Yikes, I have 3 days left. What on earth should I do?

I live in London. Plusnet & all the other providers I've looked at do not support land line and would require me to stay with my existing provider (BT). Even the offers provided by BT excluded landline.

If I stay with BT now my contract has ended, costs will rocket.

Presumably, if I accepted one of these non-land line offers, I would be able to retain our existing phone number and our landline phone would plug into the back of the router.

We are both in our 70's and I don't like the idea of not being able to call out if there is a power cut and our mobile phones are out of action.

Yikes, I have 3 days left. What on earth should I do?

In reply to a post by Tantalus:

I don't like the idea of not being able to call out if there is a power cut and our mobile phones are out of action.

When was the last time you had a prolonged power outage in your part of London? When was your mobile phones last out of action? How far are your nearest neighbour?

Edit: have you called your existing provider to discuss?

Edited by deleted (Sun 18-Sep-22 09:11:21)

I take it that you're in an area with FTTP (fibre to the premise) available, and a copper stop sell is in force?

In reply to a post by Tantalus:

Presumably, if I accepted one of these non-land line offers, I would be able to retain our existing phone number and our landline phone would plug into the back of the router.

Some providers do what you describe (e.g. BT, Sky, Vodafone, Zen).

Other providers simply give you no voice service at all with FTTP (e.g. Plusnet, Talktalk) - in which case you'd lose your phone number, if you didn't first transfer it to a third-party voice-over-IP (VOIP) service.

In reply to a post by Tantalus:

We are both in our 70's and I don't like the idea of not being able to call out if there is a power cut and our mobile phones are out of action.

Yikes, I have 3 days left. What on earth should I do?

Firstly, don't panic. If you spend a few days paying out-of-contract rates, it's not the end of the world.

Everyone in the country will have to have to take the digital voice option very soon regardless. There will be no renewals of analogue voice services from September 2023, and the analogue telephone network will be completely switched off in Dec 2025.

You should talk to your chosen provider. They are required to provide power backup for "vulnerable" customers, although only for a minimum of 1 hour.

If you want longer than that, there are various options for UPSes and battery packs which you can buy yourself and would give you longer run times.

If you have good mobile coverage, you could always keep an extra mobile for emergencies, and keep it charged up and/or with an external battery pack. You can put a PAYG SIM in it if you like for testing, but it will make 999 calls without any SIM.

Edited by candlerb (Sun 18-Sep-22 09:57:03)

Very few power cuts put mobiles out of action. It would have to be a major long one.

They could also buy a cheap "hand crank charger" for mobiles. Amazon has several, including one built into a small FM/AM radio. Apparently these come from camper requirements.

Maybe also worth considering a all networks sim such as https://onesimallnetworks.co.uk/ which would offer some protection in the event of one network going down

You could get a small UPS to keep the ONT, Router and Phone powered up during any power cut. ~£100 outlay and will keep those devices on for hours.

I am in a similar situation: potentially a cease of ADSLon the line, retain PSTN with my current provider for a while and an installation/activation of FTTP (broadband only) possibly with another provider. An ISP such as Aquiss https://www.aquiss.net/unlimited-fttp-fibre-broadband/ will do a 40/10 service for around the £30 mark but that would increase my monthly costs by more than £15.

Hard times ahead for us pensioners

I take it that you're in an area with FTTP (fibre to the premise) available, and a copper stop sell is in force?

Correct.

Over the last year we have had problems with our broadband speed and reliabilty. I bought a new laptop which supported WiFi6 and that has improved the speed.

Some of our friends have already gone over to digital voice. When calling them from the landline we are sometimes cut off which never happened when we had a landline to landline connection.

Our area is densely populated and in the past the sub-station has tripped a number of times in the past. I'll see what UPS's Ebay has to offer.

My wife is hard of hearing so I bought some expensive landline phones for her. Hence my desire to keep our land line phones.

This is going to be a terrific shock to many of our friends who are in their 70/80s and know nothing about this. Many are struggling to make ends meet as it is.

