Vodafone Digital Voice service

I have renewed my Vodafone broadband contract and this week, with no option to continue using my landline, was switched to Digital Voice vodafone's VOIP service. For about a day and a half it seemed to be working (although we don't know how many callers failed to get through to us) but since Wednesday nada - no calls made or received. Support staff seem to be struggling to know what to do making me think the service is at an early stage of development.
Are any forum members using VOIP over FTTC? Are any of those people doing so with vodafone?.
Any other comments re maturity of the software much appreciated. Has anyone managed to be put back on a landline while technical issues with VOIP are sorted out? We are an elderly couple who rely heavily on the telephone to stay in touch with freinds and family.
(Also posted in General Broadband Chatter forum)

Presumably Vodafone provided you with directions on how to connect your phones to their router rather than the BT/Openreach wall socket.

I've used VoIP for ~10 years with no significant issues. I have my own routing and VoIP equipment, the broadband and VoIP service have been / are from different providers (Eclipse/Plusnet/Zen, Sipgate/AAISP) and the broadband technology has changed (initially ADSL, subsequently ADSL2, then FTTC and now SOGEA).

It has occasionally required tweaking with changes of ISP, but as everything is being provided by one supplier in your case it should be fully managed by them and seamless to you. The underlying technology is mature, the processes and training for the larger ISPs customer support staff isn't.

Moving back to a traditional phone line is likely impossible due to the Openreach stop sell which came into force on the 5th September. There is an exceptions process ISPs can use to request the old services, but I doubt not being competent in providing your VoIP service is a valid reason.

If you get no further with general support, and do mention to them you will be looking for compensation for the loss of service, you could try their complaints team on 0808 0057 448 or using https://complaints.vodafone.co.uk/resource?id=113062...

Presumably Vodafone provided you with directions on how to connect your phones to their router rather than the BT/Openreach wall socket.

That’s a good shout … sometimes we ignore the obvious.

Many thanks for your comprehensive and helpful reply which exonerates the technology in general and oints to the problem being with vodafones implementation of it.
i have also checked through neighbourhood FaceBook page that other people in my geographic location are successfully using VOIP over FTTC.
Accordingly I have reposted a slightly edited version of my post in the Vodafone forum.
I also intend to raise a Complaint with Vodafone as you suggest.

I'm still curious about what options i have if problems persist - can I cancel my contract as I am wihin the 14 day cooling off period?

Sadly this is not the solution to my problem as the service did work (at least partly) for a day or so !

It could have worked because the analogue connection was still being made at the exchange until that connection was turned off after the VoIP service had been successfully implemented. As ever, it is a case of chasing down all the options when trying to get at the root cause of a problem.

Just to satisfy a nit-picking old grouch can you confirm that your phone is now connected to your router and not to the socket on the wall?

Edited by GonePostal (Sat 23-Sep-23 14:28:28)

In reply to a post by GonePostal:

It could have worked because the analogue connection was still being made at the exchange until that connection was turned off after the VoIP service had been successfully implemented. As ever, it is a case of chasing down all the options when trying to get at the root cause of a problem.

Just to satisfy an nit-picking old grouch can you confirm that your phone is now connected to your router and not to the socket on the wall?

Absolutely - this is the first thing that needs to be verified.

From Vodafone's 'What is Digital Voice?' webpage:

If you have Digital Voice, you plug your phone cable into your router, instead of plugging it straight into the wall.

There's more info on this 'How to set up my home phone' page - follow the 'Find out how to set up Digital Voice' link, and then scroll down on that page to see the 'Let's get you set up' section.