Got it, thanks!

So the only real reason, if I still can cancel my appointment.. would be to go with their Business Fibre 2 plan, if I wanted potentially better customer service or network priority? I've been on Business products working from home for a while and perhaps I am forgetting potential pitfalls of going the Consumer route.

Going SoGEA is just a personal preference at this point? Out of principle I find it weird to need to pay for a phone line I don't use, it just seems strange to be forced to subscribe to this thing even if it's 'on paper'.

The main cost of the phone line is the maintenance of the physical copper and connections. Phone calls within the UK cost the providers peanuts.

That's why SOGEA is only slightly cheaper than a "phone" line. You still use the copper between the FTTC cabinet and your home. What happens to the one from the cabinet to the exchange I don't know. In theory I expect it can be used by someone else.

Don't think much of the claim of being more reliable. So far we have one reported user and 100% fault rate

I would caution against taking a service that a large amount of engineers can't detect. This is a recipe for unreliability.

Sometimes having a dial tone is also useful for the punter. You have noise, no dial tone or ring trip, you have a fault, a sub optimal line - no argument.

SoGEA and that excluding the landline might give me better speeds or reliability on the line, is this true?

No.

It is just the same as VDSL, but with no dialling tone from the exchange.

+1

What happens to the one from the cabinet to the exchange I don't know. In theory I expect it can be used by someone else.

It stays .... testing the line is still from kit in the exchange.

In reply to a post by Zarjaz:

What happens to the one from the cabinet to the exchange I don't know. In theory I expect it can be used by someone else.

It stays .... testing the line is still from kit in the exchange.

Interesting. I would have thought the plan was to eventually retire the E-side cables - maybe it still is, but does that mean an alternative copper test infrastructure needs to move in at PCP level?

In reply to a post by ft247:

does that mean an alternative copper test infrastructure needs to move in at PCP level?

Great post by Kitcat Linky

In reply to a post by dect:

]Great post by Kitcat Linky

Very interesting, thanks.

In reply to a post by partial:

It won't give you more speed. I would not recommend it as the circuits test like a spare unused pair on many engineer's meters and that int gonna be a good thing for reliability.

This has been discussed on a BT Forum by an experienced poster (not questioning your experience) who advises Openreach have testing inplace along with tags on the physical connections to indicate SOGEA lines to prevent them being "taken" by engineers. Clearly it's not fool proof.