connect multiple existing phones to new VOIP

I have several existing phones and am looking into changing my access to VOIP. This will have to be a FTTC solution as I cannot get FTTP at my home yet. A complicated situation as my existing BT Openreach line is fed overhead via a shared pole owned by the power company. I am currently using FTTC for data.

I have a filtered replacement NTE5 which has one port to plug in the router and one with an ADSL filter for all telephone extensions which connects to fixed cables to other extensions around my property although there need only be one (currently two). These extension sockets all are filtered by the NTE without the need for separate ADSL filters on each phone. Good old fashioned wiring!

I could have cordless phones everywhere else with a standard corded phone for emergency use with no power. Note I do have a UPS next to where the router would be.

I am being pre-emptive in looking at a VOIP solution but am having a problem with my current choice of new ISP (Vodaphone). I believe that the wiring will need to be adapted to connect to the VOIP port on the new router. They are telling me that they will not send an engineer to adapt my wiring (which I assume should be relatively trivial) to plug my exiting extensions into the new router. I could restrict this, if necessary to just one extension but any devices would need the wiring to be slightly modified. I do have a second phone for loss of power situations that could be plugged into the second port on the router.

Am I right in thinking this should be relatively trivial with the right tools?

I am assuming that any wiring modifications would be relatively trivial but Vodaphone has so far declined to send an engineer.

Is there any technical reason why a VOIP router with an analog phone adaptor cannot copy with multiple extension? This should be fairly simple to implement with an external junction box. Am I right?

An ATA or a router should cope with anything which can be connected to a PSTN line. So fixed landline phones, Dect systems etc to a REN of 4 or less.

As you are going to VOIP, your filtered NTE5 does little for you, beyond providing the right connector for your router. [As an aside, I would be interested to know from others what Open reach provides as an NTE on a SOGEA line...]. What you need to do is prise out from your NTE5 replacement the wires to your existing extensions and put them in a new box and lash up a connection to the ATA connector on your router.

There's a guide to how to do the extension wiring tweaks here. It should be fairly straightforward.
Personally I would try to set up VoIP with a 3rd party provider (Voipfone, Sipgate etc) that's different from the ISP you use for data. Then they are decoupled and you can switch either one without affecting the other (much). But you have to be careful that porting an existing number out doesn't automatically cease the data line too, so be sure you know what you are doing if you try this. Might be simpler to wait till FTTP comes your way, cos then ceasing the copper line is what you would want to do.

It is a long time since I fitted the NTE and as I am now of relatively advance years (over 81) I would prefer to get someone to do this for me (it is a bit fiddly in the cupboard where the NTE5 is) hence getting annoyed with Vodaphone who originally said an engineer would visit and I assumed, from their blurb, would tweak the cables but after I signed up said they would not visit - it was up to me to do the rewiring. I have now cancelled my contract with them and will stick the current voice solution. I get adequate bandwidth and could double it if I paid a bit more.

Now I know more about what needs to be done (I have never bothered investigating before - when still working about 8 years ago I was a network security architect) I may think about getting preparatory work done and then try again.

FTTP is available to just two properties in our lane but I think there is now a legal issue with pole sharing to our property and beyond. Our electricity and telephone share the same pole (actually in my garden) and I understand that pole sharing is not normally allowed now. I do get a wayleave payment from both power and BT. The power people however actually own the pole and that is distrusted overhead. All the BT voice cables along most of our narrow country lane road come out of a duct (which I know is blocked) up the shared pole and then get distributed to about 10-15 properties north and 2 south of us. The two properties that could get FTTP do not share their pole with power and are presumably routed directly from the street cabinet across a main road rather than down our country lane.

I was just hoping that I could go fully digital now over FTTC prior to FTTP being available but it is no problem to wait until we are forced to go to FTTP and I can then play the age card even more effectively! I do get adequate bandwidth already.

If you want to have wired phones then I would suggest using something like a Cisco ATA 191. For Dect phones there is the Gigaset N300 which works best with Gigaset Dect phones. You can buy the phones and the N300 as a bundle.

The N300 can be connected to a wired phone line as well as several VOIP ISPs

You might find it easier to buy preconfigured equipment from a Voip ISPs such as Voipfone or A&A

In reply to a post by steelej02:

I have now cancelled my contract with them and will stick the current voice solution.