Telecoms companies should have done much more and sent letters out to everyone outlining what is going to happen and their options.

I went to the BT website. In our case BT are increasing payment by £7 a month and there is also the added cost of inflation which is likely to be substantial.

Many thanks for all your help, Paul

I am waiting for full fibre to go live, once it does I will be SOGEA. I plan to modify the NTE (which is technically against BTs T&Cs, but they were meant to offer a SOGEA VRI Isolation Plate, however, it seems they never got around to actually manufacturing them). If you are fairly ok with wiring up telephone wiring, or electrical wiring, it's not too bad, if it's a totally new concept, I would avoid doing it.

See the section under Modifying the VDSL SSFP - this applies if you have an MK4 front faceplate. You can get them on ebay if you have an older version e.g. MK3.

https://support.aa.net.uk/VoIP_How_to:_Voice_reinjec...

It looks like I need to remove 3 components from the socket, and get another cable to go from the hub to the socket. For me, the landline is in an upstairs office, I have a single cordless phone up there not a full DECT set (used to have 6 but they went kaput). I have a wall mounted phone downstairs, with a loudspeaker, it takes 4 batteries, and it really outputs, and picks up when you are not beside the phone, so it's pretty handy. Getting wiring here via a standard phone extension would be a right pain, as the flooring has laminate, then a damp proof membrane, then the floorboards are all sealed and glued, below which is insulation which is suspended with a membrane below, then a gap to the ceiling below, old style lath & plaster, below which plasterboard has been screwed into the beams and then reskimmed. I don't want to break the air gap to get down there.

I wired the house up with dual satellite, coaxial for freeview, cat 6 for ethernet under the floorboards before we did the work above. I have ducting but not down to that old socket where the phone is, a right pain!

In reply to a post by Tantalus:

Even the offers provided by BT excluded landline.

If looking online, you will find a toggle which adds or removes a voice service to your offers.

In reply to a post by ukhardy07:

I am waiting for full fibre to go live, once it does I will be SOGEA.

Sorry not trying to be awkward but I really don't understand this statement. What has full fibre got to do with SOGEA (aka FTTC without analogue voice)?

In reply to a post by Tantalus:

Our area is densely populated and in the past the sub-station has tripped a number of times in the past. I'll see what UPS's Ebay has to offer.

Once upon a time (before mid 2019) Openreach used to supply/install a DC battery backup unit (BBU) for their Huawei FTTP ONT's. Sadly no longer the case, as they withdrew their Fibre Voice Access (FVA) product which ran directly from a voice port on the ONT - so they decided to drop the need for power backup...

However you can basically emulate the same thing using one of these Eaton 3SM36B Mini UPS units - see link on sale at Amazon* for under £50. These work a treat for standing up the ONT - for around 5 or 6 hours (ONT power draw is actually very low typically around 1-2W).

You'd need another one for the the router / VoIP gateway; depending on the power required (I think standard BT SH2 is around 12W draw) one of these should stand it up for around an hour. Other routers will vary - WiFi usually sucks quite a bit of power too.

*other retailers are available.

You can of course use ordinary AC/DC standby inverter UPS units (the likes of APC, Eaton, Riello, Tripp-Lite etc, etc) are fine but they typically will be larger, and will gobble a few more watts to run etc. Maybe a consideration these days.

The text says " The broadband packages below don't include calling plans - you'll see them on the next page. If you want broadband only, choose yes.". I left it as no. I then get the message below. The meesage is incorrect as there are no calling plan options.


Your broadband upgrade comes with Digital Voice, our next generation home phone service

Digital Voice is our new home phone service, combining our technologies onto one smart network to give you a future-ready connection. This means clearer calls with all the convenience and reliability you know and love today. Digital Voice comes with a free Alexa handset, our smartest phone with voice command feature, you simply tap the Alexa button and ask to make calls, play music, hear the news, control smart devices and more. When you move over to your new service you can also continue using your existing phones by plugging them into the green phone port on the back of your hub.

