In fact the Openreach link isn't strictly true. They are not upgrading the line. Merely turning off their phone service entirely.

It's the broadband and other VOIP CPs who have to do the "upgrade" by providing VOIP and possible backup facilities.

Edited by pluralist (Mon 24-Jan-22 14:19:37)

In reply to a post by law1234:

Hi all

I have been told

Who told you? This morning I got a phone call on my mobile, it was claimed to be from Uswitch and gave all sorts of promises linked to 'a change to digital line' for my line.

In reply to a post by pluralist:

In fact the Openreach link isn't strictly true. They are not upgrading the line. Merely turning off their phone service entirely.

It's the broadband and other VOIP CPs who have to do the "upgrade" by providing VOIP and possible backup facilities.

That Openreach page looks like it was carefully drafted. It says: "This is why we'll be retiring the analogue phone network at the end of 2025" (the 'we' being Openreach).

It goes on to say: "By this point everyone in the UK will have been upgraded to a digital phone line, providing us with a greener, faster, and more reliable service." Notably it doesn't say that it is Openreach doing the aforementioned upgrading.

It also fails to mention that it's likely a fair number of households won't bother with the 'digital phone line' (i.e. VoIP) at all, instead opting for a cheaper FTTC/FTTP broadband plan without any bundled voice service.

if you use https://www.openreach.com/fibre-broadband/ and check your address, do you get

ultrafast -this is FTTP ie an optical fibre direct to your house - if so yes you'd get full speed

superfast - this is FTTC and the speed you get depends on the copper line concerned

Precisely . Those are exactly the nuances I spotted but couldn't quickly explain as well as you have done. Though I didn't think of the number of younger customers who would just ditch landline voice.

Even some older ones like myself. It's now three years since I ceased both the landline services completely.

Ofcom have their own landing page about it, which is fairly straightforward to understand for the lay person:

https://www.ofcom.org.uk/news-centre/2021/upgrading-...

There’s even a whole ‘future of voice’ website dedicated to the topic apparently. Who knew!

https://www.futureofvoice.co.uk/

(Though it looks like it hasn’t been updated since 2020)

In reply to a post by pluralist:

In fact the Openreach link isn't strictly true. They are not upgrading the line. Merely turning off their phone service entirely.

It's the broadband and other VOIP CPs who have to do the "upgrade" by providing VOIP and possible backup facilities.

Agreed. Openreach are pulling the plug on WLR / PSTN and providing the new world foundational products (FTTP, SOGEA and the mythical SOTAP) to support over the top VoIP services supplied and supported from their comms provider customers to joe public.

The actual “upgrade” from PSTN to VoIP is in the gift of the various voice service providers (in reality mostly BT itself and the big ISPs…very few voice only providers).

Those guys just need to make the deadline and not screw up their customers!

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

...
The actual “upgrade” from PSTN to VoIP is in the gift of the various voice service providers (in reality mostly BT itself and the big ISPs…very few voice only providers).

Those guys just need to make the deadline and not screw up their customers!

Fixed your final sentence .

🤣