Phone line switch off

Thinking to the future and the intention of switching off POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service) and the implementation of phone calls over some form of DSL - i.e. VOIP.

How's this going to work?

I have a master DECT phone with answering machine and 2 DECT handsets.

Will I be connecting these into my Fritzbox and them working as they currently do, or am I going to need to buy new handsets?

I know the Fritzbox 7530 has a DECT implementation that can be enabled.

Yes exactly. In the case of a phone service provided by Zen, use their router and attach your existing analogue DECT base to the FXS port on it.

You could also have third party VoIP service as well (concurrently if you wish) that runs 'over the top' of your internet connection - simply use another ATA (analogue telephone adapter), soft phone, or another endpoint which can directly terminate a VoIP (SIP) connection like a VoIP compatible DECT base.

Lots of ways to skin that cat. The future is bright

In reply to a post by nbarker:

I have a master DECT phone with answering machine and 2 DECT handsets.

Will I be connecting these into my Fritzbox and them working as they currently do, or am I going to need to buy new handsets?

I know the Fritzbox 7530 has a DECT implementation that can be enabled.

Maybe different FritzBoxes are different but mine has a DECT and VoIP built-in. So it takes care of being the base station and answering machine. The VoIP line also gets sent through the DECT (so two lines on one handset).

I moved my old landline number to Sipgate when I had the chance so I've been able to take my landline number to various houses. Will that be possible in future if you are using an ISPs number? Will phone numbers become a bit like email addresses, fine as long as you stay with that one provider?

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

Yes exactly. In the case of a phone service provided by Zen, use their router and attach your existing analogue DECT base to the FXS port on it.

You could also have third party VoIP service as well (concurrently if you wish) that runs 'over the top' of your internet connection - simply use another ATA (analogue telephone adapter), soft phone, or another endpoint which can directly terminate a VoIP (SIP) connection like a VoIP compatible DECT base.

Lots of ways to skin that cat. The future is bright

Quite apart from the fact that you have no phone service during a power cut, the loss of POTS is taking us back to the dark ages. Your local mobile phone mast won't be providing a mobile phone service either (assuming you haven't run your batter down already). You also enter a whole new ball game for intruder alarms and lifts to call the emergency services whereas previously POTS was an ideal solution.

Routers aren't generally located in ideal locations for your analogue base station upon which the phone is placed for a charge up. So hardware that was perfectly adequate one day becomes decidedly obsolete overnight. The slow transition over to a VoIP service as SOGEA is rolled out leaves the end consumer picking up the tab for new phone hardware. It just accelerates greater use of mobile phones.

A bright feature for better internet speeds is one thing, but having to build a bonfire to send smoke signals to call the emergency services when the power is off for days on end is now on the agenda in the 21st century.

Yep the world has to move on, if the platform is burning you need to step off it, eventually. Most countries now have PSTN retirement plans either complete or underway.

Its called moving with the times.

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

Yep the world has to move on, if the platform is burning you need to step off it, eventually. Most countries now have PSTN retirement plans either complete or underway.

Its called moving with the times.

More like moving a small part of the population to a much more dangerous situation all in the name of progress. This of course has no impact on and does not worry those who are not in that small proportion and are instead quite happy to pull up the drawbridge,

trolloybus / gonepostal

PSTN equipment is dying on it's feet . How many computers have you got still running that you brought in the period 1984-1995 and use every day? That is what PSTN is.

There is no voice revenue stream to replace it with something as expensive so it has to be turned off

Power cost alone is more than the call revenue .

( I do have a 64k Spectrum that will sort of work but I wouldn't trust it to work 24/7 or even 24hours)

.

The rental revenue for OR is also much reduced. The ISP price is hugely inflated so the headline broadband price on the bundles looks low. Though very few providers easily show the breakdown of the bundle, and most major ones only do bundled or SOGEA. SOGEA prices being very similar to, (or slightly above?) the bundle ones, for the same reason.

In reply to a post by kitcat:

trolloybus / gonepostal

PSTN equipment is dying on it's feet . How many computers have you got still running that you brought in the period 1984-1995 and use every day? That is what PSTN is.

There is no voice revenue stream to replace it with something as expensive so it has to be turned off

Power cost alone is more than the call revenue .

( I do have a 64k Spectrum that will sort of work but I wouldn't trust it to work 24/7 or even 24hours)

.

Hello kitcat,

The real estate costs of any POTS exchange is huge with the equipment well beyond its sell buy date. Revenue returns from line rental and call charges make it uneconomical to invest in new equipment, but there is a niche market for an always on voice service which is difficult to replicate with VoIP when the power is lost.

I accept everything you say in your posting. Fortunately VoIP is widely available for POTS subscribers ,to switch over to and it becomes just like another service on a broadband connection. In actual fact I have been a VoIP user since 1998 but continue to find it difficult to understand why there are call charges to use the service. You don't have to pay a charge to send an email, so what is so special about VoIP that usage is chargeable? Some hosted VoIP providers do provide free calls if on the same platform but that is not common and rarely are there gateways between VoIP providers.

A further annoyance is the cost to ring 07 numbers from VoIP. Yesterday I rang Vancouver from the UK and had a 30 minute conversation costing just 60p followed by a 30 minute to a mobile number located across town and that call cost £2.88. That is just madness where one is so much more expensive than the other.

Nothing is further from the truth by saying Digital Voice is something very new or 100% better than POTS in every case. VoIP always has been a feature rich service with massive economical benefits for the end consumer but in a few applications, POTS really is better with currently no satisfactory alternative.

I sympathise with this. I'm getting on a bit myself now, and I don't like change, but I can still cope - I hope. I know several older folks in my village who have never had a PC or the internet. Some are housebound, and don't have mobile phones. They don't need them. They rely on their POTS phones for communication. Many of these are going to struggle to adapt.

Ofcom is requiring phone providers to offer a simple internet connection for people who don't want broadband. Ofcom also requires companies to identify vulnerable customers and provide some form of backup where necessary in case of power failure. In most cases that is likely to be battery backup for at least 1 hour for the ONT, which should allow people or their telecare equipment to get out a last gasp help message. But as Arwen has just reminded us, if for example a catastrophic event takes out both power and comms lines, then there are limits to what technology can do. Protecting against the worst case scenario may just not be possible. We may have to fall back onto old fashioned human kindness.

My wife and I were both responsible, in the next-of-kin sense, for elderly parents who didn't live nearby. Both lived alone, both stubbornly refused to go into sheltered accommodation or homes, neither had internet or mobiles, and both suffered from encroaching dementia towards the end. One fortunately had a telecare alarm which she/he had learned to use before the dementia really set in. The other became too deaf to use a regular phone, but because of the dementia was unable to learn to use the textphone we got for her/him. She/he became incommunicado. We had to rely on neighbours keeping an eye and alerting us if curtains were not being drawn etc. I would strongly advise anyone reading this who might be in a similar situation to start planning NOW for how they could adapt to the coming changes, and if that involves the vulnerable person having to learn some new way of doing something, then the sooner the appropriate training is commenced, the better.

Edited by Thaumaturge (Tue 07-Dec-21 08:00:04)