Important information

If you have a telecare alarm, burglar alarm or non-phone equipment connected to your home phone DO NOT CONTINUE with this order, contact us on 0800800150 where we can place the right order for you.

In addition at the bottom of the page it says:

Important Information
The legal stuff
*The monthly price shown for your landline, broadband, mobile, TV and Sport plans, add-ons and all out of bundle charges will increase on or after the 31st March every year by the Consumer Price Index rate of inflation published in January that year plus 3.9%. Other terms, prices and products might also change during your contract.

In reply to a post by Tantalus:

In addition at the bottom of the page it says:

Important Information
The legal stuff
*The monthly price shown for your landline, broadband, mobile, TV and Sport plans, add-ons and all out of bundle charges will increase on or after the 31st March every year by the Consumer Price Index rate of inflation published in January that year plus 3.9%. Other terms, prices and products might also change during your contract.

Sadly thats been pretty much standard for some time now for the vast majority of providers. I think it will drive people switching at the end of contracts unless people are able to negotiate a good deal with their existing provider.

In reply to a post by Tantalus:

The text says " The broadband packages below don't include calling plans - you'll see them on the next page. If you want broadband only, choose yes.". I left it as no. I then get the message below. The meesage is incorrect as there are no calling plan options.


Your broadband upgrade comes with Digital Voice, our next generation home phone service

Digital Voice is our new home phone service, combining our technologies onto one smart network to give you a future-ready connection. This means clearer calls with all the convenience and reliability you know and love today. Digital Voice comes with a free Alexa handset, our smartest phone with voice command feature, you simply tap the Alexa button and ask to make calls, play music, hear the news, control smart devices and more. When you move over to your new service you can also continue using your existing phones by plugging them into the green phone port on the back of your hub.

Important information

If you have a telecare alarm, burglar alarm or non-phone equipment connected to your home phone DO NOT CONTINUE with this order, contact us on 0800800150 where we can place the right order for you.

You really need to call them rather than persist with the online offerings if you want to stand any chance of getting what you would consider a better outcome.

In reply to a post by 4M2:

I am in a similar situation: potentially a cease of ADSLon the line, retain PSTN with my current provider for a while and an installation/activation of FTTP (broadband only) possibly with another provider. An ISP such as Aquiss https://www.aquiss.net/unlimited-fttp-fibre-broadband/ will do a 40/10 service for around the £30 mark but that would increase my monthly costs by more than £15.

You mean, you're prepared to pay for an analogue PSTN line in addition to the FTTP?

That is of course your choice - but digital voice refuseniks will only get at most 3 years more service like this, and in practice within 1-2 years your PSTN line will be made digital anyway (i.e. your telephony service provider will ship you an ADSL router to plug your phone into!)

Personally I'd do the digital voice now, and put the savings towards a decent UPS and/or portable power pack or spare mobile phone.

Incidentally there are cheaper offerings for FTTP. Plusnet were until recently offering 40/10 at £23.99 or £24.99 - although right now they're only showing me 80/20 at £25.99 (and faster tiers of course). 24 month contract.

Aquiss starts at £32 per month, and you'll need to provide your own router. However you do benefit from half-price for the first 3 months, and a 12 month contract. Also you get static IPv4 and IPv6, if that matters to you.

The one thing that has surprised me about this whole thread is I thought BT had put their Digital Voice migration on hold but from what the OP is saying it seems to not be the case anymore.

Edited by deleted (Mon 19-Sep-22 08:57:09)

Have a look at Doro or Artfone phones on Amazon. They look like normal dect phones but run on mobile networks and will work in a power cut. Also checkout 1pmobile for a sim card. You can get phonecalls for a full year for £30. Much cheaper than a landline. Only inconvenience is to notify friends of new phone number.

Tantalus - if you or your friends are using the Community Alarm pendants with hardware from a company called Tunstall, don't worry about dropping the old landline. Contact your Council community equipment store.

