VIOP with 1Mb broadband

Hi All - quick question - I live in a rural location where my business runs from. BT advised today that when the PSTN network is switched off my current broadband of 1MB will not be sufficient for VOIP calls. There is no option for fibre of any sort due to my location. I can get a reasonable Vodafone mobile signal so do I get a 4G router and put a Vodafone unlimited data SIM in it. How do I connect a digital phone to it? Thankks for any advice.

When you say 1MB - do you actually mean 1mbit ? Anyways i'm taking it as 1Mbit, which would be fine but your upload is likely to be 0.1mbits which then wouldn't be so fine for voip

For voip you would either need a "softphone" for iphone or android, or an ata such as a grandstream HT80x or a voip landline phone such a yearlink (spellling) or a gigaset n300 or n510 and some additional phones.

Oh and a service provider ..

With a good mobile signal would it be an option to use that network rather than VOIP?

e.g. https://www.aa.net.uk/voice-and-mobile/sip2sim/

Thanks - I'm open to any ideas as to how to run the business line with no broadband - yes it is 1Mb! - mobile options look likely - just interfacing a phone with the mobile broadband without it being too costly.

Thanks for reply - I will look at using a mobile signal - how would I link a desk phone to the mobile device - they do not have ports or can it be done via Wi-Fi?

Obviously you could just use a voice SIM directly in a mobile phone - this will likely be the most reliable and cheapest way to do it, with unlimited calls for <£5 per month. I think if you hunt around you can find desk phones with a SIM too.

But if you want to keep your existing landline number, you'll need to find a service provider who'll forward it to your mobile number (and pay per minute). In that case, VOIP becomes more attractive, as long as the data network connection you get is good enough.

For a client device, I'd start with a softphone like Acrobits Softphone (or Groundwire if you want additional features like 3-way calling). It costs a few quid but has no ongoing charges. If you want additional phones you can look at a DECT SIP base station, or ethernet-attached desk SIP phones (these will likely be more reliable than an ATA which connects existing analogue phones)

When choosing a VOIP provider, beware that some of them only let you register a single handset, and if you want multiple handsets active, they charge them as if they were separate "lines". But other providers let you register multiple handsets with the same credentials. They'll all ring simultaneously on an incoming call, and any one can pick it up.

In reply to a post by SGS2023:

Hi All - quick question - I live in a rural location where my business runs from. BT advised today that when the PSTN network is switched off my current broadband of 1MB will not be sufficient for VOIP calls. There is no option for fibre of any sort due to my location. I can get a reasonable Vodafone mobile signal so do I get a 4G router and put a Vodafone unlimited data SIM in it. How do I connect a digital phone to it? Thankks for any advice.

Hi There,
Quick question how many of you are in the business and need access to the phone?

Hi,

In reply to a post by SGS2023:

Hi All - quick question - I live in a rural location where my business runs from. BT advised today that when the PSTN network is switched off my current broadband of 1MB will not be sufficient for VOIP calls. There is no option for fibre of any sort due to my location. I can get a reasonable Vodafone mobile signal so do I get a 4G router and put a Vodafone unlimited data SIM in it. How do I connect a digital phone to it? Thankks for any advice.

Are BT actually saying that they are going to withdraw your phone service with no alternative? If so then I think you might be one of the first people in the country that that has happened to. Is this a formal statement in writing by BT or just something that a call centre operative might have mis-explained to you?

Have BT offered an alternative means of making voice calls or have they just said that they are going to forcibly cancel or modify your contract sometime in the next two years?

If you have a formal statement from BT and there is no other means of connection being offered then my suggestion is to complain to the BT Chairman's office and if no luck there then to consider talking to your MP and/or involving the press. Withdrawing PSTN service when there is no alternative is a contentious issue and likely to be newsworthy.

For what it is worth, if there is the possibility of the provision of a second copper pair to your premises (the cable might already carry two pairs) then I suspect BT will be able to offer you continuation of an analogue phone line alongside a separate ADSL line until your local exchange closes (which would potentially be ~2030). The second pair is necessary as that analogue product, which is not yet on sale and will only have limited availability when it is (see https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2023/11/openre... ), doesn't permit ADSL over the top so you'd need separate pairs for voice and data to replicate what you currently have.

