SoGEA

Hello,
I am new here, and have joined as I'm researching options for our office to move from copper cabling before the PSTN switch-off. I can't find a straight forward explanation of SoGEA anywhere. From what I read, I thought it was a FTTC product. However, our proposed supplier tells me it runs on copper. I'm confused as I see SoGEA offered as a solution to the switch-off. So is SoGEA just a packaged product to deliver data and voice (I sort of understand the single order bit) regardless of the cabling used?

SOGEA is FTTC broadband with no traditional PSTN voice service so supplied by copper from the FTTC cabinet.
You can of course use the broadband to provide a VOIP phone service from a 3rd party supplier but SOGEA itself is data only.

Thinking about it I suppose CPs (ISPs) could decide to provide their own Voip type phone service on SOGEA lines, I believe BT are doing this with their Digital Voice service.

Edited by Realalemadrid (Wed 06-Sep-23 11:48:35)

The PSTN switch-off in Dec 2025 is unrelated to broadband delivery over copper, which will continue into the 2030s for those who do not have FTTP available.

I thought we'd found a good local supplier for a new VOIP system and a new FTTC broadband line, using SoGEA. However yesterday they told me they couldn't now provide SoGEA. This ia an extract of their email reply to me:

"SoGEA uses the same cabling infrastructure as ADSL but it doesn’t require you to use the analogue line to run over the top of, which is essentially why it is cheaper as you remove the analogue line costs.

We have a pricing tool from Openreach which lets us know what is available and when going to place an order we are being told only ADSL2+ is available in Elizabeth Court. This will have to change in the near future as they will be turning off all the exchanges, and if you have ADSL2+ it will be an automatic swap-over to SoGEA this without service interruption."

I haven't found any independent articles on the subject, only explanations by suppliers, and they've all been dumbed down, incomplete and interchanged terms. They all gave the impression SoGEA was the future though.
Our proposed supplier I think really just wants to sell VOIP, so whether they don't fully understand the cabling infrastructure or just aren't very good at explaining, I don't know.
They are now offering a FTTP by an independent installer, at slightly higher cost to their SoGEA proposal. This is probably a good thing, but it's frustrating trying to understand exactly what we need versus what we're being offered.

Maybe there are no current spare DSLAM ports at the street cabinet that serves your business ?
This new company really ought to be able to migrate your existing service to SOGEA, and for me, their apparent lack of understanding ought to be ringing a couple of alarm bells for what kind of service they might provide if you use them.

If we end up with full fibre and VOIP system then we might be fine. It's just a bit tricky trying to navigate this when I'm having to research at every step.

Is full fibre available at that address ?