TalkTalk FTTP

Has anyone made any sense of TT's offer? From what I can see they are offering 150 @ £34.95 or 500 @ £39.95, but are not offering a phone package. I suppose this will mean going to Sipgate or similar, but does seem odd and would have thought it wouldn't fit with many customers.

You’d be surprised how many punters do not use the landline side of their service.

Agreed, only a small number of people use a land line now, most only use their mobile because it has all inclusive minutes, and they only have the land line as they are forced to as part of their package. Another classic people will say is we never use it, it is only there for an elderly relative to call, as they think calling a mobile is expensive and won't call them.

Not odd at all, considering many people don't have a need for a landline. As you say, a cheap Sipgate service can be taken out (no line rental req'd) for those who do require a landline on FTTP.

And in many cases you can port your landline number to the VoIP service (before ceasing the landline!) so the elderly relative can still use the number...

No need whatsoever these days for a physical “landline”, plenty of good and cheap VoIP alternatives about.

Personally I’ve used Sipgate since 2012 via an Asterisk based solution and its been great. A couple of foibles with the “free” service like a 2 hour call ‘drop’ limitation, but that’s pretty easy to live with unless you have regular conf. calls lasting 2 hours or more. I dabbled with ATA’s for a while whilst I still had physical BT and VM landlines, but I slowly dropped them all and ported my sole remaining VM landline (home) number to Sipgate a few years ago.

However being frank, and as said with all inclusive minutes on the growing majority of mobile plans, that’s where 99% of calls are now made/received and there are so many free or cheap alternatives now beyond plain “voice” like Skype, Teams, Zoom that the landline has been consigned to the dustbin for many folks.

I think you may find that a great number of TT customers use their landlines, and in particular a lot of those looking to change to FTTP for reliability will be even more dependant on it as many will be in areas of poor mobile signal areas.
As for those only using mobiles, many of them won't have any form of fixed BB like TT, indeed if we had a decent mobile signal would have dumped the 'landline' years ago. A quick look on TT forums and it looks like BT will be having a bonanza.

Why will ‘BT be having a bonanza’ ??

What of wifi calling on your mobile ?

The usual scenario now is that the CP supplied router will have a PSTN jack on the back of it, and the CP enables this function.

I based my comments on my experience of visiting many different households, with a wide range of different service providers offerings. I suspect The Installer might have a similar role.

In reply to a post by Zarjaz:

What of wifi calling on your mobile ?

Info, if you have zero mobile network signal and need to receive traditional SMS (for two factor websites e.g. HMRC, or for bank confirmation) then avoid Vodafone and O2's WiFi calling as they still don't handle SMS over WiFi calling.

The usual scenario now is that the CP supplied router will have a PSTN jack on the back of it, and the CP enables this function.

Virgin Media now does this, but in my view a slightly different (better?) way, as you can switch their supplied router into modem mode, but the PSTN jack still works. Slightly more convenient for those whom wish to use better equipment than the CP supplies (e.g. better / higher spec WiFi, or with USB ports, VPN features).

In reply to a post by jchamier:

In reply to a post by Zarjaz:

What of wifi calling on your mobile ?

Info, if you have zero mobile network signal and need to receive traditional SMS (for two factor websites e.g. HMRC, or for bank confirmation) then avoid Vodafone and O2's WiFi calling as they still don't handle SMS over WiFi calling.

The usual scenario now is that the CP supplied router will have a PSTN jack on the back of it, and the CP enables this function.

Virgin Media now does this, but in my view a slightly different (better?) way, as you can switch their supplied router into modem mode, but the PSTN jack still works. Slightly more convenient for those whom wish to use better equipment than the CP supplies (e.g. better / higher spec WiFi, or with USB ports, VPN features).

Yeah, I'm surprised that voda still hasn't got sms over wifi calling yet. Also many payasyou services do not have wifi calling enabled.

Modem mode should be mandatory for isp supplied routers. And remember its only a matter of time before we see ont-wifi routers from isps.

I've only just noticed that TalkTalk's Wi-Fi Hub doesn't have a phone socket on the back, which seems like a fairly odd thing to leave out considering what has been known about the future of copper voice services for a few years.

For me it doesn't make a whole lot of differance, just the 'inconvenience' of porting my number over to Sipgate (or any other recommended VoIP supplier), at the moment I can't use wifi calling which is a whole different story, but that's not why I started this thread.
I'm after finding if anyone on here has any info on what TT are actually offering, it would be good if TB did a news story on it, but this and BT-FON disappearing seem to be on a 'news blackout'.
p.s. of the few that have commented on TT forums the majority seem to have decided to jump ship to BT.

Edited by burble (Sat 25-Jul-20 11:00:10)

In reply to a post by jpm:

I've only just noticed that TalkTalk's Wi-Fi Hub doesn't have a phone socket on the back, which seems like a fairly odd thing to leave out considering what has been known about the future of copper voice services for a few years.

That's something I assumed part of the TT FTTP trials where to sort out, how 'landlines' where to be handled, it seems not.

In reply to a post by jchamier:

Info, if you have zero mobile network signal and need to receive traditional SMS (for two factor websites e.g. HMRC, or for bank confirmation) then avoid Vodafone and O2's WiFi calling as they still don't handle SMS over WiFi calling.

One of the reasons I’ve kept my SureSignal units! A good thing they are far more reliable than what they once were...

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

One of the reasons I’ve kept my SureSignal units! A good thing they are far more reliable than what they once were...

As a couple of colleagues found, once they fail, Vodafone will not replace. Nor will they activate a second hand one on your account, they are pushing a "WiFi calling only" mantra now. This is why I actually tested WiFi calling and text messaging on my work Vodafone, and personal EE.

Edited by jchamier (Sat 25-Jul-20 11:17:15)

In reply to a post by Taras:

Yeah, I'm surprised that voda still hasn't got sms over wifi calling yet. Also many payasyou services do not have wifi calling enabled.

Three PAYG seems to be one of the few. Maybe even Virgin mobile.

Modem mode should be mandatory for isp supplied routers. And remember its only a matter of time before we see ont-wifi routers from isps.

In the DSL & FTTP space, I agree, although if the ONT belongs to the network provider (Openreach or CityFibre) and the router belongs to the CP / ISP, then there is a nice, industry standard, interface in the middle.

In reply to a post by jchamier:

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

One of the reasons I’ve kept my SureSignal units! A good thing they are far more reliable than what they once were...

As a couple of colleagues found, once they fail, Vodafone will not replace. Nor will they activate a second hand one on your account, they are pushing a "WiFi calling only" mantra now. This is why I actually tested WiFi calling and text messaging on my work Vodafone, and personal EE.

I have a long running saga with SureSignals - and currently have three "free-issue" brand new spares in my possession.

And no it wasn't easy...nothing ever is with Voda...but persistence pays off.