SOTAP is just VOIP over ADSL (with or without broadband). It being unavailable will have no impact on anyone. It isn't even a thing yet (excluding the Mildenhall trial).
It's only necessary where fibre alternatives don't exist.

FTTP/FTTC already have 0.5Mb/0.5Mb tiers for people who want just a landline with no broadband.

Edited by j0hn83 (Fri 23-Dec-22 00:12:23)

Thanks for the clarification

So what will my aunt be faced with if she wishes to change landline providers after WLR stop sell given that fibre alternatives are available? I guess a preconfigured modem/router might be acceptable over FTTC for a voice only service. Not sure that she would want an ONT and FTTP installation...

In the case of BT it would be something like a BT Smart Hub 2. Just plug the phone in to the Hub instead of the master socket. BT will provision landline only at 0.5Mb/s symmetrical.

I expect smaller devices will come along for the landline only folk. Like a pre configured BT Mini Call hub, or something like that.

I also anticipate the number of providers offering landline only will shrink with the additional cost of CPE. Most of the big players already don't offer landline without broadband.

An ONT and a BT Smart Hub (router and access point combined) is a lot of unnecessary kit just to make a call.

I think that ONT's with telephone ports was the answer, helps with powering things for calls during an extended power cut.
Openreach wanted completely out of the voice business though.

Since a mobile phone is generally needed for backup then I would possibly also consider advising her to dump the landline altogether!

In reply to a post by j0hn83:

An ONT and a BT Smart Hub (router and access point combined) is a lot of unnecessary kit just to make a call.

I think that ONT's with telephone ports was the answer, helps with powering things for calls during an extended power cut.
Openreach wanted completely out of the voice business though.

Agreed. A SmartHub is a clunking great thing (with unnecessary power consumption) for 'just' running a virtual landline.

A more elegant (and low power solution given the energy crisis) should be investigated.

I don’t think any FTTP products specific to landline-only customers will be developed, the market is too small. The solution offered to people who want a phone without broadband will be to get a mobile phone, and you might see fixed GSM terminals being marketed to people who would otherwise lose a landline, perhaps with some Ofcom changes to allow geographical numbers to be ported to SIMs as long as they are only used in a fixed location.

People living in areas with poor mobile reception will be ignored until them being completely cut off becomes a problem that gets picked up by a government department.

Cutting to the chase….fixed line voice is a market they (BT or Openreach) really don’t want. It’s a pain in their collective backside.

It’s dead easy for them to not sink a penny into development or manufacture of a new product for a market they effectively want to kill off.

That’s how it will be, unless they are forced into it.

In reply to a post by jpm:

That is correct, but I assumed the people you mentioned in your post as needing assistance with their broadband/telephone aren't hopping providers that often either.

That's fair comment, most are not. They have been BT customers since dot, and are likely to stay that way.

The particular case I had in mind is of an old lady, now widowed, who lives alone. She has red button pendant alarm and various other monitoring devices attached to a control box that calls out over her (PSTN) landline. She has been told by her daughter that she ought to switch to Vodafone or some cheaper ISP to save a few pennies in these difficult times, but said daughter seems unwilling to arrange the switch and I don't think she has investigated he possible implications of the care alarm system.

In reply to a post by j0hn83:

I expect smaller devices will come along for the landline only folk.

I don't expect that at all.

Landline-only folks are a small and rapidly-reducing proportion of overall lines. They'll take their Smarthub 2 or equivalent, and lump it.

In reply to a post by Thaumaturge:

The particular case I had in mind is of an old lady, now widowed, who lives alone. She has red button pendant alarm and various other monitoring devices attached to a control box that calls out over her (PSTN) landline. She has been told by her daughter that she ought to switch to Vodafone or some cheaper ISP to save a few pennies in these difficult times, but said daughter seems unwilling to arrange the switch and I don't think she has investigated he possible implications of the care alarm system.

To me it's not clear from the above whether the widow has broadband and phone, or just phone.

If she has phone only, I would ask:

1. Do Vodafone even sell a landline-only service?
2. If they do, is it just reselling WLR?
3. If not, i.e. it would have to be broadband+phone, is it really cheaper than BT landline?

There are a number of two-bit WLR resellers who are cheaper than BT, but I'd recommend *not* switching to those at this point. They will be the ones responsible for moving her onto digital voice soon, and I suspect most of them won't be capable of doing it properly. BT will at least have processes for assisting vulnerable people in the transition.

If she has phone + broadband, then it's true there will be some savings to be had by switching provider - and that there are quite a few now who use digital voice (including Vodafone and Sky).

But first she should be switching over her monitoring services, and it's primarily the responsibility of the suppliers of those services (not BT) to help her. There are versions of the red button which have a built in SIM card and mobile transmitter, for example. Other devices may have versions which hook up to the broadband wifi, or perhaps an upgraded "control box" can do wifi or mobile.

Does the "control box" have battery backup? If not, then she should be thinking about some sort of UPS already.

All this is akin to the digital TV switchover. Things will need to be done, and some gadgets will need replacing.

However, with the digital TV switchover there was *tons* of marketing aimed at individual end users - which seems to be absent this time round. Openreach may be talking regularly with CSPs, but for situations like the widow mentioned above, it's the end user who needs to be taking steps now.

Edited by candlerb (Fri 23-Dec-22 15:02:51)