Derisking a broadband installation

My father's 88, and currently on a POTS line. He's quite deaf, and while he can cope with the landline, he can't hear his mobile ringing. Personally he's quite happy with a landline and has no use for the Internet himself.

Recently my niece graduated, and has moved in with him. Given the housing crisis, we suspect she may be there a while. So we started investigating broadband options which would allow him to keep his landline number. There's no SoGEA option where he is, so we're looking at fibre.

It all started quite well. In got in touch with Zen asking about Fibre + Digital Voice. That was all fine, and the sales team promised me a site visit before installation to de-risk the installation. That sounded ideal, as at that point we could work out where everything would go, and make sure mains was available in the right places, etc. However, when we placed the order we were told that there wouldn't be a site visit before the installation - it would all be done in one hit. I wasn't happy with Zen about that, as I thought there would be a significant chance my father would be without a landline for many days. I cancelled the order.

My question is; what's the best way to proceed here? There's clearly a "do nothing" option where my niece just uses a SIM card and my father sticks with POTS until he's move onto Digital Voice by his provider. That's attractive, but there's no control over the migration to DV. Another option might be to keep the landline, install a separate fibre line, port the number and then decommission the landline.That's seems safer, but I have no idea of whether it's workable or not.

Are there any other options I'm not considering?

88 and deaf - a vulnerable person.

Before you go further, speak to the various providers to ensure you have confidence in how they will deal with any faults given his "status". I have experience with Plusnet and their rapid response to vulnerable cuustomers - excellent.

I would suggest going to PN and getting a full fibre install which will NOT have a number associated with it as they do not offer digtal voice. Then, select a VoIP provider and migrate the landline to them which will then cancel the existing landline. Get a suitable DECT base - N300A-IP for example, with several handsets and locate them next to "his chair" in the lounge, kitchen and bedroom so one is always within reach.


edit to add:

If you go with PN, make sure you are on the system as a registered contact with full authority. You can be added by your father (with you guiding him) through their portal, or by phone. It works well.

Edited by MHC (Tue 16-Jul-24 12:35:41)

Yes, I would go with MHC's suggestions.Vulnerable or not, get land line from a VoIP provider and don't complicate things by getting the VoIP from the fibre provider [oh but getting the landline from the broadband provider is simple I hear some say. Not id the fibre goes belly up and you get yourself a new fibre provider - you then have to untangle the phone provision]. Things have been turned inside out. Internet used to come over the phone line, but now the phone comes over the internet.

Agree with the above, but also consider resilience issues. Is the location liable to power outages? If it is, or even if it isn't, remember that the POTS line keeps working during a power failure, but a VoIP line will not. Nor will DECT phones. The router and fibre ONT will be single points of failure for all the comms. If the OP's niece is resident and likely to be so, that may mitigate these issues to some extent.

Based on my experience with an elderly mother, the sooner these issues are tackled the better. All POTS lines will disappear by Jan 2027. It gets harder for elderly folks to learn how to use different kit the older they get.

Perhaps SOTAP for analogue will last a bit longer if that were a relevant solution? Not sure what the eligibility criteria are for that, but this looks like a prime case.

Thanks all.

I've considered the SpoF, and I'm happy with those - my father is quite mobile and can easily pop next door.

Talking further with Zen, it looks like a parallel installation of fibre in addition to the existing POTS line is the way to go (supplier TBD). I just need to consider my niece's requirement for that.

That leaves the landline as a separate problem.

Thaumaturge raises an intriguing possibility with SOTAP. I'd not heard of that before, but it looks definitely useful if it's available. I'll talk to his existing supplier to find out.

Failing that I'll look at a separate port to DV as suggested by MHC and DFScale. There's a TrueCall unit on his line so I can easily work out costs for a number of VoIP suppliers.

Thanks all.

What MHC said.

You sure you can't get an Nokia mobile phone that's got a loud ringtone btw?

POTS will go sooner or later so make a plan sooner, not later

There are a few loud ring phones. My point was about getting registered ás vulnerable - costs nothing but has benefits.

In reply to a post by MHC:

There are a few loud ring phones. My point was about getting registered ás vulnerable - costs nothing but has benefits.

Yep ... as I said.. agree with what you said too

we had a messy situation with moving a seperate landline when we had fibre installed. It was a failure, due to it being a line that is not in service - and the number is still currently active as i type. It took 2 and half weeks to find out what was going and needless to say i dropped the voip provider.

I will be porting the number in the next week with another voip provider. Whilst my issue is separate to the op the issue of moving pots numbers with fibre being installed needs a good thought out article.

Ofcom needs to get involved too. We have a good mobile porting scheme, yet when it comes to internet transfers it can be messy and landline numbers a nightmare.

I don't consider (from my experince) 1 out of two successful ported numbers as a good figure