There are 3G/4G dongles to attach to the existing base units as well as a new "Lifeline Smart Hub" from Tunstall that connects over your home internet instead of the phone. Be aware that your local Council has to subscribe to that service for it to be available.

You mention you are in your 70s? Then you qualify for BT Home Essentials 2 as a state pensioner!
https://www.bt.com/exp/broadband/home-essentials

You can get BT Home Essentials for £15 per month for 36Mbps average or for £20 you can get 80/20Mbps. There's no contract tying and the price is fixed rate.

Digital Voice is included for free and phone calls are also free to UK landline and mobile phones. Unlike with the main BT packages that they charge excruciating amounts.

Switching is easy. You just sign up normal, enter your landline number and your national insurance number and you will be transferred to Home Essentials swiftly without issues.

In reply to a post by BLaZiNgSPEED:

You mention you are in your 70s? Then you qualify for BT Home Essentials 2 as a state pensioner!
https://www.bt.com/exp/broadband/home-essentials

Wrong.

According to the BT web-site you quote the criteria are:

"Who can get BT Home Essentials?

New or existing BT customers can apply. You’ll also need to be receiving one of these benefits to qualify:

Universal Credit
(all claimants)
Pension Credit
(Guarantee Credit)

Employment and Support Allowance
(Eligibility rules apply)
Jobseeker’s Allowance
(Eligibility rules apply)
Income Support

Don’t forget you’ll need your National Insurance number when you order, so we can check you’re eligible."

If you are on the state pension but not on Pension Credit you are not eligible.

Yes, but if you reach state pension, you may be eligible for Pension Credit. https://www.ageuk.org.uk/information-advice/money-le...

Am I eligible to claim Pension Credit?

There are different eligibility requirements for each of the two parts of Pension Credit.
Can I get Guarantee Credit?

You might be eligible for Guarantee Credit if you've reached State Pension age (currently 66 for both men and women).

I mentioned National Insurance number, I actually joined BT Home Essentials 2 myself 2 months ago as I am on Universal Credit but work on zero hour contract. I'm waiting for Community Fibre (FTTP) to come and I decided to join and can always quit at any time.

If he is on either of these 3 categories...
you have a severe disability
you're a carer
you have to pay housing costs, such as a mortgage.

Then he will qualify for pension credit and thus be able to order Home Essentials.

What's the worse that could happen? A rejection and he can then move on and try another provider.

If you qualify you aren't tied into a contract, that's the advantage and no price hikes. Even after finding stable employment you remain on the service for at least 12 months before an eligibility check at the end of the 12 months.

Post deleted by GonePostal

In reply to a post by BLaZiNgSPEED:

You mention you are in your 70s? Then you qualify for BT Home Essentials 2 as a state pensioner!

You should be correcting this post as its totally misleading.

In reply to a post by BLaZiNgSPEED:

I am on Universal Credit but work on zero hour contract.

I noted above and thought I am sure you had mentioned only a few months ago that you have another London flat that you rent out and sure enough.

In reply to a post by BLaZiNgSPEED:

I have another London apartment in Central London that I rent out. Sidney Street E1 2HH.

I'll leave others to make their own judgement on this.

In reply to a post by candlerb:

You mean, you're prepared to pay for an analogue PSTN line in addition to the FTTP?

That is of course your choice - but digital voice refuseniks will only get at most 3 years more service like this, and in practice within 1-2 years your PSTN line will be made digital anyway (i.e. your telephony service provider will ship you an ADSL router to plug your phone into!)

Yes definitely considering it. Would probably mean a cease fee for the ADSL (SMPF) but my Billion router does have an EWAN option and would possibly work OK with a 40/10 FTTP service. A discounted one year contract for FTTP with no installation/activation fee would be acceptable.

Perhaps I'll see how it goes for a year and review the situation towards the end of the FTTP broadband contract. Currently I am not in a contract for my inexpensive line rental and calls and that would potentially be retained for the full year. B.T.W. I'm not in a stop sell area for WLR PSTN.

Just out of interest would the OP be able to cease his xDSL with BT retail and retain PSTN with them when out of contact for both broadband and line rental if he is in a stop sell area?