Alternatively it might be possible to improve the ADSL performance to a point where it could support VOIP - is that low data rate purely down to a very long line length?

Do you currently use the 1Mb broadband as your main internet access?
Have you thought about something like Starlink?

Thanks Dan

There are 3 of us - but only 1 or 2 use the phone

In reply to a post by SGS2023:

BT advised today that when the PSTN network is switched off my current broadband of 1MB will not be sufficient for VOIP calls.

Sounds as if BT are completely cliueless. G.711 will use less than 100kb/s in each direction. I had VoIP running over a terrible ADSL connection (512kb/s uplink) for 10+ years and never had any issues with voice quality.

if you go down the 4G route, then I would suggest you use Three as they ate the only UK network that gives you a public IPv4 address. VoIP over CGNAT is riddled with problems, so I would not go near that

They basically said they would try to upgrade it to use VOIP service but were not sure it would work and left it at that

Thank you - we only have O2 and Vodafone coverage so will have to see if BT can get the VOIP service going - appreciate your advice on this

In reply to a post by SGS2023:

will have to see if BT can get the VOIP service going

That would be hilarious, Openreach at the forefront of going for All-IP telephony (albeit several years behind Detushe telekom who finished the migration at the end of 2020), no knowing whether it will work?

I thought so too! Current download speed is 1.12Mbps and upload is 0.61Mbps

Current download speed is 1.12Mbps and upload is 0.61Mbps

Are you actually talking to BT, or is BT Local Business targeting you? You don't have to touch your existing PSTN service until product withdrawal in 2025 and it's possible that there will be products in place to give you a working telephone even if FTTP hasn't arrived with you by then.

In reply to a post by SGS2023:

Hi All - quick question - I live in a rural location where my business runs from. BT advised today that when the PSTN network is switched off my current broadband of 1MB will not be sufficient for VOIP calls. There is no option for fibre of any sort due to my location. I can get a reasonable Vodafone mobile signal so do I get a 4G router and put a Vodafone unlimited data SIM in it. How do I connect a digital phone to it? Thankks for any advice.

If you had a dedicated line just for VOIP you can make quite a few calls on 1 meg of bandwidth. Mixing that with general internet would be impractical.

In reply to a post by therioman:

If you had a dedicated line just for VOIP you can make quite a few calls on 1 meg of bandwidth. Mixing that with general internet would be impractical.

Not necessarily, depends on what the rest of the users do on the internet at the same time.
Also, use a router that prioritiises RTP packets in the uplink diretion. There is a good list here https://www.voicehost.co.uk/help/compatible-router-l... AVM Fritzbox (with built in VoIP) also do packet prioritisation.
Downlink is down to the ISP (and the VoIP provider marking the packets correctly).

I would just get another phone number from a provider like A&A and try out VoIP in parallel to your analogue phone service and then decide what to do next.

In reply to a post by essex_man:

In reply to a post by therioman:

If you had a dedicated line just for VOIP you can make quite a few calls on 1 meg of bandwidth. Mixing that with general internet would be impractical.

Not necessarily, depends on what the rest of the users do on the internet at the same time.
Also, use a router that prioritiises RTP packets in the uplink diretion. There is a good list here https://www.voicehost.co.uk/help/compatible-router-l... AVM Fritzbox (with built in VoIP) also do packet prioritisation.
Downlink is down to the ISP (and the VoIP provider marking the packets correctly).

I would just get another phone number from a provider like A&A and try out VoIP in parallel to your analogue phone service and then decide what to do next.

Sure technically - but realistically in a planet where upstream is severely limited the number of competing things for that minimal bandwidth is still problematic. Prioritising that will make it even worse for other things so from a simplicity and reliability perspective I’d stick the VOIP on a different circuit so you can keep it robust.

The answer might be to run with Starlink if you can sign up for your location.

We are using that service to support a broadband service from Cloudscape and VoIP from Voipfone with 5 connected devices. Also streaming back CCTV of six cameras to our HQ.

Connection speed varies, but never less than 80Mbps down and around 12Mbps up.

It costs £75 pm

Our location is within the GU28 postcode.

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