Simon

You may find that the costs are nearly the same in total!

The Openreach FTTP costs are biased the other way around to copper so the BB is expensive FTTP rental and the voice cheap but the total will be around the same. (The OR FTTP GEA BB only costs were nearly the same as the BB GEa + Voice GEA costs last time I looked)

All for 80:20 product from OR. rental costs
FTTP £119.4 + Copper line rental.(£91.05) Transition product
FTTP without Copper £220.08
FTTP + FVA £223.08

So FVA cost from Openreach equates to £3 for the 135Kb GEA for voice on top of the BB only cost. Or the transition product Plus the 2010 WLR cost is the same as FTTP+FVA so looks like the prices have not been kept in step as the WLR has dropped since then.

In reply to a post by csimon:

No mobile signal here in wild and woolly Wales! Terrible broadband too, but all the signs are that we're getting FTTP in the not too distant future, hence my question. But it sounds like not many providers are offering FTTP, never mind FVA, and the line rental would probably be higher than a copper line.

Personally I have a VoIP desk phone. SIPgate gives me a "local" telephone number for personal calls, and I have another line for business, it works just like the desk phones most of you will be familiar with from your workplace, multiple simultaneous calls, caller ID, decent speaker mode (proper echo suppression) and so on. Doing it this way saves £7 pcm compared to getting line rental with "free" calls from BT, which more than covers the cost of the SIPgate calls.

However it's certainly true that (for all the bad things said about them here) BT are more reliable. I've probably had two or three occasions each year when the VoIP is unavailable, whereas in ten years with a BT line I had only one serious fault and it didn't render the line totally unusable. Also the BT phone never once interrupted a call to upgrade its firmware and reboot.

In reply to a post by tialaramex:

In reply to a post by csimon:

No mobile signal here in wild and woolly Wales! Terrible broadband too, but all the signs are that we're getting FTTP in the not too distant future, hence my question. But it sounds like not many providers are offering FTTP, never mind FVA, and the line rental would probably be higher than a copper line.

However it's certainly true that (for all the bad things said about them here) BT are more reliable. I've probably had two or three occasions each year when the VoIP is unavailable, whereas in ten years with a BT line I had only one serious fault and it didn't render the line totally unusable. Also the BT phone never once interrupted a call to upgrade its firmware and reboot.

I'm not with BT Retail, however do have Openreach local loop, and my phone line and therefore ADSL are currently dead for about 1 month per year.

I realise this is an old thread

For nearly 3 years, I've had broadband and voice over FTTP (BT Retail ) and voice and broadband (SMPF) on copper (BE / Sky )from the same ONTE

My strong advice is keep the copper for voice - the line rental cost does not differ either

Much simpler if you want to migrate and less likely to go very wrong and BT OR / Wholesale have plenty of years of experience dealing with copper PSTN lines

Thanks for that information.

In saying that "the line rental cost does not differ either", is it charged for separately as though it was a stand-alone item; or is it incorporated/hidden in the FTTP costs or is it in the BE/Sky costs etc?

On the bill from BT where both phone and broadband are on BT and the phone line I use, as both are with BT the bill is combined, but all items are listed separately i.e BT Infinity 100Mb Option1, Line Rental, call add-ons etc
The product is FTTP with Fibre Voice Access (FVA) and I was a trialist with BT

The phone handset is connected to the FTTP ONT

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/news/5013-openreach-pr...

On the 2nd line which is not used for voice calls at all, I have separate bills - phone bill from BT, broadband bill from Sky

2 different lines, with 2 different phone numbers, one over fibre, the other over copper

It is a bit of a con really, but my FTTP installation and everything after it were a complete nightmare

I was supposed to be able to keep BE broadband without any issue albeit on a different phone number which wasn't an issue with BE - BT placed the wrong order, ceased the copper line, BE cancelled as no phone line. Despite having the correct faceplate, BT disconnected all my extensions and that took 5 engineer visits to sort out

Last year I had a voice fault on FVA - couldn't make or receive calls. Took me ages to sort out as no-one I spoke to (BT India) understood the product or how to report it

I'd already tried disconnecting power to the ONT overnight and disconnecting the battery backup

When I finally got through to the right team, (BT Exeter team) and got it all sorted out, I asked what I should do if there were any further fault in future "Just call 151 from your fibre phone line and you'll be put through to us, the correct team". D'oh. That's an impossible task if you cannot make phone calls on that line

Over 2 weeks without the ability to make or receive calls - I didn't want to redirect calls to another number, as that means no compo

I am happy with it though but it's hard work being a guinea pig

Thanks for those details, enlightening!

I've had broadband and voice over FTTP (BT Retail ) and voice and broadband (SMPF) on copper (BE / Sky )from the same ONTE

You make it sound as though the Sky service is delivered over the FTTP link, which I suspect isn't the case, it's over the 'original' copper pair innit ?

Yes, Sky is over the original copper pair
Hybrid fibre / copper cable to the pole

The router is plugged directly into the test socket as I lose about 3Mbps on the downstream bandwidth plugged into the faceplate

The router is plugged directly into the test socket as I lose about 3Mbps on the downstream bandwidth plugged into the faceplate

There must be extension wiring connected to the faceplate for that kind of loss ?