BT Digital Voice - parting of the ways?

I currently have FTTP, wifi calling on mobile phones (because the phone signal at home is pretty much non-existent) and a copper landline. The attraction of the landline is (mainly) the resilience to power cuts and a fair degree of inertia to be honest. I don't use a BT router because the last one I tried didn't work with my mesh wifi.

BT have sent me the letters about being switched over to digital voice at some stage. They've caused me to consider whether I want or need a landline replacement and I wonder whether there's an element of BT shooting themselves in the foot by making me (and presumably others) think about landline replacement.

I realise that I need battery backup for my ONT and router if I want resilience. I'll also have to rejig (and probably replace) my DECT phones if I want to continue to use them, in part because I have no need for a phone near the router and ONT. I am detecting low levels of spousal acceptance for a UPS.

This makes me think I might as well can the whole idea of BT Digital Voice. I might just as well use any VOIP provider and be free to choose whatever hardware I want for voice.

I wouldn't have thought this is good business for BT but I no longer see any benefit in getting voice services from BT.

Total number of 'landlines', total number of minutes, and therefore total revenues and profits from PSTN have been in marked and continued decline for the past 15 years or so. I think they peaked some time in the early noughties and never recovered.

Mobile basically ate their share and was also far more profitable for the carriers.

BT (the group mothership) have effectively decided there really is an inexorable and irreversible shrinking business case for PSTN. The cost of running legacy switches in exchanges therefore keeps rising per unit and also each year as the gear goes further and further out of support.

The only way forward then for 'landline' voice really is IP or Voice over IP, which is vastly cheaper and easier to implement and run. Its simply another service like email, web browsing, video calls etc etc, that runs "over the top".

I should add this isn't a particular thing to BT or the UK. Most other countries have similar pressures -> shrinking demand and ageing technology base* x 1000's of physical exchange sites (which are increasingly empty and expensive to keep) and are moving to VoIP

The UK is actually someway down the list of other western countries that have turned off their 'legacy telco' switched PSTN networks. The Germans did it back in 2014. Australia and New Zealand have a deadline to complete by next year.

* ageing user base also.

I'm in the same situation as yourself, I'm in contract still... otherwise I'd have stopped it already.

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

I should add this isn't a particular thing to BT

TalkTalk residential weren't even offering VoIP if you took up FTTP, not sure if they do now.

TalkTalk consumer still only do Data only packages for FTTP. Not sure what they are going to do on the next year or so as the 2023 milestone of the PSTN closure gets closer and complete closure in 2025.

Correct they don’t. I can categorically confirm that as a customer. Not that it matters to me an iota.

I spend more on mobile bills in a month than I have in a year (actually probably closer three years) than I do with my VoIP provider - suspect that’s not atypical. Outgoing calls go via inclusive packages. My teenage kids don’t even know what a landline is, as few under the age of thirty don’t even bother having one…ever.

In a resi setting it really is the the more senior members of our community that come to rely on it - out of force of habit and circumstance.

Yeah its simply not a revenue target. It’s more of a hassle. There are plenty of third party VoIP providers out there…usually with far less restrictions and tie-ins.

In reply to a post by cymru123:

TalkTalk consumer still only do Data only packages for FTTP. Not sure what they are going to do on the next year or so as the 2023 milestone of the PSTN closure gets closer and complete closure in 2025.

"TalkTalk" is perhaps not the most accurate brand name for a product (FTTP) that doesn't even offer it's own voice service!

I just think it's mad that BT expect everyone of their broadband customers to use their Hub if they want landline service, no ifs or buts.

I had DV with Virgin previously but Virgin is fine as it connects to the Hub (even in modem mode i believe)

Ah well