this pair. Andrews and Arnold circuit number nnnnn This is line number one. Quiet line test."

After a couple of days, the above message was replaced with DialTone as above.

Cheers!

In reply to a post by Rebecka:

I am not sure what other options there are for a static IP and no phone service other than Zen

Cerberus sell SOGEA:
https://www.cerberusnetworks.co.uk/connectivity-broa...
Static IPv4(*) and IPv6 (/56) as standard. Free migration if you take a 12 month contract, otherwise a charge applies.

(*) It says "1, 4 or 8 IPs" but I think there's an extra monthly charge for more than 1 - I can't find it right now though.

After looking at Cerberus I think I may need AAISP's help now, because it seems to me that something must have gone wrong when they took over my line.

The migration fees were quite ambiguous on that Cerberus web page, so I clicked the order button to see precisely what I would be charged.

With just my street address it seemed to correctly identify my line under 'copper line availability', at least it correctly give the last two digits of its phone number. Yet despite selecting to take over the line, it still required me to choose a new copper line for installation installation.

That was with the SoGEA option, so I tried again for FTTC. That did not even show any option for a current copper line current line, and only offered a new installation for £156. For SoGEA the new line would have only been £40.64 or £60.73.

Incidentally, while the main page only lists £33 for FTTC without line rental, the order page only shows it as £43.80 inclusive of line rental. Which makes sense for them to provide if are provide the new line just for their service. I assume it would a similar setup as AAISP use with no voice service. But that monthly cost makes the PSTN option slightly cheaper than SoGEA at £45.

In reply to a post by Rebecka:

I am not sure what other options there are for a static IP and no phone service other than Zen (whether SoGEA or an arrangement like AAISP), but presumably anyone else would have the same problem anyway.

CIX (the retail sales arm of ICUK) only sell SoGEA now. £32.40/mo for 40/10 or £34.80/mo for 80/20, a static IPv4 address is an additional £1.80/mo.