Whilst the PSTN switch-off has been pushed back from Dec 2025 to Jan 2027 you will have to migrate to SOGEA + VoIP at some point before then if FTTP is still not available.
The budget ISPs don't seem interested in providing an option to select the more expensive Openreach installation options which includes voice reinjection (VRI). Given the belated action to check the operation of wired telehealth devices https://www.thinkbroadband.com/news/10405-government... hopefully this will improve support for others who may rely on wired phones with large buttons and/or amplifiers connected via extension wiring.

Our electricity and telephone share the same pole (actually in my garden) and I understand that pole sharing is not normally allowed now.

IIRC in the early days of FTTP rollout there were no agreements in place for adding fibre on joint-use poles, however this was resolved between Openreach and the electricty DNOs. There may be other issues for specific poles, e.g. being in a poor state of repair and requiring replacement, which could delay rollout plans.

The two properties that could get FTTP do not share their pole with power and are presumably routed directly from the street cabinet across a main road rather than down our country lane.

The copper cabinet isn't relevant to FTTP. Groups of customer connections are combined at splitter nodes, these in turn are combined at aggregation nodes on fibre spine to the head-end exchange. There may be an aggregation node near the copper cabinet DSLAM, but not necessarily.

In reply to a post by DFScale:

I would be interested to know from others what Open reach provides as an NTE on a SOGEA line...]. What you need to do is prise out from your NTE5 replacement the wires to your existing extensions and put them in a new box and lash up a connection to the ATA connector on your router.

A&A cover this here https://support.aa.net.uk/VoIP_How_to:_Voice_reinjec...

Fritz!Box offers a number of routers that support DECT to VOIP. The box has a built in base station. I have a F!B4060 connected to a FTTP line with a mixture of Fritz and Gigaset phones. Phones must support the DECT-GAP profile. Prior to FTTP, I was happily using my DECT phones on a FTTC line with a single filter on the incoming phone line.

I use AAISP as my VOIP provider.

I do now think I know what needs to be done to change my wiring. The real problem is my advancing years! I may even still have some of the tools necessary although it is getting on for 10 years since I did any such wiring. I am now over 80 and would rather pay to have the minor changes made. Vodaphone, before I tried to place an order, strongly implied that an engineer would attend and, I assumed, would adjust my wiring appropriately. When I succeeded in placing an order (even that was difficult for unknown reasons - it took at least 1 hour on the phone to get the order accepted) the confirmation then stated no engineer visit was necessary and Vodaphone have refused to reverse this decision. I have therefore cancelled the order but need to know the facts to be forewarned for the future and I am forced to change!

As far as I can see all it requires is for the internal phone wiring to be terminated in a junction box outside the NTE5 and a single cable, with the appropriate connector, fed to the new router. There is actually only one cable running from a junction box in the loft immediately above through a plasterboard wall so it might be as simple as removing this cable from the NTE5 and just adding a connector to this cable to plug into the router to solve the voice connectivity issue. I was expecting this would be a trivial task for an engineer supporting the installation.

I have not looked into the existing network cabbing but I envisage that my existing Ethernet connection to an adjacent NAS box to an ethernet port in my existing router which also supports WiFi (both 2.4 and 5 Ghz being used) would also be easy to set up with a new router. I expect I may need to change the WiFi settings on all of my devices.

I do prefer to have just one supplier for all such devices and services to simplify support. I have technical knowledge to be able support multiple vendor devices at present but ,being of advancing years, this ability may not last. I do have to be realistic and keep it as simple.as possible

The two properties I mantined are on the opposite side of a main road from the BT Openreach cabinets. One cabinet looks newer and is probably used for fibre. This is about half a mile from the local telephone exchange.

All other properties are fed via a duct under our lane to a shared pole in my garden. I believe there is a blockage in this duct. BT were scheduled to investigate this blockage about 2 years ago but their scheduled road closure was usurped by the water company without their permission and they were prevented from conducting their investigation and have not tried since.

The rest of our village is being cabled for fibre (there is equipment being mounted on many of the poles - not sure what this is), but our road has not yet been done, Our road is the only one I am aware of nearby where power and BT share the same poles. The power DNO, I believe, owns the poles.

There is a bundle of copper telephone cables emerging from a duct under the lane just outside my boundary (BT can never find the access just outside my fence - I always have to show them where it is) that runs to the top of the pole and then is distributed both up and down the lane. Phone lines are delivered to each property overhead but power is fed underground.