Edited by 4M2 (Mon 19-Sep-22 17:38:38)

In reply to a post by 4M2:

Just out of interest would the OP be able to cease his xDSL with BT retail and retain PSTN with them when out of contact for both broadband and line rental if he is in a stop sell area?

Good question. I don't see why not: ceasing the xDSL shouldn't affect the underlying PSTN (as opposed to the other way round, where ceasing the PSTN *does* cease the attached xDSL)

Maybe I'm just jetting old but I would currently be reluctant to rely on a battery device in order to maintain "digital voice" over FTTP during a power cut However, as you say, even for a xDSL line, a powered-on router will eventually be required to make/receive calls...obviously a mobile phone can be used to make certain outgoing calls and receive certain incoming calls if there is a line or power failure but this discussion could go on indefinitely...

Cheers.

In reply to a post by 4M2:

Maybe I'm just jetting old ...

Indeed it seems so. I'm (dis)(discontent(ed) to be simply getting old ....

but this discussion could go on indefinitely ....

Highly unlikely. Unless Openreach has a major change of policy it must end before 2026.

That solves my problem. I'll sign up when my contract ends in two days time and provide feedback on this forum.
Many thanks. Paul

Thanks for that. I'll investigate.

I hope you realise that the post you replied to from BLaZiNgSPEED is totally misleading.

Receipt of State Pension does not make you eligible for BT Essentials.

As other posters have stated, you have to receive other benefits to qualify.

In reply to a post by dect:

In reply to a post by BLaZiNgSPEED:

I am on Universal Credit but work on zero hour contract.

I noted above and thought I am sure you had mentioned only a few months ago that you have another London flat that you rent out and sure enough.

In reply to a post by BLaZiNgSPEED:

I have another London apartment in Central London that I rent out. Sidney Street E1 2HH.

I'll leave others to make their own judgement on this.

Yes, I mentioned that in regards to the wayleave agreement that the other flat has Community Fibre and now on the verge of getting Hyperoptic.

That flat is under my parents name. I live with my parents so I am eligible for Universal Credit as I am not the homeowner.

I was supposed to be upgraded with Community Fibre, but been waiting last 17 months here while the other flats have gone live and they are under Tower Hamlets Homes, which you expect their management to be more lousy.

But they have agreed wayleave terms for multiple FTTP providers.

I was with TalkTalk FTTC after over 2 years they price hiked to £40 a month. 5 months out of contract paying double, but I thought we will wait till Community Fibre goes live as I didn't want to tie in a new contract with another FTTC provider in case Community Fibre comes, which will delay the switch.

Anyway, I then found out about BT Home Essentials 1/2. At first I thought this may be difficult to switch as broadband was in my dad's name.

The switch was smooth, didn't need to phone BT. I entered landline and my NI Number on checkout and the switch happened all for £20 a month. Got an Alexa phone too and phone calls are free!

Now if Community Fibre comes, I can switch and cancel BT Home Essentials 2 penalty-free as there's no contract if circumstances change.

In reply to a post by BLaZiNgSPEED:

That flat is under my parents name. I live with my parents so I am eligible for Universal Credit as I am not the homeowner.

I know both areas well especially Denning Point (just by the old Petticoat lane market) and know with Shia law compliant mortgages (which are used a lot in that area) its extremely hard to pin down who actually owns a property as UK land registry doesn't show who the owner is.

Edit: added some clarity

Edited by deleted (Tue 20-Sep-22 11:40:15)

In reply to a post by dect:

In reply to a post by BLaZiNgSPEED:

That flat is under my parents name. I live with my parents so I am eligible for Universal Credit as I am not the homeowner.

I know both areas well especially Denning Point (just by the old Petticoat lane market) and know with Shia law compliant mortgages (which are used a lot in that area) its extremely hard to pin down who actually owns a property as UK land registry doesn't show who the owner is.

