BT landline to VoIP migration

Does anyone know how BT migrate people with landline phones onto VoIP, in advance of the PSTN switch-off? For example, do they:

a) supply an ATA box?
b) supply a replacement IP phone?
c) supply a replacement router with phone socket and built-in ATA?
d) leave punters to sort something out for themselves?
e) something else?

Do people have any choice how it's done?
Is it all free? If not, what charges are made?

(I'm not planning to do this myself, but I have (or had, pre-covid) a number of older folks in my village that I helped when they had PC problems. I can envisage that when the migration starts happening here, I'm going to be contacted by some of them for assistance, so I want to be prepared.

More background: some people are going to have difficulty learning to use any new kit, and will prefer if possible to keep their existing familiar DECT, or in some cases corded POTS, phones. Their needs are basic phone calls only, they will not want any whizzy new features. Some also have telecare devices which use landline. I think all are either currently with BT directly, or have broadband/phone packages from an ISP that sells BTW services.)

In the case of BT customers, very simply the change from PSTN to their ‘Digital Voice’ service is via item (c) on your list. There is no other alternative for BT customers - unless of course they opt to move (their landline/voice service) by porting their ‘landline’ number to another voice (over IP) provder, in which case the other alternatives you note are possible, and indeed more.

Should be noted that if considering doing the latter above with BT - that is porting the PSTN number and /moving to another voice provider (where landline voice is bundled within the same BT contract as broadband) has the effect of ceasing the underlying line, so care must be taken to avoid disruption to the whole service.

Otherwise with a BT migration to their Digital Voice the customer should be able to disconnect their handset from the wall and simply re-connect to the analogue port on the BT Smart Hub router. Dial tone is generated locally on the SH, but otherwise the service should behave the same. Noting that full area codes need to be used in dialling out.

Much has recently be written on the forums about powering the router (and ONtT for FTTP connected properties) in the case of power disruption. Any vulnerable customers should make clear to BT (or whoever provided their landline) that they need to have local power backup for the router/and ONT (where present) - BT are responsible for providing a backup power unit for such vulnerable customers.

Other customers, who are not considered to be vulnerable customers for these purposes, may still wish to provide their own small UPS / backup power unit - such as this small battery backup unit from Eaton which costs under £50

To expand on that a little...

You can move any existing corded or DEC base connection from the existing master socket to the phone socket on the BT Smart Hub 2, info here https://www.bt.com/help/landline/digital-voice-migra...

There are also some BT DECT handsets available and a DECT-to-POTS adapter, info here https://www.bt.com/help/landline/digital-voice--will...

This only applies to BT Retail, and I expect that Plusnet being part of the BT group will eventually launch the same. Any other ISP seliing Openreach WLR products will have to do something else, either develop their own platform or resell a wholesale / white label product from an existing VoIP provider. I know that Andrews & Arnold and Zen Internet both have broadband and VoIP products available, although neither are mass-market ISPs. Sky have a similar migration process with a phone socket on the Sky Broadband Hub which will replace their use of MPF rather than WLR.

Another thing to be aware of is that local dialling is being withdrawn so the full STD code has to be dialled for local numbers too. This is already the case for some area codes due to lack of available numbers rather than being specifically to do with migration to VoIP. I don't know about the BT SH2 handsets but many other existing DECT base/handsets have options to automatically prefix an area/STD code so the end-user experience can remain unchanged.

For the Telecare customers, they should just contact their local Telecare provider as they already have plans to provide alternative kit.

Some might be offered a 4G box with exactly the same functionality as the current one if there is a mobile signal. Others may just be offered an adapter to plug the old gear into the new BT kit. Assistance and equipment should be free.

This will all be immensely re-assuring to people in the north of the UK who had been without power for a week!

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

such as this small battery backup unit from Eaton which costs under £50

I see that particular model only has a rated capacity of 2200mAh, which assuming 3.7V lithium cells is 8.1Wh. It might power a router and ONT for for 30 to 60 minutes if you're lucky; that will go down as the cells age.

If you have a decent mobile signal where you live, then a mobile phone may be a better bet for emergency calls.

Happy Sunday bud. Did I say something to offend you?

Not offended at all, just pointing out reality.

"Other customers, who are not considered to be vulnerable customers for these purposes, may still wish to provide their own small UPS / backup power unit - such as this small battery backup unit from Eaton which costs under £50 ?"

Happy Christmas.

Thanks for replies and links. That makes it all clearer.

I haven't come across the SH2 in the wild, but then I haven't been able to be in people's homes much for the last 18 months. Presumably it is fairly new? I note it supports DECT - are there likely to be any issues plugging an existing DECT master into it? I think >1 master on a DECT network is OK, and presumably handsets registered with the old master stay registered with that unless reregistered? So no issues with phonebooks not transferring, etc.

I also see that the SH2 appears to be locked to BT Broadband. I thought Ofcom had recently banned that - or was it just mobiles that can't be locked any more? If it is locked, then presumably other providers will have to do something equivalent.

Is there any official definition of "vulnerable customer" anywhere? Or is that down to the interpretation of individual providers? I believe also that the Ofcom mandate to provide access to emergency services applies only to the "999" services, and not to carers, telecare providers and so on?

In reply to a post by mikejp:

just pointing out reality.

When talking about reality we should always expect the unexpected which is virtually impossible to plan for but Pheasant's suggestion is a good starting point for a typical outage that happens for a few hours from time to time.

He could have said tell them to get a generator and transfer switch but who's to say the property would have a roof after any high winds so maybe he should have suggested a contingency bunker fully ready to go.

And a happy New Year.