Have BT actually said you're going on Digital Voice?

They tell you during the order process if you are.
If there's no mention of it then your voice service will continue over the copper pair.

I ordered BT FTTP yesterday and it does not come with Digital Voice.
They are sending an engineer to reactivate my copper landline (I'm with Virgin at the moment).

In reply to a post by PaulKirby:

I think its silly for BT to force people to use their SH2 to use their phone service, what if they were with any other broadband provider that allows for Fibre without a phone service with them and you already had a phone service with BT, how would that work?

TBH I think they should of gone the Ethernet based VoIP Handsets route, that would resolve this issue.

Paul

It's all a matter of costs and complexity - it will be costing a incredibly small amount for BT to request that their CPE manufacturer puts a DECT base station into the device, and by combining it they don't have to ship a separate box, people don't have a 'messy' looking setup, everything can be managed from a single place, the base station can be updated with the Hub firmware, there's not a separate device to unplug accidentally etc. The amount of people who don't use the ISP-provided router must be incredibly small, and are probably also the people who aren't that fussed about using a 'landline' telephone.

The only provider I've seen that lets you use their phone service without their router is Hyperoptic, who will give you the SIP credentials for your service. Sky are doing SOGEA and that requires their router, same with Virgin Media. If you want a separate box then you can get BT Business which supplies a Yealink DECT system, or port the number out to a SIP service and have the freedom to use whatever hardware you want.

I have Digital Voice so if anybody has questions I can help. I don't have the Advanced handset, just the Essential ones.

I've seen it asked - you can pair your own DECT handsets to the BT Hub, but obviously they just function as basic handsets. I paired an old Panasonic model and it did ring in a bit of a weird way - just a continuous tone until picked up. Plugging the Panasonic DECT base into the Hub had it functioning normally.

Edited by jpm (Fri 10-Jul-20 11:07:22)

In reply to a post by jpm:

The only provider I've seen that lets you use their phone service without their router is Hyperoptic

BT Business also let you use their VOIP service using a third party router.

Yes, I should have clarified residential providers

In reply to a post by Highland76:

In reply to a post by jpm:

The only provider I've seen that lets you use their phone service without their router is Hyperoptic

BT Business also let you use their VOIP service using a third party router.

That's a point, I did forget about that VoIP handset (that I think is an ethernet based phone), I wonder if you can have FTTP (Full Fibre 900) for the home, and then have a business phone line.
If you can mix the two what is the price difference between the box standard residential phone line and business phone line?

I even told BT I would be happy to pay for that handset if I was able to use it on our Full Fibre (FTTP) connection for their Digital Voice Service using our own 3rd party router, I was told that they haven't looked into ways to provide this as a server as yet.

But that was a while back when I was on the Full Fibre 300.

So things may or may not of changed since then.

Paul

Even if it was over Wi-FI it would be talking in the first instance to the hardware inside the Hub that handled the digital voice service.

A router supporting DECT is nothing to do with it. its all down to where the SIP is handled, and third party routers and NAT are frequently a pain with VoIP devices.

In time expect to see standard alone BT Digital Voice Ethernet connecting devices.

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

Even if it was over Wi-FI it would be talking in the first instance to the hardware inside the Hub that handled the digital voice service.

I wasn't too sure if it was doing just that, or it was a normal VoIP device that connected via Wi-Fi and not DECT, the DECT part for that handset and the SH2 I not long found out.

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

A router supporting DECT is nothing to do with it. its all down to where the SIP is handled, and third party routers and NAT are frequently a pain with VoIP devices.

I am aware of that, both of my old FRITZ Routers supported DECT, as for SIP, I have never used it or had to set that up myself, so I cannot say about that.

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

In time expect to see standard alone BT Digital Voice Ethernet connecting devices.

Yeah, hopefully they will before we get forced over, BT did say that they will try and keep us on FVA for as long as possible, just hope my old 4 port ONT doesn't need replacing with a new one.

I know PSTN will stop in 2025 so I assume we would be moved way before then, just hope we are able to use an ethernet based devices / handsets before then.

But what would happen if I was with Zen on FTTP (without phone line rental) using my own 3rd party router and the phone line was with BT over the copper line, what would happen then referring to moving over to Digital Voice and the PSTN Switch off ?

Paul

Edited by PaulKirby (Fri 10-Jul-20 11:51:36)

In reply to a post by PaulKirby:

But what would happen if I was with Zen on FTTP (without phone line rental) using my own 3rd party router and the phone line was with BT over the copper line, what would happen then referring to moving over to Digital Voice and the PSTN Switch off ?

Paul

As OpenReach seem to be going down the 1 FTTP service per household route then that might not be possible.

Taking a phone only service on FTTP will come with a broadband service with enough bandwidth to make calls.

If you're using the fibre with another provider I assume BT would not be able to provide a stand alone voice service alongside another providers broadband.

In reply to a post by j0hn83:

Have BT actually said you're going on Digital Voice?

They tell you during the order process if you are.
If there's no mention of it then your voice service will continue over the copper pair.

I ordered BT FTTP yesterday and it does not come with Digital Voice.
They are sending an engineer to reactivate my copper landline (I'm with Virgin at the moment).

That's a very good point. I've just looked at my order confirmation and also logged into my BT account to view it there too and all it says is that I've ordered " Broadband, Landline, Mobile" and under the landline section it just says I've taken the PAYG option.

There is no mention of digital voice.

I've also had a text from BT saying welcome and giving a phone number to call if I have any questions and I've just done so and the guy looked at my order and his understanding is that my install and other brownfield installs will keep the copper line in which case the VOIP phone problem disappears for the timebeing at least.

Hopefully that is the case.

Once Salisbury happens we will know the answer