Edit: added some clarity

The ownership of Denning Point is owned and managed by EastendHomes that they bought it off from the Council almost 20 years ago and they have signed a wayleave agreement last year after years of delay. https://www.eastendhomes.net/latest-news/eastendhome...
Wayleave agreement has been a very frustrating long process despite getting signatures and being a Hyperoptic Champion myself for Denning Point.
The installation was supposed to happen within 6 months. But I knew this wasn't going to happen based on experience where most of the buildings normally take at least 1-3 years to go live. Obviously not all of the buildings such as that of my own have went live yet. The cables were installed and I saw them across the walls of the corridor of my floor outside.

FTTP is a long and tedious process. My building has 82 flats, so possibly it takes longer.

Community Fibre managed to make a quicker build for Cityscape Kensington Apartments E1 6LW and E1 6NE and that’s only because they don’t have FTTC!

Community Fibre took advantage of their situation knowing that they can capture all their customers as they are ADSL only. Plus their building is smaller than mine.

Sloane Apartments E1 7AJ has Community Fibre but they have only 21 flats!

So for now of-course it's a waiting game. Few ISPs offer short contracts and BT Home Essentials is one of them.

Nevertheless even without FTTP my location has many advantages that our other flat doesn't have. It's located more centrally as you know and it is a bigger flat. I still wouldn't trade location or a smaller flat just to have FTTP. But I only mentioned the other flats due to the faster wayleave agreement and installation.

I have passed the information on to a friend who is on pension credit.

As for us, we are back to square one.

There seems no point in staying with BT when their prices are so high in comparison with all other providers.

When I was last out of contract with BT, prices hit ~ £80 per month just for the landline & 36Mbs. Very annoying. Proves that BT punishes loyalty.

Would it be a good idea to buy a router with a land line socket and then I could connect our special phone which aids hard of hearing? It's a long time since I configured one, but presumably I could get some help from this forum if I ran into difficulties.

Vast numbers of people have our number so it is essential we take our number with us.

Zen was mentioned as a provider that would do this, but for some reason this was given a score of 3/10.

We have a Virgin socket outside our house, so that might be a possibilty.

I've also noticed that some people have had difficulty in moving away from their ISP once their contract ends. I would not want to get trapped in this way.

Have you called BT to discuss? it has been suggested before, but so far you haven't indicated one way or the other if you have done it?

Edited by deleted (Wed 21-Sep-22 22:27:32)

No.

Last time I negotiated what I thought was a fixed price contract over the phone only to discover costs were going up in line with inflation.

This is likely to be significant over the coming years and to quote from BT's own website:

Important Information
The legal stuff
*The monthly price shown for your landline, broadband, mobile, TV and Sport plans, add-ons and all out of bundle charges will increase on or after the 31st March every year by the Consumer Price Index rate of inflation published in January that year plus 3.9%. Other terms, prices and products might also change during your contract."

In reply to a post by Tantalus:

Last time I negotiated what I thought was a fixed price contract over the phone only to discover costs were going up in line with inflation.

That's standard practice from the larger providers these days, unfortunately. In effect, you should assume that by the end of the contract you'll be paying ~30% more than at the start, then factor this into the overall price, as if the price over the whole term were ~15% higher than the number they tell you today.

During that time, they'll continue to sell the service to new customers at the lower price. Then at end of contract you'll have another price increase to "out-of-contract" pricing - so you're essentially forced to recontract, with them or with another provider.

Zen used to have a forever price promise. That's gone, but AFAIK there's no programmed-in automatic price rise either. But they also charge an extra monthly fee for voice. Hence you'll almost certainly end up paying substantially more than BT, even after taking into account BT's in-contract price rises.

Other smaller providers don't pull the in-contract price rise trick (e.g. Aquiss, Cerberus) - but many of these don't include any voice service at all, so it's up to you to migrate your voice number to VOIP. Now that Sipgate Basic/Starter has been withdrawn, the best deal for that looks to be AAISP's voice service at £1.20 per month. But you'll also need an adapter (ATA) to plug your existing phone(s) into, and possibly a UPS backup for your router and ATA if you rely on your phone line for emergency calls.

