I did not sign up to that specifically, but the instructions included within the box did indicate to plug my telephone in to the router rather that the main BT wall socket. We�ll see come Thursday.

In reply to a post by simon194:

Looks like the phone is going to be using Sky's VoIP service. It's the only reason they supply the SR203 without having to sign up to the Broadband Boost option.

I upgraded to superfast fibre from sky ADSL and just have the PAYG phone service with sky, but they would not give me a new router unless the BB boost was purchased. I have to make do with the SR102 for now.

The Sky router (SR203) is very basic, as far as I can tell so far it has limited configuration, no guest WiFi, no device blocking, etc. It does allow device IP address reservation, which I use for specific devices like NASs, but that's about it. It should just plug-and-go, which is probably what most people want. The WiFi signal appears good, comparable with Netgear D7000v2 in terms of signal strength, if not a little stronger. I have not checked throughput. I'll check stability once my line is active.

You can get a decent router for about £100, that may be a better option, and it will likely last for years. Check the DSL Hardware area for recommendations.

Edited by aks (Tue 11-Feb-20 11:24:26)

Yep, the service activated smoothly and I am actually on the Sky VoIP telephone service. Although my BT master socket has dial-tone, it does not accept or allow calls. Plugging the phone in to the router enables calls (obviously), however, I did not anticipate this was the service that I was getting!

Curious that Sky are not making this more obvious. Some people still use hard-wired telephone extension sockets and such which would stop working. And the router's location may not be the most convenient spot for the DECT telephone base station.

Yes indeed, but in my case the Dect base station and master phone sit very close to my router. However, I wanted the flexibility of using my own router if I chose to do so, and that's now more tricky. I have a Netgear D7000, it does not have VoIP, but we could argue that an alternative router would be better than the D7000 or indeed the SR203 may be better at some level.

I do recall "accepting" a condition wrt the Talk Anytime terms, but I assumed these were generic conditions alerting you to the fact that VoIP requires the broadband service and power, i.e. cannot be relied upon for emergency calls. Since I had no choice in this selection, I incorrectly assumed that my regular PSTN line would continue to work as was the case for every supplier up to now. I don't think I can change anything from my side, or my account on the Sky portal.

There is a silver lining here too: calls with the VoIP service seem to have no 'noise' or crackles, kind of expect total silence with a digital service, and this sometimes annoyed my wife to death !

I hadn't considered the use of one's own router, that's true also. That said, Sky has never been much of a friend to those wanting to use their own routers! The stipulation has been removed from the Sky T&C and several routers now support WAN DHCP option 61, but that's scant consolation to those who wish to use the phone service.

Yes that's true, and I did investigate the use of my own router and decided that I could get that sorted, even with the D7000!

I just googled this and found a similar thread on the Sky forums, specifically this comment "I was suprised to find that my line had been moved to SOGEA/Voip. I am ex telecom so this wasn't much of a problem, but the issue I'm having is that, Sky didn't inform me that this is happening!". It seems to be a bit of a secret 'catch you out' (or should that be "trap you") !

Sky have a somewhat belated FAQ here: https://helpforum.sky.com/t5/Talk/Internet-Calls/td-...

Cheers, they must have received a few calls from confused customers .

I've also started a new thread in the VoIP area to discuss a full switchover, since this is the first time I've ever considered VoIP and have no clue what the issues are.