In reply to a post by candlerb:

As an ISP buying at wholesale, you'll buy SOGEA or equivalent.

The equivalent being SOTAP. They’ve been eerily quiet about this given it’s supposed to launch this August.

I think they’re secretly hoping a lot of domestic PSTN-only customer connections will (continue the decades long trend) wither and die on the vine, so to speak.

Leaving them with a rump of a few million “transitional” connections. Still it’s going to be a lot to convert into a broadband service, albeit light-weight for voice traffic.

In reply to a post by tdw42:

Voice-only is more tricky, as in many cases they will be non tech-savvy and non-internet-using customers. BT, or other voice-only provider, will have to supply a router with inbuilt ATA, likely a Smart Hub 2 in the case of BT, which will need to need to be connected to the master socket and again any phones plugged into the router.

Millions of Aunty Doris’s….will they have a power socket adjacent to the phone socket. If they’ve only ever had a phone…

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

Millions of Aunty Doris’s….will they have a power socket adjacent to the phone socket. If they’ve only ever had a phone…

If they have a lamp on the 'telephone table' in the hall they can use the socket which provides power for that

Note: For those who have not come across the concept of furniture specifically for the use of making or receiving phone calls use your favourite search engine.

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

In reply to a post by candlerb:

As an ISP buying at wholesale, you'll buy SOGEA or equivalent.

The equivalent being SOTAP. They’ve been eerily quiet about this given it’s supposed to launch this August.

I think they’re secretly hoping a lot of domestic PSTN-only customer connections will (continue the decades long trend) wither and die on the vine, so to speak.

Leaving them with a rump of a few million “transitional” connections. Still it’s going to be a lot to convert into a broadband service, albeit light-weight for voice traffic.

One problem is what happens during a power cut. Ofcom have said that one solution to this problem is to provide a one hour back up which IME is far to short. What they could have said is that there must be an indoor mobile signal with appropriate power backup as in telephone exchanges at the moment.

In reply to a post by Michael_Chare:

What they could have said is that there must be an indoor mobile signal with appropriate power backup as in telephone exchanges at the moment.

Not sure how many masts would need backup power for this to work, and for how long? Lots of masts are not connected to the core network by cable, but use microwave to another mast in a chain.

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

Technology aspects aside, I'm expecting the cost to end users for post-WLR 'landlines' to increase once they effectively carved out of WLR price controls. Perhaps quite significantly.

I can imagine that, for the landline/voice only market, the future might rather look like it's back to the past, with a choice of BT, BT or BT for a voice line without a broadband service.

As I understand it, I think BT Group (or KCom in Hull) will be the only provider obliged to offer a voice-only service, and at a regulated price? If so, it's not hard to imagine that the others simply won't bother.

In reply to a post by dect:

Those premises without existing broadband who want a telephone service will be given a 512k broadband circuit which will be used to facilitate a telephone VOIP service through the router.

Just to correct you the PSTN will be switched off not POTS.

Out of curiosity, tow are you defining POTS, and how is your definition distinct from PSTN?

POTS is hardly an official, technical description!

POTS and PSTN are really interchangeable terms for the same thing. You’ll find POTS used more from a North American centric audience.

In reply to a post by binary:

Out of curiosity, tow are you defining POTS, and how is your definition distinct from PSTN?

POTS is hardly an official, technical description!

In my opinion, POTS describes the delivery of the PSTN but its not actually the PSTN itself. POTS can also be used to describe the delivery of products like BT Featurenet 5000 which typically hangs off an SRU in a BT exchange although the SRU can also be located on site too.

Back in the 1990's we used POTS to mean Plain Old Telephone Set although nowadays the 'Set' seems to have evolved into the word 'Service'.

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

POTS and PSTN are really interchangeable terms for the same thing. You’ll find POTS used more from a North American centric audience.

You mean like Hoover and Vacuum. are they the same thing?? answers on a postcard

Edited by deleted (Tue 15-Mar-22 16:45:52)