In reply to a post by Tantalus:

No.

Last time I negotiated what I thought was a fixed price contract over the phone only to discover costs were going up in line with inflation.

I'm intrigued to know what you're going to do as you're now on D-day +1 and most of the popular broadband providers do the same as BT. I thought your original issue was keeping your copper voice service but now it appears to be cost.

In reply to a post by Tantalus:

When I was last out of contract with BT, prices hit ~ £80 per month just for the landline & 36Mbs.

I can honestly say I have never seen an out of contract hit that level for just a copper voice service and 36Mbps broadband package.

I thought BT had put their Digital Voice migration on hold

Back in March 2022, that's basically what Marc Allera was widely reported as saying. For any sceptics, the news release was published....

Whether he meant what he said, whether the policy has changed in the intervening time, I don't know.

BT have been down this road before with the voice part of the 21CN network changes, which were quietly abandonedfter a very limited rollout at the start of the century, They already seem to have forgotten a few things.

Here ya go
https://newsroom.bt.com/were-pausing-our-digital-voi...

29 March 2022
Marc Allera, CEO, Consumer division, BT

Last year, we began our ma jor rollout of Digital Voice – BT’s new home phone service that will mean calls are made over our new broadband network, rather than the old analogue network which is over 40 years old.

Put simply, instead of plugging a home phone into a wall-mounted phone socket that people have done for decades, customers will connect their handset to their broadband router.

Doing this will replace old analogue technology that is fast becoming obsolete with a new digital service that will provide crystal-clear calls, prevent the vast majority of scam calls and ultimately will be more efficient on electricity usage making it better for the environment.

It is, in short, a necessary upgrade to customers’ phones in their homes that will bring long term benefits and a service fit for the future.

However, we underestimated the disruptive impact this upgrade would have on some of our customers. 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.

We also recognise we have more work to do on getting better back-up solutions in place for when things disrupt the service like storms and power cuts.

We got this part of our programme wrong and for that, we’re sorry.

The huge disruption caused by recent Storms Arwen and Eunice brought this into sharper focus, when people – including many of our customers in rural areas – needed to get in touch with loved ones during power outages. While many lines were cut in those storms, including the older phone lines, as well as power lines – we do recognise that for some customers, making calls would not have been possible with a broadband-only connection.

We have listened to our customers’ concerns and we have more work to do to improve the resilience of the network, working with energy providers on faster power restoration and providing better back-up solutions for customers.

Digitising the UK’s future is a national mission, and we’re determined to get it right.

So, we are pausing all further Digital Voice switch-overs for customers who don’t want to move to the new technology straight away. This will give us the opportunity to get better, more resilient back-up options in place for customers who need or want them. It will also mean we can ensure all of our customers are aware this change is coming – and why it is needed.

This will be a pause to part of the programme, we will aim to re-start once we have key solutions in place to provide our customers with more resilient connectivity.

(continues)

Temporarily pausing the rollout of DV to BT (retail) customers is one thing, but it doesn't necessarily mean any change to the overall Openreach PSTN switch-off timetable - AFAIK no such change has been announced.

Having said that, the national WLR stop-sell date of September 2023 is only one year away. So they'd better make up their minds soon.

Maybe it's time for a national TV campaign - like this one

Personally I think a campaign of some sort is the right approach.

There are too many folks that are going to be completely caught unawares - particularly the demographic that relies most on landlines; the older generations that could do with more transparency on the forthcoming changes.

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

Personally I think a campaign of some sort is the right approach.

There are too many folks that are going to be completely caught unawares - particularly the demographic that relies most on landlines; the older generations that could do with more transparency on the forthcoming changes.

Unless a letter is going to be sent to every existing customer of broadband/landline services outlining how it will affect them and what they need to do its just going to go over most peoples heads if its just a TV Advert.

In reply to a post by dect:

Unless a letter is going to be sent to every existing customer of broadband/landline services outlining how it will affect them and what they need to do its just going to go over most peoples heads if its just a TV Advert.

