Two things I would say there.

Firstly on your point "I would presume that as BT Consumer who were quite a bit ahead in regards to migrating their own customers to their VoIP service that they can afford to take this time to improve their processes."

Well Marc Allera's statement acknowledged that "With hindsight we went too early, before many customers – particularly those who rely more heavily on landlines – understood why this change is necessary and what they needed to do."

So yes they went early, but whether they are/were indeed "quite a bit ahead", on target, or behind of their own programme milestone or indeed their competitors really is not clear - unless you have some insight? The fact is after storms Arwen and Eunice, BT copped a serious amount of flak over the resilience of the IP-layer voice network and in particular operating with (sustained) power loss.

Secondly to your point "This time should also be seen as an opportunity for individuals to speak to the supplier and organisations that have supplied them equipment that connect to the copper phone line today. E.g Telecare and alarm systems ect...".

Given that the change has been deliberately flown 'under the radar' is it actually realistic (or fair) for individuals to speak to their suppliers or the other way around - wouldn't you expect this be driven by the comms providers giving they are making the changes, to proactively give information to their customers and not the other way around?

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

So yes they went early, but whether they are/were indeed "quite a bit ahead", on target, or behind of their own programme milestone or indeed their competitors really is not clear - unless you have some insight?

From looking across the biggest communication providers BT Consumer's migration of exiting customers seems to have been more proactive in terms of starting a mass migration. Sky seems to be doing new customers and those that upgrade. I've not seen any TalkTalk Consumer customers being moved yet (Their FTTP services is data only at the moment, so no voice service).

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

Given that the change has been deliberately flown 'under the radar' is it actually realistic (or fair) for individuals to speak to their suppliers or the other way around - wouldn't you expect this be driven by the comms providers giving they are making the changes, to proactively give information to their customers and not the other way around?

This is more around those that have alarms and other equipment that connect to the phone line today. Communication Providers are unlickely to know about such devices. Ideally it should be the health care and organisations that supply those devices but with resources especially in Council run social heathcare units this can be quite slow to trickle the info. That's why it's also a good idea for individuals to check what they have connected today and contact those organisations to firstly make sure they are aware that they will soon be migrated to a VoIP service and moved off the PSTN and also to get the ball rolling so they can be checked and upgraded before the migration.

In reply to a post by cymru123:

This is more around those that have alarms and other equipment that connect to the phone line today. Communication Providers are unlickely to know about such devices. Ideally it should be the health care and organisations that supply those devices but with resources especially in Council run social heathcare units this can be quite slow to trickle the info. That's why it's also a good idea for individuals to check what they have connected today and contact those organisations to firstly make sure they are aware that they will soon be migrated to a VoIP service and moved off the PSTN and also to get the ball rolling so they can be checked and upgraded before the migration.

The pause in proceedings was according to Marc Allera all about resilience - indeed not enough thought on sufficient mitigation strategies in respect to power loss and engagement with their customers about it.

There are already well established and tested alternatives for things like alarm systems, patient monitoring etc which are natively IP capable. Not sure why you believe the delay is down to that?

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

There are already well established and tested alternatives for things like alarm systems, patient monitoring etc which are natively IP capable. Not sure why you believe the delay is down to that?

Appolgies I was saying that individuals who have health care monitoring systems and alarms and other equipment need to treat this time in getting their health care equipment upgraded if not done so already so it's compatible with all IP. Lots of people I've spoken to have not done this yet and seem to be waiting till the last moment. As for keeping communications running in mains power failure yes more availability of devices needs to be made available. If you have the knowledge about it there are steps you can do but it is about making people aware. The BT Consumer temporary stop is due to improving their own process and making sure their consumer unit has more availability of devices and solutions to provide backup power or alternative ways to allow emergency communications.

It is unfortunate that there's no TV and other advertising like there was with the digital TV switch over, but that was due to the digital TV switch over getting government funding for that.

If FTTP is available to you but you choose to stay on ADSL2+ for example, are you still switched over to BT Digital Voice?

Thanks

Yes, at some point they would move you to digital voice if you are a BT customer.

What is the minimum speed required for BT Digital Voice?

thanks

Probably about 128Kbps I would guess as that would be around the speed of a normal VoIP data stream.

In reply to a post by ultimagtr:

If FTTP is available to you but you choose to stay on ADSL2+ for example, are you still switched over to BT Digital Voice?

That's a good question.

If you're in an FTTP area where there's an active copper "stop sell", this means that no modifications may be made to your existing copper service. I'm not 100% sure, but that *could* mean your line cannot be migrated to SOTAP, which is ADSL without the voice.

If that's true, then you'll be forced to migrate to FTTP + digital voice (or lose service completely).

SOTAP exists to serve those people who can *only* get ADSL, where there is no FTTC or FTTP available.