No adverts on BBC of course, which is what a lot of older people still watch. People who also quite often don't have broadband/email.

In reply to a post by dect:

Unless a letter is going to be sent to every existing customer of broadband/landline services outlining how it will affect them and what they need to do its just going to go over most peoples heads if its just a TV Advert.

Surely each provider will be responsible for communicating with its customers, with Ofcom guidance? Sky, BT, etc, etc. Those that just have a phone (no broadband) will have the biggest change.

In reply to a post by pluralist:

No adverts on BBC of course, which is what a lot of older people still watch. People who also quite often don't have broadband/email.

Good points Bob, hope you're keeping well

In reply to a post by jchamier:

Surely each provider will be responsible for communicating with its customers, with Ofcom guidance? Sky, BT, etc, etc. Those that just have a phone (no broadband) will have the biggest change.

Coordination is certainly required, someone needs to put some money in the meter to get the merry-go-round going.

In reply to a post by pluralist:

In reply to a post by 4M2:

Maybe I'm just jetting old ...

Indeed it seems so. I'm (dis)(discontent(ed) to be simply getting old ....

but this discussion could go on indefinitely ....

Highly unlikely. Unless Openreach has a major change of policy it must end before 2026.

A marketing offer came through the post today for "BT Full Fibre": cheapest is "Full Fibre 100" (broadband only) for £34.99 per month on a 24 month contract. Plus a £29.99 set up fee and a "BT Home Hub" that would be owned by BT,

No mention of what would potentially happen with my current analogue voice landline which since I'm getting old would prefer to retain for a while. For me this whole move over to FTTP/stop sell PSTN and change to digital voice seems like a total rip off!

Edited by 4M2 (Mon 26-Sep-22 17:40:01)

With BT full fibre, you will almost certainly be put onto digital voice as part of the service upgrade. (In the very early days, BT could leave you on analogue voice with separate FTTP for data only, at their option not yours, but this is unlikely now)

If you really want to keep your analogue voice, you can either migrate your voice line to a separate voice-only provider; or keep the analogue voice with BT, and take FTTP service from a different ISP. But you'll be paying £15-£23 per month for the analogue phone line, in addition to your FTTP service.

Is the analogue line really worth that much to you, given that you're going to lose it in a couple of years anyway? It's your money, so only you can make that decision.

BTW, the marketing "offer" you've got is a poor one. These change constantly, but it's quite common to get free setup with router postage of £9.95, and maybe a £70 cashback card as well. Keep checking various links, here are some I've bookmarked (not that I would ever buy service from BT):

https://www.bt.com/broadband/deals
https://www.bt.com/campaign/full-fibre
https://www.bt.com/campaign/full-fibre-240
https://www.bt.com/broadband/bristol
https://www.bt.com/products/broadband/affiliate-offers/
https://www.bt.com/broadband/broadband-without-landline

With "Black Friday" around the corner, expect more and better deals.

In reply to a post by candlerb:

BTW, the marketing "offer" you've got is a poor one. These change constantly, but it's quite common to get free setup with router postage of £9.95, and maybe a £70 cashback card as well. Keep checking various links, here are some I've bookmarked (not that I would ever buy service from BT):

Thanks for the reply and very useful advice/info.

It's certainly not my intention to consider any BT retail service - I gave up with a BT retail land line years ago. Currently, for a broadband and phone provider, I'm with uno (SMPF = TTB ADSL and BTw analogue land line.) I posted the details of the BT marketing offer since it may be relevant to the OP and to the thread as a whole.

I have avoided an "upgrade" to FTTC VDSL for the past few years and have been waiting for FTTP to arrive. However now that FTTP appears to be available the costs do seem somewhat prohibitive particularly for a pensioner such as myself. Incidentally uno could supply me with BTw FTTP 40/10 and retain the BTw PSTN line with them for a year or so but it would add to my monthly costs considerably

Edited by 4M2 (Tue 27-Sep-22 16:57:37)